Bartending

Opinions? Is bartending school/academy really needed anymore or is it better just to get started at a restaurant? Good money?

imo just get started. i barbacked for a while first.

i made better money during college doing that than any "real" job I've ever had :-/

I may have a bartending gig starting this summer. Our town voted to go wet in December, and a couple of friends are opening a restaurant and want me to tend bar. The timing couldn't be worse obviously.

Nice! I would take a p/t bartending job in a heartbeat right now just because I think it's fun. It's always been one of my favorite jobs.

hey, it's something to look forward to.

a good resource for you might be this guy's blog--he has a good amount of material on his path (was a scientist, started barbacking at 41 and became a professional bartender): http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/search/label/*essay

Nice! I've been to that site often for cocktail ideas but haven't looked at the essays, but I will now.

i was a bartender in a london pub for a couple of months once and i fucking hated it.

Ha, my first thought was 'i would start doing some squats and stretching now."

why did you hate it Tracer? I bartended in London before, but the only thing I really hated was the smoke. I loved that they closed early.

Yeah I need to start getting in shape now. I've lived a very sedentary life and this will kick my ass until I build up a little stamina. The city in its infinite wisdom decreed no liquor sales after 10pm, so that'll be nice.

constantly on my feet. hated the regulars. i hated my boss. the pay was terrible. i got one 15 minute break per shift in which i was 'free' to heat up the chip fryer (which took 10 minutes) in order to fry some chips for myself (3 minutes) and burn my tongue eating them (2 minutes). or take one of the butter and ham sandwiches from the fridge.

yeah, that sucks. I was lucky that the two places I worked in London had kitchens so they were good about staff meals and end of night snacks. But the pay was terrible.

This bartending gig is getting real. Owners showed me around the place yesterday and asked me to give them an equipment/utensil list.

zinc and vitamin D tablets!

what kind of restaurant/drinks program will it be?

I don't have a clear sense of the kitchen menu except that it's a step up from a diner. They've been developing dishes the past few weeks and I know shrimp and grits is on there. Barwise, this will be the first place open in decades in this town where you can get a drink with your meal, so they really don't know if they'll be slinging more beer, wine or cocktails. There's a pretty basic drinks list -- whiskey sour, margarita, martini, old fashioned, pisco sour, bloody mary, pink pussycat of all things. That's not the full list. The owners want me to come up with a signature cocktail and I was thinking something with rhubarb syrup that would have a nice jewel tone -- the place is called The Gemstone.

I took a bin full of bottles and some rhubarb syrup down there and we just did some brainstorming. I'm going to be educating the owners as much as the customers. One of them said he usually has a rum and coke in the evening so I left him an ounce of Amaro di Angostura to stick in there and try on for size.

oh that's right! it was a dry town. That'll be interesting.

zinc and vitamin D tablets!

― Yerac, Monday, May 18, 2020

you lost me there

oh just that i remember when I bartended, I felt like I was constantly fighting some cold.

ah, gotcha

this sounds so fun -- sounds like they want to keep it accessible and also respect your opinion
what a nice outlet for creativity in such SHITTTY TIMES

otm -- this is exciting and scary.

if your area currently does or will allow to-go cocktails in closed containers as is the case in parts of the country, it might be worth looking into a drink or two where that'd work well and maybe ordering some bottles/containers

I'm not sure what the dining out/bar drinking scene will look like for the near future

I want to develop a watermelon cocktail because what could be more Mississippi, but I'm allergic to melon and so others will have to try them and give me tasting notes. I'm definitely part of the team, had a meeting with the owners last weekend. The liquor situation in Mississippi is even more dire than I thought, now that I've seen the state ABC price list. No pisco, so no pisco sour even though one owner wants it on the menu. I know I've seen a lot of bottles in better liquor stores and at finer restaurants that aren't on the state list, so i have to know how to get that stuff and not get the restaurant in trouble.

I started creating a bar bible for myself with a half-size ring binder. Created some page templates for drink recipes, large type and including clip art of the correct glassware for each, and I'm printing the pages onto cardstock and putting a stripe of clear packing tape along the right side so I can turn pages with wet hands. Showed it to the owners and they were like YEAH! and I said this is mine and you can't have it, but I'll make another one for you that stays behind the bar.

would try

Eating watermelon with salt is SOP down here, so a watermelon margarita with a salted rim seems like a natural.

does the abc have a special order option to get stuff that isn't on their regular list?

The guidebook for permit holders says no, but I bought Amaro Montenegro in Tupelo in March and have seen a dozen similar situations at better liquor stores and at John Currence's restaurants, so people are skirting the rules like crazy.

yeah, the US has the bonkers 3 tier system for alcohol, but when I worked in a bar in ny we totally got a lot of stuff on our own through non-vendors for various reasons. I don't know about enforcement anywhere really though.

watermelon mezcalrita!! but that's just me talking because i love mezcal

also i made one once when trader joe's used to sell carbonated watermelon juice. it was SO GOOD

maybe it was just canned and not carbonated. i don't remember tbh but i do know it was good and then they discontinued the juice and i never drank one again! :(

I'm sure it would be insanely popular around here.

The owners want me to put together the initial liquor order and it's stressing me out. What brands to put on the rail?!?!

I made up a couple of melon-based cocktails over quarantine, either of which should be easily adaptable to watermelon:

the cantaloupe one:

2 oz gin
.5 oz Cointreau
.5 oz dry vermouth
cantaloupe chunks

Muddle cantaloupe in a shaker. Add other ingredients and ice; shake to combine. Serve in a chilled martini glass with a cantaloupe garnish.

the honeydew one:

2.5 oz white rum
.5 oz dry curacao
.25 oz blue agave syrup
honeydew chunks

Muddle honeydew in a shaker. Add other ingredients and ice, then shake. Serve in a chilled cocktail glass (martini or coupe) with melon garnish.

I've stocked my home bar with the following:

vodkas: Absolute, Grey Goose
gins: Hendricks, Bombay Dry, Bully Boy (Boston area distillery)
tequila: Lunazul
rums: Don Q white, Diplomatico
brandy: Hennessey
bourbon: Evan Wilder
scotch: Talisker
vermouth: Lillet, Antica Formula
orange liqueurs: Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Campari, Ferrer Dry Curacao
other liqueurs: Disaranno amaretto, Frangelico, Luxardo maraschino, St. Elder, Rothman & Wilder creme de violette

gah wtf "Absolute"

have you done all the cost analysis stuff for the drinks that will be on the menu?

