Bartending Blues

I recently read this interesting profile of Dale DeGroff, considered by toute le monde to be the best living bartender in NYC. He's a legend in the field, a man who can make any cocktail sing, and he's more than just a great mixologist -- he's a beverage innovator, a man who'll take a variety of ingredients and invent a brilliant drink on the fly.

And it got me depressed.

Years ago I took a bartending class -- actually, the bartending class at Columbia University. It was, as you might imagine, a lot of fun, learning how to mix a variety of drinks, how to stock a basic bar, how to shake and stir properly, how to interact with customers. It was great, I loved it ...

... and then I never worked as a bartender. I actually had a good job (still do) and a busy life and a bartending gig just didn't fit in. Besides, I had no idea how I'd get one in the first place!

Still, I adore the mystique of the bartender, the creator of beverage bliss, the temporary friend who makes drinks and conversation, who becomes the recipient of secrets and stories, who sees people at their worst or  their most honest, who becomes, at least for a little while, a port in the storm of life, a helper in a world of hurters (I think I just invented a word). For some reason, I never made this work in my life and it bums me out. 

That's why I envy guys like Dale DeGroff -- they had the courage to go into a tough, not necessarily lucrative field, like bartending and make a big career out of it.

I have, on my bucket list, the goal to one day work as a bartender. And there's lots of bars in this town! So one day, here in the wilds of NYC, you may get a drink served to you by yours truly. I hope it'll be tasty ...

UPDATE: Did you know that, among his many other sins, Donald Trump destroyed the legendary tiki bar Trader Vics and basically destroyed tiki bar culture in NYC? Many of his supporters like to brandish tiki torches when they chant about how much they hate black and Jews. That's some kinf of messed up Jungian synchronicity right there!