Anchor Steam Brewery, SF

I don’t like to drink beer, but I have to know a lot about it. As a bartender and a bartender school instructor, I not only serve and sell beer, but I also teach people who take my class about beer. I lecture my classes each week on how to pour a proper pint of beer, what a perfect Guinness pour looks like, the differences between a lager and an ale and why Hefeweizen comes garnished with a lemon. When my customers come into the bar and ask for a beer, I have to be ready to suggest a type of beer depending on their tastes and what we have in stock.

So in an attempt to educate myself more about the world of beer and hopefully develop a healthy palate for beer, I recently went on the Anchor Steam Brewery tour on Potrero Hill. The hour and a half tour of the brewery took us on three of the four floors in the brewery showing the entire process of how Anchor Steam produces their beer all the way to the packaging and shipping room.

The best part of the tour was the two-hour tasting. In the tasting room, Anchor Steam provided four of their beers on tap. While everyone in the tour group tasted all of the different beers, the brew master described the different flavors found inside each of the beers and encouraged everyone in the group to ask questions about the Anchor Steam company, its history and beer producing in general.

The Anchor Steam Brewery is truly a beer lover’s heaven. And as a non-beer drinker educator and seller myself, I found the tour extremely interesting, informative, and invaluable.

7th Annual Best Bartender in the Bay Contest

I found this to be very fitting with one of the posts I put up yesterday about how some bartenders think they are gods. Here it is, the 7th annual Best Bartender in the Bay Contest sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Follow this link to vote for your favorite bartenders

Hahahahah! You can't vote for me because you don't even know my real name or where I work.

My vote for "craziest bartender"? Any of those guys who bartend at Bourbon and Branch. Those guys are AMAZING!!! Fast and talented. I saw one guy strain and fine strain all with one hand. I was impressed.

"Funniest bartender"? Mean Gene at Bloom's on Potrero Hill of course.

Go vote!

Cocktail-the movie

Remember this movie from the 80's? I know I do. It certainly didn't motivate me to become a bartender because at the time this movie came out, I was only 13. Not even thinking about alcohol. I didn't even have my first drink until my 21st birthday and even then I didn't become well versed with things behind the bar until I was 25 or so.

Interesting poem that Tom Cruise rattles off while standing on top of the bar. He manages to fit a lot of popular drink names into his speech (Sex on the Beach, Orgasm, Alabama Slammer, Kamikaze, Singapore Sling, etc.) Then after his little show on the bar top, he hops down and does some fancy flair bartending for a cheering crowd. Some people dig the whole flair bartending thing. I don't. Look how long it took him to make the one blue drink for the lady with the camera (AKA: Gina Gershon).

Take a look for yourselves...

Is It Obvious?

The other day I was waiting at the bus stop to go to work and I was talking about the bus line to the other people who were also waiting. I was blabbing on and on about how the stupid bus (and it only seems to be this particular line) is always early. In the MUNI system, a bus being early is usually unheard of, but not the 19. This bitch always comes early and it drives me nuts.

Anyways, this older lady piped up and told me thanks for the information and that it was good to know. Now she knows to get to the stop 10 minutes early. Then she asked me if I was a teacher. I told her yes. When she asked me which grade, I laughed and told her that I teach at a bartending school. I teach people how to make drinks. She said that it sounded like a really fun job. Then she told me she knew I was a teacher and a good one at that because she is old and could hear me perfectly clear.

Does that really mean I am a good techer? Maybe I am just a loud mouth? Or maybe it's from all of those years and having to communicate with a hard-of-hearing grandma.

RIP Grandma Disney. She is the reason why I write...

Who Do They Think They Are?

An interesting point was brought up yesterday that I also agree with. Why do some bartenders out there think they are gods? Bartenders make drinks, not miracles.

I have had my fair of "fans" over the years. I appreciate people out there who enjoy the drinks I make and get excited when I make something special just for them. I don't look at bartending as a popularity contest or use it as my dating pool. It just happens to be a really fun way to make a living.

I would also never refer to myself as a mixoligist. I'm just a bartender. No one ever says "Hey Mixologist!"

I try to keep it real dawg.

Don't Mix!

Being sick and bartending don't mix. There is no such thing as paid sick time in the bartending world. You might get lucky to get your shift covered, but don't count on it.

I spent all day yesterday in bed trying to recover from an all-over body weakness, horrible deep cough and the sneezes.

Daytime TV is boring. Notice how all the commercials are about specialty, expensive schools (culinary, health care and automotive)? Also a bulk of the commercials advertise personal injury lawyers and insurance companies. It's like the commercials are telling the daytime viewing audience to get off of their asses and do something. Don't even get me started on the wack ass soap operas and talk shows.

I'm starting to feel somewhat normal again.

Being sick sucks!

Customer Service

Working as a bartender, your job revolves around customer service. Your job is essentially to take of the customer. You make drinks, suggest items off the menu, and cater to the customer whatever they might desire. If you make a mistake as a bartender, it's your responsibility to fess off, apologize and correct your mistake.

Today I was having lunch at the bar of a restaurant. I enjoy eating at the bar because you get to watch all the action and usually get served faster. My bartender misrung my order so when my food came out, it wasn't what I had ordered. I had to send it back to the kitchen. I hate having to send stuff back to the kitchen, but if it's wrong then it's wrong.

What made the situation shitty was that the bartender made it sound like it was my fault. Instead of apologizing for his mistake, he told me he heard me say something else. He should have just apologized right away. Then for the rest of meal, he ignored me. Never once checked on me.

I realize that some customers out there are a pain the ass. I get that. But there is no reason for a bartender to get upset with a customer when it was clearly the bartender who made the mistake in first place.