(xp to WmC)

yeah for your speedrail/well drinks you should have a talk about what the cost will be first. I remember Evan Williams was a decent rail whiskey or people go with jack. I feel like the vodka is always just whatever you can get a deal in and the rest is some version of bacardi, cuervo, seagrams/gordons.

I have no clue how much well drinks are anymore.

I'm going to give Chad (this is easier than typing "my boss" every time) a wholesale cost per liter for everything when I make my recommendations so he can figure out cost/drink. DJP, that's a good list, you shell out more for base spirits than I do. In my research I'm seeing reasonably good reviews for Wodka, El Jimador, Old Overholt, Beefeater, Old Forester. For rum I'm thinking good old Bacardi White and Mount Gay Eclipse... there will be higher-end call brands for every category, I'm sure...

lol "Evan Wilder" I haven't even started drinking yet

he's evan williams' fratty cousin.

that's a solid list if the cost works.

Watermelon agua Fresca plus ____________

xpost Old Forester is one of my favorite bourbons, but it might be a little spendy for a well bourbon. A very good one for the price is Ancient Age from the Buffalo Trace distillery. About half the price as Old Forester in my part of the country, but much better than other well bourbons like Old Crow (shudder).

Scotch - for a blend I like Monkey Shoulder. Shit's cheap and pleasant.

i knew a guy who drank an entire bottle of monkey shoulder in one night. he was a fucking idiot but he lived to tell the tale and wasn't even very hung over the next day, relatively speaking.

Monkey Shoulder is about $30.40 wholesale here.

Wow, I haven't bought any in a year but it was $24 retail here.

Old Overholt is totally serviceable and <$20 per bottle retail. I’ve had much much worse well drinks than those I’ve made at home w OO bc I’m cheap.

Concur on Old Overholt, but if you can get Rittenhouse for cheaper, do it (Not likely though. I think it's a couple of bucks more). Really holds up well in cocktails that have more than a couple of ingredients, such as a scofflaw.

OO = $18.44/L
Rittenhouse = $24.60/L

Interesting, Ancient Age is half the price of Old Forester on this list.

XP. Well, there you go. Old Overholt it is. I think OO really shines in a manhattan.

Try Ancient Age in a cocktail. It's not quite as soft as Buffalo (less wheat in the mash bill, maybe) but it is not a harsh drink at all.

Created some page templates for drink recipes, large type and including clip art of the correct glassware for each, and I'm printing the pages onto cardstock

I see you haven't quit your day job.

hahaha, I'm angling to design the menus, too.

based on this info, i'd buy some rittenhouse and old forester 100 proof for some higher-end drinks, and overholt and ancient age for the well. i got a bottle of ancient age years ago when i was in kentucky for work, and if it's still as good as that bottle was it would be an excellent well bourbon.

Crap, just looked at the "qty available" column and there's no Ancient Age right now. Back to Old Forester.

Any blended scotch recommendations?

i'd probably go famous grouse for a basic acceptable scotch

Ugh, only available in 1.75L bottles. What a state.

Scratch that, there's a typo in their site.

Grouse and Bell’s are the bog-standard well whiskeys in the UK.

Chivas? Whyte & Mackay? the aforementioned Monkey Shoulder? Johnnie Walker red?

I’ve always liked J&B too

To clarify, once I figured out the typo I realized that Famous Grouse 750ml was available, so that's what I put on the proposed order. Chad gave me a number to stay under and I sent him a list this morning that was less than half of that figure.

The bar manager at a country club is coming in to do a bartender training session in a few minutes and oh jeez do I have a case of Impostor Syndrome. Here we go...

I haven't been posting about this because it's insane, dangerous, irresponsible and indefensible for me to be doing it, but the work has been really fun and interesting. The watermelon margarita is a huge hit, and I've gotten thumbs-up on my execution of classics like Old Fashioneds and Sazeracs from exacting cocktail nerds. One guy said he hated gin but he'd only had it in a Martini, so I made him a Negroni and he said "ok so it turns out I like gin."

Nice

well done!

Weird, weird weekend. Don't know what to think about the loud, opinionated guy at the bar who paid for the privilege of being annoying by dropping a hundred in the tip bucket when he paid up. (And then loudly announcing there should be a bell that gets rung whenever a $100 tip goes in.) Then there were 3 grimy kids, tripping or otherwise enhanced and one guy could literally not read the menu he was so jittery, who pooled their ones for an order of wings and 3 beers, no tip. When I rang the bell for last call last night, one yahoo stood up and announced a round for the house on him, something I'm sure he's been waiting to do his whole life, so I was still building drinks at one minute to closing. But then it turned out he tipped $260, which the owners decided to split equally between the servers and bartenders because we were all teamed up to fill that round at the last minute, so that was nice.

Gotta love the humanity

Last night I learned about the Smoker's Cough: a Jager shot with a dollop of mayonnaise in it. Fortunately, nobody wanted one, they were just playing Stump the Bartender.

A local car dealership owner is an Ole Miss alum and was the president of his frat, and is trying to turn the place into a frat bar in the later hours after dinner service, loud foul language and service staff abuse. He got a "calm the fuck down" death stare/index finger from me, then one of the owners got in his face and really gave him the business. He's booked to be back tonight, should be interesting.

Also, and this is hilarious to me: the owner decided to drop back to ultra-cheap tequila (Torada) from the 100% agave we'd been serving. I was worried about this -- thought we'd get complaints about serving drinks with paint thinner and rubbing alcohol and such. But an older couple from San Antonio was in town last night; he was drinking watermelon margaritas and she was having regular ones. He came up to the bar as they were leaving and said "My wife and I consider ourselves margarita snobs, and these were fantastic, really well done, thanks." So there you go, snobs like paint thinner.

you can stretch some cheap liquor a long way by putting it in a nice drink

I was discussing some local drinks for shooting that are... iffy.. lately and could provide some horrible ones to introduce to the bros. Some types of camaraderie lends well to terrible drinks

Also, and this is hilarious to me: the owner decided to drop back to ultra-cheap tequila (Torada) from the 100% agave we'd been serving. I was worried about this -- thought we'd get complaints about serving drinks with paint thinner and rubbing alcohol and such. But an older couple from San Antonio was in town last night; he was drinking watermelon margaritas and she was having regular ones. He came up to the bar as they were leaving and said "My wife and I consider ourselves margarita snobs, and these were fantastic, really well done, thanks." So there you go, snobs like paint thinner.

