How to tell if a bar is crappy (before you even order a drink): Part 3

Juice
Juice in cocktails should always be fresh, and it should always be juice. That sounds funny, but most places you go will be using mixes rather than any kind of fruit.
Fresh lime juice in a margarita or fresh raspberry juice in a Clover Club or fresh lemon juice in a Sidecar makes a huge difference on how the drink tastes.
Any place using mixes doesn't care about the quality of its drinks, and therefore doesn't care much about you or your experience.
Also, if you see them using a hose for juice, run away. The only thing that's acceptable to come from a hose at a bar is club soda, and even then it's not the nice experience of having someone open a brand new bottle just for your drink (like they do at the Pourhouse or Boneta).

This does tie in to a much larger issue - the quality of a drink is very dependent on the quality of its ingredients. Making a Manhattan with a canned cherry and Crown Royal is a world of difference (and what can get you interested or disinterested in cocktails) from one with a nice vermouth and an American rye.
However, you can't always judge a bar by what it has sitting on the shelves because often places will put expensive spirits up there just to look cool. If you do end up at a place that has nothing but Gordon's, Crown Royal (did I mention it again? oops), and Martin & Rossi, that's probably a bad sign though.


So, make sure the bartenders aren't using mixes and have at least some sort of fresh fruit at the bar.

How to tell if a bar is crappy (before you even order a drink): Part 2

So let's continue with this short series on judging a bar by everything but the taste of its drinks... so you can prevent having your taste buds, dignity, and wallet suffer.
Some of these are general rules and don't apply everywhere, which I will note. Most of them, however, are really good guidelines to follow all the time.
Use both to get a good idea of how good a bar will be before you even sit down to order.
And yes, this is obviously my personal opinion, but I drink a LOT, and I try out a lot of bars and a lot of drinks and a lot of bartenders, and that's a great way to get a sense of not only what you want, but of general quality. Let's get continue...

2) Shaking
If the bartenders are shaking everything, they don't know how to make cocktails. I've been to so many restaurants and bars where bartenders will mix every single drink in a shaker, and ruin most of the drinks they're serving. Of course, in a lot of these places you're not missing out on a good cocktail, but the real damage comes when they offer (or you're taking a risk and ordering) a classic. I've made the mistake more than once of looking at a terrible cocktail list, and trying to order a Manhattan or something easy, only to have it served to me with shards of ice, way too much bitters, and one of those gross, fake maraschino cherries. Cocktails should only be shaken when they contain juice, egg, or cream. Robert Hess from the Cocktail Spirit on the Small Screen Network has a good mantra for this: If the ingredients are clear, stir the cocktail. If the ingredients are cloudy or opaque, shake the cocktail. The only exception to this rule, which is still often debated, is the Martini (a real one), but that's another discussion.

I've often also seen bartenders shaking 2 cocktails in 2 shakers in either hand. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing... but I view it as such. A great bartender will be able to multitask, and will be making drinks quickly, but will give each one the attention it deserves. Watching a bartender shake my drink with someone else's makes me feel like he's not really paying attention or taking the respectful time to make it for me. Whether he's perfectly measured, tasted, and mixed everything properly, I still feel like he's cutting corners, which is the last thing I want to feel sitting at a bar, leaving my trust, palate, and enjoyment in his hands. So much of enjoying cocktails is the experience, and so much of that lies in the hands of the bartender.

So, when you are trying to decide on a bar or a bartender, watch him make the drinks. If you see him shake something without adding juice, cream, or egg, that's always bad news.

How to tell if a bar is crappy (before you even order a drink): Part 1

So I'm going to do a short series on judging a bar by everything but the taste of its drinks... so you can prevent having your taste buds, dignity, and wallet suffer.
Some of these are general rules and don't apply everywhere, which I will note. Most of them, however, are really good guidelines to follow all the time.
Use both to get a good idea of how good a bar will be before you even sit down to order.
And yes, this is obviously my personal opinion, but I drink a LOT, and I try out a lot of bars and a lot of drinks and a lot of bartenders, and that's a great way to get a sense of not only what you want, but of general quality. Let's get started...

1) The Cocktail Menu
This is the quickest and easiest way to get a good idea about the quality of a bar.
If there is a list of "Martinis," nobody at the establishment knows fairly basic knowledge about cocktails. The Martini is one particular cocktail, not a a general type of cocktail, and moreso, it's not a type of cocktail that includes tons of sweeteners, liqueurs, and worse - vodka (yeah I said it).

Any place that has a "Martini List" has staff or bar managers who don't know one of the most famous cocktails ever, and that's a bad sign.

Secondly, the length of the cocktail menu can also give some clues as to its quality. This is not always the case, but I definitely feel safer at a restaurant ordering from a small menu, because this means they have decided that these are the best dishes and cocktails they can make for you. They have designed and honed this menu for the guests. Bad bars often having pages and pages of overly sweet and terribly named drinks. I have also seen seemingly good bars give themselves away like this as well. I recently had a bad experience at the Keefer Bar in Chinatown, which had good reviews, and was even featured in the Georgia Strait as leading the way in the new "cocktail revolution." However, the Keefer has a HUGE cocktail menu filled with original concotions and modern variations including housemade bitters, teas, syrups, etc, that in the end are only there as buzz words. Ecchinacea and absinthe and passionfruit infused gin and blah blah blah probably sounds really cool to people who are used to seeing "The Cookie Dough Martini" or some other crap. Upon tasting a good selection of these, however, we found that all these flashy ingredients weren't balanced very well, and all the drinks we tried were just a blur of non-distinct flavours. Meanwhile, if you go somewhere fantastic like the Pourhouse or the Refinery, they have a very short cocktail list that alternates every couple months and features top to bottom fantastic drinks that have been chosen for good reason. Food is almost always the same way. You never, or rarely see large menus at very good restaurants.
This one is more of a general rule.




Lastly, if there are pictures on the menu, and you see blended drinks, or any kind of crazy colour, don't order anything. Cocktails should never be neon coloured, and generally aren't bright green or blue (yes, I know about blue curacao, but I haven't seen a decent use for it yet). And don't argue with me via absinthe - real absinthe is not bright green, its artificial colouring is.Oh, and avoid ice cream. Booze and ice cream is only good when you're 13.
I'm including a picture below of a cocktail menu that immediately lets you know that you should not order ANYTHING. I apologize to the franchise in question... I still enjoy your Clucks and Fries occasionally...

So, look out for "Martinis" plural, look out for very long cocktail lists, be wary of exciting buzz words, and avoid neon colours. Part 2 coming soon...