Mixologist behind bar, but not tending it, unavailable for orders

Same here. It’s almost impossible to order anything at the bars anymore. 

Happening to me as well, the option to order a drink is there when my Sims first arrive on the lot, but I try it on the bar and the mixologist and both of them disappear, with the option never coming back. 

I just got this one for the first time too. The behaviour was showing all the signs of a janky mod, but the issue remained after taking them out.  Bartenders do their cute little bar tricks animation over and over. Once or twice, I was able to add the 'buy drinks' task to the queue, but it would either time out or my sim would complain about not being able to reach something. Very strange.

it happens to me too

the bartenders show up at the bar and start playing bartender games and it is impossible for the sims to order drinks:
the option does not appear in the social menu until the bartender stops performing, then the sim can order but at that point the bartender restarts playing with the bottles again and the order is cancelled.



(I searched for this topic through the term bartender and I didn't found, I learn to use the  mixologist  term).

Having this issue as well. Playing the past few days with a teen that will pick up and go to any party/gathering that she gets invited to, so there's been one at the Bluffs, one at each of the nightclubs in Windenburg, and i have also seen it at the San Myshuno festivals that end up opening one of the bars. the Mixologist just stands there forever making bottle towers and no option to order anything from the bar. 

Ok, I tested a bar in a small business venue, since it was the only thing I hadn’t tried. Bartenders and the bar always have the option to order food and drinks. They do produce the ordered food immediately, and mostly they mix and serve the drinks promptly as well. Sometimes though, the drink mixing would get hung up at some point and either drop off the task list or would just take forever to finish. This mostly seemed to happen when I ordered the drink and not the sim doing it autonomously.

I would say bars and bartenders (for me) are working on small businesses about as well as they ever have in game (maybe better), so the problem is just bars on other bar type community lots losing the bar functionality on anything other than the new small business lot types.

I have the same issue I cant order drinks at the bar no matter the locations 

It feels like all the bartenders are designed to be rubbish now, but totally agree with all comments so far, yet again a very frustrating bug that should not happen !

Hello! I'm having this exact issue as well since the update where they announced they finally fixed the bubble tea counters not having staff and now my bartenders are behaving word-for-word like the original poster's description.

I have a clean save within the last half year, no mods, no custom content at all - all the packs save the newest Businesses one.