A Corona, Please, and Don’t Hold the Lime


I ran across this story today after reading my chefs as chemists article that was sent to me. It kind of made me laugh.
"A male worker observed having bare-hand contact with one slice of ready-to-eat lime while placing on top of beer bottle for patron in bar," the citation, dated Oct. 9, states. Bare-hand contact? How else is a bartender supposed to get a ready-to-eat lime slice into a bottle of Corona for a patron? According to the health department, there are two solutions.

Plastic gloves or tongs.

In other words, every time a bartender in New York City puts a lime slice in that Corona with bare hands, he or she is breaking the law.
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Seriously, I've never seen a bartender use anything but their bare hands for fruit placing. I'm not much of a Corona drinker, but I do enjoy a nice New Belgium Sunshine Wheat which must have a wedge of lemon placed in it or a Blue Moon Belgian White which is best served with an orange slice resting on top (finely done at Willie's). I've never seen a bartender use anything but their bare hands. Even the daiquiri I had recently at the Bulldog required the bartender to squeeze fresh limes, which was done with her bare hands. I was more offended that she was using the limes cut for garnish than the use of her hands as I wrote at the time.
I watched our tatted up bartender squeeze the limes from the garnish tray to get the lime juice. I'm not sure how I feel about that, I think they should use different limes, but I don't know why, they're not exactly getting 40 daiquiri orders in an evening. Nonetheless, it just kind of gives me the heebies.
Of course, some of the places I'm most fond of, dive bars, you're lucky if your bartender puts down their cigarette while they're pouring you a pint.

I don't know if exposed fruit handling is against the regs in the KC area, although I would guess that it is, but I don't really want my fruit placed in my drink by anything other than the bartender's bare hands (though I would prefer a female bartender handling my fruit).

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