Bartending

[TheFlyingBomb]

Sure, I can post the article. Never thought about that.

I'd post a link, but our web site is a joke, and the story's already down. So I'm just posting it in its entirety. Comments welcome.

HEY, BARTENDER: A night behind the bar
Our Gordon Anderson looks at the bar business through the other end of the bottle

SANFORD — Being a reporter is about a lot of different things, and I believe that one of those things is experience.
Specifically, experiencing new things. I don’t know if they teach you that or not in journalism school (I didn’t go, I have a degree in psychology), but that’s what I’d tell an aspiring journalist if one asked me about the field.
I’ve been thinking in those terms a lot this past year and trying to think up, in addition to the stories I write about crime and city government on a regular basis, some feature stories that reflect my belief that a reporter can best tell stories to people through experiencing things head-on.
Kind of like the time I let a deputy sheriff shoot me with a Taser.
So I found myself one night asking Joe Del Vecchio, the owner of Local Joe’s Tap and Grill, if I could work a shift behind the bar for him and then write about what it’s like to be a bartender for a night.
Local Joe’s is kind of my watering hole of choice for a lot of reasons and there was a part of me that thought the job looked like fun. Joe, who has been a good source for me over the past few years on some stories that are restaurant- and bar-related, loved the idea, but we had a dis-agreement on how it would be done.
I wanted to come in a not-so-busy night and write about how the average shift would go: What kind of drinks you’d pour, what kind of conversations you’d have with the people you were serving, what challenges there were, what things you’d had to do that would surprise the people you regularly served. That sort of thing.
Joe wanted me to come in and work on his busiest night of the year (which is the day before Thanksgiving. I’ll explain why in just a minute) and see what a bartender has to go through on those nights, when it seems like a thousand people at once are yelling drink orders at you, when you don’t have a second to stop and think about what you’re actually making, when the empty pint glasses pile up like mountains, and your legs feel like jelly at the end of the shift.
I initially objected, saying that I had no experience in food or drink service, that I’d fold like a paper napkin and blah, blah, blah. But I agreed to do it and sat down a few minutes later, locked into something that I was starting to realize I probably had no business doing.
The night before Thanksgiving at Local Joe’s has, over the past few years, become kind of a tradition for me and many other young people in the area. It works like this: Lots and lots and lots of young people who grew up here are home from either college or wherever they moved after college.
If you’re of drinking age, the bar seems like as good a place as any to catch up with old friends, see who you see and take a break from whatever you’ve got going on in your work or school life, which at this time of year is probably somewhat stressful. I guess it’s kind of like a high school reunion in that way.
And since nobody has anything to do the next day except eat, watch foot-ball and sleep, it can get a little easy to, let’s say, get too caught up in the whole holiday spirit. It’s a good time, but before Wednesday, I couldn’t imagine being one of the guys behind the bar on such a hectic night.
Joe and his bar manager, Brian Norris, asked me to get trained up a little bit beforehand so that I’d know where things were and how to run their computer system before the bg night.

Getting ready
Norris asked me to come in one slow night so that I could learn one task — the computer. I showed up, got a quick tutorial, and in just a couple of hours, I was off to a surprisingly good, if a little wobbly, start at this whole bartending thing.
Apparently I could do it.
Before I knew it, we were closing up the place and I was feeling generally amazed at how much fun I’d had.
I worked three more nights after that to get ready for Thanksgiving Eve, and while I made some mistakes (food orders, I’ll admit, embarrassed me at times, and there was one incident where I made a drink that came out of the tumbler looking like motor oil on ice), I caught onto more things each time I stepped behind the bar.
There’s a lot to learn about what it is to be a bartender. The Internet is awash with Web sites about bartending and how to make all kinds of exotic drinks and other things, but I found the best information I got came straight from Del Vecchio and Norris.
Joe has an interesting way of looking at the job.
“When you’re a bartender, you’re really kind of the aristocrat of the working class,” he told me on one occasion. “People come to you for a drink, but they want to know that you’re one of them. And by the same token, whoever sits down in front of you, if it’s the guy that has a dollar to his name or the richest guy in town, you’re still the one that has what that guy wants.”
Norris said the bartender’s overall focus should be on providing an atmosphere that welcomes everyone who wants to stop by, whether it’s for dinner, a drink or just to sit down for a little while.
“We provide this place for people to come and relax,” he said to me one night after we’d locked the doors and finished cleaning up.
I’d find out a couple of nights later that helping other people relax can be a lot of hard work.

