Retired?

Retired (re·tired/riˈtīī(ə)rd) is defined by the dictionary as being an adjective that means having left one's job and ceased to work.

"Once a bartender, always a bartender." That's what a friend of mine had told me back in March when I broke the news to her and all of the rest of my friends that I had worked my last official shift as a bartender earlier this year. I told everyone that I had thrown in my bar towel for good this time. I had moved on to the corporate world as a licensed esthetician, working as a Beauty Advisor. No more working nights. No more working weekends. What's up steady paycheck? Hello health and dental insurance! How you doing 401K?

Her response? "Yeah right. You'll be back."

My schedule is now completely opposite of what it used to be for the past eight years. Instead of getting off work at 3 am, I'm now getting up at 3 am to get ready for work for the East Coast clients. Its extremely hard going from being a night owl to a morning person. Even though I have had my "new" schedule for the past nine months, I am still struggling to get used to the early mornings. I'm just not a morning person.

For the most part, I enjoy what I do. I learn something new everyday. I'm constantly challenged on the training and education I have received thus far in my industry. I am a closet nerd so I love researching the answers to questions clients ask me that I don't have a solid answer for. The gratis I receive working as a Beauty Advisor is a definite perk to the job. Plus, clients always manage to keep things interesting with their comments, questions, suggestions and/or vents. Even though I no longer sling drinks behind the bar, I'm still working in a customer service position. Just this time, it's mainly with sober people.

I recently came across a letter I wrote to myself on the night of my last official shift working as a bartender. Even though it's more than four months old, I thought it be appropriate to post here:

"Tonight is my last night of bartending. I'm finally retiring and getting out from behind the bar. Can I get a moment of silence?

No, seriously. I am finally leaving the world of bartending behind for good. I first started as a bartender over eight years ago as a way to pay the rent through college. I've had so many amazing (and not so amazing) experiences. I've met an incredible amount of people, both sober and not so sober, along the way. The time has finally come where I set down my bar key and take the bar rag out of my back pocket for the last time.

As many of you may know, I've been in the midst of switching over from the bar/restaurant industry into the beauty/skin care industry. I received my esthetician license last year and have been working full-time as a Beauty Advisor ever since while still managing to bartender a few nights a week. I'm tired. I'm cranky. My heart is no longer into crafting cocktails for a thirsty public well into the wee hours of the night, especially since now I have to get up at 4 am for my day job. Getting up early really takes the magic out of everything.

I leave the world of bartending with no regrets. I've worked behind the bar at a variety of places, each one teaching me a thing or two about myself and mankind in general. I cherish all of my stories, both good and bad. I loved the flexible schedule bartending gave me to pursue my dreams and hobbies. I appreciated always having cash in my hand. I enjoyed teaching people my craft during my stint as a bartending school instructor. Most importantly, I've loved sharing all of my stories, experiences and advice with my loyal blog readers.

In my true fashion of seeing things through the glass is half-full perspective, I have jotted down a few reasons why retiring from bartending is going to be so awesome:

1. More sleep means less wrinkles.
2. My manicures will last longer.
3. No more late night snacking. Something about bartending late night always made me hungry.
4. There will be more time for working out in the gym so I can work off all of those years of late night snacking.
5. My social life will start existing again.
6. There wont be so many old men trying to hit on me on a nightly basis.
7. I will have more time and energy to dive headfirst into my new career.

So join me in raising a shot glass to my eight, solid years of service working behind the bar."

I've tried this "retired" thing once before. You think I'll last? I guess time will tell.

Can you believe...

As I watched one of my server's snack on the green olives while she helped me stock my garnish tray one night last week, I came to the realization that out of all my years of bartending, I've never tried a green olive. Not once. Not ever.

Green olives are the staple garnish at any bar. All bars have some sort of variation of a green olive. Somehow I've managed to avoid snacking on green olives for the past eight years. I don't think it's anything against green olives. I've just never been tempted to eat anything out of a garnish tray. Maybe it's from all of the dirty, filthy hands I've seen reach into the garnish tray throughout a shift. Or maybe its the fact that garnishes aren't always as fresh as we'd like to believe them to be. You don't know want to know what some of those garnishes look like by the end of the night, when the lights are turned on, after hours.

Have you ever wondered what olive juice really is? I'll give you a hint. It's not really juice at all: Bartending 101: What is olive juice?

Little Time For......

blogging these days, obviously. My last entry was on May 2nd and here it's now July 11th. Sorry guys. I really miss writing in my blog. So much in my life has been happening and I have no time to dump it out on the internet. I have just been swamped with school, work, facials, waxing, makeup, sleeping, studying and trying to keep my sanity in the process. The good news? I have less than two months left of school. The bad news? Well, there really isn't any except that I have very little spare time for anything that doesn't pertain to school or work these days.

