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In This Business, the Glass is Always Half-Empty
Greater New Haven bartenders share their secrets of success
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Business New Haven
10/27/2003
By: Gavin Stegmiller
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When we conjure the bartender figure, we think of the easy-going, story-telling Sam Malone from the television series Cheers. Or we think of the beautiful wild women from the movie Coyote Ugly, or the bottle-flipping Tom Cruise from the movie Cocktail. Whatever we think, the bartender remains a fixture in American business and society.
So what makes a good bartender? On its surface, the job itself is essentially easy - in theory. There are plenty of expensive bartending schools all around the country that try to turn people into good bartenders. Some bar owners train their bartenders in-house in attempts to impart specific skills and values. But it would seem that the bartenders themselves have the best insight into what separates a memorable mixologist from the run-of-the-Bushmill's.
Karen Thomas is a bartender at Scoozzi Trattoria & Wine Bar, an upscale restaurant and bar in downtown New Haven. Although she has been at Scoozzi for only three months, Thomas has been in the bartending business for about three years in all. She works two bartending shifts a week, coupled with serving shifts as well.
Thomas got her start at T.J. Tuckers in New Haven. She started as a server until her manager singled her out and trained her from scratch. "I was very lucky," Thomas says. "I didn't have to go to bartending school." After the job at Tuckers, she worked at Abate, an Italian restaurant in New Haven.
At Scoozzi Thomas serves primarily wine. Scoozzi has a four-page wine list of offerings ranging in prices from $20 to $96 a bottle. "We focus on the wine," Thomas points out. "It's what we basically do." In addition to wine, she serves martinis, and indeed Scoozzi has a separate menu just for martinis.
The Scoozzi bar is small but elegant, with room for about ten thirsty patrons to sit. The clientele Thomas typically serves is business people and couples on dates.
"I don't do much business at the bar," she explains. "Most of the drinks I make are for the servers." And indeed, during a recent hour or so chatting with a reporter, she is interrupted every few minutes by a drink order for a server. At one point she must open a bottle of beer. She laughs: "I think that's the first beer I've served here."
Thomas plans on staying in the bartending business for another three or four years. She is planning to go to school for engineering but thinks that bartending is going to be her job of choice until she has her degree. "I think the reason I do like the job is the money," Thomas observes. "Bartending is stupid and easy."
Asked what makes a good bartender, Thomas hesitates for a moment and turned her head to think. "I think you need to be comfortable behind the bar," she says. And, "You need to be funny."
A few blocks away at the Omni New Haven Hotel on Temple Street is David Mullins, who has been working at the Omni bar for about a year. A 22 year-old native New Havener, Mullins started in the business as a dishwasher and preparation cook at the Woodbridge Country Club. Hard work earned him promotions to pantry cook, then to grill cook and finally to the dining room as a server. At the Woodbridge C.C., Mullins learned how to make a couple of drinks, but never actually bartended.
At the Omni's 19th-floor bar, Mullins landed his first bartending job. He didn't have to go to bartending school. "Bartending is easy," he says. "You can learn most everything you need to know in two or three weeks."
Mullins sees himself in the business for at least a couple of years. "There is opportunity here," he says of the Omni. "They really take care of their employees. I can't say anyone is really unhappy here."
The clientele Mullins typically serves includes Yale faculty, hotel guests and wedding parties. "I would say that about 60 percent of the business I do is professors and business people."
Reflecting that clientele, he says he most often serves beer, martinis and cosmopolitans. "There is a high percent of women that I wait on, and most of them drink cosmos, but the men generally drink beer," Mullins says as he points to the two beers on tap: Bass and Guinness.
The money is very good, Mullins says. He works five shifts a week, each shift ten or 11 hours long. If there is a drawback to bartending, the long hours are it. But the money made at the end of the day makes up for it.
"Bartending is about personality and creativity," he says. "It's not playing by the rules. Bartending is like being a chef. A chef is different from a cook. A cook reads recipes, while a chef creates recipes."
Mullins is comfortable behind the bar, a quality Thomas says is a prerequisite to successful bartending.
"Even if you don't know what you're talking about, fake it - that's the whole business," Mullins says with a smile. Bartenders need to be able to adapt to different situations depending on the type of person being served.
And serving drinks at the Omni can occasionally have other perks. Last month, when the television quiz show Jeopardy! came to New Haven, Mullins waited on host Alex Trebek. "He drank ginger ale - a bunch of them," Mullins recalls. "He's a real sharp guy."
At T.G.I. Friday's in Hamden is Dan McGovern, a 40-year-old from Enfield, has been behind the Friday's bar for about a year. He has been in the bartending business for over 20 years.
McGovern started as a valet in college and was sent by his manager to the Boston Bartending School in Hartford. He has helped to open four bars, including a Houlihan's in Boston. For six years he also owned his own bar in Everett, Mass.
For McGovern, working at Friday's is a different atmosphere from his previous career stops. At Friday's, he makes a lot of frozen and specialty drinks. The clientele is a mixture of middle-class professionals and college students - quite a change from the neighborhood bars where he used to bartend.
"Most bartenders feel there is no safer place then behind three feet of wood," McGovern says. "The bar business is a very good business. You can't beat the money. It's free money, really. It's fun."
And, truth to tell. McGovern certainly seems to enjoy himself behind the bar. "Bars are great because they bring all walks of life together," he says. "Most people love to have their hands shaken. They give you money because you show them the respect they can't find elsewhere.
"The way I look at it is: I walk behind the bar and I count how many people there are. I multiply that number by five dollars. That's the attitude a professional bartender should have."
Asked what makes a good bartender, McGovern doesn't hesitate. He rubs his hands together and offers: "You need to put on a front that makes everything important to the guest important to you. As a bartender, you need to be attentive to people with problems. You must act like you care. You also have to act sexy, because no matter what, there is going to be a good amount of people that think they can have you."
McGovern works four shifts a week at Friday's. He has no idea how much longer he'll stay in the business. "I might buy a bar again -maybe," he allows. "But I may get tired of making fun of people and become a comedian. Then I'll have people write the jokes for me."
The consensus? Four out of five bartenders agree: A successful mixologist must be a good actor and a good listener. People go to bars to socialize, and they go to bars to share and maybe even ease their cares. People are looking for someone to listen to them, to make them feel special.
That's what a good bartender does.
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