Glassware Buyer's Guide

Introduction

When choosing glassware, it’s not as simple as picking out something that matches perfectly with your dinnerware or even selecting glasses that hold up to the intensive washing required to keep you in line with hygiene regulations. You also need to take into account the amount of to-ing and fro-ing the glasses will endure in the hands of staff or customers and a whole lot of other things in between. This guide to choosing glassware introduces you to potentially unconsidered factors and aims to help you avoid making any purchasing clangers, shattering or otherwise. 

Glass or Crystal?

While plastic pint and wine glasses have become a frequent and less frowned upon sight at outside events, the main choices for barware and restaurant beverage holders remain glass and crystal. You may find that you will use both at your venue for different and distinct purposes. While crystal might be the perfect choice for fine dining, with cut patterns and extra sparkle set off perfectly by candlelight, the durability and relative cost-effectiveness of glass makes it the firm choice for more everyday use and barware.

How can you tell the quality of glassware?

We label our different ranges with helpful terms like everyday or toughened to help you gauge their quality and suitability for use, but there are a few simple tests you can do to see how you glassware. Checking your glassware is a lot like the process you would follow when buying a new item of clothing:

• Check for visible seams - poorer quality glassware tends to have a more visible seam and ridge

• Look for uniformity - all glasses of the same design should look the same, there may be the odd very slight discrepancy but size, shape etc should generally be equal

• Check balance - your glasses should stand straight on a flat service without wobbling

• Look for smoothness - run your finger around the rim or base of a glass to check the smoothness

Selecting the shape and size of glassware

The drinks you are serving will of course have the largest impact on the glassware you choose and to help you with this we allow you to search on site for glasses using both imperial and metric measurements.

While every glass has its place and we offer everything from everyday water glasses through to champagne flutes and cocktail glasses, it is worth considering the drinking behaviours of your clientele and whether the use of glasses can be doubled up at all. For example, if you mostly sell wine at the bar by the glass, you are unlikely to want to order over-sized wine glasses that will make the standard measures look small but at the table where you are more likely to be serving by the bottle, larger glasses may be appropriate.

Storage is another major consideration and if you’re short on space, having glasses that can be used to serve for a few different things can help, but only if you are able to keep up with the washing! There are few glasses that can be safely stacked, so having adequate storage space is key – not only to prevent breakages, but also to avoid accidents.

The fit of your glasses with dishware and other serving items will also guide shape or size. It’s a good idea to order samples or small numbers of items and trial place settings to make sure you are happy with the proportions as well as the style of the designs.

Deciding how many glasses you require

There’s not an exact formula to deciding how many glasses you will need for a particular type of business or even for one evening or service, but there are some simple rules of thumb you can follow and factors you can take into account. In a restaurant, you’ll need to have approximately 1.5 water glasses for every seat and two wine glasses. If you’re running the bar at a wedding you should let your drinks menu guide you and vice versa.

If you are laying the table with glasses rather than issuing on demand, you might find your turn over is a little higher. You can use information from your till to guide you as to how many glasses of each type you will need for a service – sort the drinks by type of glass and look at different evenings and types of service and you should arrive at a rough magic number for each. Your next step is to decide whether you’re going to have that many glasses or wash as you go.

Caring for your glassware

Hand washing and drying invariably gives a better finish for glasses but it’s not always an option in very busy bars and restaurants. If you must use a dishwasher to clean glassware make sure you select the glass cycle and, to keep everything as streak and scratch free as possible, don’t mix with pots and pans. A perfectly-polished look is best achieved by drying carefully with a lint-free tea towel, ensuring glasses are held by the stem.

Introducing Glacial...

Restaurant owners, bar managers and mobile bars should always have a great glass supplier in their little black book and here at Lockhart we think our Glacial range fits the bill. This all-encompassing glassware range caters for all your hospitality needs and includes toughened options too. Â There’s even a bar specific collection that covers all of the latest cocktail glasses as well as pitchers. For extra peace of mind, the Glacial range offers a lifetime rim chip guarantee. 

Still have questions about selecting glassware for your business or want to learn more about our delivery options? Our customer service advisors are happy to help through our LiveChat option or you can call 03701 678678.