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Watch what you drink in Hoboken!
10
November
11/10/2009:
Be really careful the next time you chug a drink in the Mile Square City of Hoboken!
Hoboken411 reader Tom details an uncomfortable situation he was in at a local bar this past weekend…
“Gag me with a cap…”
“While drinking at one of my favorite downtown bars, I ordered SIX cherry bombs and unfortunately the one I took had a Miller Lite bottle cap in the bottom. (reminder: cherry bombs come in rocks glasses not shot glasses) so we raise our shot glasses and slug them down in one gulp…
Immediately after I started to gag feeling something in my throat, I went outside and “pulled the trigger” and the feeling wouldn’t go away. A few minutes pass by and the ambulance comes and take me to the HUMC.
I get there around 1:30am and within half an hour I’m getting X-rays. All the while I’ve got this extreme pain in my throat and can’t swallow. I look at the film with the xray tech and its clear to me that an entire beer bottle cap is stuck in my throat. I go back to my bed to try and relax as they tell me that they need to assemble a team together for endoscopy in the morning. I tell them that waiting 6 more hours is going to be hell, so I try pulling the trigger again and I can’t dislodge it.
I can’t lay back because it feels like the cap is going to rip through my throat, and I refuse the narcotic pain medicine, opting for Tramadol. Made me feel a little better but as soon as I would relax I would start to choke and gag. 7am comes around and I get wheeled up to the endoscopy room. They set me up and tell me the details as we wait for the doctors to come in. Another half hour goes by and the doctor comes in and within a few minutes I’m given the anesthesia and wake up feeling slightly better and the bottle cap is no longer in my throat.
It’ll be a few days until i can eat solid food again since my throat is all cut up there’s some pain swallowing but at least I didn’t swallow it and have it do damage to my stomach / intestines. Now I’m a bit more careful when i order my drinks… and no, I wasn’t drunk either believe it or not!”
411 Followup – Tom added later: “HUMC treatment was good, the nurses were real nice, I wasn’t too thrilled about waiting all those hours but i wasn’t bleeding or choking so no immediate danger – (There were surgeons on hand if something terrible were to happen) Also I had to wait until the endoscopy team got together, two nurses, the doctor commuting from Brooklyn, and the anesthesiologist.”
He also added that the things were worked out with the bar that provided him with the “Emergency Room Shot…” – However, if I were the bar owner – I’d fire that bartender pretty much on the spot.
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU???
November 10th 2009 - 12:36:25 |
OMG! I doubt my gag reflex would allow that to happen! What a grip that cap had on his throat
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November 10th 2009 - 13:48:11 |
I still think someday they are going to have to get rid of the sink washing technique that 90% of the bars do it town.
Having a sink filled with soapy water is disgusting and filthy by the 1st hour, yet bartenders “wash” pint glasses in this soupy mess and pour you a beer or shot.
Things like bottle caps or food or roaches can easily fall into the sinks and get mixed in with the whole process.
Plus with H1N1 hysteria breaking out, its only a matter of time until bars will be forced to serve everyone with plastic cups unless they have a real dishwasher to clean their glassware.
And it’s not impossible. I worked at Mikie Squared and we used an industrial dishwasher to wash all our glassware.
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November 10th 2009 - 14:06:24 |
Hope he feels better, and kudos to him for not trying to embarrass the bar for an oversight.
Furey – If I was a betting man, I would assume that this place did not wash this glass by hand, and was probably done by a machine. I’ve worked in bars that wash by machine & by hand, and I’d much rather go to a place that washes by hand. Machine washed glasses sit around for long periods of time, allowing stuff like bottle caps to stick to a glass. Stick hard enough that water alone won’t get it out. Some placed don’t use soap in machines, thinking hot water is good enough.
By law, there’s supposed to be three sinks, wash, disinfect and rinse. The disenfectant tabs that are used in most places (even dives) are strong enough to kill HIV. Most machines don’t have a hook up for disenfectant.
Realistically, it comes down the people and the place.
The dishwasher should have noticed. The bartender should have noticed, and the patron should have notice. But mistakes do happen.