"this is the best Italian meal I've ever had. and I've been to *Dallas*!"

are you sure he wasn’t taking the piss
taking it, or drinking it?

No, he was totally sincere. He may have only had margaritas at a Chili's and at his brother in law's house back home in San Antone though.

The state's ABC is completely out of Luxardo Maraschino and has been out for a couple of months. One of our drinks, the Pink Pussycat, has a small amount and we're down to our last couple of ounces, so I went to Memphis yesterday to Buster's Liquor, an amazing store. Better stocked than all the places I've been to in Atlanta. Loaded up on Luxardo for the bar (+ 1 bottle of Lazzaroni, a cheaper maraschino liqueur, for comparison) and then spent another $300 on stuff for myself.

We're going to start doing Saturday brunch in a couple of weeks and the owner wants me to come up with 5-6 mimosa options.

Went there this summer. I've never seen so many bottles of Four Roses. Their beer selection was outstanding too. Got a 12-pack sampler of Oskar Blues for like 10 bucks!

Got my daughter out of the house for the first time in months and took her to Memphis, where she had googled three or four comic book stores.

My part of the deal was a stop at a real liquor store and a bag full of Krystals.

Is Comics & Collectibles on Poplar still open? That was where I had my pull-list in my comics-heavy 1980s and 90s.

One thing Buster's didn't have was Empress 1908 gin, which my daughter was interested in. We ate lunch at Pho Saigon, which was reasonably close to Joe's Liquor (pictured on the cover of the Compulsive Gamblers 1st album), so we went there afterwards. It looks really run-down from the outside. I stayed in the car while she went in to check on the gin and a couple minutes later she texted me "hey this place is really nice on the inside, you should come check it out." Really nice selection in there as well, and a lot more beers available in singles so you can try stuff out without buying packs.

That place was all right, pretty big.

She was more impressed with 901 Comics, down around Cooper near Mid-South Coliseum. Guys in there asking about her shirt, what her favorite Star Wars character was, etc. So much attention from the Comic Book Lads!

Thought about stopping at Tip Top too, but I didn't want to spend the day dragging my 13-year-old into every liquor store in Memphis, though Lord knows it could be a fun activity for the two of us one day!

Didn’t expect to see so many daughters itt lol

On the whole, I’d rather watch Bar Rescue.

Hell, even going into bars grosses me out. What’s wrong with drinking alone and scouring DoubleList to find sexual partners? At least I don’t have to drive

First customers of the night last night were a couple out for a quiet dinner. She has cider, he has an Old Fashioned, just the one. On their way out, he comes to the bar and says "THAT's how you make an Old Fashioned" and hands me a $20 bill. Just as they were leaving, the other side of the coin comes in. Nice guy, wants all kinds of things, talks beer and spirits and such with me and one of the owners for an hour until we get busy. Stays all evening. Tab at the end is $71, tips me $4.

I made a plum sauce (simmered down 2# of overripe plums with a scant cup of sugar, worked through a strainer and simmered some more) a few weeks ago and shared some with my daughter. She sent me a photo last night of a plum margarita with a thin slice of jalapeño, which yes please! Need to restock my Everclear supply and get some bitters components going soon.

That sounds terrific. Dark fruit + scovilles + tequila, yeahhhh.

I hope that fucker doesn't die while I'm working, I'm liable announce a round on the house and get myself fired.

hahaha <3

also we just made plum shrub with allspice and black pepper and bay leaf, surely that's gotta be good with rum and bitters? my wife is not a fan of Scovilles.

Heck yeah, I'll be right over.

One thing I didn't know or expect about bartending is that I'd be sticky from beginning to end of every shift. Juicing squirty citrus and prepping garnishes, then dealing with little spills of sweetened liqueurs and simple syrup all night, mixing juice/syrup premixes for special cocktails...no matter how often I wash my hands, wipe down surfaces and change towels, my hands are tacky until I leave for the night.

The other staff bartender has been off the last two Saturdays and the fill-in is a bartender on furlough from Disney. I was too irritated at her last night to ask if she'd survived the big layoff last week. She's soooo sloowwwww...

We've started opening Tuesday and Weds for happy hour, 4-7, appetizers-only from the kitchen. Tuesday, the first day of the new hours, we were pretty slow, still busy enough to cover payroll and make the opening worth it. Wednesday we were slammed like we'd never been before, enormous numbers and not enough staff; that's Church Night for you in a newly wet town.

Loads of people were swilling Liquid Marijuana, so yesterday I went in and batched 3 liters of the boozes for that so each drink would be one 3 oz. pour instead of 4 little ones, a crucial time-saver for the next happy hour.

sounds like the place is a hit!

So far so good! One of the Mexican restaurants in town has closed for a few months after an ownership change so they could rework their menu and add beer and frozen margaritas, but so far we're still the only bar game in town.

Made a quick run to the liquor store for prosecco in case any brave soul wants to pop a cork for Joe tonight.

Developing a roasted pineapple margarita, early results very promising. Rolled out an aged eggnog yesterday for all of December, handed out a few free samples last night to positive feedback.

One of the bar regulars last night started spouting bullshit about how much we don't know about vaccines and he's not going to get one until he's sure, blah blah blah. I'd come back at every stupid assertion with "what's your news source for believing that?" and it would usually be OANN or just something somebody told him. He also said he had to get his temperature checked at the gate every day before going in to work, but he made them do the infrared sensor on his wrist instead of his forehead "'cause I just don't like anything aimed at my head, 'specially something shaped like a gun."

So what else did Senator Tuberville say

"Ah don't want mah RNA scrambled. Damn, that margarita was fiiiiiine."

Meanwhile, the GM/co-owner turns out to be one of those guys who absolutely loves Christmas, loves getting the place done up in decorations, and most of all, loves playing Christmas music over the house system. So I asked him if there were any exceptions to this or should I just stick an icepick in my head right now. He thought that was really funny.

Oh god

I once worked at a kind of hipster grocery store where they played the “harder they come” soundtrack all day, every day. Great record when you hear it a few times or when stopping in for some cheese. After 40 times, not so much. Many rivers to cross.

Thinking about getting a blender at the bar for frozen drinks but worried that it will open a regrettable can of worms.

don't do it

Funny blender attachment that would open a can imo

heh

Yeah, the more I read up on this, the less I like the idea.

