Clubs that play games with drinks
rickdugan
Verified and Certifiable Super-Reviewer
As someone who used to drink Kettle on the rocks for many years, I can confirm that it's not hard to notice when it doesn't taste like it should. I also encountered a number of clubs that played this game, including some clubs in Queens and a smattering of clubs in other parts of the country. It seems to be especially egregious with clear liquors since of course it's easier to conceal. Whenever it happened to me, you'd better believe that I reported it on here in my club review.
This is not the only game I've run into either. There are the clubs that short pour so badly that it doesn't even make sense to visit them if you're an alcohol drinker. There are even clubs that will switch out better liquors with cheaper brands and just assume that you won't notice. This too is much harder to hide when one drinks the same liquor on the rocks for a long time.
Why club owners would want to be so penny conscious, pound foolish is a mystery to me, but sadly it's not uncommon. You'd think that they'd be happy with earning a 400-500% markup on a bottle of liquor, but for some it's not enough. They want to squeeze another 5-6 drinks out of the same damned bottle.
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There also is the theory of clubs serving weaker drinks so customers do not become too intoxicated which may be an issue to handle inside the club or a liability at the end of the night.
Either way with the way things are these days I personally would not want to own a business where alcohol is consumed on premise causing a liability. Over the years I’ve seen a few bar owners and restaurant owners lose everything over an intoxicated customer doing something stupid.
Regardless of MY fears it doesn’t give anyone severing alcohol the green light to change or dilute a drink.
BTW why is it I go to a local Mexican restaurant and they pour half a bottle of tequila in a jumbo margarita and I go down the street to a sports bar and get a bourbon and Coke and can’t even taste the bourbon?
A bigger problem I'm seeing is bartenders charging more and pocketing the difference. This is rampant in Vegas clubs.
I’m sure they are expecting customers to not be fully aware of the taste - or possibly customers being distracted by tits? If a guy orders a specific brand of booze, it’s usually because that’s his brand, and he will likely notice if it’s watered down - or another brand.
I agree, these places have sophisticated inventory and beverage disbursement systems, so they can track purchases and quantities. But, once they start fucking with the bottles after hours, it screws things up.
Usually clubs charge a premium for hard liquor anyway, so why make it less equitable for the customer with a short pour, watered down liquor, or a cheaper brand?
Perhaps some modified version can be applied to strip clubs
OTH I mostly order bottled beer, at strip clubs, I’m more concerned over the possibility of getting drugged and robbed, that I am about dilution or short pour though.
Again, because their sales order management systems are telling them that sales improved when they started fucking around, at least in the short-term. What it doesn't tell them are the longer-term consequences of those practices.
Though I will say that I have most often seen this in larger urban areas with more tourists and/or higher amounts of customer turnover. Dallas, L.A. and NYC quickly come to mind as places with clubs I've whacked for this shit in my reviews. I don't see this deplorable behavior as often in smaller market clubs that are more reliant upon regulars, probably because they know (or eventually learn) that they can't get away with it.
Locally, Wackos was pulling this shit for a while with Jack Daniels and probably other boozes as well. They shoot their most popular alcohols out of a hose gun and, for a period of time some years back, whatever was coming out of that thing was NOT Jack. It was harsher and clearly cheaper. I stopped going to that club for a long time because of it and I'm sure that others did too. Eventually they cut this shit out, at least with the Jack.
I agree, it's stupid and common. I also think some bars/clubs aren't just doing it to get a few extra drinks from a bottle, they're doing it to sell more drinks. If they can sell me 5x 1oz shots instead of 4x 1.25oz ones, they can increase sales by 25% and decrease cost at the same time. It's those same systems that have ID scanners as part of the package, they'll often have inventory management and sales tracking software that will encourage management to decrease pours. I'm not a fan of that kind of shit, but it's not 1/10 as bad as switching out liquors. In Florida at least, it's a misdemeanor to do that. I can't imagine your liquor distributor looking to kindly on you getting caught doing it either, but I doubt you'd lose your license or they'd stop selling to you.
Seriously though shit like this can't be helping places like Baby Dolls right now. It's historically been tourist trap central, but business travel is still way down right now. I even hear that they've had to shut down the upstairs.
It’s not right, but it is likely easier to pull off with a high customer turnover.
But when it comes to watered down drinks. Trendy restaurants and casinos seem to do it the most.
But yeah, very shortsighted. Somebody <em>will</em> notice at some point.
A club I was frequently going to told me they had Coke in their fountain gun. It did not taste like Coke, but some other generic cola. I contacted the local Coke bottler to report the club was selling knockoff cola as Coke. The bottler followed up and investigated.
I’ll offer another explanation - poor maintenance. This doesn’t explain off flavors if you drink neat, but most bars are horrible about cleaning their taps and the speed guns. If you’re tasting funky flavors, it’s most likely that the lines are dirty. When this has happened to me, I just tell the bartender and get a different drink. If your draft beer is overly foamy, or no foam at all, it’s a warning signal. If you taste off flavors in your jack and coke, it’s most likely the coke or the ice coming from a dirty line. If you’re really convinced it’s the liquor ask them politely to open a new bottle. It’s rare, especially with stuff like Jack that turns over quickly, but the booze can get contaminated on the shelf if they don’t cover the bottles every night.
Again, I agree swapping booze does happen, but it’s not common. Now short pours, that will happen and is obvious when you watch them pour your drink.
I can see refilling top shelf with well liquor because especially vodka most people can't tell the difference, especially two drinks in. But clubs should want their patrons tipsy.