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November 10th 2009 - 14:08:13 |
Maybe I’ll go back to drinking bottled beer. What’s in a cherry bomb anyway? I’m googling it. My company just blocks access to anything they deem questionable. I guess they feel cocktail recipes are BAD!
In response to Furey who said:
Having a sink filled with soapy water is disgusting and filthy by the 1st hour, yet bartenders “wash” pint glasses in this soupy mess and pour you a beer or shot.
Things like bottle caps or food or roaches can easily fall into the sinks and get mixed in with the whole process.
Plus with H1N1 hysteria breaking out, its only a matter of time until bars will be forced to serve everyone with plastic cups unless they have a real dishwasher to clean their glassware.
And it’s not impossible. I worked at Mikie Squared and we used an industrial dishwasher to wash all our glassware.
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November 10th 2009 - 16:09:17 |
I hope this guy recovers soon.
I’m not on the bar’s side by any stretch, but how did the view of the cap go past him? Was the drink too dark? Was he already intoxicated? Or both?
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November 10th 2009 - 16:40:42 |
I know a guy that once found a hearing aid in his drink at the Wilton House
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November 10th 2009 - 16:45:17 |
Whats the punch line????
In response to midtownauthentic who said:
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November 10th 2009 - 16:53:52 |
you’re kidding right? Take a guess escaped
In response to escaped68 who said:
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November 10th 2009 - 20:32:55 |
PS – the management at the “Mile Square Bar & Grill” wasn’t too happy with the phrase “Mile Square” as a reference to Hoboken, because “some of their regulars” were asking about this story.
The bar with the bottle cap gag-reflex action was *not* the Mile Square Bar & Grill.
I suppose in the future I should be careful to use the very common phrase “Mile Square” (which has been around long before the bar) – in any story related to a bar.
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November 10th 2009 - 21:04:53 |
Machines are way better because they use a detergent, a rinsing agent, and finally a sanitizing agent. You don’t get that in a hand wash from a sink.
In response to jc5201 who said:
Furey – If I was a betting man, I would assume that this place did not wash this glass by hand, and was probably done by a machine. I’ve worked in bars that wash by machine & by hand, and I’d much rather go to a place that washes by hand. Machine washed glasses sit around for long periods of time, allowing stuff like bottle caps to stick to a glass. Stick hard enough that water alone won’t get it out. Some placed don’t use soap in machines, thinking hot water is good enough.
By law, there’s supposed to be three sinks, wash, disinfect and rinse. The disenfectant tabs that are used in most places (even dives) are strong enough to kill HIV. Most machines don’t have a hook up for disenfectant.
Realistically, it comes down the people and the place.
The dishwasher should have noticed. The bartender should have noticed, and the patron should have notice. But mistakes do happen.
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November 10th 2009 - 21:38:33 |
At least in the places I know of, the water also contains a decent amount of Bleach so that it kills whatever might be on the glass.
In response to Furey who said:
Having a sink filled with soapy water is disgusting and filthy by the 1st hour, yet bartenders “wash” pint glasses in this soupy mess and pour you a beer or shot.
Things like bottle caps or food or roaches can easily fall into the sinks and get mixed in with the whole process.
Plus with H1N1 hysteria breaking out, its only a matter of time until bars will be forced to serve everyone with plastic cups unless they have a real dishwasher to clean their glassware.
And it’s not impossible. I worked at Mikie Squared and we used an industrial dishwasher to wash all our glassware.
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November 10th 2009 - 23:11:33 |
P, it would be good for the community to know the bar. I know nobody likes a rat but this is pretty serious. I do not want to go to a bar and drop back a good ole irsh car bomb and fine something lodged in my throat. I’ll tell you what i know and that is bars have glasses upside down behind the bar so i doubt it was in there when the drink was poured, and i am sure if it was in the glass a bartender would have seen it. SOunds like the drinks were made and a bartender took off a cap and instead of it flying behind the bar it flew forward and into the guys made drink or maybe the guy had an ex gal pal there and the drink was purposely altered and if that is the case the bar needs to review there tapes because that sounds like attempted murder to me. I still would want to know the name of the bar, in case i am wrong.
In response to hoboken411 who said:
The bar with the bottle cap gag-reflex action was *not* the Mile Square Bar & Grill.
