At one time or another, a bartender is called upon to be not only a drink-slinger but also an educator, a bouncer, an artist, a pal, a performer, a marriage counselor, an efficiency expert, a therapist, a party host, and a chef.
And nowadays, a bartender is also confronted with things called “cocktail competitions” — like, for instance, Creative Loafing’s HighBall.
Earlier this month I met up with some of the HighBall participants at St. Petersburg’s Kozuba & Sons Distillery, where the competition is being held on Jan. 26. Katie Hale, Kozuba’s effervescent, highly knowledgeable marketing and PR maven, mixed up a welcome punch to lubricate our conversation and handed out sample bottles of Kozuba’s rye and vodka to the bartenders who’d be using those spirits in their recipes. (Local distilleries Drum Circle and Florida Cane are the contest’s rum and gin providers, respectively.) With Kozuba’s steam-punky copper distilling apparatus as backdrop, we talked about the highs and lows of their challenging profession. (Interviews have been condensed and edited.)
Bartender or mixologist?
Brandon Muske (Iberian Rooster, beverage director/bar manager): Absolutely bartender. Your job is to take care of your guests. I always have this analogy in my head: A bartender does it in front of the guests and a mixologist turns his back and keeps it a private thing. I think it’s just really interesting to experiment, take from tradition and ancient recipes and add modern science to making a cocktail that is as good if not better, in a different way.
Courtney Tonge (Mandarin Hide): I’m gonna go with bartender, too. We’re trying to step away from the pretentious side of bartending that was trending for the past couple of years. Now I think everybody’s realizing, with more craft bars, it doesn’t matter anymore because everybody’s doing it. Now you better be the one who’s doing it best for your guests, because now there’s so many options, everybody’s educated, nobody cares if you’re a mixologist, they care about what drink am I getting, how am I getting it, and are you nice to me or not, because I can go down the street and get it somewhere else with a better conversation.
Chelsea Daniel (The Mill, bar manager): Definitely bartender, not mixologist. I think most of us hate that term.
Ryan Fitzgerald (District Tavern, beverage director): It’s going back to basics, just being a good solid bartender, sitting there talking to customers. That’s the best part of the job.
Michael Hughes (Casey’s Craft Bar Kitchen, general manager): I started as a bartender in Casey’s in Jupiter. That’s where I learned the craft – that’s why I choose to call myself a craft bartender rather than a mixologist.
Kristi Sanchez (Roux): I actually think about it this way. I have a degree in bartending, but it’s like I have a minor in mixology. You’re always getting that question in your bar: “Make me something different.” That’s when your mixology comes in.
Tim Goodrich (Birch & Vine/The Canopy): I’m a bartender, but I really enjoy the mixology of it. It’s the culinary aspect – bringing the back of the house to the front of the house. Giving somebody something new — like the infusions, the simple syrups and bitters — that’s the creation that makes us who we are. That’s why we care so much about it
Pat Lee (Tryst): Bartender. I make drinks, get to meet people, ask whether they want sweet or not sweet — just figure it out.
A New York Times Magazine cocktail columnist [Rosie Schaap] said that bartenders always like to hear the question: “What do you love to make?” True?
Not with this group. They’re more likely to turn the question around to the customer — though if they’re slammed on a Saturday night and the customer can’t make up his mind, they may just make the decision for you.
Chelsea: I love taking care of people. I think that’s why we’re all here – what we really want to just do is make them what they want. It’s always fun showing people new things and trying to make something for them that they’ve never had before. Seeing that look of revelation is so fun.
Morgan Zuch (Datz Restaurant Group, beverage director): It’s all about getting to know that guest, telling them a story, taking them on a culinary journey, getting to know them as a person, maybe taking something that’s their favorite and putting a twist on it that’ll make them remember you, that’ll make them come back specifically for you.
Tim: I’m going to make you something that’s going to make you smile. It’s the tender care that you [take] because you appreciate what you do and you have enough respect for your job. I take pride in it and want you to be happy about it. Tell me which liquor you want — what are you looking for?
Jason Seibert (Flanagan’s Irish Pub, owner): There’s an art to that, too. There’s certain drinks that appeal to a broader audience. If you know those drinks and you can be confident about making them, you say, “You know what? I’m going to make you something you’ll really like. If you don’t like it I’ll drink it.” And when you put it in front of ’em you give ’em a little bit of knowledge about it and tell ’em why it’s special, they just love it. Because a lot of people are indecisive. You don’t have the time to sit there for 15 minutes while they figure out what’s going on, but at the same time you want to keep them happy.
Tim: If you’re six deep behind the bar and someone asks you that question, you don’t have a lot of time to do that. You’ve got to do time management .
Courtney: I ask, “Do you trust me?” I’m going to make you something really quick.” Then I’ll check back in — “Do you like it?”
