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Ivanka Tending Bar You Say?: This Date in History

  • