Overlooked pet peeves at bars (consumer standpoint)

Dude said "no male bartenders". I was asking which he'd rather have, a knowledgeable guy, or a clueless chick. Please show me where I said, or even implied, that ALL females are unknowledgeable.

 

Craft beer bars with HUGE beer lists (CCAH) that when you ask what kind of beer 'xyz' is, they reply "It's a seasonal". Then the bar tender says the same thing. Also, bartenders that seem to pride themselves on pouring a perfectly headless craft beer.

 

1. Ridiculous pricing. It's why there are 6 other points below. High prices mean higher standards.
2. Dirty taps. There's just no excuse.
3. Rock Stadium Loud music. Even when it's really good music, it doesn't make your bar cooler.
4. Noisy bar due to bad design. Concrete and hardwood reflect sound waves.
5. Inaccurate/insufficient beer listing. The single chalkboard at the other side of the room ain't cutting it.
6. Unfriendly/Ignorant waitstaff. If you don't like people/your job, find another career.
7. Menu. I appreciate the attempts to provide fine dining options at craft beer bars. But please provide a better range of options.

 

Me: What do you have on tap?
Waiter: oh man, we have everything!
Me: In that case I'll take a flight of Heady, Pliney, Two Hearted and Sculpin!!!
Waiter: Blank stare
Me: Coke please

 

I've just nipped the tap thing in the bud. When I enter an establishment, I will just walk up to the bar right after I'm seated to see what they have. I trust my eyes over a server's memory.

 

Same move, reverse order. Before I sit down I walk by the bar and scan the taps first.

 

My apologies, I read it the wrong way.

 

Television pollution is like leaf blower disease. Even with the sound off TV is annoying, but in the neighborhood, Fall is like an appliance convention crossed with Nascar. Reallt stinky old dives stink.

 

I went to Vegas a couple weeks ago and went to a Halloween party at the Hard Rock. Not my scene by any means, but I was with a group of people, and it was Vegas and Halloween, so whatever, I'll play along and have fun. And I had a great time, except for this one encounter I had with a bartender:

Me (yelling over the music): "Can I get a Budweiser draft?" (they didn't have a stellar beer selection)
Bartender: "Sure"

Starts pouring a 16 ounce plastic cup when all of a sudden, he's pouring nothing but foam. He tries the half-pouring-in-the-glass-half-pouring-over-the-lip thing and still nothing but foam in the cup. So instead of telling me the keg just blew and offering me something else, he turns around, takes a 12 ounce can of Bud out of the fridge, dumps it in the cup and hands it to me 4 ounces short and still tries charging me the full pint price of $7.80. I'm not one to complain much, but here's how it went down:

Me: "Can you top that off for me?"
Bartender: blank stare
Me: "I'm paying 8 bucks for a Budweiser, could you please at least give me a full pour?"
Bartender: "It's out of a can, I can't just top it off."
Me (getting pretty fucking annoyed at this point): "Look, it's not my fault your keg just kicked..."
Bartender: "You want me to open a whole 'nother can just so you can have this much more beer..." (pushing his fingers together, not realizing that the cup is tapered and this | | much equates to 33% more beer. Not to mention the outlandish upcharge for cheap beer.)
Me: "Yeah...I do."

He turns around, opens another can, tops me off, throws the can in the trash and gives me a shitty look like the whole situation is my fault. I made sure to get service from (and give my tip money to) other bartenders the rest of the night.

 

For me it is loud/screaming/whining kids. Don't get me wrong I don't mind kids at a brewery or bar but if they are misbehaving and the parents just don't give enough of a shit to get them to behave then I have a problem with it

 

I pretty much said the same thing and got blasted for it!!!

 

This thread is why I hate a good portion of other craft beer fans. So many complaints. 5 pages in 2 days. Wow.

If your glass is frosted, let it sit for a while. Ask for a water. You drink craft because you like the taste, right? If you wanted to get shitfaced you would've ordered 2 shots of Jack and a pitcher of bud light.

Coat hooks? Really? Sit on your coat. Put it on the stool and sit on it.

Updated Menus? Ok. Fine. I can syphathize because we've all been burned before but it's not a big deal. Drink something else.

Complaining about a clean bar. Wow. Never heard that one. Original. Well done.

I go out for a beer to complain about stuff other than beer. Work, girlfriend, Ect... Seems the rest of the craft beer world goes out to complain about craft beer. I have a quick solution. If you didn't go out, you'll have nothing to complain about. .

Rant/ [drops the mic]

 

LOL this happened to me a BWW:

Me: Do you guys have any IPAs on tap?
waitress: yes, its called Deschutes
Me: hmm, which IPA is it?
Waitress: that is the name, Deschutes
me: I think thats just the name of the brewery, is it Inversion IPA or chainbreaker possibly (trying my hardest to not sound snobby i promise)?
waitress: no its just called Deschutes! (calls over another waitress), whats the IPA called?
waitress #2: its called Deschutes.
waitress #1: see i told you!

I found out later it was fresh squeezed IPA and it was great even if it was served out of a tall frosted hefewiezen glass.

 

I play trivia with a group at a pizza place every other week, and they have a pretty good selection of beer. My girlfriend orders a Deschutes Jubelale and after one sip, she tells me that she thinks it is a nitro pour, and since she hates nitro beers, wants to get something else. Just to make sure, I stand up and walk over to the bar to get a good look at the tap handles and sure enough, the Jubelale is on nitro. The tap handle clearly says "Nitro" on it, and the tap spout is clearly for a nitro beer. I return to my seat and tell my GF that the beer is indeed on nitro. She wants to get something else, so she tells the waitress. The waitress says "oh it's not on nitro". I tell her it is, and she denies it. I drop the issue since she's willing to replace the beer, but it's still annoying that she didn't even know that.

 

There once was a shitty beer-only bar here in Minneapolis called Casey's. This place was really the bottom of the barrel (bum fights and such), but they had several pool tables, so it was worth going to once in awhile. They had mostly macro lite lagers on tap, but they also had Summit EPA, SNPA, Sam Adams, and Two Hearted on tap. I order a Two Hearted and the bartender pours my beer. I take one sip, and it is very clear that the beer is not Two Hearted. I was pretty sure that it was Sam Adams, so I tell the bartender. The guy of course argues with me ("oh, you've just never had Two Hearted on tap. It's way different than the bottle") and blah blah blah. I persist, and he eventually grabs it and takes a sip, and then agrees with me and replaces the beer with an actual Two Hearted. Pretty aggravating. No wonder they folded.

 

Funny but the day I was there [sometime in November 2012] the music was definitely in the background. I do have a hearing problem but if my wife didn't complain about it, it wasn't all that loud. She can challenge a dog for hearing ability.

 

Onion shape or aroma?

 

Two Great Danes and a Pit Bull, fighting in the tap room of a local brewery. Sorry, if this offends, but leave your dogs at home.

 

Unlisted prices. Usually, everything else on the menu, including other beverages, have prices.
... and while you are at it, make sure the serving size is listed, especially if these vary from beer to beer.

 

Spitting on the floor in a bar. Keep it civil you savages.