I'm really digging the makeup aspect of school. Perhaps I will start putting together some how-to makeup videos, showcasing various looks. Is anyone out there interested?

As you can see, my heart is no longer in bartending. It's moved on into a new and exciting industry. Skin, skin care and makeup!!!

Switching Gears

This week marks my first week at beauty school. I am now enrolled in a 17-week program to get my esthetician's license. So far I have learned about microorganisms, good bacteria versus bad bacteria and that bar soap manifests bacteria because bacteria loves living in warm, dark and damp environments. I have since switched to using liquid soap. We have even already shadowed other student estheticians giving treatments (facials and waxing) on real clients.

I think the hardest part of going back to school so far is adjusting to the grueling schedule: Tuesday thru Saturday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. Add in four shifts of working behind the bar a week and I've got myself a loaded schedule.

So don't be surprised if some of my upcoming entries in the blog are esthetically focused instead of bar related. I'm learning so many new things, I want to share the new knowledge. I'm also starting to really get excited about my new career. Now that I am in school, becoming an esthetician is quickly becoming a reality to me.

Reflection: 2009

2009 was a whirlwind of a year. I feel like I started it off on the right foot, was doing alright, took a chance, fell behind and by the year's end, picked myself back up and started it all over again. I'm still working just as hard as I have always been, but this year (2010), I want to work smarter instead of harder.

I bartended my whole way through 2009. I even dabbled a bit in bar managing. I also started writing for Examiner.com in 2009. Writing for Examiner.com is something that I still do on a consistent basis. I am just as passionate about writing as the Bartender Examiner as the first day I started. Now that I have myself pretty established on my Examiner page, I'd like to focus on getting my writing out there in the print form such as in magazine articles and maybe, possibly start working on that book I've always wanted to write.

Before moving full-speed ahead onto 2010, let's look back at my ten most popular articles posted on my Examiner.com page this past year:

#10: George Dickel, the other Tennessee whiskey
#9: Busting bar myths: Why Corona is garnished with a lime
#8: Bartending 101: What is a barback?
#7: Busting bar myths: Food does not sober a person up
#6: Find a bartender job: Interview
#5: Redhook Brewery
#4: Bartending 101: What is triple sec?
#3: 11 factors that affect a person’s BAC
#2: Bartending 101: What is rye whiskey?
#1: Find a bartender job: Resume

There is a lot of hope for 2010. I can feel it. There is power is positive thinking. I am bound and determine to finish what I've started and to get it right once and for all this year. I promise to continue to bring educational and entertaining content throughout the new year on both my blog and Examiner.com page.

Thanks for reading!

New Frontier

I am about to start a new chapter in my bartending career. I officially started training to bartend at a gentleman's club this week. I am really excited for the opportunity. I have bartended in all sorts of bar: live music venues, restaurants, nightclubs, lounges, dive bars and even a few private parties, but never a gentleman's club.

I can't imagine working in a bar like this would be much more different than working behind any other bar. Customers and servers order drinks, you make the drinks. You accept payment, ring payment into the register and thank the customers. Show up on time, do your J-O-B and its easy-breezy.

Each bar has its own special lure to get customers through the door like specialty cocktails, live music, amazing food or topless ladies. In the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter what type of bar I work in because wherever I go, I always bring my hardworking, bubbly personality, tasty cocktail making and superb customer skills with me. For this particular experience, it doesn't look like the focus will be so much on my award winning cocktails as it will be on my charming personality and also perhaps the low cut shirt I am wearing during my shift. Hey, its a gentleman's club. You have to play the part.

Wish me luck!

Funny Things I Overheard

You can hear a lot of funny things working behind a bar. If you aren't part of the original conversation, the things you do hear may seem random and not make any sense. I recently overheard a few things that were said where I was part of the conversation and they still sounded funny to me:

"Oh yeah. There's another $400 here!"

"Half the club smells like weed."

"No more shots for you!"

"How do I make a Hot Toddy?"

It seems like the later it gets, the more random and entertaining things people say. I chalk it up to public drunkenness. There's never a dull moment with bartending as long as there is alcohol involved.

When did bartending get so serious?

San Francisco has a unique cocktail culture. We have a rich history with our bars and cocktails. We are also currently considered to be one of the forefront cities when it comes to cocktail trends (right up there with New York). This is a blessing for some San Francisco bartenders. For others, this can also be a big pain in the ass.

