Hey Bartender

1

So, thanks for everything.

Alright, that's what's left in the kitchen.

We did a pretty good job,

you can see at the end of the night,

the last thing we did obviously was shots.

That was Bob, because it was

Rumple Minze.

That was me because it was

a vodka.

Stoli Ojranj was for Phil.

Stoli O was for Paulie.

Uhm, but uh yeah, I forgot

Paul was here.

Craft bar tending is back.

And I like that.

The cocktail revolution has been

going on for five or six years now.

But really ten or twelve years ago

it really started to come together.

A lot of these bartenders are

so influential now.

The New York Times writes

about them.

They get flown on trips

around the world.

We're right at this stepping

point at this movement now,

getting everyone around the

world excited about cocktails.

People want to know what Dale

DeGroff has to say.

They want to know what Jimmy

has to say.

Welcome!

You're just going, who are

these people?

They are awfully serious.

About some awfully

arcane things.

People are considering

ingredients and ice and

spirits and details.

Great bartenders they mix a

drink the way a scientist

would a Bunsen burner.

We look at our craft. Bring

it back to the beginning.

It's all just the way the alchemists,

that mad scientist idea that people have.

It's a show every night.

The lights go down.

The stage is set.

The bar is the biggest stage

in the world and

your audience changes

every night.

There should be a drink column

in every newspaper in America.

There should be shows on T.V.

Being a bartender. It's all

social. I mean, that's an art.

It's nice to see it sort-of growing

and getting a little bit bigger.

Because it has been sort-of

a little club.

Until cocktails become a

recognized culinary art

it will remain a sideshow.

To be a bartender at this

particular time...

is extremely exciting

and special.

My house here.

My home sweet home.

Yes, I'm officially

in the house.

I've got to open. It's a...

long elaborate process.

Starting with me. Ending with

a guy coming in at six.

Every now we close at four,

we have a...

We have a porter who comes

in, cleans up everything.

Then we have a second porter

that comes in and basically

re-stocks our bar. Re-stocks

everything we used.

Me, I'll be here all night.

And I probably won't be home

until about

I don't know, five thirty,

six o'clock.

So it's a pretty long shift

but...

Hey, if you want to dance,

you gotta pay the band, right?

Well the things is that you

are...

preferably using, uhm,

grunt work.

For... some quiet time.

Where you remember why you're

here for.

You kind-of plan out

your night.

You are not just opening doors and like,

let's see what happens.

You're setting yourself up to

be available.

Uh, there's a lot of

psychological and emotional

preparations that go into it.

You have to be in the right

state of mind, essentially.

To tend bar at the highest

level, is to serve people.

Once you're stuck behind the

bar you have to put aside

you know, the problems you're

having paying your rent.

to the fight you just got in

with your girlfriend

that you're going to continue at two

in the morning when you get done.

May favorite thing to do is

come in even earlier than I

need to.

Do all that stuff. Get all

that stuff out of the way.

And then take a nap.

If I can.

The first thing I like to do

is...

What I like to call the

cosmetics.

It's just set the bar up like the

way it looks when we're open.

When you step to your bench,

to your workstations

it's like a cockpit.

Where you have everything you

need right there.

You have the glass freezer

right behind you.

You have three grades of ice

in front of you.

You have your fruit chilled.

You have everything cut. Your

mint picked.

So that when it starts, when

you get into the rhythm.

It's just you and me, baby.

Let's rock n' roll.

First bucket of ice goin' in.

To set up the bar, this is

probably one of the easiest

bars in the world to set up

because we do most of our

work at night.

We bring up a cash drawer,

and for all intended purpose

if we get one bucket of ice,

we're ready to put a drink.

and if a customer comes in

while I'm setting up

they also know where the ice

machine is so

it wouldn't surprise me if

someone came in and

grabbed a bucket and brought up

the first bucket of ice for us.

We just started our twenty

seventh year here.

Uhm, I've been here twenty

two years,

actually a little bit more now.

And, you know, sixteen,

seventeen years as an owner.

This Bilco

door, believe it or not,

almost truly signifies the

opening of the day.

Because all our customers

driving by on the main road

right up there, as soon as

they see these Bilcos open

they know that there's

somebody here

and that the possibility of

getting a drink is pretty good.

I could come here on a Sunday

morning

and take a look around see

how many cigarette butts

are down here and know if we

were busy or slow.

Our core group is definitely

people who

grew up in the area. And even

if they don'y live in Westport

and they're in the surrounding towns

or whatever, they still come here.

Uhm, around the holiday,

anyone who ever grew up here

if they're coming home to see

family and fancy stuff like that,

they will stop here, there's

no doubt about that.

This is our number one

selling cocktail, the Amelia.

There's people who bartend to pay rent,

and that's it, you know?

Which is fine. There's people

that call themselves uh...

What's that funny word?

Mixologists.

The are geeks that usually use

the jiggers and stuff like that.

And they take forever to make

your drink when you need to

get these drinks out.

Then there's the bartender,

which we like to consider ourselves.

Where uhm...

Take the elements of mixologists

that know his recipes, that

knows his cocktails.

You add a little bit of the

sage, which is the wise man.

The one who uh... The one who

knows...

the boundaries. The one who

knows the situational.

Is aware of everything.

And then there's the rockstar.

The one who likes to have

good time.

And make sure everyone else

is having a good time.

Sometimes we feel we have got to help

people who are trying to create this world.

They're not happy with the

world we got.

They see some remanance of

the past

Seen through the prism of a

cocktail glass is like

Let's get that kind of place

back.

Let's get that kind of drink

back.

Let's get that kind of

bartender back.

And maybe we can, you know,

bring it all back to a uh...

a more convivial era,

that we lost somewhere along the way.

The... cocktail is...

Sort-of of America's gift to

the world of beverage alcohol,

where it is our cultural

tradition.

The cocktail, as we know,

is a composite beverage

made of parts.

We as a people, in fact

are made up of

people that came from all

around the world.

And when they came here, they

brought with them

Whether it was grain

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