Jason: It’s like a dance, and us as bartenders have to lead. If we don’t lead, then they’re going to take control of the conversation. What’s their spirit of choice? You ask three questions, you should know what drink to make.
Ryan: It’s all about mastering the art of the breakaway.
Brandon: You could make them an old-fashioned with ginger syrup and they’re going to be like, “Omigod it’s so different!”
As a home bartender, looking at cocktail recipes, I find there’s always one damn ingredient I’ve never heard of in my life — like falernum. Is it only bartenders who use this sort of thing?
All: Yes.
Courtney: It’s kind of like when you go home to cook. When I go home I’m gonna cook mac and cheese and garbage food because I have no idea how to do it, but my boyfriend is a chef. He’ll buy ingredients I don’t know what to do with.
Are you the same way with drinks? Do you need to be aware of these kind of oddball ingredients?
Brandon: If we don’t know, we want to know.
Tim: It’s about complementary flavors, you want to get the whole experience of the spirit, the simples, the cordials – the combination — that’s what we all keep in our heads.
Ryan: You make a new kind of simple syrup you’ve never made. Then you have one more ingredient you never had before.
Courtney: I think it feeds the creativity side, too – you want to be learning and know things all the time. You’re hungry for it, almost.
Michael: This is the first restaurant I’ve opened as a GM — and it was definitely a learning curve as to what to carry first and what to get later on. What whiskeys to carry, what cordials to carry, what I could put off a little bit. I was heavily into the chartreuses at first, and we didn’t sell any the first few months until we reworked our cocktail menu.
Cocktail menus have become much more narrative. At Iberian Rooster you’ve taken it to literary extremes.
Brandon: We wrote the menu specifically almost like the J. Peterman catalogue from Seinfeld, where every cocktail has this little anecdotal story that has nothing to do with the cocktail whatsoever but has a hint of a memory. There’s a drink called a Provincial 75 – a gin drink with a lavender rosemary infusion and a really nice cava — it’s basically a French 75 with a bunch of shit in it. The story behind it is, “I was walking along the slopes of the Rhone Valley and I passed out, and when I awoke I was really happy that I was in France because we have universal health care here.” It has nothing to do with the drink at all — it’s little things that make you laugh or even piss you off: “Oh, they’re talking about health care on the menu!” At least they remember it. And we make a drink called the Skinny Dip. It’s a 160-ounce terrarium with a wood base. We put superheroes and naked Barbie dolls in it. It’s infused rum with ghost pepper chilies, ginger syrup, ginger beer, ginger soda, blue curacao. Then we put a bunch of rosemary and mint stalks in so it looks you’re sitting in a wooded tree area with all these naked barbies running around in a hot tub. Then we pour three or four bags of pop rocks in it so it fizzes like a hot tub. It’s the stupidest thing ever — but people like it — and it still tastes like a Polynesian tiki drink.
How do you go about naming new drinks?
Courtney: Naming things is definitely the most difficult. The drink can be really good, yet people won’t pick it from the menu because it has a name they somehow don’t agree with. It’s psychology — someone’s going to make this association for no reason.
Tim: We’re all psychology majors!
How do you know when it’s time to cut someone off?
Courtney: Don’t come in bragging about how wasted you are.
Jason: As soon as you start screwing up someone else’s good time, you’re gone. You’ve gotta keep your atmosphere in a bar — that’s part of your job. When someone’s screwing the atmosphere up, they just gotta go. It took me about a year to figure that out. When I first started kicking people out I used to be too abrasive, now they don’t even notice they’re being kicked out most of the time..
Courtney: I always use this excuse, “This is my only job. If for some reason you go home and do something stupid and it’s my fault, there’s no other job for me. This is what I do — this is my career. You’re going to take that from me if you don’t let me help you out.”
Brandon: You have no control over yourself, so therefore I have to take control in order to protect my business and to protect my mental health.
Kristi: I use that a lot. “Buddy, I’m not trying to go to jail today.” At Roux people sometimes forget, because we’re a New Orleans-style restaurant, that they’re not in New Orleans. We don’t do roadies.
Everybody laughed at this question, but they had some thoughts.
Brandon: Whatever the guest wants.
Courtney: We all have our preferences — I like it 50/50 gin/dry vermouth with orange bitters.
Shaken or stirred?
Ryan: Stirred. Always stirred. There are people who say I want a martini and they don’t want to taste anything — they obviously want it shaken.
Courtney: Martini drinkers are almost never happy. They make ’em at home so it’s never going to be the same as what they drink at home.
Tim: However you want it, sweetheart.
Always gin? Can it be vodka?
