Granted, I'm a tourist from a beer mecca and maybe things are just done differently around here as compared to there. And I'm older, so I recall what good service and hospitality used to look like.
My first problem as a customer here was that while I was waiting at the bar to give my beer order, I noticed that many of the beer glasses stacked upside down on the bar had water droplets inside of them, lots of water droplets. Some glasses were bone dry.
After I ordered my beer I watched to see which glass the bartender would grab, and it was one with lots of water droplets inside. I was sad but figured I'd hope for the best. So I watched to see if he would rinse the glass with either water, like many tap houses do, or a little beer and he did not. He just poured the beer into the glass lined with water droplets. Ick.
The beer, a coffee stout, was terrible. I've been drinking stouts for 25 years, and have tried many. This may have been the first stout I've not finished. I didn't even drink half of it. Didn't drink enough to even feel a little lightheaded.
The coffee flavor was like coffee from a pot that's been on the burner for hours....burned. Without the burned coffee taste it would have been fine. The bitter, burned taste was terrible. The beer probably would have been great if they had just skipped the coffee beans part. It was just too much on top of everything else that makes an oatmeal stout a stout.
The bartender asked how I liked it and I explained it was unpleasantly bitter, ultimately saying it was the worst stout I've ever had. He seemed to agree that this particular stout did go out on a limb. That was when I said it was the worst stout I'd ever had, and he walked away.
They should make it a policy to always offer a taste to anyone who has not had this terrible stout before. Most folks would make a funny face and move on.
Maybe whoever orders their beers doesn't know stouts. Maybe good stouts are not available around here.
They should also have a policy that if someone says something like, "This is the worst stout I've ever had," they should respond right away with, "Can I get you something else instead?" That would be good hospitality.
And they shouldn't stack glasses that have moisture inside of them, for a variety of reasons. read more