Unfortunately being considered a forefront city for cocktail culture takes a lot of fun out of bartending for some of us bartenders. I admit, when I first started bartending, I didn't know the 25 classic cocktails according to BarSmarts. I didn't know whether to stir or shake my Martinis and Manhattans. There wasn't a bottle of bitters to be found at my bar. The freshest ingredients I used were the lemon and lime wedges cut fresh that night. That was also six years ago and when I lived/worked in San Jose.

Nowadays, I reside and work in San Francisco. I have been formally introduced to the mixology side of bartending and I love it. I am a fact nerd when it comes to things I am interested in. So it makes sense that I am always reading about the history of cocktails and bar culture, learning classic and new techniques for crafting cocktails and experimenting with all things alcohol. The quest for knowledge is fun and IF my customers are interested, I love sharing my knowledge with them as well.

This sort of thing stops being fun when customers feel like bartenders are too big-for-their-britches and shove their knowledge down their throat. People get it. San Francisco is really cool and cutting edge. Sometimes though, people just want what they want because they want it, not because an old cocktail recipe book or celebrity bartender told them so. There is nothing wrong with that. I respect bartenders/mixologists quest for knowledge and their desire to educate the masses, but in the end it really all comes down to the customer and making the customer happy. Some customers don't care about the science behind why there might be a taste difference between a stirred Manhattan and a shaken Manhattan. If that customer wants their Manhattan shaken, then the bartender should shake that Manhattan and serve it to the customer with a smile.

After all it is the customer who is leaving the tip and its the tips that constitute a bartender's living.

My little black book

I was cleaning out my closet today and found my old, little black book from when I first started bartending. It's just a little black address book where I would hand write in drink recipes that I learned to make in my early days of bartending. I would make these drinks on a regular basis at the bars I was working at the time. My little, old book contains recipes for drinks like the AMF, Apple Martini, Cosmo, Fuzzy Navel, Kamikaze, Key Lime shot, Lemon Drop, Melon Ball, Oatmeal Cookie shot, Purple Hooter, Red Headed Slut, Scoobie Snack and the Woo Woo.

Nowadays, my little black book is a bit more evolved. I have graduated to a fancier moleskin. My drink recipes are a bit more extensive and sophisticated, requiring fresh ingredients and muddling.

Going through my book instantly brought me back to when I started working behind a bar. I was so nervous and yet so excited to learn everything I could about bartending. From day one, I always wanted to be a really good bartender. Who knew that the part-time job I had while getting my undergraduate degree from college would actually turn into a full-fledged career?

I still have the same passion for bartending as the very first day I started.

Attitude is a direct reflection of where you work

I strongly believe that the type of bar a person works in greatly effects their attitude at work. When I worked in a nightclub, I had to deal with stupid, ignorant, drunk, young bastards all night long looking for freebies and fights and complaining about the prices of the drinks, the actual alcohol content within the drinks (usually whining about how they couldn't taste the alcohol and wanted more without paying for it) and having to wait to place their drink order.

Since I made the switch to restaurants, my customers don't seem to be as aggressive and cheap as the nightclub crowd was. I typically serve older, more mature crowds now. These people are somewhat knowledgeable about their booze and overall are better tippers. Don't get me wrong. Occasionally, I'll get a customer in a restaurant who makes me fight to keep "bitter bartender" buried deep, down inside. But in the big picture sense, the crowds are like night and day. So is my attitude. I am so much happier working behind the bar in a restaurant.

I work at a bar that features specialty cocktails. We use a lot of fresh ingredients to make those cocktails. The drinks are labors of love and take a bit longer to make than a vodka cran or a rum & coke. I have a lot of pride in the cocktails I make these days because they are creations and actually take some sort of skill to create them. Working as a nightclub bartender, I didn't have much pride in the drinks I made. At the end of the night, it was all about how much I had rang in my register.

I even enjoy talking to my customers nowadays. I enjoy making their labor intensive cocktails. My positive attitude is directly reflected onto my customers. I don't have as many colorful stories to write about on a nightly basis because for the most part, my customers get it.

Every now and then, I will get a customer that either makes me scratch my head or really pisses me off. It's these situations that really inspire me to keep a blog like this in the first place. Since I can't tell those customers how I really feel, I need some place to vent.

When I was an instructor at the bartending school, I would always tell my students that there was a different bar for every type of personality. The challenge was to find the right bar for them. Finding their perfect bar would result in being a happy bartender. Working in a bar that really makes me happy and knocks my socks off may not be the same bar for the next person. That's ok. Everyone is different.

