A friend of mine was complaining about a new policy for bartenders. From now on, every bottled beer must be opened in front of the customer with a bottle opener even if the beer bottle has a twist off cap. The bartender must also carry a bottle opener with them.
The bar has a country/sports theme and they sell a lot of beer.
I don’t this rule is out of line. I think it suggests more personal service.
Sounds like the owner is just trying to add a little bit of ‘flair’ to their service. It also sounds like something they probably got from a website for bar owners. I think it’s odd that they have to always use a bottle opener, but personally, I wouldn’t have problem with it. It adds a little bit of interaction with the customer.
I have been in many, many, bars in many, many places (just like many, many other Dopers, I would imagine) and I can’t remember EVER having a bartender just twist off the cap with their bare hands as opposed to using either a bar-mounted bottle opener or a hand-held opener.
It seems to me that using an opener is already the default method the world over, even for twist-off bottlecaps…
I admit that I may well be forgetting the occasions where this has indeed happened, but I know for a fact that it is not very common—The bottle opener (of one type or another) is de rigueur.
I see them do it that way all the time.
I’ve never had a bar not open my beer in front of me - even if they were serving cans out of a cooler. I thought it was a legal or preventative measure, so I couldn’t just pocket a few unopened beers and start walking down the block drinking publicly, which would likely lead to a cop asking me where I purchased the booze – ultimately getting the bar in trouble.
Also, it might appear to be a bit unsanitary to have the bartenders hand touching the mouth of the twist off.
I don’t frequent bars much, and don’t drink beer, but I always thought bartenders took the bottle cap off with a fixed opener mounted on the side of the bar equipment. No hand-held churchkey needed.
As a long time bartender, I can tell you I always use an opener and here’s why;
When you tend bar you are constantly getting your hands wet, washing the shakers after making cocktails, handling wet rags, hands in ice, sweating beer bottles. This makes the skin on your hands softer than it would be if your hands were dry. Sort of like when you get out of the bath, only not so wrinkly.
When you habitually twist the tops off, sooner or later you’ll get one that is on too tight and won’t come off. It will tear into your flesh mercilessly. Cuts on your hands are something you want to avoid at all costs. Not only are you handling lots of filthy money but you have to cut fruit. Yowee!
They probably aren’t doing it for this reason, the owner just probably thinks it’s cool. But if you’re in a busy bar, it’s not a bad habit.
Of course, some bartenders are too manly for that and just muscle through.
I, however, am a delicate flower, and prefer not to have hands as rough as feet.
You mean a hand-held one or one mounted on the side of the bar?
It seems to me that a side-mounted opener would require one less hand.
Opening the beer with an opener makes good sense from a bartender’s perspective. Do you know how sore your fingers get when you opena couple hundred beers by twisting the top in eight hours?
Using a portable opener that can easily be sanitized is, well, just more sanitary. I’ve seen the crud that grows on a fixed opener when it hasn’t been unmounted and scrubbed for a few years. ::insert pukey smiley::
And lastly, opening the beer in front of the customer reinforces the idea that this brew was removed from the icy depths of the cooler immediately before being set in front of him/her.
missred, former bartender (a million and two years ago 
)
Opening in front of them prevents the sucky customer you cheated me complaint for freebies scam.
I believe it’s either the law here, or it’s at least a preventative measure from being able to walk out of the bar with a sealed beer.
Sorry, hand held.
You can’t twirl it around on your finger if it’s attached to the bar.
I think that must be an American thing.Last time I saw such a thing in Canada was back when you could buy pop in glass bottles.
You can open way more beer bottles, lined up in a row on the bar, before you could open one or two in a side mounted opener, anyway.
It’s part of the show. If the bartender wants to direct instead of act, he/she should open another place. No, it is of minor inconvenience, and I suspect that the bartenders will get more in tips.
My palm is usually sore after drinking a 12 pack of twist-off bottles. I can hardly imagine how sore it’d be after opening 120 bottles by hand.
I think it could also be a legal thing. Using an opener ruins the cap and prevents unscrupulous people from ordering a drink, dropping in a drug, and screwing the cap back on to be presented as a fresh drink.
You might be surprised to know that my medical school makes a point of constantly reminding us that the hands of bartenders and chefs have a tendency to become macerated (the $5 doctor word for what you said).
I’ve never even noticed, but now that I think about it, Sierra Nevadas are very difficult to open and would probably fuck your hand up if you had to open a couple hundred a day.
The one time I noticed is when that jerk at Derf’s gave me an unopened bottle of beer. It wasn’t even a fucking twist off. Fortunately, that idiot did not last long.
Look up twist top opener. They are available. I got one as a freebie a couple decades ago.
I’ll echo what Elbow has said, I was a bartender for 4 years. The caps on our beer is twist off, if I twisted off 100 caps in my shift my palms would be destroyed. I used an opener all the time.
Hah, macerated is a $5 chef word, too, but not something for something that gets done to hands (I hope!). I maceratedsome strawberries just the other day, in fact…