Overlooked pet peeves at bars (consumer standpoint)

Places where off-duty employees hang out and monopolize the bartenders time. This pisses me off more than anything else.

 

When the bartender grabs your empty glass and reuses it for your next beer. One cannot get lazier than that.

 

Give me any glass you want, as long as it is clean & the glass isn't a bunch of ice chips. 5 years in England & another 3 in Germany ruined me...

 

That was the vibe I picked up at the KC Flying Saucer the one time I went...

 

Places that don't update their website.
The little fried things/alcohol store in my college town claims to update their beer list online weekly, but it hasn't changed in at least 7 months.

Similarly, places that don't have a current tap list. I love the little brewpub in my college town, but their beer list is just their "usual beers" and it's a crapshoot as to whether or not they actually have anything listed on tap any given night. I mean, they're able to update their Facebook status with whatever cruelty-free organic grass-fed deconstructed aioli reduction is on the special for the day, but they can't keep a current list of what beers are on tap? They brewed it themselves, they literally know weeks in advance what's going to be on tap when.

 

1. Frosty mugs.
2. Bartenders that act like I'm an inconvenience for ordering a beer.
3. Bartenders that think I'm trying to catch them in a sting. (I get it, I look young...learn how to read a damn ID, dummy!)

 

I had a bartender offer me a sour that another customer had just tasted and refused. It was the middle of cold and flu season so there was no way I was taking it, it would have annoyed me but said bartender was very sweet and cute so I just politely refused it and asked for a fresh glass.

 

1) Bartender is careless or too rushed when giving you the beer, sloshing it out of the glass
2) The same old bar food at every...single...bar.... Be creative, serve something that nobody else does!
3) Poorly placed TV's. I don't watch TVs in the bar, but it doesn't bother me that they have them. But I can't stand it when they have one put in such a place that people crowd around it to watch and block access to the bar for everyone else.

 

And on a separate note, since this only happened to me one time: Went to a bar I (used to ) like. Walked inside to an odor of raw sewage. The women's restroom was completely closed, and the men's room had one of the toilets removed, open drain hole, with a large sewer auger set up in the room. If your bar stinks of raw sewage because they have to work on the plumbing, CLOSE THE DAMNED BAR until they fix it. I am not going to pay good money to eat and drink while surrounded by the odor of raw sewage.

 

Most times, this isn't laziness, this is something bartenders are taught and can be beneficial if you're ordering the same beer. Would you rather have a glass with remains of the previous glass or glass cleaner / sterilizer that didn't rinse off all the way? In a perfect world neither, but sometimes it happens. If this wasn't the case, then yes, it's probably laziness or shortage of clean glasses.

Above all, noise. I spend the extra money on going to a pub to drink great beer and usually with friends I want to talk to. I could drink good beer and listen to music at home. TV doesn't bother me if the volume is low or off. Many of my friends are into sports as much as I'm into beer and won't go out to a bar without TV.

 

CBGB'S is closed FYI! LOL!!!! What a shit hole that place was! The bathroom almost smelled better than the bar itself! LOL!

 

Longer coats completely buckle the mold on this one. Anyone with a trench coat or ladies with a long coat must use the traditional coat hook/coat rack option.

I still find the coat/purse hook on the bar a highly convenient device. One could hang a growler koosie, digital camera case, backpack, etc.

 

Chilled glasses. No, I don't want my beer as cold as the Rockies that I have to wait to warm up so I can enjoy.

 

Oh yea, and other bar patrons. Whether it's a bunch of douchy bros going for a Bud Lite or a pretentious beer snob that is overly obsessed with IPAs (there totally aren't any of those on this site), I just like to go in a sparsely populated bar and enjoy a beer.

 

Thankfully Hulmeville Inn went smoke-free.
Now my wife and I might be able to enjoy some beers in about a year.

Too bad a pickup drove into it recently.

 

1-uncomfortable bar stools( I am not milking a cow)
2- overpriced beer 12 dollars for 10 oz of very angry beast.

 

I saw that. Never been to Hulmeville Inn, I grew up in Penndel went to Neshaminy, but when I visit my parents I usually go ti Sir Isaac newtons in Newtown, but Hulmville's tap list looks pretty damn good too, just usually forget to get out that way.

 

I could see being bummed if they used the same glass when you switched beers, but what if you ordered the same beer? When I have seen bartenders reach for a fresh glass when I order the same beer I tell them that it's totally fine if they want to just re-use my glass.

 

I thought of another one: Smoking in bars. When I am away from the northeast I realize how I have taken this law change for granted. Nothing sucks more than walking into a bar and realizing the city or town hasn't outlawed smoking in public establishments.

 

Yeah, unless I'm also eating at the bar (finger foods = greasy glass) I'll do the same, particularly in place that where the bartenders have to go out of their way to get me a non-frosted glass.

Funny how often when I do order a second beer they'll ask, "Non-frosted glass again?" - as if it's only my first beer I don't want too cold to taste.

OTOH, there is the place where when I sit down they'll say, "Oh, you're the guy who wants a hot glass ."

"Well, no, not "hot" - it's not like I brought my welders' gloves to drink with. "Room temperature" is fine."