Beer served with dead spider at the bottom

I have to share this story with you all, because I'm intrigued to know what other people would have done in similar circumstances.

A group of us decided to go for a few Christmas drinks in a well known Expat Bar on Sat (I won't name it because we actually like the place). The session was in full swing when one of the girls ordered a beer. The chap behind the bar promptly served her a beer and walked off. We were all chatting away when a puzzled look appeared on her face which slowly turned to shock. She called the chap over and asks him what on earth is in her beer. At which point were all intrigued to know what going. The guy picks up the glass and starts to look a little uncomfortable.

She then says "That's a fucking great big Spider in there isn't it"

No shit, there was a spider frozen to the bottom of the glass. It turns out the glasses had been sitting in the cellar and he had brought them up and put them on the shelf without washing them. To make it worse, the lass hates spiders.

He apologised, poored her a new pint and refunded the price of the beer.

Personally, I think that was really tight and they should have done alot more in terms of compensation. If it was a bar that I didn't know, then I would never go back there again and I would name & shame them. As it happens, it's a local haunt & we have had many a good night in there. In hind sight, I think we should have kicked up a fuss, but we were in festive mood and determined to enjoy ourselves.

What would you have done ?

I think that was more than fair, places back home (Minnesota) might not even do that.

I would have only expected an apology and a new beer. It was a minor mistake, and no big deal really. In your situation I would have been happy with how they handled, and not taken it any further.

Everyone makes mistakes, and this wasnt a biggy, and it is, and was, easily dealt with.

What more "compensation" would you have expected?

Yep another beer is all I'd expect or want in a situation like that.

If you want to make them pay for it just turn it into a running gag whenever you're there. e.g. "Three beers and no spiders, please". Would piss me off no end if I were the barman.

Ah, yes. It's always so advisable to annoy the people who are handling whatever it is that you plan to put into your mouth.

woof.

Err..yeah. Good point.

I was in one of the more popular bars in my hometown during the summer, I got a beer with a shard of glass in it, f**king lucky I didn't swallow it as I didn't notice it till it was in my mouth...

I took it back to the bar and all I got was a replacement beer and a half arsed apology. I wished I had made more of a fuss about it now actually. Actually talking about it makes me really pissed I didn't take it further!!!

I guess these things happen but if they apologise and give you a replacement you have probably done as well as you could out of it.

Having worked and run Restaurants & bars myself, I would have refunded the round. Why ?

1, this was no money spider... it was one of those big ones that lurk down it your cellar and bites your head off if you get too close
2, Golden Rule, if you store your glasses down in the cellar then you wash them before putting them back on the shelves.
3, When serving any kind of drink, you should take a quick look at the glass to check it's ok.
4, You should keep all the group happy and then there is laess chance of negative publicity by word of mouth. It takes ages to build a reputation, but it can be destroyed in an instant.

Still, I suppose he could have charged more for the added nutritional value of the beer

what round? You said she ordered A drink. Certainly wouldn't expect any financial compensation. Seemed about right. Your choice if you want to go back there or not

Fair enough about the compensation (although it was a bloody big spider and amazingly some of it's web was till intact) but having been there at the time, I can only say that the people drinking Guinness looked mighty worried. But as they say 'what you can't see can't hurt you!!!'.

Yeah. And what compensation did the spider get (apart from a free drink)?
A glass shard would worry me however.

It worried me too!

It is strange though. I was with a friend who worked in another bar, and he didnt expect anything more than the replacement beer... Wheras I, with no "official" bar experience was expecting some up front cash! You must look at it differently I reckon if you have worked in a bar.

I think a refund of the beer is the minimum I'd expect but at least a free cocktail or free beers all night would have been better.

Being terrified of spiders, if that happened to me, I think I'd be scarred for life. Plus, it's nasty not to even wash the glasses before you use them.

Last week I was at a bar and the waitress spilled a half liter of beer onto my lap. She told me to pick anything I wanted from the menu, which was really nice.

The point that it was a spider is also in some way irrelevant. It COULD have been a shard of glass. What this shows is that the glass was neither washed nor checked. Dangerous if it is glass becuase if it's in a Guiness you'd never see it.

@Red What and did she throw that at you too?

ha ha, no, the beer smelled bad enough

I actually ordered a brandy to warm myself up

might have put me off mi booze for the night I must admit.

