A Better Bar Blade

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If you’ve spent any time in a bar, you’ve probably noticed that bartenders use an oversized bottle opener. The term of art is “bar blade.”
Almost every bar blade looks like the one at bottom: Bottler opener on the right, circle on the left. For months, I’ve quizzed bartenders about what use they make of the circle. Without exception, they have said that a) they don’t use it, or b) they use it to twirl the bar blade the way a gunfighter twirls his six-shooter.
Now take a look at the bar blade on top. Bottler opener on the right side, check. But what’s going on the left side ?
I’ll tell you what’s going on.
Bartenders commonly replace the caps of liquor bottles with speed pourers—which is how they’re able to turn a bottle vertically downward and rapidly pour the liquor into a mixing tin, or glass, or whatever.
Speed pourers are awesome but frequently difficult to remove at the end of a shift. The gizmo on the left is designed to slip under a speed pourer and give the bartender enough leverage to jerk it straight off the bottle. It’s awesome.
If you know a bartender and want to brighten their day, buy them one of these.



 

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