“We’re just doing our job, you know? Don’t take it out on the messenger,” says one New York City bartender.
“I can’t force people to wear a mask now because … nobody [brings] a mask when they come into the restaurant,” Dalla Pola said. Instead, he’s had to pursue some creative avenues to ensure his employees stay safe while the state boasts zero restrictions and massive case rates. “We asked all our employee to get vaccinated. We offered money [as an incentive] to get the vaccination,” he said. And if they don’t? “ [T]hey wear a mask.
As the U.S. pushes toward reopening, bartenders have also been their bars’ first line of defense against increasingly erratic customers. “People are less nice and less patient. They’ve been cooped up for a year, and they came out guns blazing,” said Marcia Herold, who has been bartending in New York’s posh Tribeca neighborhood for more than a decade. “But it’s not like, ‘Oh, we’re coming out with the respect of restaurant workers for doing this.
“I just needed some money to keep myself alive,” said Ojhonte Armstrong. A bit newer to the bar scene, Armstrong started working as a bar back in a Boston restaurant bar about five months ago. “Being a college student, I was surrounded by alcoholic beverages so … I guess this barbacking job is also kind of helping me further my knowledge on alcohol,” he said., COVID case rates have remained low and over 60 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.
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