What is the best way to monitor alcohol consumption when guests move from the bar to the dining area?

Drinking alcohol can be a fun way to celebrate, connect with friends, and relieve stress. When that alcohol buzz kicks in, though, it can be hard to decide when enough is enough. Intoxication tends to impair a person’s judgment. That poor judgment can lead to disaster, especially when someone drives away.

That’s where you come in. Businesses rely on smart, dedicated alcohol servers like you to slow service to prevent intoxication. Your decisions may save lives.

Preventing drunk driving

In 2018, more than 10,000 people died in crashes caused by drunk driving in the United States. Deadly collisions have led states across the nation to limit the amount of alcohol that a driver may have in their bloodstream.

In most states, it’s illegal to drive with blood alcohol content (BAC) at or above 0.08%. With a BAC of 0.08%, a person’s reaction time slows, and their coordination may suffer. These conditions make car accidents much more likely.

Some states have unique BAC requirements. In Utah, for example, it is illegal to drive with a BAC of 0.05% or higher. In Arizona, drivers don’t have to meet a specific blood alcohol content threshold. If their driving is impaired and there is alcohol in their system, they may be charged with driving under the influence. In states like these, servers may need to slow alcohol service earlier to protect customers.

If you’re not sure what the BAC legal limit is in your state, be sure to check with your manager.

Recognizing when you should slow down service

Unlike highway patrol officers, most servers can’t use technology to test a person’s BAC. So how can you tell when to slow down service?

Counting drinks

To start, keep track of the number of drinks you serve to each guest. With each drink they consume, their BAC will rise. How quickly their BAC rises depends on factors like the person’s size. Consider using a BAC table to estimate someone’s blood alcohol content based on how many drinks they’ve had.

Remember, you should start slowing service before a customer’s BAC reaches 0.08%. Once they are intoxicated, you should not serve them any more alcohol.

Keep in mind that the liver takes about an hour to metabolize the alcohol in a single standard drink. If a person has multiple drinks in an hour, the liver will take a few hours to catch up.

Common signs of intoxication

Counting drinks alone may not be enough to estimate customers’ levels of impairment. Watch out for pub crawlers! Sometimes, people move from bar to bar during a night out, drinking alcohol at each place they visit. Someone may arrive at your establishment approaching (or well past) the point of being intoxicated.

You need to be able to recognize common physical and behavioral signs of being drunk:

• Loud or slurred speech
• Clumsiness
• Sudden mood or behavior changes
• Drowsiness
• Delayed reactions
• Overconfidence or friendliness
• Sloppy appearance
  

Remember, though, that some people may show these characteristics without drinking alcohol. It’s up to you to make a careful judgment call. Watch for these signs and keep an eye on how many drinks someone has been served.

How to slow down service

So let’s say you suspect that a customer may be approaching intoxication. What’s next? Slowing down service can be tricky. Obviously, you need to look out for your customer’s well-being, but you don’t want to sabotage your chance at a good tip. Here are some tips to slow service without alienating a customer.

Offer food and water

Offering the customer food and water is a great way to slow down service. Food helps to slow the absorption of alcohol into the body. If you can tempt a guest to eat something, they can satisfy hunger and keep their BAC reasonable at the same time.

Offering a complimentary glass of water with an alcoholic beverage is another courteous, subtle way to slow service. That way, you’re less likely to have thirsty guests ordering back-to-back drinks. Keep in mind, though, that drinking coffee does not lower a person’s BAC.

Pass the table less often

You can also take a more passive approach and avoid passing the guest’s table too often. This way, you can be warm and helpful when a guest has your attention without being constantly available for drink orders.

This may go without saying, but you should also avoid encouraging guests to order more drinks. Generally, people don’t need much encouragement to have a good time. Instead, focus on protecting yourself, your guests, and your employer with responsible alcohol service.

Interested in more tips on safe alcohol service? Check out StateFoodSafety’s alcohol service certification courses. Happy holidays!

— Katie Heil

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Licensees and staff are responsible for preventing patrons from becoming unduly intoxicated. You must ensure alcohol is served, supplied and promoted in a way that maintains a safe environment in and around your venue, and preserves the amenity of the nearby area.

Refusing service and preventing undue intoxication

You must put systems in place that ensures staff refuse service to, and prevent drinking of alcohol by, persons who are unduly intoxicated. 

Refusing service can be difficult - even more so when trying to reason with a person who may be irrational, argumentative or aggressive. It is much easier to prevent a patron from becoming unduly intoxicated than to manage it after the fact.

Monitoring and assessing patrons

Licensees and permit holders are responsible for putting a control system in place to monitor and assess people in, and trying to enter, your premises, for signs of undue intoxication and disorderly conduct. Control systems should cover premises entry, bar serveries and consumption areas.

You are expected to tailor controls to each licensed venue you operate. For example, the less open the layout of the premises, the more roaming staff members may be required to monitor for unduly intoxicated patrons. Lighting, noise levels and physical layout must also be considered.

Training staff to control undue intoxication

You must ensure there are adequate procedures and levels of staff training and instruction, to support the control systems in your venue.

As a licensee or permit holder, you will increase your own risk of being penalised for offences relating to unduly intoxicated and disorderly persons if you fail to properly implement and monitor control systems at your venue.

Strategies to prevent undue intoxication

Following are some common sense strategies that can be easily implemented:

• Stop intoxicated patrons at the front door. Has the patron been drinking? Should the patron be admitted? It is much easier for bar staff if security (or the door person) is able to identify and prevent intoxicated patrons from entering the venue.
• Monitor the drinking environment. Staff, security and management must work together to continually monitor tables, bars, gaming rooms, function rooms and entertainment areas. This means communicating with each other regularly throughout the trading period.
• At functions, ensure the host knows that service will be refused to unduly intoxicated patrons, even if it they're paying an all-inclusive price for the function. The host should be involved in any refusal of service as a matter of courtesy and to assist staff.
• Do not provide multiple drinks tickets. The patron will have an expectation that they will be served.
• Encourage drinkers to return to their seat or table by removing bar stools and setting up additional tables.
• Change the visuals – this can reduce the 'bar' feel and discourage excessive drinking.
• Change the music from continuous background beats to identifiable songs - this allows patrons to acknowledge the passing of time.
• Make water available and have staff offer it regularly to encourage patrons to pace their alcohol consumption.
• Encourage patrons to stop drinking or consume non-alcoholic drinks before they reach the point of undue intoxication.
• Lower the entertainment noise level to allow patrons to talk; this slows down drinking.
• Have bar staff assess patrons each time they are served.
• Ensure that lighting is bright enough and sound levels are low enough to enable staff to properly monitor patrons' intoxication levels throughout the venue.
• Be aware that often a different person will come to the bar for a 'shout'. Observe groups of patrons.
• Check on patrons who have not approached the bar. The unduly intoxicated patron may be the one sitting in the corner, being supplied liquor by mates.
• Use signage to indicate that service will be refused.

This list is by no means exhaustive and licensees and staff should share their own successful strategies for preventing patrons from becoming unduly intoxicated.

Providing drinking water

Making drinking water available to patrons is essential to minimising harm and intoxication. Providing drinking water is the responsibility of every licensee.

Under the Liquor Regulation 2002, it is mandatory for commercial hotel licensees, community club licensees, commercial other (bar) licensees, licensees catering a commercial public event and any licensee who trades after 12 midnight to provide cold drinking water free of charge to any patron who requests it, at any time the premises is trading. All other licensees must make cold drinking water available either free-of-charge or at a reasonable cost to patrons when the premises is trading.

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