Nightclub bar deep cleaned after ants found in shots

Wednesday 01 September 2021

The manager of a Jersey nightclub that served shots with an ‘un-ant-icipated’ twist to customers has given its “full guarantee” it won’t happen again.

Havana Manager Johnny Young said the affected bar had been deep cleaned, and that a pest control check had been ordered after scores of six-legged crawlers infiltrated ‘cowgirl’ shots served on Sunday night.

Molly Bettencourt, who spent nearly £25 on a round of the Baileys-topped shooters for her friends at the Bath Street-based club, was among those affected. Her friend spotted the floating ants after the drinks had been poured. 

“It was a big shock and very unexpected! I have never ever witnessed that before,” Molly said, adding that she was concerned other nightclubbers that may have had “one too many” may not have checked their drinks first.

Pictured: It's believed the ants emerged due to a drinks bottle cap being left off.

When the issue was pointed out, the drinks were replaced.

“The new shots were clear but it did put us off even having them,” Molly said.

Mr Young said the ant issue was brought to his attention on the night by a member of staff, and that he “immediately discarded” affected liqueur bottles.

A “full check” of all bars for ants was then carried out, but no more were found, according to Mr Young, and the rest of the night “went very well.”

He said that all the stock used by the bar was “brand new” for their reopening last week – the first time in neatly 18 months due to covid – and that he believed the issue was due to a lid being left off a bottle from a previous night.

Since then, Mr Young said that there had been a “full deep clean” of Havana’s bars, adding that they had asked pest control to do a “full check” of the premises as a “further safety precaution.

Pictured: Havana's Manager said the rest of the night went "very well".

Mr Young said Havana had attempted to reach out to offer a "goodwill" gesture to Molly’s friend, who had posted a photo of the ant-filled shots on Facebook, prompting scores of jokes about the "ant-idote to covid", but had been unsuccessful.

“We would like to give our customers a full guarantee that this won't happen again and would suggest all our customers with any problems to go direct to the manager on the night,” he added.