Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

I don't mean to be dramatic, but there are few things on earth that I find more revolting than being served a glass with some woman's lipstick on it. This just happened to me a couple hours ago. My wife and I were out running a few errands, and we decided to get an early dinner while we were out. We went to a popular upmarket Chinese "chain" restaurant. I ordered a Newcastle, which was served to me in a shaker pint with pink lipstick on the side and rim. How on earth does this make it past the dishwater, bartender, and server? I sent it back and they replaced it with no problem, but I still can't fathom how careless people must be for something like this to get past 3 people. I wonder how dirty the rest of their plates, dishes and silverware are?

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

I remember one time at Red Lobster I got completely used silverware, I dont even think they made an attempt to wash em. The scariest part is sending it back, you might have been drinking something worse than the original lipstick on it.

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Yuck!!!:pu

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I think that people watch movies like "Waiting" and think that this stuff happens all the time (spitting in food etc...) for the most part unless you are a complete jerk to the staff you dont have to worry about sending something back especially for dirty silverware/barware

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I don't know, Ive worked at a Dennys and it was somewhat like waiting. All I'll say is there are some truly disgusting people out there.

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Any chain type restaurant is sketchy. Service usually sux, i don't know if it's My luck, or the people working there just suck. Getting orders wrong, bringing out entre's our right after getting our appitizers. Numerous issues. I try to support the non-chain eating establishments, they care about their customers, and food is generally better

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Was she a hot bartender? Maybe she was trying to hit on you. :)

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Are we sure it was a woman's lipstick? :r We had it happen to someone in a group of us in a Waffle House....of course it is expected in Waffle House.

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I have been a barkeeper for 10+ years, and it just happens. Lipstick is hard to get off a glass and with the limited light in a bar you just don't see it all the time, especially when it's busy.

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Wipe it off and drink it. Come on;)

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:tpd: Have to agree here.

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Was there a drag queen review dining earlier?

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:tpd: I always try to go to locally owned places if I can as well they almost always have better service and better food
:r:r

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I strongly disagree, You are condoning unsanitary glassware because it's inconvenient to ensure it's clean? I can't think of any other industry where that attitude would be tolerated. You'd freak out if there was, say, hair under the plastic wrap of the meat you buy in the supermarket. Why is this different? There are obviously steps that can be taken to prevent this from occurring if the bar owner cared enough to ensure he was serving in clean glassware.

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Unless you're drinking some pansy-a$$ drink at the bar, the sheer alcohol content of your drink will sanitize the glass.

Then again, given the unsanitary conditions of the surface of the bar itself, the glass is the least of your worries.

Think about the bar towels.....:r

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Warren, I don't say it's tollerated, but it happens. Every glass at my bar was cleaned, I don't know how it works in the US, but in Europe you have a sink with a constant stream of clean water with 3 brushes standing on the bottom, and you clean all the glasses. Lipstick is very hard to get off, and if you don't see the lipstick due to the limited light at the bar, or maybe because its very busy, sometimes lipstick remains on the glass.

It just happens, and if it does, just ask for another glass, no bartender would refuse, but don't be a drama queen about it. I bet you aren't flawless at your work, nobody is.

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I'm with Don here. It happens. I find the hair in food much more revolting, especially when it takes about six inches of withdrawing your hand from your face to pull it all out of your mouth.

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Another former bartender here. Yes, it does happen. Yes, it's kind of gross. Proper procedure, if a guest brings it to your attention, is to apologize profusely and comp their drink.

In the bar area, the setup is what Don Fernando described. In the back, the glasses are put into racks and then run through a system with a conveyor belt, kind of like a car wash.

Problem is, neither of these methods is really effective at cleaning the OUTSIDE of the glass, or really scrubbing the lipstick, which is waxy, off. The temperature of the water and the chemicals used DO do an effective job of killing the germs.

Of course, if the women would just use the damn straws we give them in the first place ...

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

I was out with friends and a beer was served with what looked like an oyster stuck in the bottom . It was huge , I noticed it as soon as my friend lifted his glass . The whole round was compt . It sucks when it happens to you but it does happen . I went to Starbucks one morning 2 years ago ,"THEY WERE OUT OF FRIGGING COFFEE!" . It happens and yes it really sucks . :tu

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I got a $20 gift card from them when that happened.

The manager was so embarassed that she rang it up out of her own pocket.

Of course, the funniest moment of it all was the look on the customers faces.

"Lemme get a Large House Coffee"

""uh...we're out of coffee""

""So, how long does it take for it to brew?""

""What??""

""HOW...LONG...TO....MAKE...MORE?""

""We're Out, Sir""

""How the *&^% are you OUT of Coffee?? There's gotta be fifty bags of coffee in here, and you don't HAVE any coffee?? This is a friggin COFFEE shop, what the hell do you do behind the counter, make floral arrangements all day??""

""No sir, we have Espresso. Would you like an espresso drink??""

This is when the manager walked in.

I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. The poor kid that came in behnid me looked shell-shocked.

I still have the card! I think it has around $1.47 on it....:r

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

In NL, don't you have a seperate tub for the green sanitizer wash after it is rinsed? Or is that before it's rinsed?

