Take a good look around before you order your next beer, because certain signs will tell you it’s time to finish up and leave.
Cut fruit looks old or dirty
Bars use lemon wedges and lime slices all shift, and they should be stored somewhere cool. Drink garnishes that appear dried out, discolored, or dusty with debris signal that you should question how well bartenders regard their ingredients.
Cut fruit should be stored safely and away from contamination if it’s going straight into your mouth.
Just because a tray is uncovered doesn’t mean the bar is slacking, but fruit that’s wilted or dirty tells a different story.
The area near beer taps smells bad
If there’s a sour or musty odor hanging over the beer taps, take note. Poorly maintained beer lines can impact the flavor of your beer, so beer distributors clean them regularly.
Odors could be caused by spilled beer, a dirty drain opening, or poorly maintained dispensing equipment, so it’s not necessarily evidence that the lines are filthy.
Still, when the area gives off a bad odor and the beer tastes off, you probably shouldn’t risk it.
Clean glasses sit on dirty surfaces
Clean glasses shouldn’t sit anywhere dirty. Glasses should have some place clean to sit after being washed so they can dry off before being used, and so they don’t get re-contaminated.
Does your glassware sit on greasy bar tops? On mats that are visibly dirty? On damp clothes with residue from old drinks? Those are fair questions to wonder about how a bar cares for its equipment.
An upside-down glass isn’t necessarily a dirty one. What matters is cleanliness and how carefully the glasses are handled.
Security staff ignore the crowd
It’s understandable if a bouncer doesn’t want to plant himself rigidly by the door all night. Even so, security staff should keep an eye on what’s happening around them.
If there’s an escalating argument and nobody’s paying attention except the people involved (staff are on their phones), or rude customers are yelling threats at others and staff just skate by, that’s a gigantic red flag.
Staff who look the other way when someone’s being threatened aren’t likely to step up for you when things go bad.
The soda gun is caked in syrup
Dispensers used to add cola, tonic and other mixers can build sticky syrup around their nozzle if they aren’t regularly cleaned.
During a rushed shift, a bit of residue is excusable, but thick crust or any noticeable grime buildup signals that cleaning could be getting overlooked.
You can’t say a crusty nozzle makes every drink dangerous, but it’s fair to be worried when grimy equipment is used to make drink after drink.
One dirty rag wipes everything
Observe how a bartender cleans up a spill.
If staff keep using the same wiping cloth, which is clearly dirty, on the counter, around the sink and across the drink prep area without cleaning or sanitizing it, they may be spreading residue around rather than wiping it up.
Wiping cloths used around food and drinks should be handled and stored properly, which means using a sanitizer solution when required. It’s fine if the towel isn’t straight from the linen closet, but watching someone wipe drink prep areas with a filthy rag raises concerns.
Ice is handled carelessly
Ice goes directly into beverages, so it should be protected from contamination just like every other ingredient.
Any server who plunges bare hands into the ice well, uses a glass to scoop, or lays a scoop down with its handle open to contamination is doing something worth worrying about.
Broken glass near an ice well is even more troubling, since small shards can be difficult to spot.
Lots of ice wells are open during service, so leaving them uncovered isn’t a failure on its own. But failing to keep the ice and the scoops that handle it clean is definitely a concern.
Staff keep serving drunk customers
Seasoned bartenders understand that pouring drinks is also about knowing when to stop.
If a patron can barely stand up, can’t seem to remember what’s going on more than a few seconds at a time, or starts becoming overly aggressive, the staff should take heed rather than pouring another drink.
Serving alcohol to a clearly drunk person is troublesome on both moral grounds and endangering those around them.
Trash spills into work areas
Bars that do a high volume of business will inevitably produce large amounts of trash. That doesn’t mean bins can be neglected during a shift.
If trash piles up on the floor or spills out near areas where drinks are being prepared, it can become difficult to keep work areas clean and pest-free.
Dumpsters leaking onto the floor, flies congregating near trash bins, or garbage actually touching areas where drinks are prepared should all be causes for concern.
Sewage or chemical odors linger
A bad smell around the bar area might point to a plumbing problem, a dried-out drain trap, or waste backing up in the drain lines. A strong chemical scent could mean another thing entirely, such as improper storage or use of cleaning chemicals.
While a customer won’t be able to identify the precise cause by smell alone, strong and persistent sewage or chemical odors fall well outside the normal background smells of a restaurant.
If the smell makes your eyes water or causes others to feel nauseous, leave the area and report it to management instead of waiting to see if it gets worse.
Staff skip proper handwashing
Bartenders touch money, phones, dirty glassware, garnishes, drink tools, and more all in the same shift. If hands are washed between these tasks, it helps stop contaminants from one action making their way into your drink.
Say your bartender handles rubbish or something else dirty, dries their hands on a rag, and then picks up a garnish for service without washing up as they should. That’s a legitimate call to make.
Where food-service workers are supposed to use soap and water, hand sanitizer is not an acceptable substitute for washing up properly.
You won’t catch everything a worker does with one quick look, but if you see blatant and repeated offenses like this, you should take notice.
Blocked emergency exits
Bars fill up fast. They can also become overcrowded quickly. And if someone has to get out of the bar in a hurry, that can create a serious safety problem.
When boxes block an exit, chairs sit in a doorway, or equipment gets stored along an escape route, people may not be able to get out quickly. It’s surprising how these things can happen when you’re not paying attention.
Do yourself a favor and take a peek at the exits whenever you walk into a place. If one is blocked or hard to reach, don’t laugh it off as no big deal. You could be endangering everyone inside.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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