Ah.. New York City! The land where seemingly every other storefront is a bar or restaurant. So may choices – so little time. There are thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of bars and restaurants in this town. It makes for some ridiculously difficult eating/drinking choices at times. The NYC Department of Health is charged with ensuring that every single one of those establishments is in compliance with standardized Food Handling and Sanitary Practices. The trouble is, there are only a few dozen Inspectors on the streets. It can be months or even years between (supposedly random) inspections if they ever occur at all. An unfortunate consequence is the “Security by Obscurity” that many bars/restaurants follow as a result.
That environment has lead to a few more or less standardized practices – some of which I’m going to shed some light on. The majority of venues I’ve worked in have documented food handling policies and are damn near O.C.D. about keeping clean, constantly driving their Gestapo floor managers to beat their F.O.H. and B.O.H. staff with the Enforcement Stick. On the flip side, there are a whole lot of dirt-ass owners and managers in this town that simply do not adhere to basic tenants of cleanliness. They know they’re not going to get inspected often, and casually let the resident rats go about their business, and repeatedly violate the public by doing stupid shit like serving week-old, redressed, cooked chicken.
Here’s the major catch though: The overwhelming majority of bars and restaurants do not actually follow all the rules all of the time. What the fuck? Yep, it’s true. Let me explain.
I’m a bartender, not a chef. So I’ll focus on the booze side of the house.
Among other things, the D.O.H. hits you with points for all manner of bar violations. Here are the most common”
- Glassware use in consumable ice bins
- Standing water
- Wet rags anywhere but in a dedicated red bucket
- Red bucket without sanitizing agent and proper Ph level
- No disposable gloves for cutting or serving fruit
- Dairy and food items in beer/wine coolers (bar coolers are typically not set to be as cold ad dedicated food refrigerators)
- Uncovered straws on the bar or in BevNap holders
- Uncovered sip-straws
- Excessive garbage on the floor
- Uncovered condiment trays (they’re supposed to be covered 24/7 when not in actual use)
- Lack of tongs for each individual condiment
- Soda block coolers in direct contact with consumable ice
- Absence of plastic or metal ice scoops at every ice station
- Absence of ice scoop holders at every ice station
- Absence of soap dispenser and paper towels at every sink
- No dedicated hand-washing sink
- Using dedicated hand-washing sink as a dump
- Open food, drink, mixers, condiments in coolers
- No date labels on refrigerated consumables
- Trash in the speed rails
- No “Employees must wash wands before returning to work” above or next to sinks
In reality, a number of these rules are physically impossible to maintain whilst running an actual profitable business. The tong thing and wrapped straws are prime examples. When’s the last time you went to a packed New York City bar, and watched the bartender slowly peel a straw wrapper for each and every drink order? How many times have you witnessed bartenders stick their paws in condiment trays? You kind of have to do so when you’re slammed.
Yes, we handle fruit, glasses, wash water, and dirty money all night with bare hands. It’s inevitable. I do wash my hands frequently. Regardless, cross-contamination happens. However, in nearly 18 years of bartending, I’ve yet to have a single customer complain nor get provide evidence of becoming ill as a direct result. Sure it’s possible – but the possiblities a very low in my opinion. The issue, again, that the health benefits of being a stickler about every single rule, all the time, do not outweigh the operational requirements of the bar.
Furthermore, there is a directly proportional correlation between the operational filth and exactly how busy the the bar/restaurant seems to be. That’s because staffing is just about never adjusted (or increased) as it gets busier. Conversely, F.O.H. staff are often cut if it happens to be a slow evening. The busier it gets, the more trough waste-water and used napkins fall fall in the ice bin, the less often we wash our hands, the quicker (and less attentively) we make cocktails, and the less we look like Michael Jordan in our attempts to get trash into the actual trash can. It’s just the way it is.
You will typically get far better, cleaner service, better tasting/looking food and drinks, and a more engaged bartender with better conversation on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon as opposed to a Saturday night at 11pm. That’s kind of obvious no? You’d be shocked as to the frequency with which guests throw hissy fits over their pasta not being perfectly Al Dente or their Makers Old Fashioned being “different” than they had it the last time even though there is a one hour wait for a table and no available seats at the bar.
How the hell are we supposed to deal with the Health Department when we’re slammed? Surely, no NYC owner wants to risk losing his/her “A” Letter Grade. That would be business suicide. The answer: “The One Minute Drill.” WTF is a “One Minute Drill?” It has nothing to do with football. Every venue subject to D.O.H. inspection has an official, but unwritten (for obvious reasons), procedure for dealing with unplanned inspections. Inspectors have a nasty habit Doormen get on walkie-talkie with the managers. The managers radio the staff. The staff go batshit crazy and start doing things like (1) covering everything which needs to be covered (2) dumping food and condiments which are not at appropriate temperatures or in approved refrigeration units (3) trashing unwrapped/uncovered food service items (4) throwing out lingering rags (5) displaying only approved food service utensils and garnishes (6) removing all items from ice and (7) donning gloves.
There’s a whole lot more involved… but generally, the staff scramble – within a minute or two – to address every violation noted a few paragraphs above. If all goes well, the inspectors leave happy or the bar receives 1 or 2 dings at most – hopefully, maintaining their letter grade. When the inspectors leave, the routine returns to “normal.”
Again, I have to stress that a whole lot of the “rules” are simply impossible to adhere to while running a certain type of bar (i.e., a successful bar that makes good money). That doesn’t mean the bar isn’t clean and the public shouldn’t frequent it. Most businesses put their best foot forward and are generally very safe from a consumption standpoint.
And there you have The One Minute Drill.