The big night
I got to Local Joe’s around 3 p.m. Wednesday, got inside and found several members of the staff — most of whom had worked the lunch shift earlier that day — enjoying some time off of their feet. I probably should have followed their lead and taken some downtime, but I was too wired, excited for the night I’d been anticipating for a couple of months now. I stood around, played some video games and talked with the other staff members until it was time to start preparing.
When the doors opened at 5, there wasn’t a line of people waiting to get in, and I hadn’t really expected there to be one, but it was still kind of anti-climactic.
I realized that a horde of customers wasn’t going to come rushing in the moment we opened, so I found ways to make myself busy until people started coming in for dinner.
An hour went by. A few people came in to eat, but things weren’t picking up much.
Another hour went by.
At 7 p.m. there was a good dinner crowd and a few people at the bar. I could see things picking up.
By 8 p.m., the place was starting to get really busy.
It looked like the place would normally look on a Friday or Saturday night — a good mix of people eating, having drinks, playing pool and socializing.
But this was a Wednesday, and I realized it was going to get a lot worse before it got any better.
Around 9 p.m., Joe walked by and asked how I was doing.
“Good, I guess,” I half-answered. He looked at me with a smile and said “well, keep moving, ’cause you’re not even halfway home yet.”
Shortly after that, I walked to one side of the bar, looked up and saw an absolute sea of people. It looked like a riot or something, and I just knew that every single one of those people wanted me to make them a razzmatazz crantini or something similarly difficult.
But I closed my eyes for a second and took a breath. When I opened them back up, I realized that all I had to do was find one person who needed a drink and deal with that.
And then I did that for about five more hours.
It’s a lot of work being on your feet that long (especially since my job at The Herald involves liberal use of a comfortable chair and a computer), but it’s fun.
I kind of felt like I was a goalie: Problems are going to come at you, you’ve just got to be ready to address them. If you can do that for seven or eight hours at a time with a smile on your face, you might be able to be a bartender.
At 1:30 a.m., someone else — I don’t remember who, it’s kind of a blur, to tell you the truth — called last call. We were done pouring drinks. Now all we had to do was get everyone out of the bar and clean the place up.
The floor was disgusting. I felt like it was sticking to my feet, trying to hold me down, with every step. There were cigarette butts. There were crumpled-up plastic cups. There was change. There was just dirt. Dirt. Where did all that dirt come from?
Everything was finished up around 3:30 a.m. Ten-and-a-half hours of work.
If there’d been a bed in the kitchen at Local Joe’s, I probably would have gotten in it and been out like a light in seconds.
The night had gone by pretty fast for several reasons, but it was undeniably hard work, so I have a newfound respect for whoever is bringing me my food or pouring my drinks when I go out.
Cheers to you, and to everyone who came to Local Joe’s and let me pour you a drink or bring you some hot wings. It was a blast.
The other bartenders and members of the kitchen staff also helped me in more ways than I can describe and didn’t complain about my presence once, so I owe them a big thanks as well. My hat’s off to you guys.

[TheFlyingBomb]

So I had to toss my first drunks last night. It went pretty well.

[bedir than average]

Yes, I thought you were very kind

I'm actually thinking of getting a second job doing something like bartending or at a wine shop so I can get the wife back to school.

[Zen653]

Bartender, can you recommend me a drink? I'm not a fan of the hard stuff, but I don't want to come off as a sissy when out with the guys. I can down a beer any time, so unless it's a specialty brew, I prefer something else. I'm told that my usual choice (margarita on the rocks) is not sufficiently masculine.

