How should a bar serve Scotch?

Majority of people enjoy longer drinks, thus the invention of cocktails and etc. As a trained bartender, it is always required to ask your customer how they'd like their drinks, like a server asking a customer how they'd like their meat done.

If your bartender didn't ask you, then it would help if you state it while you're ordering because there is a possibility the bartender might be extremely busy and they forget to ask. (We're human after all, we can only remember so much recipes in our brains).

Connoisseurs and the cognoscenti drink Scotch neat, in a tall glass, with a splash of water.

That means that most American bartenders will pour it over ice!

If you want it neat, ask for it that way, or say "Up, with water back" and/or with a glass of ice on the side if THAT'S how you want it. That way you can build your drink the way YOU want it.

That reminds me of growing up in California, where, when you ordered coffee, it was served 'black' with cream and sugar on the side or already on the table. Then when I moved to New York City and ordered coffee for the first time, it came 'white' = LOTS of milk already added. When I asked the waitress about it, she snapped "THAT'S coffee. If you want it black, order it BLACK!"

Well if you just ask for scotch then they should serve you just scotch, scotch on the rocks should be served in a tumbler with 2 ice cubes, just enough so it doesn't water it down too much.

Order it neat, and neat ye shall receive.

Hate to tell you, but probably 99% of bartenders are going to naturally put ice in that glass first; for one it creates the illusion that you're getting more than you think, for two it's out of habit.

Just order it neat...if they look at you funny, tell them no ice (I've had to explain to more than one bartender what 'neat' meant).

Go to a different bar where the bartender asks you which way you want your scotch

You are not wrong, man. I always tell the bartender "Dewar's White Label on the rocks," and they fill my glass with ice and fill it up with scotch. You gotta communicate.

Im a bartender. i always ask.

Any good bartender will ask unless your a regular and he or she already knows how u like it.

Which you werent so. its not you, its them. there wrong.

no, you are no wrong... but... the server or bartender should ask which kind of serving method that you want... thats like a must?

Ethanol

Just say "up", as in "Chivas up" or "JW Black up".

Remember to say "please" and remember to put at least a Dollar in the rail.

Bar tenders aren't mind readers. tell them what you want.