What, besides the alcohol, am I selling to the people on the other side of the bar?
Once, when I had just opened for the day and the bar was still full of promise, a woman popped her head in, not quite sure if she should make the journey through the doorway. “I love the vibe in here,” she told me.“No, I don’t drink.” She continued assessing the place, glancing around, stepping toward me. “Would you mind if I hooped?”
It was only then that I realized she was shouldering a bedazzled hula hoop, spangly and fringed. She loved the music I was playing, she said, and for the next hour she spun the hoop around and around, tossing it in the air, taking up most of the empty dance floor, no other soul in sight. Not a bad way to start a shift.I like bartending. At its best it feels honest and complete, an uncomplicated and noble series of transactions.
One of the worst people I know once told me that, as a bartender, he was “curating a vibe”—that his attention to appropriate house music and lighting votive candles was what the customers were really paying for. I rolled my eyes——but now that I pour beers for a living I find myself setting the mood just so, truly believing that friendly and attentive service can ever so slightly improve my little community. I wonder if I’m naïve.
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