A San Mateo man who is notorious among Bay Area bartenders for skipping out on his tab was arrested earlier this week for dining-and-dashing at a Red Lobster in San Bruno. At the time, there was a warrant for a dine-and-dash incident in January 2024.
Jared Scott, 36, has allegedly become a prolific tab-skipper over the last five years, according to a litany of city bartenders. But in the weeks leading up to Christmas, his drink-and-dash habits became so brazen — and so frequent — it seemed as if he was walking from bar to bar to pilfer a few shots and a beer.
“It was happening to a lot of good, decent, honest bar owners and bar staff that I know from the Castro to the Mission, to the Tenderloin, where I own a bar,” said Kevin DeMattia, owner of Emperor Norton’s BoozeLand. “Most bars have two to three shifts a day. So Jared could come to you in the morning and rip you off, go away and come back in the afternoon, and come back at night and do it.”
In the private Facebook group SF Bar Alert, where service-industry workers alert one another to chronic bar-fighters, tab-skippers, and other watering-hole scofflaws, a slew of posts throughout December warned of Scott’s whereabouts.
“This is a full-time job for this guy lol,” one member of the group commented.
Another went so far as to create an interactive map with a list of bars allegedly victimized by Scott. Bartenders and owners took to the comments to request that their bars be added, sharing stories of Scott’s alleged trickery. The map has since been deleted; the creator declined to speak with The Standard.
Scott’s arrest by San Bruno Police Department officers came after he allegedly attempted to skip out on his $124.63 Red Lobster tab; the earlier warrant was for allegedly not paying a bill of $191.86 at Pausa Bar & Cookery in San Mateo. Five days after the latter incident, he was arrested and cited for a misdemeanor. A warrant was issued after he failed to attend his court date.
However, it seems that Scott isn’t letting his legal troubles slow him down. Even since his arrest Tuesday, he has allegedly been spotted a handful of times attempting to steal drinks, according to members of SF Bar Alert.
In posts on Reddit, X, and Facebook, as well as in interviews, bartenders said Scott’s routine includes both an overt and covert style of scamming, always following the order of a draft drink and a tequila shot.
“He’s tall, handsome, he’s articulate, and he will say that he’s in the industry, which immediately warms him to people,” said DeMattia. “Then it’s the hard-luck story. He’d say, ‘I don’t have the money,’ or ‘I’m going to get paid next week.’ He’s been doing this kind of scamming for a long time now.”
Others said Scott will simply finish his drinks, then tell the bartender he’s going to the ATM before disappearing.
“He came by Il Pirata last Thursday ordered a Beer & a shot then he said he had to use the ATM but left without paying,” Billy Catechi, the owner of the Potrero Hill bar, posted on the Facebook group.
In a Reddit thread posted last week, bartenders shared stories about the tab-skipper en masse.
“Jared has a drinking problem,” said one user.
“Nah, he just has a paying problem,” replied another.
Scott has shared to Instagram photos of himself bartending at Hi Dive on the Embarcadero. Hi Dive managers did not respond to requests for comment, but employees said Scott was “86’d,” service slang for “banned,” from the establishment.
“He started acting weird,” Bryan Jungmeister, a bartender at Teakwood by Burma Love, posted to the Facebook group. “One moment a blank expression the next maniacally smiling.”
Jungmeister said he cut off Scott, who went to the ATM, then never came back. Two months later, he was back again, ordering another shot and beer from a different bartender. “I told him he wasn’t allowed in cause he didn’t pay last time,” Jungmeister wrote. “He downed his shot and walked out then flipped me off in the window.”
A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, meanwhile, said the agency had no records on Scott.
He is set to be arraigned Jan. 29 in San Mateo.
“We will see if he shows up,” San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in an email.