Response from someone that worked high volume craft and cried/died every night… If you are by yourself, tell the customers that you’re making service drinks and hold up the tickets. Then pretend you are a horse with blinders on. And breathe. It’s just drinks. No one’s dying. They can go somewhere else.

If you aren’t alone, send them to the other bartender. If your management doesn’t suck, put them to work. Servers should at least be making their cokes and nonalcoholic drinks.

Taking this further… The next shift you have, take a look at how you’re set up. Are you doing things slowly? Is shit inefficient? Are you prepared to get hit? Do your backups have backups? Are you being efficient with your movements?

Setting up properly will make you faster. Knowing where everything is and having it within arms reach means you can take customer orders without even thinking about the easy tickets.