Burn the ice is bartender speak meaning pouring hot water into an ice bin to melt the ice. It can mean two things, one good and the other very bad. In the good definition, it means the night is over and you are simply getting the ice out of bings behind the bar and in the kitchen to clean. Many bars will burn the ice bins in the morning prior to service as it is believed by many that this reduces fruit fly breeding.
In the bad version, it means a bartender has broken glass in the ice bin, usually from the very bad practice of scooping ice from a serving glass rather than a scoop, which is both unsanitary and dangerous. In that instance, the ice must be removed and the glass eliminated as this is at best the grounds for a Yelp incident and at the worst a potentially fatal situation. Also, keep in mind Murphy’s Law, the bartender who scoops ice this way will never break the glass on a slow night, rather saving it for when the staff is in the weeds, drawing the ire of your fellow staff.
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