Save it for post covid entertaining splurge buying

Skip the blender, get the slushy mixers

FRIENDS: Ooh this place has a frozen daiquiri machine!
ME: Don't do it. Don't do it. There is a zero percent chance it will be any good.
FRIENDS: <order frozen daiquiris anyway>
Ten minutes pass...
FRIENDS: We should have listened.

But on the topic of blenders, stand-up (spindle) blenders are totally legit pieces of equipment for flash blending: https://punchdrink.com/articles/flash-blend-way-better-frothy-drink/

ooh, interesting, thanks ernestp

I want to be able to make frozen drinks, but I don't want to be roped into making only frozen drinks. Maybe I could treat it like the H&F Cheeseburger, ring the bell once a night and the first four customers who claim it can get one.

i was going to suggest doing it once a week as a special on a manageable night.

Sell 'em by the batch/carafe...?

I rarely make frozen drinks but I sometimes pull out this recipe for a frozen banana daiquiri - just blend everything together (I use one of those small Magic Bullet-style blenders):
1.5 oz rum
0.5 oz Grand Marnier
1 banana
juice from one lime
1 tsp sugar
handful of ice

Wednesday was so, so bad. We were at 110% capacity near as I could tell, with only me at the bar and everyone wanting drinks that took a while to build – margaritas, Sazeracs, sours – rather than just highballs or beers. I will start looking for an escape route from the job before going through too many more of those. So last night, a night off, I went to the bar and just sat and had a beer so I could experience the place without hating it or feeling like my hair was on fire.

WmC, where are you bartending that the bar gets at capacity during a pandemic?

Northeast Mississippi, where pandemic precautions are something we strongly consider and then totally ignore.

damn dude. hope yer double-masking it and that we all get outta this hellscape soon.

Had a covid denier in last night, a trucker who's stuck in town for a couple of days while he waits for tie-down equipment to be delivered by other truckers (who are in the middle of their mandated 34-hour reset in Knoxville). Anyway, he was nice enough but completely convinced that covid is a hoax -- the medical community is using it as a massive cash grab. "Lung cancer? Call it covid and get real paid. Pneumonia? Call it covid and get real paid." etc. I was pretend-smiling and shooting eye-lasers at him and said "Ohhh, I should tell my mother about that -- OH WAIT I CAN'T, BECAUSE SHE DIED FROM IT." Didn't faze him a bit, he just kept rambling on. But he did change the subject pretty quickly.

You have the patience of a saint.

anybody who pisses off the person who make them drinks is an unintelligent person

In all other respects, he was a nice guy, tipped well, which in a way just pissed me off more. They're out there! The pod people! They look just like our friends and neighbors! Don't go to sleep!

WmC, i only just found this thread and read the whole thing. it's a great read! glad you've stayed healthy--would read a book full of your bar thoughts.

also i'm so sorry about your mom

would read a book full of your bar thoughts.

same

what did you end up doing with the pomelo juice?

??? pomelo juice ???

that bitter orange thing?

I'm still drawing a blank. Something from another thread or Facebook? I did find a jar of grapefruitcello last year that I stuck in the pantry 2 years earlier and forgot.

Keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on WmC's trucker:

"Did he... did he mention waiting on trucks in Knoxville? Oh, God. That's the guy who shows up here every February 24. Turns out, it's the anniversary of his dying from typhoid out on Highway 278!"

"But yes, at least he does tip well."

lol

He said he lives out of his truck and just has a little storage unit in Missouri for some personal effects, so whenever he finds himself with mandated idle time, he finds a bar/restaurant and just stays there all day long until closing time. He said he's going to remember Amory and be back at our place someday. ("SOMEdayyyyyyy")

I have been bugging the shit out of Kroger's produce people about when rhubarb would arrive, but since I never catch the produce manager it's all "sorry, dunno." Then I remembered I had 3 vacuum sealed packs of it in the freezer. So now I have rhubarb syrup to play with for a while. Gin + rhubarb syrup in almost any formulation is Instant Classic.

my bartending trick was putting a pint of blueberries in a plastic container, then filling it with gin and letting it sit overnight, then serving like five or six of them in a ramekin as an amuse bouche

When I worked for Wetherspooons in my 20s (very much not bartending, but still) I once got called up in front of management because someone had called head office complaining about the Deicide inverted pentagram I'd drawn in the top of their Guinness. Still the most metal thing I've ever done.

Was that a common practice of yours or were you serving satan?

I had been practising it a bit. This was Hallowe'en so it seemed OK.

i agree!

xpost Ha.. I once got called in at a winery for writing Black Sabbath in a layer of frost on a fermenting chardonnay tank... "We have tourists coming through here, you know.." etc.

I thought I’d seen some Andy the grasshopper tags in Oakland

there's a whole lotta tags in Oakland

Cinco de Mayo is the worst and stupidest thing in the world for a bartender. I went through 4.5 liters of tequila last night in a four-hour shift. I told the owner "you bit off more than I could chew" and I wasn't smiling when I said it. He apologized for not trying harder to get a 2nd bartender for the evening. I woke up from a making-margaritas nightmare at 2:30am and just chewed out my dayjob client. Bad, bad night that will take a few days to recover from.

Cinco de Mayo feels like months ago now.

The other bartender gave notice. I couldn't be sore about it -- she has a new boyfriend a year after an ugly divorce, and coaches both of her boys on their baseball teams, so ditching the bar job was an easy choice. Plus she doesn't drink, has little interest in drinkcraft. I'm doing a bartending training session Tuesday for the new bartender and all the waitstaff. The Imposter Syndrome is kicking in hard for me. How can I go from starting my first bar job to training bartenders in less than a year?

Ingredients-wise, I'm keeping rhubarb syrup available all the time now, and the rhubarb martini is starting to get a solid rep. I developed a riff on the Trinidad Sour (called the Tobago Road) using Amaro di Angostura instead of the bitters, and it might be the drink I'm proudest of. I have an idea for making orgeat using toasted pecans instead of almonds, and sweetening it with a blend of Golden Eagle syrup and dark Karo instead of regular sugar; in theory it'll have the flavors of pecan pie. That + bourbon or dark rum = ?

How can I go from starting my first bar job to training bartenders in less than a year?

because you know yr shit, ask for a raise ;)

lol, the owner/GM hasn't deposited his last eight paychecks yet, I should tread carefully there.