I'll buy the most expensive "by the glass wine" drink half of it, have my girlfriend get lipstick on it and then tell the waiter there's lipstick on my glass and I could I have another glass... :tu

No, I don't actually do that, just throwing that out there for you budget savers in this tough economy...

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Having worked the bar, many moons ago, the above statements are true. Even when you have a motorized glass washing station at the bar, as opposed to sending glassware to the kitchen for machine washing, lipstick can be a pain. It is oily, waxy, and designed to stick to wet moving things and not come off. If I got a glass used by a serious lipstick queen, I used to take a napkin and pre-clean it. Wine glasses can be worse, because you have to put some pressure on the rim to help squeegee the coating off, and the wine glasses can be very thin. I broke a glass or two doing that because I was in a hurry. I have never been graceful anyway.
Not one of the pleasurable aspects of slinging booze.
Usually, if I missed one and a patron got a sampling of some gals lipstick that wasn't his wife, I made sure to get an extra cocktail or beer to them to cover my lack of observation.

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

!!!!!WARNING!!!!! !!!!!!!THREAD JACK IN PROGRESS!!!!!!!

I FUDGING HATE when a coffee shop runs out of coffee. I have literally stopped going to Starbucks because for nearly a month straight (and my wife can verify this) every single time I went to a Starbucks, regardless of where, it was out of coffee. The final time it happened, convincing me to stop going there, I snatched my money back out of the drivethru window lady's hand. She was amazed! I just looked at her and asked how on earth a coffee shop was out of coffee. Blows me away every time. They put so much damn emphasis on those stupid girlie drinks that they lose focus of being a COFFEE SHOP! and let the coffee run out.

THREAD JACK COMPLETE

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

So you guys have proven my point. The method currently used in bars, the three brush method, is inadequate to clean the ENTIRE glass.
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Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Owning 3 caffes I can attest that this does happen, and not only in bars.

Some women seem to apply lipstick with a paintroller. Its these same women that tend to favor the type of lipstick that can only be removed with industrial strength paint solvent.

The dishwashers we (the restaurant industry) use, reach temps in the high 190 degree range, enough to kill anything germs that are on the cups, mugs or glasses. Add to that the sanitizing soaps, and that cup with lipstick on it probably has less germs than your hand.

On the rare occasion that it does happen, its quite embarrassing for us. Please keep in mind that its not deliberate (most of the time). Serving in dirty drinkware is bad for business.

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One tub, and we add sanitizer to the water.

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We had 3 tubs.

1. Soak in soap
2. Brushes and sanitzer
3. Clear running water to rinse

Then the glasses were put out to dry. Part of why bartenders have to wash their own glasses is because wine glasses, martini glasses, etc are fairly fragile and also more expensive than the glasses that soft drinks are served in. Those were good times, though. Flirting with girls who were paying me so that they could get drunk was like fishing in a barrel. Ah, I miss my 20's.

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It's not just about germs, though. If I order a beer, I expect the glass to be "beer clean", which is much more than just disinfecting.

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we had an extra upside down watertap that when pressed released water, we used that to rinse the glasses after brushing them

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Went to a party NYE and a couple friends had been doing quite a bit of drinking. One of them thought it would be funny to get some lipstick tatoo's done by her friends. The next morning she was still covered in lipstick. She said 'when they say 12 hour lipstick, they really mean it. I tried washing this crap off an it's not going anywhere.' Might be something to the theory that lipstick is hard to get off. :r

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I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a clean glass. You now have to worry about residue at the bottom that a dark drink might hide.

I usually just order beer in a bottle.

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That may be a but much to ask for given the replies and expectations from the people who work in bars. I'll settle for sanitary.

I wonder if true beer bars like Minneapolis Town Hall and Stub & Herb's, Goose Island, Three Floyds, Founder's, etc. serve in "beer clean" glassware?

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Any place that takes pride in their beer should serve in beer clean glassware. From what I've heard, I would certainly put bars like Stub & Herb's in that category, although I've never been there.

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Warren, I took pride in my work, but as I explained in several posts here, lipstick can always slip through, it happens. It doesn't mean that the bartender or waitress is a dirtbag who doesn't take pride in his work. Lipstick is the most nasty stuff for a bartender.

And again, nobody's perfect, you make mistakes and so can a bartender. Return the glass, you'll get a new one in a clean glass, no harm done. Stop whining about it.

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Not sure why you seem to think I'm singling you out. I'm not. I never said "Don Fernando doesn't clean his bar glasses." However, there are MANY bartenders who are dirtbags, the job seems to attract them. If the industry wanted to do something about cleaning the glasses right every time, they could change the method by which glasses are cleaned. Evidently the 3 brush method is not reliable. Many industries have to change over the years to improve their quality and service. Perhaps it is time that the beverage service industry improve theirs.

If you wish to continue this converation feel free to PM me. Otherwise I think we've covered the topic adequately.

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Is that a hint to close this up, Warren? ;)

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

Tom, I think I went a little further down this road than I should have, and I fear I may have ticked off a couple of folks I think well of. So in that light, I'd just as soon this thread get buried.

Re: Dirty Glassware at a Bar
 

I don't see anything wrong with the discussion, but I will abide by your wishes, my friend.

P.S....you didn't tick me off. :)