“It’s not my job, man.” Server washed glass returned to bar and placed by barback “ready to serve” to the next lucky customer. #QualityControl
IN SPITE OF A PRE-WASH SINK: FILTH adhering to inside of glassware run through glass washing machine. Result? Filth IN, Filth OUT. (Run through machine by non-visually impaired or mentally deficient young, healthy servers)
HORROR STORY GLASSWARE What TEAM are you on? (Obviously not the one you’re being paid by to achieve their primary goal of “customer satisfaction”)
These photos require no timestamps or geographical locations; this is happening almost everywhere.
During the course of my shifts over the last few decades, I have noticed a marked decline in the “professional team” sense of urgency, responsibility, and care. There is a lack of recognition and desire to achieve goals at every stage of “the game.”
The Game:
This is the environment where managers set goals, create rules, and train or coach “team members” to achieve those objectives.
The beverage game relies on clean glassware. Bars used to have three-compartment sinks (wash, rinse, sanitize) with submerged glass-washing brushes—some motorized—so bartenders could properly wash glasses. We knew to wipe away lipstick, scrub stubborn fats, cream, and coconut syrup, and remove spices, leaves, cigarette butts, and paper items from inside the glass before washing. Today, servers put glassware through a machine largely “as is,” and a barback runs the “dreck” to the bar and stacks it, still “as is.”
Filthy Glassware:
On dozens of occasions, I have placed a pack of Sani-Wipes near the glass-washing machine and explained why and how to use them on the worst examples of dirty glassware. Not once in two decades has any “TEAM MEMBER” (yelling intentional), server, or barback cared; within minutes, the wipes are removed.
All it takes is a one second wipe to remove the lipstick – by someone who belongs and thus deserves to have a job working there.
Simple negligence on one person’s part is not what this is. This took an entire”TEAM EFFORT” for these glasses to arrive behind the bar, repeatedly, every day, every shift, no stopping. From the server who placed the overly filth caked glass into the glasswasher (without first inspecting, pre-rinsing and quickly sani-wiping if necessary) , to the shelf stacking person who should (unless blind) have quality controlled it visually and decided that it was “ok”, to the bar-back or glass washer who observed it and judged it to be ready to serve to a guest, and who then hand delivered it behind the bar and stacked it (along with thirty other filthy stained, spotty, sticky, greasy messes) for the bartender on the production line tasked with quickly grabbing multiple glasses at once to line up on the rail and fill with ice, smoothly, and without delay.
This, these glasses, this “Schlockarbeit” is thedefinition of TEAM FAILURE. This is TEAM SABBOTAGE. This is criminal!
Or am I wrong, and this is ok to serve guests drinks in these glasses?
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of Bartending and Bar Management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown Manhattan nightclubs (Pursuits, Sybils, Club 53), Coconuts Comedy Club, the Fitzpatrick Hotel, British Airways Hotel, and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,496,564.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia (Marriot Hotel) and now Tampa Florida, in an Exclusive Platinum Service Award winning club. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management, Advanced Bartending, is Whiskey Certified by DIAGIO, and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
