Last night I tended bar at a party for about 20 minutes, having been conscripted by the host. I thought that was noteworthy since I’ve produced a television series, ostensibly about mixed drinks, for over a dozen years now, but I’ve never tended bar before.
It was fun. And not nearly as hard as Bartender J makes it look.
The party was a blast. The Endymio-Rama, it was called. Rotary Downs rocked, food and drink was in generous supply, and the people were beautiful. Especially the guy from New York in the homemade spacesuit.
Me and one of my best buddies accidentally ended up bar tending at a wedding reception in the mid 80s. The bride’s father had the bar set up, but whomever was supposed to be handing out drinks wasn’t there. We’d waited a good ten minutes and then decided we’d get behind the bar and make our own drinks. We turned around and found that we had a line of folk wanting drinks. We’d never tended bar before and, like you, found it easy. Fun as hell, too. One of the most entertaining wedding receptions we ever had. We got to socialized with just about everyone at the party.
Funny thing, there was a gal there who made a point in telling us that she was a “real” bar tender. She wouldn’t let us make her drinks. You see, she was a “real” bar tender and I guess we were amateurs in mixing her whiskey and coke and only “real” bar tenders can mix a “real” whiskey and coke.
The bride’s dad was getting a little concerned with us because we were mixing pretty stiff drinks…which seemed to go over well with the crowd that was well represented with recently graduated from college kids. Now, I’m not sure how much we had to do with it, but the whole room, maybe 150-200 people, was pretty much hammered by about 10:00 pm. Old and young were plastered. And me and my buddy were the most sober folk we could see. Crap, we hardly had time to drink.