Monday, October 21, 2013

Pint Sizes & Prices (Saskatoon, Sk)

When you dine out, do you know how much beer you are paying for when ordering a pint?  I usually don't as it's never been an issue until recently.  However with the number of new restaurants popping up in Saskatoon, it's become obvious restaurants don't follow a standard size when serving pints even though they still expect you to pay pint prices.  According to the Canadian Federal law, a legal pint size in Canada is 568 ml (20 Imperial oz).  Unfortunately this is not strictly enforced nor are there any penalties for false advertising which I feel is the root cause for the discrepancy of pint sizes being served in Saskatoon.  In BC, it wasn't until 2010 that pints were legal to serve.  Prior to 2010 the largest serving of beer you could order was 500 ml.

I decided to do some research and find out which restaurants were serving actual pints.  Out of the 19 restaurants I frequented at, only 9 restaurants served a true pint size.  The winners are: Copper Mug Pub & Eatery, Double Deuce Bar & Grill, Hose & Hydrant, Las Palapas Resort Grill, Louis, O'Shea's Irish Pub, Red Lobster, Somewhere Else Pub & Grill, and the Yard & Flagon.  It is interesting to note that it seems like the restaurants that have been around the longest serve true pints.  Of the remaining 10 restaurants/pubs, many try to pass off a US pint size consisting of 16.65 Imperial oz.  The worst offender was Brown's Socialhouse serving what they call a sleeve which I believe contained 14 oz for $6.  This scam is what led me to write this post as they don't even correct you when you order a pint nor did the waitress know how many ounces were in their sleeves.

Thinking about this, serving different pint sizes wouldn't be such a big deal if restaurants were up front as to what they were serving and priced their pints accordingly instead of short-changing their customers.  The best solution would be if restaurants were held accountable and penalized for false advertising.  I'm not sure what their logic is behind serving pints that aren't true pints as it is a well known fact that the more alcohol served, the more customers spend - isn't that what all restaurants want, for customers to spend more?  Are the restaurants that short-change customers lacking in business to the point where they have to stretch their keg out as long as possible?  If so, those are definitely not the restaurants I want to eat at.  Customers aren't blind to the fact that they are getting robbed on how much beer they are being served and it now plays a factor as to where my husband and I go out to eat.