Beverages play an important role in accompanying food. In addition, they enhance the flavour of main dishes and cleanse the taste buds in between bites.
In this post, I’ll be talking about Food and Beverage Service majoring only in waiter service(for food) and Bar service(for beverages). You’re still with me, right?
Without waste of time, let’s get Down to business
Waiter Service
Food and Beverages (in some cases) are served to guests. It may be at a table in a restaurant, hotel, on a flight, in a hospital, bar or maybe even somewhere else. You do know waiters, don’t you? I bet you do!
Without much ado let’s now narrow down the Waiter service to a technique called the English Service otherwise Silver Service as some call it. It’s worth the name.
Here, dishes are presented and transferred to the guest’s plate using a service spoon(if you don’t know what a service spoon is, you can check our post on Cutlery and their usage) and fork from the left side of the customer or your guest as the case may be.
On the Other hand, Beverages are served from the right-hand side.
It is sometimes regarded as formal service and the waiters bring plates, dishes and even Beverages to the sideboard and place the plates before each customer/guest while moving clockwise as their roles unfold.
This method is loved because it offers the following; personalized service, customer satisfaction, and waiters have the scope to exhibit their service skills amongst others too numerous to mention. You’ve got to try it in your restaurant.
Let’s now get to my main Subject in this Post- Beverage Service!!!
Beverage Service
Hot Beverages such as Coffee, Tea or Chocolate are prepared in the kitchen and served from the kitchen pantry unlike cold beverages (usual alcohol) like Spirits, liquors etc that are served from the bar.
A bar is not essentially a place for alcohol only but non-alcoholic drinks alike. It is usually equipped with some items and glassware to serve the beverages there.
With that in place, Bartenders prepare drinks and serve their customers.
Two types of Bars are of interest to us here; the Public bar which serves the purpose for which it is called public: attending to the craving and thirst of the public who in return pay for the service rendered and the Private (mini) Bar which is a personal bar as the word ‘private’ implies.
In Some offices, they have what’s known as a staffed bar. Well, that sound to me like a public bar restricted to members of a company or Enterprise. Or don’t you think so?
Whichever of the two you operate(I mean public or private), you sure need to know some of the tools that should be found in a standard Bar.
1. Bar Linen and Cocktail Napkins
They serve the purpose of preserving the work area against any mess while pouring out the beverage to customers. The same applies in the case of a personal Bar.
It’s way easier to replace those than bear the brunt by replacing your furniture. Therefore, they are a must in every bar.
2. Juice Containers
As a means of saving time, Juice Containers are used to store up Juice that is more in demand just close by. Well, for your private bar, you may not need this as you aren’t selling.
3. Pouring Sprouts:
they make smooth servings of beverages apportioned equally into the glasses. This way everyone gets an equal share of beverage per unit price
4. Shaker tins:
They are of two kinds.
Short Shaker Tins are used to share small amounts of drinks efficiently.
Cocktail Shaker Tins are very helpful in mixing the ingredients of Cocktails and Martinis well.
5. Cocktail Strainer used for sieving cocktails before serving.
6. Corkscrew(otherwise called a wine opener) is used to open the cork of wine bottles. They are, however, not the same thing as bottle openers as those are used for opening caps of bottled beverages.
7. Jigger is alcohol measuring two-sided cup.
8. Lemon Zester- as the name implies, it’s a tool used for Zesting Lemons.
9. Masher: this is a tool used for mashing ingredients to help release oils and flavors effectively
Legal Drinking age:
The legal age for the consumption of alcohol is different in different countries although there are no such constraints with soft Beverages. For Instance in Nigeria, it’s 18. Anyway, it’s general knowledge that the minimum age to purchase and consume alcohol worldwide is between the age of 16 and 25.
In addition to the above information, this age limit sometimes varies according to the strength of the alcohol, the premises of consumption or whether the young customer is accompanied by an older person(I mean an Adult of course).
When the Customer looks underage, the Staff (bartender) must request the driving license or any other approved ID of the person in question without which ideally, sales should not be made.
Again as part of ethics, it’s the Bartender’s responsibility to check out for persons who have enough drinks or who are becoming tipsy and therefore not serve them any more drinks.
To keep account of how much each customer consumes, the bartender must use standard measures to pour drinks and that is why you need the short Shaker Tins and pouring Sprouts which we discussed earlier.
Read More: Food And Beverage Equipment
Does any law bind Beverage serving enterprises?
Well, in America, for instance, there’s the Dram Shop Liability which governs the Liability of Alcohol stores and commercial establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold.
This body endeavours to protect society from the unpleasant outcome of serving Alcohol to minors and intoxicated people.
In line with this, you should therefore not serve intoxicated people drink no matter what. However, refusal of alcohol service should be done with professionalism, speaking clearly, quietly and firmly with the drunk/underage customer without the notification of other Customers
Conclusion
That will be all on Beverage services … You can check for our other posts on the subject of Beverages to learn more.