In my case , I just gave the bit of glass to the barman and said "that was in my pint", to which he replied... "oh, right... do you want another then?".

surely this is arrogant as f***?

We were in an Indian restaurant in London once when a cockroach ran across the table. Okay it wasn't massive but that's not the poing. Needless to say it got squashed. However when we told the waiter he picked it up in a napkin and ttook it away.

When he came back again and we asked him about the cockroach he denied all knowledge of it and kept repeating 'What cockroach?'. We still had to pay the full price and didn't even get an apology.

Not sure which cockroach was worse, the one that ran across the table or the waiter!

thats outragous!

did you not demand to speak to the owner or something, or just not even pay the full price regardless of what he said?

In hindsight that's exactly what we should of done but we were all extremely pissed and we were just getting more and more annoyed and so decided to pay up and get out before someone thumped the waiter.

We had finished our meals by the time the cockroach appeared but needless to say we never went back again!!!

Ha ha its always a classic when you just have to walk away "before someone takes a beating"!!!

In that case the denial is worse than the original offence in my book. I mean a cockroach in an Indian restaurant just gives it a bit of authenticity... But to pretend it didn't happen is deceitful. When it came to pay you should have said "What meal?"

I would have sued for 100k EUR.

I once got a frozen bottle of Helles in Kilians, now I don't know how it managed to freeze or anything, but it confused the hell out of me when I tried to pour it.

Spiders are lucky , no ?

Spiders are lucky on Christmas Eve. Not so lucky at the bottom of your beer glass.

I would have expected a big apology, and not to pay for the next spider-less drink at least. Another couple of free ones or a free round wouldn't have gone amiss.

so if I want a free night out I just take a couple of spiders with me and drop them in my pint every so often?

There was a young diner from Crewe,
Who found a fly inside his stew,
Said the waiter don't shout
And wave it about,
Or the rest will want one too.

It's just a pain when you have to pick the legs out from between your teeth.

@Boomtown_rat. That reminds me of one place I was running. Had a familly complain that the was cork in there Beef Bourguignon. However, one of my regulars came up to me and said they had seen them put it in their food. I had great pleasure in refusing them a rebate, escorting them to the door and telling them to never come back again.

Many years ago my sister was waitressing in a pub restaurant in London when a customer complained of a centipede in a pie. She took it back to kitchen where the cook hastily prepared another and went to apologise to the customer. Nobody really knew how the centipede got there, the most likely explanation was that it crawled in out of the salad while the cook was rolling out the crust to go on top. The cook had the mick taken for weeks after with orders for "double centipede and chips for table 4" and "large centipede ploughmans" shouted to the kitchen.

I'm a bit of a germ freak when it comes to eating out or drinking (one of my major pet peeves is bartenders who handle ice with their hands...). Something like finding a spider in my glass would really take the cake though.

To answer your question, I think that I actually would've just gotten up (after having recovered from my temporary state of shock) and left - no free beer will ever make up for the permanent psychological damage, regardless of how much I'd enjoyed the place in the past.

I'm going out tonight and know that I will spend the entire evening checking my glasses for arachnids because of this thread...

I am not one to advise here,

I got shot down in flames for rounding down 10cts, having had wire wool in my curry
Accused of halucinations of Mice in a different curry house..

BUT..

I know an old lady who swollowed a fly... I don't know why she swollowed the fly...

Then the daft bugger swollowed a spider to catch the fly...

You got a fresh beer... Good enough for me!

Just in case anyone was having a problem visualising, I like to be a helpful and useful TT member so knocked this up...

No beer was harmed or injured in any way during the making of this image.

What's worse than finding a spider in your beer?

Finding half a spider !

A friend of mine worked at a pizza restaurant when we were younger. She lost a ring, and it was returned to her after someone found it in their pizza. Same thing happened another time with a different employee, but it was a fingernail (ew!) and not a ring.

I always find hair in my food. Worst was probably a piece of string with a bit of metal on the end that was in some noodles I ate at the reggae festival. I didnt actually notice it while eating it, but I saw it on the ground outside my tent the next day.

I think the compensation for the spider was fair. free drinks all night is pretty excessive. Not to menion you're Toytowners...that would have put them out of business

But seriously, what it shows is that they have pretty poor hygene practices. Every place that I've worked it that serves drinks stored the glasses upside-down in the racks. You could see the spider in your glass but if they were stored rightside up all the glasses had dust in them...some could have rat shit. Sorry for the horrible thought but it's true.