Cowboy Jacks in Minnesota
I was on vacation in Minnesota, and I stopped at a local place.
Location: Brighten Village Minnesota 55112
Operation: Cowboy Jacks
Style: Bar Grill (mid size)
I stopped at Cowboy Jacks as I was in the New Brighten area. I had been driving all day and wanted a beer and an appetizer, as I had been driving and I was a mile away from my destination. The place had a nice exterior that drew me to it, and I was curious about the theme. It was a Tuesday night, and it was not real busy, but the bar that I would say sat 30 was half full and there were some tables in the dining area. It took a little while for the bartender to notice me at the bar but I was a little ways from the action. She might have noticed me sooner, but she was in a conversation with three guys. 5 No big deal, a bar grows by having bartenders who can talk to guest. But they need to have the roaming eye for the next one that comes in.
What was the big deal was when I ordered my bottle of beer, the bartender (her) pulled a long slim flat bottle opener from the front of her stretch pants and opened my beer in front of me and sat it down.
To say the least I was stunned! No, I was horrified at what she did. She was wearing black yoga style stretch pants and a belly shirt that exposed her stomach. Now that is all fine, but the opener was not just down her stretch pants, it was right up against her bare skin. She proceeded to drop the top in the garbage and set my beer down by her 60% of the bottle.
I then asked for water and a napkin, and she gave them to me. She laid the napkin down and handed me my water with the top 10% of my 40% of the glass. So, now I not only had to wipe the top of my beer bottle, but also my water glass if I planned to drink it. I ordered the water to be polite. I used water and a napkin to clean off the top of my beer from whatever was on her skin, lotion or sweat, take your pick.
I never did order my appetizer as the only time she came back was not to ask if I wanted another beer . So, I asked for my bill and left. You may ask why any of this is important besides the bottle opener in her stretch pants. Well while I was sipping my one beer, I noticed what she did with her hands.
1. She ran her hands through her hair more than once.
2. She cleared the bar glasses by putting her hands down in the glasses to carry them.
3. She used a bar towel to wipe off the bar that was not in the sink or in a proper bucket. (you see there are health rules on these things).
4. And she opened more bottles of beer using her handy bottle opener that was down the front of her stretch pants.
5. She also took money for sales and put it into the cash register. (money is one of the dirtiest things)
6. She took credit cards, and she served more beer and drinks.
During this time, she did not wash her hands once. Well, you say how long does it take to drink a beer. Well, you see I was nursing it to see if she would come back, and to watch what she did with her hands. I will tell you I was relieved that she never left the bar. I was thinking would she wash her hands if she went to the restroom. And if so, do they use blow driers or paper towels. Does the door have a handle that she has to pull in. As a guy I can tell you that 30% of the men I see leaving the restroom do not wash their hands. I always love it when I see a sign in the restroom that says that employees must wash their hands before returning to work. If they do, they still must touch the door handle in most places to open it. And most workers don’t wash their hands again before they go back to work. Washing your hands as a restaurant worker in the restroom is just for show. They should wash them again when they get back to work to avoid what the 30% of customers leave on the handle when they fail to wash their hands. And this number grows after people have a few drinks.
When I got to my location and told the person I was meeting what I saw, I was told no way, he did not believe me, so the next night we went back to this location. I was semi relieved that we had a different bar tender. But things went south after we both ordered a bottle of beer. This person also who was wearing stretch pants but a full shirt, reached up under her shirt and pulled her bottle opener from the front of her stretch pants and proceeded to open both of our beers. My friend turned in look at me with there mouth open. I raised my beer to him. This time I had my own sanitize wipe to clean tops of the bottles.
I will tell you that I had to look up this business online and see how it was rated.
4 stars from 1,806 reviews.
$$ price range
I saw that they are a small local chain with other locations. Please note that all I have written is based on this one site. I also noticed that they had a contact tab. So, I did contact them and left the full information above for them. I asked if someone would contact me back ( I left my name and my cell number) and if they saw the seriousness of a couple of things I mentioned. I also mentioned serve safe guidelines.
Atmosphere was dark so it was hard to get a true view, but it seemed clean. The bar area was neat and tidy. The restrooms could use a little TLC as they are showing some age. This is the one area that businesses from c-stores to the finest restaurants forget that customers use and check out. If the bathroom is dirty ( I mean DIRTY) or the fixtures are broken. How do they maintain the part of the business that makes the food.