A couple of weeks ago I dealt with a bunch of early-20somethings who come in regularly for loads of Bud Light and Vegas Bomb shots. This time they were clearly fucking with me when I was trying to take a break, getting a round of pints and then calling for a round of shots as soon as I finished getting those, and then getting another round of pints as soon as I finished the shots. One of them said "get us another round of shots, ok?" and I turned around, told one of the owners "I need a break. I NEED a break." and walked out the back door and sat on the curb in the alley for a few minutes.

So they all came back in this past Saturday and tried to do the same routine. I heard the word "shots" while my back was turned; turned back to them and said "Vegas Bomb shots are for children, drink your beer." So they hoovered up several dozen wings and chicken strips and more beer, and paid up like nice little kids. I guess I passed some toughness test, because the main instigator tipped better than usual.

WmC, i only just found this thread and read the whole thing. it's a great read! glad you've stayed healthy--would read a book full of your bar thoughts.

― horseshoe, Sunday, March 14, 2021 4:34 PM (two months ago)

also i'm so sorry about your mom

― horseshoe, Sunday, March 14, 2021 4:34 PM (two months ago)

Thank you! Also, it was rude of me not to acknowledge this sooner, I apologize. I do wish I'd kept better notes over the last year.

How do you guys deal with the music question ? Or is it pre determined my Mgmt

Sp0t!fy business acct, owner picks the playlists.

https://i.imgur.com/6UPb4sO.jpg

I bet Death & Co. never gets straight-up garbage from their citrus suppliers.

yikes

Uggghhhhh! I can imagine how nasty that smells

barf emoji

I inhaled a lot of mold today. Washed and juiced what I could of the limes, washed/dried and moved the lemons out of cardboard -- they weren't in as rough shape, but they smelled worse. On the bright side, one of the new bartenders is doing great and I get two nights off this week.

I would raise holy hell with whatever company delivered that nonsense (not yr job but still)

i've heard of scratch and dent sales but that's basically frame damage

Lol, I'm having flashbacks. My first job was in the produce dept. of a grocery store and had to sort through stuff like this sometimes.

I would raise holy hell with whatever company delivered that nonsense (not yr job but still)

― sleeve, Tuesday, June 8, 2021 7:30 PM

The owners sent the pic to their sales rep and I think they got credit for that case. I should have known these cases would be crap -- the previous ones were nearly perfect, 3 limes and zero lemons lost to rot.

i don't know your bar's receiving set-up WmC, but someone ought to be around to check stuff in and make sure stuff doesn't get delivered like that. like it's kind of critical imo. that is terrible that you had to work with that and it didn't get sent back/replaced (am not dissing you at all, obvs, it's not your bar). It makes me think there must be other things being delivered that are not being done "up to code" as they say. I worked as purchaser/receiver for a few years and i can see how a mistake like this could happen from a reputable distributor. mistakes get made. also, if a company knows nobody is every gonna check their deliveries, *maybe* they might try and pull this shite.

Some of our deliveries involve the driver having a key to the back door, stashing fridge and freezer stuff and locking up on the way out, with the GM/owners not seeing the produce until he gets in a couple of hours later. They're a bit lax about the quality of bar citrus because I usually make do without complaint, but maybe that will change after this week.

The owners have discovered flavored vodkas. On one hand, that's some more bullshit I have to make room for in my life; on the other hand, I can batch up raspberry and blueberry lemon drops, booze and all, and just fill a chilled glass from a chilled bottle and be done.

Fridays are our busiest night -- last Friday I worked my ass off, a long shift including prep, and there were five ones, a quarter and three dimes in the tip bucket. I changed it to a clear beer pitcher so it's harder for people to hide their sinful behavior. Or maybe I'm just a bad bartender, I don't know.

I doubt that very much <3

ugh bad tippers are the most disgusting savages; i'm sorry, WmC!

$5 for the whole night? Wtf
Do you guys accept credit cards? Maybe everyone paid that way instead of cash?

I'm usually so exhausted by the end of the night that I forget to check my cc tips -- I'll find out on my paycheck tonight. There were a few cash customers, including one Deliverance-reject motherfucker who comes in almost every night that we're open and always sits at the bar — dinner, one tea, one Mich Ultra and one cocktail every time, and has tipped me exactly three bucks on probably $700 in total charges over the months.

What pct of checks do you estimate are paid by credit?

it's known fact that the bartender is someone you are supposed to be over-generous with. ffs

so many people are shit tippers. my wife is a server and has averages under 10% and she works at a reasonably expensive restaurant in a bougie part of town frequented by wealthy people

the **ckers sound like they deserve to be served moldy limes tbh

( i don't really mean that, but. . . )

What pct of checks do you estimate are paid by credit?

― calstars, Thursday, June 17, 2021 2:26 PM

At the bar, probably 2/3. In the dining room, probably 95%.

Every time there is grumbling about bad tipping around one of the owners, she makes commiseration a winner-takes-all contest -- "Don't feel bad, X had it worse tonight." So the person who got screwed the worst gets the sympathy and everyone else gets to fucking suck it up or shut their ungrateful mouths. Meanwhile, the house gets paid. I may have a few words with her about that tonight. Tonight's the last day we're open before a 13-day summer break.

How not to run a business

that's abusive behavior by my measure -- this is a workplace and you should not be measuring your misery against other people's nor should your employers

it's not surprising how many small employers use these tactics to mollify their employees but that doesn't make it right

not sure these people deserve your expertise tbh, although I get that you took this on as a challenge

Got our most recent liquor order in 3 weeks after placing it -- they left off the peach schnapps, the item we were almost out of. So I said "fuck it," got the owner to order some peach flavoring, and I'm going to mock up a 40-proof substitute with vodka-sugar-water. I also faked blue curacao by adding blue food coloring to cheap triple sec. Fuckit.

Do it live. F’ing thing sucks

It's been heading downhill in '22. The price of fresh citrus went through the roof, a case of limes going from $55 when we opened to $140ish in early 2022, so the owners changed to prepackaged lemon and lime juices, which have a lot of pith-bitterness.

This town's diners and drinkers are shitty tippers -- my cash tips last week were five and a half bucks, and total tips were about $70.

The owners cancelled shift drinks and limited shift meals to the cheapest/least hassle menu items; the same week, their eldest son turned legal drinking age and started drinking free at the bar, top-shelf bourbon in his whiskey sours and no tips forthcoming. At the staff meeting announcing the cost cutting measures, the owner said "I want y'all to know we think of everyone here as family," so that was THAT spot on everybody's bingo card. Family-family drinks free, work-family gets a 20% discount.