I suppose in the future I should be careful to use the very common phrase “Mile Square” (which has been around long before the bar) – in any story related to a bar.
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November 11th 2009 - 08:19:32 |
One of the dishwasher machine vs sink arguements that many fail to understand is that a sink, over hours, gets dirty. In a perfect world, the bartender would empty and refill a dirty sink and put fresh new tabs of detergent and santitizer into them.
Often, that doesn’t happen.
What does happen is after 7 hours of working in a busy bar, the sinks are filthy from washing 500 pint glasses, and the bartenders can’t be bothered to stop and clean them.
When it was Dipper’s I would clean the sinks about once a night.
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November 11th 2009 - 10:15:12 |
I’m sure the victim made some deal with the bar…medical bills…few thousand dollars and free booze for a long time in exchange for keeping quiet and not suing…Probably could have done much much better tho.
In response to midtownauthentic who said:
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November 11th 2009 - 23:38:48 |
ok a couple of things….
1) this was an accident, no need for anyone to get fired
2) glasses were stored upside down, and once the shots were poured they were consumed rather quickly, they sat less than 30 seconds
3) no tapes of the incident, besides it was dark inside
4) dirty glasses are not washed at the bar here, they are washed in the back and they use industrial washing equipment, not a soapy sink, and trust me the glasses do not sit for more than a few minutes before they are brought back out
also it was a freak occurrence…how many times do you get a drink and really inspect what you’ve gotten?
from now on i’ll be much more careful
In response to midtownauthentic who said:
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November 12th 2009 - 00:25:42 |
I sometimes not only sniff beverages (it’s odd, so?) but I eye them and swirl them and play with them before consuming them.
It’s odd. I know.
In response to TommyToothpicks who said:
1) this was an accident, no need for anyone to get fired
2) glasses were stored upside down, and once the shots were poured they were consumed rather quickly, they sat less than 30 seconds
3) no tapes of the incident, besides it was dark inside
4) dirty glasses are not washed at the bar here, they are washed in the back and they use industrial washing equipment, not a soapy sink, and trust me the glasses do not sit for more than a few minutes before they are brought back out
also it was a freak occurrence…how many times do you get a drink and really inspect what you’ve gotten?
from now on i’ll be much more careful
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November 12th 2009 - 14:00:08 |
My first job was a dishwasher. Even industrial dishwashers recycle the same water for a period of time. We’d change the water in the dishwasher about twice a day. It’s not really that different from the three sink method that you see behind the bar except that there’s a filter inside the machine to capture food particles from being recycled continuously in the dishwater. It looks sort of gross, but there’s a high enough chemical concentration in either method to keep it sanitary.
In response to Furey who said:
Often, that doesn’t happen.
What does happen is after 7 hours of working in a busy bar, the sinks are filthy from washing 500 pint glasses, and the bartenders can’t be bothered to stop and clean them.
When it was Dipper’s I would clean the sinks about once a night.
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November 12th 2009 - 14:33:40 |
You sound like a really good person. I can’t say. I would be that good about an incident like your’s. I’m sorry that happened to you. I hope you’re doing much better.
In response to TommyToothpicks who said:
1) this was an accident, no need for anyone to get fired
2) glasses were stored upside down, and once the shots were poured they were consumed rather quickly, they sat less than 30 seconds
3) no tapes of the incident, besides it was dark inside
4) dirty glasses are not washed at the bar here, they are washed in the back and they use industrial washing equipment, not a soapy sink, and trust me the glasses do not sit for more than a few minutes before they are brought back out
also it was a freak occurrence…how many times do you get a drink and really inspect what you’ve gotten?
from now on i’ll be much more careful
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November 12th 2009 - 14:41:15 |
I sniff my beverages as well. I really thought. I was the only person that did. I’m glad to hear. I have company in that area. I don’t eye,swirl and play with them. I’m wondering if I should start. When you consider what’s happened. It’s not an odd thing to do at all. It is actually a good idea.
In response to mooshu who said:
It’s odd. I know.
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November 12th 2009 - 17:15:24 |
It’s the stirrers. The stirrers get me. And then the swirling– there’s something artistic about the way the beverage moves around…
I’m nuts.
In response to pawzclawz who said:
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