I am just so happy that I have finally found the type of bar that makes me really happy. Even on my shittiest nights behind the bar, I am still happy to be a bartender and satisfied that I am in the right career for me.

Don't be afraid to show your appreciation

It's really satisfying and rewarding whenever customers tell me how much they love my drinks. Not that I make shitty drinks on a regular basis, but hearing someone tell me how happy they are with something I've created is an ultimate compliment as a bartender. These sort of things really put a huge smile on my face.

So when you're out drinking and stumble upon a really tasty, beautifully crafted and balanced cocktail that you enjoy and find amazing, don't be afraid to tell your bartender. We love stuff like that.

Lifer

I remember when I first started bartending. I thought that this would only be a job to support me while I went to school to get my college degree. Little did I know, six years later,. that bartendng would actually be my chosen profession. So I guess that make me a "lifer"

The thing about "lifers" in any given profession is that we give a shit. This is our career. It isn't just a job to get us by. We take pride in what we do because we love doing it. The cool thing about bartending is if you stop loving the bar you are working at, there are many more bars to chose from. When it comes to bars, there are so many to chose from. So many different types. There is a little something for everyone.

I'm pretty happy that bartending found me by accident. I would have never guessed that I would grow up to be a bartender. I never thought in a million years that I would ever love bartending as much as I do. I take pride in making sure that all my customers are happy. I care about making sure that every one of the cocktails I make is made to the customer's satisfaction. I give a shit.

I'm a lifer and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Grand Opening

One of the many things I am learning as a bar manager is how to remain focused while being pulled in a number of different directions. Each day I manage, I get better and better, especially when I can be the problem solver. I hate not knowing the answer or fixing the situation. The worse feeling in the world, to me, has to be when I have to say, "I don't know."

Overall, our grand opening was really successful tonight. I'm not going to lie. There were a couple rough parts. I ran out of agave nectar because I only had one bottle, Stoli wasn't priced in the system and some of the sub-menus we needed on the bar side just weren't there (this one actually wasn't my fault). I expected there to be some hiccups, but overall there weren't any major problems.

I hope I did a good job tonight. I sure am loving every minute of it. I am learning so much. So, so much. This is what I really want to do. I have found my passion. And that my friends is the best feeling in the entire world.

My body is exhausted, but my mind keeps racing. I didn't even finish my Red Bull tonight.

Tonight Was Interesting

The above is NOT a picture of my actual basement/laundry room. This is just to give you an idea of what I had to deal with tonight


After spending all day working at the club, getting it set up for the grand opening this Saturday night, I came home exhausted. I was sitting at my computer, checking my email when I started to hear a loud noise that sounded like someone banging on metal. I thought there was someone out on the fire escape. I looked outside and didn't see anyone, but I could still hear the banging. Then I got scared.

We have had a number of problems with crackheads breaking into our building and sleeping in the basement. I find remnants of them all the time here in the building. This is a major reason why I avoid the building's basement at night. I don't want to ever come face-to-face, alone with a or multiple crackheads hanging out down there. I realized that the banging on metal noise was coming from the basement. I walked to the foot of the stairs and could hear the noise get louder and louder. Just as I was about to go downstairs to investigate, I heard a loud popping and hissing sound. Whatever it was, it scared the shit out of me and I ran back to my apartment.

I didn't know what to do. I was scared and shaking. I called 911 and told them the situation. The police came out rather quickly and went downstairs to check things out. Turns out there weren't any crackheads. The banging noise I heard was the sound of a water pipe breaking. A water pipe had broke downstairs in the laundry room and now there was water flooding the whole basement. Great. Now what am I suppose to do?

I tried calling the building owners (a certain huge property owner/management company here in SF) and got nowhere. Unfortunately all of the emergency contact numbers I had for this company weren't working. I couldn't even access the 24-hour emergency line for the huge property owner. This huge SF property owner is a total joke in my book, but that's a whole other discussion.

I called the water department. I needed to get this running water shut off immediately. They sent the fire department out to shut off the water.

Now it's 3AM and I am still waiting for the plumber to arrive. I have no idea what the plumber will be able to do at this point, if anything. All I know is that I am exhausted and just want to get some sleep. I just wish the building ownership were a little bit more accessible during a late night emergency.

Update: plumber is here. A pipe fell off from the boiler. I think that's all bad. The plumber said he would sauder it back on so that our building would have water.

Yay! Problem solved.

I'm still mad at this huge SF property owner/management company. If you live in San Francisco and rent from them, you probably have many stories of frustration of your own. San Francisco, you probably know the exact company I speak about without me having to disclose their name.