I used to bring bottles from home so I could make fancier drinks for favored customers -- part of the effort of teaching this town to drink better -- and make things like ginger-lemongrass syrup and rhubarb syrup for the bar, but I don't do that anymore.

Tonight is the first HS home football game of the season, no help for me behind the bar, should be fun.

total tips were about $70.

this is absolutely shameful

Sorry man
I always tip $2 per bottle of Bud and $4 for a buyback , sounds I should come to your bar

“ part of the effort of teaching this town to drink better --”
Doing the Lord’s work

Someone asked for a Dream Catcher -- bourbon, Zucca, strawberry syrup, lemon, rhubarb bitters -- last night and I said sorry, no Zucca. But it was slow and I had a minute to think, so I faked up some Zucca with Campari, house rhubarb syrup and a little Fernet Branca and got damn close in flavor, if not color. No strawberry syrup but any fool can muddle a berry in some simple syrup. Customer approved.

The owners are buying the empty space next door and expanding the restaurant, planning on building a second bar and making the new space mainly a lounge with upholstered seating and coffee tables. The bar will be built from scratch, with input from actual bartenders about what infrastructure we need, unlike the first bar. I hope/think I'll be able to get a dedicated bar freezer where I can start producing large clear ice. The space used to be a pharmacy called People's Drug Co. so The People's Lounge is at the top of the list of names.

Consultation with employees, how unusual!

Whoa - was it one of these guys?

http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2011/11/once-ubiquitous-peoples-drug-stores.html

People's was the main drug chain in my area before CVS bought them up. I hold an undying grudge against CVS over the name change.

http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2011/11/once-ubiquitous-peoples-drug-stores.html

Wow, maybe so! I didn't know Peoples was a chain, I thought this was a locally owned standalone. It was still called Peoples until it closed in the aughts, which makes me think it wasn't part of the chain that sold to CVS...? I'll do some digging.

Of all the horrors I've made over the last three years, Double Malibu and Red Bull took the cake last night. Whoever they were, they had three of them.

Coincidentally, another customer came in who never orders from the menu, demands that I come up with something new each time, and says it has to have Malibu in it, and then comes up with stupid names for the drinks. Last night I told her "I let someone name a new drink last week but that's because he tipped me a hundred bucks" and that kind of got her to ease up for a minute. Anyway I did something served up with Malibu, rhubarb syrup and lemon, with syrup from a can of Amarena cherries in the bottom of the glass making it a layered drink. GAG. Anyway the demanding customer and one of her girlfriends LOVED the drink, and the other girlfriend said "Call it an Orgasm, because that's what they looked like when they were drinking it." We argued about names some more -- since it's pink and has rhubarb in it, one of them had the good idea of The Barbie. At the end of the night I said "I'm glad I was able to give y'all some orgasms" -- they fell out, high fives all around. I wrote the recipe for Barbie's Orgasm down but I'm not going to make another unless under duress. Coconut, rhubarb, lemon and sour cherry flavors in one drink? DOUBLE GAG

good lord, you should call that "The Hangover"

Came here to post a v weird drink someone ordered last night that apparently didn’t have a name:
2 parts Koval gin
2 parts Cointreau
1 part dry vermouth
Served up w orange twist

????

I straw-tasted it and it was v sweet and super boozy (but I’m not a martini person)

That is a strange sidecartini thing but I'd taste it. Guaranteed better than Malibu and Red Bull.

WmC I want to come to your bar and learn to drink better

You are my favorite kind of customer

Where does WmC tend

yo mama's house

psssh

I'm at a small restaurant in a small town in a very Baptist part of the country (northeast MS).

A semi-regular asked me last night if I'd tend bar at her wedding next April. I haven't done any weddings before and the thought fills me with dread but is also intriguing. My first questions were "How many Good Ol' Boys will there be? Would I be dealing with happy drunks or mean drunks?" Of course there's no way to know the answers in advance. I have a month or two to think about it. I don't know if I can handle (potentially) 8 hours on my feet.

Just ask for a bunch of money and see if that scares her off

the weddings i've been to recently make it seem straightforward--batch a couple cocktails (bride's pick and groom's pick) and be well-stocked with beer, wine, and whiskey otherwise. you definitely need to know the numbers and set some ground rules but i could see it being a pretty sweet paycheck.

ask for enough to hire a helper

cad otm

also it’s a wedding: if there’s loads of an inexpensive but non-terrible bubbly available nearby, just keeping a table of glasses filled and ready would be 30-70% of the job

The groom doesn't drink, but the two cocktails are going to be blueberry mojitos (bride's pick) and Old Fashioneds (bride's father's pick). The OF is easily batchable but the other one could be a big hassle. After that mojito, my second biggest concern is my own stamina.

hmm yeah i wonder if you can figure out a couple shortcuts for the mojitos, they’ll be a pain otherwise.

Yeah, the bride may want the theater of muddling/shaking/straining but it seems unworkable esp if there are a large # of guests. And she likes hers extra sweet so she wants them all topped with Sprite, which... ok for you, Missy, but have some club soda on hand please, not everyone wants drinkable candy. This reminds me of how I got into bartending in the first place -- a friend wanted to have a "retro 50's style cocktail party" but didn't know anything about drinks, so I commandeered that part so it wouldn't be a disaster.

i guess i’d be trying to make a blueberry/mint syrup so you could just build syrup/lime juice/rum/club soda, which is still a bunch of stuff tbh

Re theater: you have to pay extra for that. If they want volume, they accept batches or find someone else imo

You don’t take individual orders and make small talk when working a wedding (or funeral as I’ve recently experienced)

I'm very sorry for your loss. Another blueberry mojito?

Drink of choice at self’s funeral should be part of everyone’s will

went to a friend's wedding at the club that originated the Bootleg:

https://lundsandbyerlys.tumblr.com/post/150327031545/the-bootleg-cocktail-a-minnesota-tradition-its

was lovely on a hot summer day, and easy for the bartenders (recipe specifies vodka here, but they were allowing the liquor of your choice). might be an acceptable mojito substitute?

Re: the funeral i worked—
It was a service for a young person and there was a LOT of drinking. The other two funerals I attended this year did not have any alcohol but this one did in abundance. It was quite a scene.

At the actual funeral? Not at a wake or memorial service afterward?

