Overlooked pet peeves at bars (consumer standpoint)

Places with fancy tap lists that aren't current. You know the ones I mean; the kind of place that has a leather-bound, 97 page list printed with gold leaf and unicorn blood, and yet only has about 0.5% of the beers listed actually on tap or in their cellar. Give me a place that uses an online and publicly accessible inventory tracker any day of the week.

Is there somewhere here in town that we can get BCBS in a pint glass? Frozen or not, I'd linger in that place the extra 60 min required to have that beer warm up if I could get 14-20 ounces of it.

 

What's a coat hook?

 

There isn't a smoking ban necessarily. You can still smoke in a lot of bars in PA, they just can't serve lots of food.

 

I hate watching them pour the head off, I realize it's much faster and other people are waiting but they waste soooooo much beer that could be in my stomach.

 

As someone who serves draft beer often, there's almost no way around this. Sorry. It hurts me just as much to pour the head off.

 

This applies more for restaurants, but I hate when a waiter/waitress says that they have any beer I want or that they have every beer.


Needless to say I ordered a water.

 

ABI or MC "Craft" bars...

- Not getting a glass when asked for... or the death stares
- Shaker pints for everything - granted, they're easy for the bar to stack on a shelf, but lots of great small places can do well with a good set of chalices and the like too
- Good food pairings - my state requires bars to serve food (minus brewery tasting rooms); those with a good craft selection usually suck at suggesting pairings if they even attempt to
- Rude/unhelpful staff - not just at bars

 

I know there isn't much you can do about it, it just sucks watching all of it go down the drain lol.

 

I'll take that over a short pour. Seen way too many of those....

 

Well said. I'm a big advocate of sports bars.... because it concentrates the TV people in those places.

 

Bad service in general. Seems like many of the smaller, independently owned places have absolutely no training program whatsoever.

Too many places have an attitude that is roughly along the lines of "you're lucky this beer bar is here in the first place to sell these pints to you".

 

I'm usually nice, but some times I'll test them see if they even have some the better stuff available, always a fail. If thirsty, I'll just ask if they have ANY craft beer. I do try avoid such places, but some times the family will trick me into going such places

 

Establishments that don't do anything to dampen the noise levels to the point that I can't even hear the people at my table. If I'm drinking out, it's with friends or family, so I want to be able to chat with them. Next to impossible in many places, especially with the current decor trend of the renovated warehouse look that has all hard surfaces like brick & wood.

And then on top of the noise levels, they play rock music.

 

WHEN PEOPLE DRINK BEERS THAT I DON'T LIKE.
ENJOY YOUR BUDMILLOORS SWILL, SHEEPLE.

ffs do not take me seriously

 

Old Chicago in Topeka had it. Ice cold for $14.
I see what you mean and I really shouldn't complain. It's just annoying having to pay more for a pint glass when I just want a smaller portion of a high ABV beer. The Beast, Narwhal, Big John, etc. Would rather get a snifter of em than an expensive pint.

 

I take it you are kidding, but they are hooks under the bar in front of where you sit. Aka, the place where people stick used chewing gum, which is usually what I end up touching when looking for the coat hook.

 

Rock Music!?!?!? I'd rather use scalpels for q-tips than subject my ears to that crap!

 

Absolutely. Lots of our pubs have been "modernised" by ripping out the soft furnishings, curtains and even carpets, replacing it all with hard stools, lots of pale wood, stainless steel all over the place. There's nothing to dampen the sound and they are less comfortable than a dentist's waiting room. I once got into trouble for asking "is this a pub or an operating theatre?" it was all so antiseptic and sterile.

 

Brightly lit barrooms and barrooms so dimly lit that I can't read.

Also, I'm with the turn-down-that-damn-music-you-no-good-kids crowd. In a loud room I have a very hard time differentiating what someone's saying from the ambient noise. My hearing's not so good because as a no good kid (and thereafter) I had too much damn music. So turn down that damn music you no good kids!

 

Outdated menu’s. Since I pick out the rarer beers they can never find the first 2 beers I ask for so I have to wait 20 min. whilst they are looking & growing impatient with me. Sometimes if you question them for 10 min. you find out that they have a bunch of stuff that is not on the menu…. Often these places have a perfectly fine blackboard that they could use to put limited beers on them just put the standard beers in the printed menu’s.

Any behaviour that limits my ticking, complaints about asking different beers, instructions on tasting, people mentioning having bunch of beers but they cannot get them etc. etc.

I realize that I am a very difficult customer but yeah still… & some places are very helpful
Sometimes you just know that they cannot stand you because not asking for the most common beers makes things confusing for them. If you don’t like it just don’t sell speciality beers & no one will ask for them.