Brandon: Vodka’s called the kangaroo. It was created in the 1950s. Vodka wasn’t even imported to this country till the 1950s. The original martini was actually made with sweet vermouth and a sweeter-style gin — it was called a Martinez. Then it evolved into the dry martini with a twist. The olive came much later. You have to step back from that knowledge and that geeky side you love and remember you’re a bartender and you’re focusing on your guests. We actually put the kangaroo on the menu — it says, “Literally what a dry martini is with vodka.” It’s like an awareness and a joke thing. Our cocktail list is supposed to be a joke. The cocktails are good, but we want people to laugh — we want people to come away with an understanding that you’re drinking something delicious and you’re paying $14 for it because we did everything, including went and bought cigars at Ruby’s to make a cigar leaf-and-cedar bitters for this drink.
So please explain the $14 cocktail. Why do craft cocktails cost so much?
Brandon: It’s about the amount of time you spend on it — the quality of the spirit you use in it. We use Bacardi 8-year in that cocktail. It’s not a cheap bottle of booze.
Tim: It depends on where you’re going, too. If I go to a dive bar I’m not expecting a $14 cocktail — but if I go to some place where plates are anywhere from $20 to $50, I can expect to have a $9-$14 cocktail depending on what I’m drinking and depending on what alcohol’s in it.
Ryan: It’s the flavor that you pay for — the ingredients.
Tim: It’s kind of gotten down to, we don’t have to pair wine with food anymore. We like to pair our drinks with what you’re eating. I can make a cocktail to complement what you’re eating rather than [you having] a glass of wine, and you’re still going to pay the same amount.
How do I get your attention if you’re three deep? Is there a trick?
Ryan: Once you make eye contact with a good bartender — you’re gonna get served. They’ve got you in their mind.
Courtney: You’re always looking up, you’re always multitasking — you see, OK, these people came here first, these people came in behind them, this guy over here’s been trying to get my attention, I’m not going to make eye contact with him yet because that means he’s going to get real impatient, so I’ll wait a second and then look at him. You’re directing, you’re the one that has to be in charge because you have to establish the flow of things — otherwise it’s just chaos. Somebody’s gotta take reins, because it’s not going to be the customer, they can already have had four drinks, you don’t even know, and they’re trying to figure out where they’re even at half the time, so you have be in control of that situation at all times.
Brandon: You’ve got to mitigate your orders and your attitude. Sometimes you have five or six orders in your head while you’re getting ready to go through the rounds with the next people. So if you’ve got some angry dude who pushes his way to the bar and says I just want a beer — sometimes you gotta just shut the guy up and pour his beer — easier just to get him gone. You’re literally taking the 15 seconds to pour the beer and he’s gone. It’s done. You’ve got to on-the-fly time-manage all the time.
Tim: You control the tempo. You don’t let the guests control you, you control them. You have something they want, always. This job is supposed to be fun, enjoyable. We take care of people so much that we forget it’s okay to step back and relax a second. Don’t stress yourself too much about it — a lot of people get overwhelmed and they burn themselves down that way.
Kristi: Most times I get people talking, and they get into conversations with each other and forget they were just screaming at me for a beer.
Tim: It’s a sell point: local liquor, local market. Who doesn’t want to drink something that came out of the same city they’re living in?
Chelsea: People are not always familiar with the local brands, so it’s your job to educate them. And when people find out that something’s local they get excited about it.
The Tampa cocktail scene: Where are we with national trends?
Brandon: The craft cocktail community down here is cool and it’s building and it’s growing — but I just came from the Chicago market, prior to that Pittsburgh and New York, and it’s very different. Everything that’s happening here was happening up there four or five years ago.
Courtney: I don’t completely agree we’re very far behind. We’re behind some of the major cities, but when I go to conventions there’s a lot of people out of New York, Portland, California, who know about the bars in Tampa and St. Pete and see us as the next step — we’re behind, but we’re still progressing.
Ryan: Compared to New York, everything’s built there. Here we’re expanding — the city is as well.
Courtney: And we have one of the bigger chapters in this region of the Bartenders’ Guild.
Brandon: I am super excited about this market. There’s a reason for moving here. It’s not the sunshine — I actually miss snowboarding right now — but this market is really exciting, there’s lots of opportunity here. We’re building our careers — we’re not just bartenders at 25 years old pouring Red-Headed Sluts. We take this super seriously, this is our life.
Chelsea: When I decided to move back from LA, I had no concerns about finding a job — and not just finding a job but finding a place where I’d be very happy and very challenged and excited.
How do you all spell whiskey? They’re dropping the ‘e’ a lot these days. Why is that? I’m asking as an editor.
Courtney: Only Irish whiskey is supposed to not have an ‘e.’
One more question. This is a competition. You’ve won these, Morgan [two-time winner at Margarita Wars], and you haven’t said a word. Playing it close to the vest?
Morgan: Honestly to me, it’s not a competition. I like to make a lasting impression, but it doesn’t have to be an extravagant cocktail. It’s a community, learning what other people are doing — it’s not about how I’m gonna kick your ass.
Courtney: This is going to sound really terrible, but every competition I make my drinks the night before. It works sometimes, sometimes it doesn’t.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2017.