This was the only service so I guess so? I’m not sure as I’m just the help! Lol

Funeral bar just the best and worst idea I've heard in years.

Wonder what tipping's like. "I've lost enough today, no one's getting anything else," vs "Just take it all. Why do we keep money anyway."

IME at this particular event, it was more the latter. Firstly, the family paid upfront for our labor so we were guaranteed (x). Then people tipped individually here and there and we made (y) in addition. Then at the end, the family settled up and paid us (z) more on top.

So each of us (3, self included) wound up making more than I have ever (ever!) made in one day of service work. We haven't talked about it since because it was extremely sad and everyone walked out of there drunk af and weeping. Personally I was numb bc it was the second funeral I had been at in 7 days.

Feel like I need a drink after reading that. Doing God's work out there, LL.

doing my best. I didn’t even share the sad parts bc it is too much.

FWIW we've worked a couple of weddings. They were fine, but definitely make sure you're not the only bartender and find out how big the crowd is. A wedding of 40-50 people isn't that hard to work, but 200-300 is obviously different.

In terms of flourishes and panache, what we usually do in party situations is prebatch everything we can and rely on garnishes for the classy touch. A good garnish goes a long way.

One wedding we did was an outdoor reception, and it started pouring halfway through. They basically just called it and sent us all home, but paid us for the full four hours of service, so no complaints from us even though packing up our stuff in the rain wasn't super fun.

I’ve been given the mission to pick higher-end bottles and sourcing for the new bar (our establishment is expanding into the space next door with a separate bar and a darker, quieter, more chill vibe). Owner specified bourbons because this is the southern US after all, I said I’d include rums, Irish whiskey, Scotch whisky and other spirits as well. Anyone here have any wishlist items that would impress you if you saw them on a bar menu?

Redbreast 15

Red Spot, Yellow Spot. Are you going to get a problem if it sits? Found North stuff is brilliant Canadian Whiskey but still relatively unknown.

Bourbon is pretty easy, though I do find it really fun when bars have curated some of a list of dusties, though that involves estate sales.

Weller Antique 107 Bourbon

I'm always happy to see a little mezcal selection — just two or three is fine. Smith & Cross and OFTD in the rum lineup?

Get a decent/proper Cachaca so you can make legit Caipirinha as well.

Thanks for the suggestions -- all going into the notebook. Really it'll come down to what is easy to find in Tupelo and maybe in Memphis. One example being Smith & Cross — technically it's available in MS as a special order, but I've only ever seen it in TN and GA. OFTD is readily available. Redbreast 12 is so common I can get it here in my little village but for 15 I have to go to one particular store in Tupelo or drive on to MEM.

Second the mezcal rec

I normally don't work on Saturdays but assumed I'd be needed tomorrow because it'll be our last service of the year and we'll probably be hopping. I asked the owner on Tuesday if he wanted me to plan to work, and he finally got back to me today -- nah, "we haven’t had hardly anyone ask if we were going to be open like we did last Saturday." So I get one whole shift this week and I believe the other bartender will be annihilated tomorrow. OK by me, maybe I'll go see the Miyazaki movie and ignore my phone when it blows up.

go see the Miyazaki movie and ignore my phone when it blows up.

definitely do this

I can cover the shift

I read about Taylor Swift's favorite cocktail, the French Blonde, so for a laugh we're getting all the components and will start serving it this coming week. I have no idea if we'll be inundated with Swifties or not.

L, the other bartender, and I are going to each start doing our own Cocktail of the Week this week as well. L is going to do some two-layer frozen concoction served in a pint jar, looks terrible frankly and very time-consuming, which means she'll get bombed with orders for it when we're at our busiest. I'm going to do a riff on Death & Co's Hot Sauce Committee, a margarita variation with a house-made hot sauce syrup (bell pepper juice, habanero, vinegar, sugar, pinch of salt; quite a tongue-slap). I can't get the St. George raspberry brandy from the original spec so I'm going to use Svedka raspberry vodka, which will work out because people around here like their drinks sweet. I feel like I have to give it a different name since I'm changing a core ingredient -- thinking about "Surfing on a Rocket."

the french blonde sounds pleasant enough.

it would be funny if the swifties started a run on lillet, which is kind of gross

lol yeah

We had to get some Fee Bros lemon bitters and the boss got the 2/$20 instead of 1/$14, so we'll have a lot more than we need. I'll play with it to see what ideas come up. I believe it's glycerin based instead of alcohol so I can do a punched-up all ages lemonade without worrying about the Legions of Decency.

yes all the fees stuff is glycerine

Fee Bros stuff is good (from my old hometown too).

I've never had a French Blonde, but it sounds pretty good. I like Lillet! It's a good mixer but also a nice dessert wine/apertif on its own.

feel like I have to give it a different name since I'm changing a core ingredient

appending (New Reactionaries Version) would be appropriate

Legions of Indecency Version

A couple from Tupelo are regulars at the bar, usually coming down every other Wednesday. He's the head of orthopedic surgery at the Tupelo hospital, and a spirits nerd the same way I am. We nerd out and his wife just laughs at us. They're super generous and have been giving me bottles they think I'll like. Some 50mls of English rums not sold in the US after going on holiday there, then a bottle of Suze (not available in MS I think) last month, and a bottle of Appleton 8-year Reserve this week. Bartending is starting to wear me down physically and the summer is really wearing me down mentally, but it's nice to have fans of my work. The "cocktail of the week" is fun too. Last week it the Pimm's Coupe, a split-base sour of Pimm's #1 and mezcal, plus a little simple syrup and a crazy amount of lemon juice. It seems like it would be way out of balance but it's not, and it tastes like fine leather smells, in a good way.

Nice! I'm a fan of Suze-tonic.

gonna try to make that Pimm’s Coupe when I get home, sounds real tasty

it tastes like fine leather smells, in a good way.

my favorite thing about good scotch/mezcal drinks/liquor

1 oz. Pimm's, 1 oz. mezcal, .75 oz. simple syrup (or a fat half if you use semi-rich simple like us), 1.5 oz. lemon. Shake, strain, up. I made one tonight for the ex-mayor, he dug it.

DJP to thread

I just made some jalapeño-infused simple syrup the other day, I shoulder some mezcal to go with it

ok that is more lemon than i would have guessed

I couldn't believe how right that amount was.

shouldering your mezcal sounds hardcore...

I couldn't believe how right that amount was.

