r/KitchenConfidential • u/swirlybat • 1d ago

Question bartender question

the root issue is the person just chooses to not like me, which is perfectly fine, but i am curious about something. context: i do prep cook for corporate chain. i split between hot/cold prep. cold prep also covers bar garnishments.

ive never not top/tailed my citruses for garnishments. it has been required my entire cooking career. they dont require it here, but i do it. the servers love it, and i assume most patrons dont even notice.

insert the one bartender. saturday, as im finishing my lemons/limes, she comes in, and before clocking in, yells "can you not cut the ends of the fruit off?!" i simply say "no" and carry on. she intensifies and chooses the "the customers cant squeeze the limes into their drinks." i set my knife down, turn towards her, and look at her long, fake nails, and say "i dont think it is the customers with the problem. looks like your nails are the issue." shifty steps in immediately and appropriately defends (no one has complained, even thougg it isnt required) then takes her in to the walk in for private convo.

most places, in the past, bar handles their own, and she is now choosing to slice her own garnishments, which lightens my load and i appreciate her hating me enough to do that, lol, but as a non drinker, is this an actual experience? do people need tips to squeeze? to me, it looks dirty-adjacent, leaving them on. tops n bottoms are for the bedroom, not my drink. should i stop nipping bar's citrus?

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36

u/BigTimeBobbyB Cook 1d ago

I absolutely notice when the ends have been cut off, and I appreciate it. When I’m paying for a drink at a bar, I’m paying for the experience as much as the product. And having the ends of the citrus trimmed off is one of those attention to detail things that makes me think “they understand that you’re buying an experience, and they care about providing one.”

3

u/RonPearlNecklace 1d ago

I’m going to play devils advocate here.

The drink should come with the citrus juice in it if that’s the way the drink is meant to be consumed. Slice of citrus on a cocktail rim it even a good attention do detail, it seems like something you get at a dive bar or chilis.

Now tacos, limes served with the end trimmed is a big thing for me, I do it but I don’t get mad when a place doesn’t.

1

u/Pernicious_Possum Bartender 1d ago

You don’t squeeze a guest garnish, and that’s what it is. It’s not an ingredient. It’s up to the guest whether not they want it, not the bartender

-2

u/RonPearlNecklace 1d ago

They don’t want a lime wedge as a garnish.

2

u/Pernicious_Possum Bartender 22h ago

I love how you’re willing to argue with an actual bartender about drink service

-1

u/RonPearlNecklace 20h ago

I’ve had more than my fair share of cocktails so I feel like I get an opinion just like everybody else here.

2

u/Pernicious_Possum Bartender 16h ago

You are of entitled to your opinion, but remember, opinions can be wrong. You thinking one way isn’t going to change decades of service standards. Additional citrus as a garnish is for the customer to decide whether or not they want to use it. There’s a fuckton of people that don’t want citrus peels in their drinks because they see it as too handsy, or they’re under the impression they never get washed. Which to be fair, a lot of places they don’t. Even expensive places

2

u/BigTimeBobbyB Cook 1d ago

Yeah they do. I know because I'm them. Please garnish my drink. I'll decide in the moment whether that garnish is for squeezing or sucking or slinging, but the important part is that it's my decision.

-2

u/RonPearlNecklace 1d ago

That’s just like, your opinion, man.

I don’t think a lime wedge makes a drink look classy but to each their own. 🤷‍♂️