This along with the constant neglect of our building makes me want to move out of this building. It's too bad because I really enjoy the actual inside of my apartment and the neighborhood. I just hate the way this company works and neglects its buildings.

I HATE You GameStop. You SUCK!!

I know that this has NOTHING to do with bartending, but it's my blog and I can vent if I want to. The whole experience really made me mad.

The bastards at GameStop at Serramonte Center (the one near Target) tried to pass off an obviously used wireless guitar controller as a new one and charged me full price (over $70!!!). Totally unacceptable in my book. I wont ever buy anything from this store again just because of this experience.

Just to give you an idea of how I feel about this store now, I recently wrote a letter to the corporate office of GameStop to inform them about my terrible experience:

"Dear Game Stop Corporate Headquarters..." Read the rest of it in my Yelp Review.

It sucks for them that the very first review for this location is a shitty one. Maybe, just maybe they shouldn't do such shitty things to customers.


PS: I went somewhere else, got a brand new controller (minus the usage and tacky stickers) and have been happily rockin it ever since.

Does This Make Me a Racist?

One of my more memorable MUNI stories that happened to me over a year ago on the 22 was posted over on the MUNI Diaries website this week. It seems to have really struck a negative chord with some of the readers out there. Apparently, it isn't okay or acceptable to describe characters in a true story by their race or ethnicity. Just because I referred to one of the men in my story as being "a black man with a gun" and the other men as being "three Hispanic guys who spoke only Spanish", now I am accused of being a racist and racial profiling.

After looking back on my story, I guess I could have done without physically describing the men, but why? Why should I leave out details in my story just because I am scared of pissing someone off? Since when did describing what a person looks like make someone a racist?

Anyways, it just goes to show you that no matter what you say or do, you are bound to upset somebody. People are very sensitive about race, politics and religion. Sometimes you can't even talk about your opinion of the recent state of the economy because people get bent out of shape about that too. This is why bartenders make topics such as these off limits for discussion at the bar because you never know who you might offend.

But in the case of my 22 MUNI story, I was just simply describing the characters. I think it's funny that I was accused of being a racist and for racial profiling. These people obviously don't know me.

Read my story and see for yourself. Do you really think I am a racist?

Smooth Nights

I worked my first weekend at my "new bar" (well, new to me since February) this past weekend. I worked both Friday and Saturday night. It had been awhile since I had worked behind a bar on a weekend. Like five months or so. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. Saturday turned out to be way smoother than Friday was. I think by Saturday night, I totally had the hang of the weekend craziness. I had spent the whole day before work in bed and mentally preparing myself.

I worked again tonight and it went just as smooth. We were busy too. It feels really good to be able to work behind a bar so well that you can almost do it with your eyes closed and have fun while doing it. I finally feel totally at home and 100% confident behind my current bar. That's a good feeling to have.

The Great Thing About Bartending

is that I always have something really interesting to write about.

The adventures in bartending. I am afraid to ask what my next shift will bring me.

Labor Intensive Cocktail Night

Every now and then, there comes a night behind the bar where it seems like everyone is ordering the same drink. Sometimes it's wine. Sometimes it's beer. Sometimes it's martinis. On nights like tonight when it was warm out and our restaurant was busy, everyone wanted a mojito. If anyone knows how to properly make a mojito, you will know that there is a certain level of care that goes into making these drinks. First, you grab the lime and mint and muddle it in a mixing glass. Then you add rum and sugar, shake it all together and then strain it in a glass filled with ice and then top with soda water.

The mojitos I were making weren't that easy. These were special mojitos that are on our specialty cocktail menu (aka labor intensive cocktails). In addition to adding the mint, we also muddle orange and lemon (minus the lime). Instead of rum, we use vodka and replace regular old simple syrup with brown sugar simple syrup. We call these little beauties Moscow Mojitos. They are pretty good and judging by the hundred or so I made for the restaurant tonight, I'd say that the customers seemed to dig them too.

It's one thing to be busy trying to serve 20 people at your bar, who show up all at once and keep up with the server tickets that come to the bar. It's a whole other game when you have to muddle almost every single drink that goes out.

Luckily, my customers were cool and understanding. Everyone saw just how much work was going into each and every cocktail I made. I got props for working my bootie off and got complimented for my speed. I love that! A customer even tipped me over fifty percent of his bill because he liked my attitude (which remained positive and upbeat even in the hairiest part of the evening).

I have a funny feeling that I am going to have nightmares about making Moscow Mojitos tonight.

It's small price to pay for having a job that you love.

I Need A Vacation

I want to go back to Belize.