In the company of females, at higher class establishments, I generally order a Kir Royal, but am open to new suggestions. So what do you recommend as a drink for male company? What do you recommend as a drink for female company?

[Rapier]

Originally Posted by Zen653

Bartender, can you recommend me a drink? I'm not a fan of the hard stuff, but I don't want to come off as a sissy when out with the guys. I can down a beer any time, so unless it's a specialty brew, I prefer something else. I'm told that my usual choice (margarita on the rocks) is not sufficiently masculine.

In the company of females, at higher class establishments, I generally order a Kir Royal, but am open to new suggestions. So what do you recommend as a drink for male company? What do you recommend as a drink for female company?

Iced Tea
Rum and Coke
Mike's Hard Lemonade


Sipping something you haven't developed a taste for
is a good way to keep from having too much fun on a work night.
Gin and Tonic
Scotch
Bourbon on the rocks



Big shared fancy drink and then home for coffee and dessert.

Chicks like the one or two limit drink guys.

[frenchman]

zen: I'm told that my usual choice (margarita on the rocks) is not sufficiently masculine.

In the company of females, at higher class establishments, I generally order a Kir Royal,

...do you sit when you pee?

[Zen653]

...do you sit when you pee?

I knew that was coming.

As for your question, it depends on the proximity of the bathroom to other people. If I don't want others to hear me urinating, I turn on the sink and either aim for the part of the bowl that doesn't have water, or sit. It always bothers me when someone lacks the common courtesy to attend to one's necessities discreetly. When I'm in the next room, particularly while eating, I don't want to hear Niagara Falls cascading into the bowl...or, even worse, onto the floor.

[bedir than average]

Zen, I'm actually going to agree with Rapier

Gin and Tonic, pay extra for the slightly better stuff and if you don't have a taste for it yet ask for a second lime, maybe on the side the first time. That why you can try it as most do and then sweeten it a touch.

[apicalbodscan]

Originally Posted by Zen653

What do you recommend as a drink for female company?

Vinegar and water.

[TheFlyingBomb]

Zen, you can't go wrong with a good whiskey on the rocks.

Hang on to the glass for a minute or two before sipping - when the ice starts to melt a little bit, it really unlocks the flavor in a cool way.

As for what/what type of whiskey, that'll take some experimentation on your part. I prefer Irish whiskey, Jameson being my favorite. That said, I imagine Boston has more Irish whiskey to offer than my part of the world. I also like Canadian blends, but a glass of Blanton's (straight Kentucky bourbon) does me pretty well on special occassions.

If whiskey isn't your thing, go with something like a vodka gimlet. The nicer vodkas have almost no taste whatsoever, and the lime is a good contrast.

These are just suggestions, obviously. Different folks like different things. A general rule for male vs. female company. If you're with women, don't worry about trying drinks with a lot of elements (Long Island, drinks with silly names like Sex on the Beach, Stand Up and F**k Me). Simpler drinks seem to be more "manly," for whatever reason — whiskey and coke, gin and tonic, a Manhattan.

Let us know how you do!

[Nordstrom]

Originally Posted by Zen653

Bartender, can you recommend me a drink? I'm not a fan of the hard stuff, but I don't want to come off as a sissy when out with the guys.

My favorite is very simple, yet very satisfying ... Gentleman or Single Barrel Jack Daniels Whiskey on the rocks, in moderation, of course.

My least favorite, home-made Romanian moonshine made with schnapps and blueberries. It made me crazy to the point that my fiancee damn near dumped. me.

[Simp]

Isn't that how she became your fiancee in the first place?

[Nordstrom]

Originally Posted by Simp

Isn't that how she became your fiancee in the first place?

Hmmmmm ... I'll have revisit that question with her. Over the phone. From a distance of at least 200 miles.

Nah, I know that crap made me crazy. She has a video and witnesses to prove it.

[heyterry]

Post the video and WE'lLL decide!