Why the Bartender Must Always Be Right
This sign is ubiquitous in bars and I used to think it was supposed to be humorous. It isn’t. There’s nothing so much like the captain of a ship as a bartender behind the bar, particularly in terms of cutting someone off. I’m glad I knew this before working the Latino Festival yesterday. The festival itself was a marvel of color, positive energy, great food, and wonderful live music. I would have liked to have been out among the crowd drinking in all of it. Instead I was one of three bartenders serving beer—mostly draft beer but also the occasional can of beer—to a thirsty throng. Ninety-five percent of our patrons were terrific. The remaining 5 percent were problematic, usually in entertaining ways. One fellow gave me a number of orders and counter-orders, all in a rapid stream, and cumulatively intended to bamboozle me into giving him 2 (or more) beers for the price of 7 tickets, which was the going price for a draft. ...