Overlooked pet peeves at bars (consumer standpoint)

I know enough about beer and wine also, I'd rather have a clueless chick, at least if she's cute and drinks on the job.

 

I guess my main beef is that places, specifically the place I frequent on Sundays (because it has good food and is great for the NFL), should educate their staff about beers. I say this because this establishment has an ever-growing tap list, something on which they pride themselves. Understandably so. It's just a tad disappointing to hear "Well, we have Coors..." when my question was "What IPAs do you have on draft?" Of course I don't expect the waitresses to be experts, but it can't be hard to learn the styles of the 15-20 crafts they have on draft. And, no, this isn't just me. Tons of people pack this place Sunday and don't get the $10/bucket special.

 

Its annoying cause i dont want to end up paying over 6 bucks for a beer i dont want but at the same time it takes 30 mins to get a beer. here's what happened the next time i went:

Me: whats the dogfish head beer on tap? (im color-blind and also cant read the taps from where they have them)
Waitress: (stares at me like wtf is a dogfish head) umm let me check...
waitress: its a seasonal, Summerfest.
Me: (Im thinking i dont think Dogfish makes a beer called summerfest, must of confused it with the seirra nevada beer but i dont want to send her back).. ok ill have that.

it was 90 minute.

I later ordered the Sierra Nevada seasonal, i figured its October so it must be Tumbler but it indeed was Summerfest.

 

So true. Or worse.. when the place boosts about how current the tap list is and how it gets changed in "real time." When in reality, their online taplist is some pdf file that gets updated every 2 months and their taplister page shows 12 taps... out of 30. Seriously, why is it so hard? Change out a keg, couple of clicks on your phone *beep* *beep* *boop*, there done. Current tap list. Happy customers. Increased profits.

 

yea I once drove to Savannah for a beer on the web site (moon river) that was last updated 6 month before. But it said it was current....I was not happy and their review reflected it.

 

Chili's on my university campus got SN Naewhal bottles. They serve beer in frosted mugs. Guess I could ask for a brandy glass... Not that I ever drink there anyway.

 

Sorry, but I have little sympathy for servers who don't even bother to know what they have available or managers who don't even teach their servers the basics.

And I'd hardly call it a baseless argument. No server would respond with "everything" if the customer asked what kind of steak they offered or what kind of cheese was available for a burger topping. Good servers will tell you what offerings are available, and if they don't know, a good server would say "I'll find out for you."

A server ought to know what the place offers and have a better answer than "everything." If that's all they can say, they shouldn't be surprised to get a good-natured ribbing for it. I didn't notice anything in the OP's response that indicated it wasn't done with good humor.

 

How about learning about what you sell, when you're working a point of sales job? I love when I ask what craft beers do you have on tap & all I get is a deer in the headlights look...

 

Shitty bathrooms. I'd like to wash my hands with WARM water, please. And if the faucets would give a little more than a light sprinkle, that would be nice as well. And don't get me started on tiny paper towels.

Bars that use napkins instead of actual coasters. I end up just setting my glass on the bar/table in that case.

Ridiculously loud (shitty, more often than not) music.

Bars that list mikes hard under "craft". I'm looking at you, BWW.

Cover charges. I want to pay for my beer, not the opportunity to pay for a beer. And chances are the place sucks, too.

 

Sloppy pours and not enough head/beer. So many times I've had the bartender stop pouring my beer when the head reaches the top of the glass, leaving me with possibly 3-4 oz less beer. On the other hand when they pour out all the head so they can 'top off' the beer quicker.

 

Whether you would like to admit it or not, an array of BMC beers and maybe a Sam Adams or a popular local is going to be "everything" is most places in the country. It's quite a valid answer where you will actually hear it (the Chili's, Ruby Tuesday's and Applebee's of the world)

The overwhelming majority of people don't care what a restaurant has beyond Bud Light. These places have been catering to the majority forever. It's going to take some time for a large number of restaurants, servers, and managers to come around and recognize the force that craft is becoming and to train accordingly. Craft is still in it's infancy. Their business IS food, so the training that surrounds it right now is more complete.

There is nothing humorous about wasting the time of and belittling a $2.63 an hour worker. Especially because their training ,in something you think is more important than 99% of people who go there, is inadequate. Looking down your nose at them, not tipping them, and asking them for Duck Duck Gooze is certainly not the solution to this issue.

I have little sympathy for "adults" who can't find better, more appropriate ways to air their grievances.

 

I really hate being late to a good thread. Don't have time to reread, afraid to repeat the same peeve. I would hate to re-peeve.

 

it seems like the criticism about "topping off" has popped up a lot but often times, if bartenders were to leave your beer out to settle, it would take way longer than you might think. like the beer would go flat and warm up past serving temp. this of course is a problem with the lines not being balanced properly, which goes back to sloppy line service/setup.

 

I figured that was coming. Oh the poor pitiful servers. They work so hard for so little pay. Waa.
I've had my share of low paying, crappy jobs and I never felt entitled to be cut slack for not knowing the basics of the job or that I could give vague, unhelpful answers to questions from customers.

And I don't look down my nose at servers, nor do I refuse to tip them for not knowing what they should know, as long as the service in general is good. Where did you get that idea?

Finally, I'm sorry, but to answer "everything" when asked what kind of beers are available is a lazy answer. Even if the place sells no craft at all, does that mean they have the total lineup of AB, Coors and Miller? Do they carry all the Michelob products? Bud Select? Black Crown? Batch 19? Coors Banquet? Coors Extra Gold? High Life? Genuine Draft? Genuine Draft 64?

If you work at a retail outlet, know what's available, or carry a cheat sheet. It's not that complicated.

 

I was a server for years and have also hand other low paying crappy jobs, and being a server is not close to best shitty job you can have. But you just keep doing you man. I'm not going to passively condone the attitude has started to define craft beer recently though.

 

Not one of us BA goes to those places wanting beer anyway. I don't I order Ice tea sweet with lemon and Drink else where, which is MONEY they are losing out on.

most states have min wage law that force places to make up wages and tip to min wage. I think you are right about giving ANYONE a hard time, but your getting too serious here, most of us are KIDDING around. If the waiter/waitress is using humor, we use it back....Light up some. NO 1 is picking on the wait staff.

Folks are venting on here, but frankly 90% are too chicken to bitch there.....

 

Not really. Craft makes up a very small portion of the drinks a (non-craft centric) restaurant sells, and the real money is in spirits.

 

really? ok well bars love that theory.....I only worked in a few places in my time....lol

 

To summarize this stupid little argument before it gets stupider; yes, the server should know what they have and no, you shouldn't be a dick because they don't know.

 

So have I, and spirits are the biggest money maker. It's not even close.