― Ippei's on a bummer now (WmC), Friday, August 2, 2024 11:37 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

can confirm, i made one earlier. that is a true warm-weather crusher. nice job!

Glad you liked it! I didn't come up with it -- I stumbled across the recipe at Punch or Liquor.com. I think I've only invented two drinks since I got into spirits, and one of those was a Trinidad Sour riff so it almost doesn't count. The other one is my rhubarb "martini."

I don’t have any Pimms on hand so I went a slightly different way with blue curaçao and Cocchi Americano along with my jalapeño simple syrup and lemon juice. I also threw some Peychaud’s in after shaking to top it off. It was pretty tasty.

xp how many truly new inventions are left anyway unless you start getting culinary with it. but finding a good recipe online and making it the drink of the week is praiseworthy imo!

Yeah, my thing is trying to sneak some education in, disguised as a good drink. Different base spirit every week, shaken and stirred drinks, different techniques. The other bartender's drinks of the week are more popular because they tend toward vodka, fruit juices, lots of sugar and bright colors. Last week it was a "strawberry-orange margarita," standard marg spec plus strawberry puree and OJ. That just sounds gross to me. I'm thinking about a milk-clarified drink this week with a shot of the pre-clarified cocktail on the side so people can see/taste what the technique does.

thanks for the specs, WmC, def going to shake one up this afternoon so i can sit in my inflatable pool with a beverage

When I tell people I'm into cocktails, they sometimes ask if I have invented any recipes. But there are so many good recipes online that I've rarely felt the desire to experiment and potentially waste good liquor along the way. Even the one that I submitted to the Kindred Cocktails database as an original creation is really just a Negroni variant that was close enough to other variants that I figured it couldn't possibly be terrible.

jaymc, when I was at that ChiLXor meetup, whatever year that was, I don't think I'd ever had a cocktail. Pre-diabetes-diagnosis, still focused on beer. Long strange trip, etc. (The Soveral looks good! Unfortunately no Madeira here.)

2013 #xls

on my second Pimm's Coupe, we ran out of lemons so I subbed the last 1/2 oz with lime, recommended?? also heavily shaken/diluted

sorry I mean my second try at the recipe, I made a pair yesterday when a friend came over

Always fun to sneak an alternate citrus (or acid adjusted pineapple) in to see what happens.

This evening I made a rum infinity bottle, something I've been thinking about for a couple of months. My last 1.5 oz. of Cruzan Aged Light and about 1 oz. each of 25 other cane spirits, and am having a couple ounces on some ice. The pushy spirits dominate at first (Old Monk on the nose and Clairin Vaval on the palate) but as the ice melts, it settles into a homogeneous oneness and the vanillin and other barrel notes from the aged rums come forward (but with Vaval still jumping to the front on some sips). Figured I'd might as well turn some of this cane obsessiveness to an interesting project. I need to stop buying rums...except if I find a bottle of Holmes Cay Grand Arôme, I will be buying that...and I'd like to try the new Planteray coconut rum...

Another "...what the HELL, this is good but what the HELL" at the Pimm's Coupe at the bar last night. This thing has legs!

ha, I have now tried it with lemon, lime, and orange, predictably the sweeter orange version is my fave

next I should do 1/2 oz each

I like my sours sour, so I've generally been anti-OJ, but chacun a son gout and all that, the world is your oyster shooter, etc. A half ounce of each sounds like a good test.

Last week's "Tequila Sunrise, no grenadine" was the funniest request I'd seen in a while.

hmm how do you say “screwdriver” in spanish?

If they'd just asked for a tequila + OJ they could have saved a couple of bucks.

The other fun thing that happened recently was ordering a case of Old Overholt ($183/12) and getting a mislabeled case of Jefferson's Tropics ($462/6) instead.

haha nice

though not for your ability to sell liquor at a reasonable price

Yeah! At first we were happy with the win but how do we move that stuff? So far it's just going into the owners' son's gullet for free.

Another bar opened across the street — now there are four within a one block radius — and their drink pricing is very O_O ... we charge $14 for a double Maker's & Sprite and they charge $26...

knowing nothing about bars as business i guess i would put the jeffersons in a fancy old fashioned that you could upcharge a bit for? like you'll never fully recoup but you could make a fun special out of it and get back something.

as for the new bar, adapt or die?

indeed — "adapt or die" in both directions. I think they'll have to back off on some of their wackier pricing (or maybe not!) but we're revisiting our prices, which haven't really changed since we opened five years ago. (and which were a little low at the time because we didn't know what a newly-wet market would bear and because we had a little imposter syndrome)

My Tupelo regulars, the orthopedic surgeon and his S.O., were in tonight and Dr. R brought me a bottle Amaro Istriano from his recent trip to Croatia. Not available in the States as near as I can tell. It's not great, but what is great is having regulars who bring me bottles from their travels.

indeed!

- My drink of the week is always something off the beaten path, leading the horses to water but knowing very few horses will drink -- I'm cool with that. This week I made it the Hemingway Daiquiri and have been selling the shit out of them. One guy came up with a tip for me separate from the tip for his server and said "I've been looking everywhere for a bartender who knew how to make these — turns out he's like five blocks from my house." Fantastic ego-stroke.

-My first cocktail class that isn't to a family + friends audience is this coming Tuesday, feeling pretty good about it. Extra income!

-We have some new mini martini glasses and racks that hold three little drinks, so I'm working out details and logistics of a daiquiri flight. I want to do one Puerto Rican, one Jamaican and one rhum agricole.

- Had the idea for a Cocktail Club rewards card thing — nothing tacky like buy 10 cocktails and get the 11th free, but having to get 6 or 8 or however many specific drinks for the discount. A Negroni, a G&T, a Jungle Bird, a Manhattan, etc. Force people out of their comfort zones. The owner loved that idea.

- Same owner surprised me yesterday with a raise, which was cool.

Good luck with the class. I'm going to make your White Elephants for my wife's family at the beach next week.

it's great that your customers and boss are vibing with you, i know your journey with this job has had its ups and downs and you deserve this recognition!

are you making the hemingways up or with crushed ice? i never have grapefruits/grapefruit juice but they're a great middle of summer special.

I'm doing the Hemingway up. I have a Lewis bag and a rubber mallet, occasionally I'll get them out and make crushed ice for something semi-tropical, but it's not the most convenient.

PBKR, enjoy those White Elephants. It's such a startling set of flavors for anyone who hasn't had one before.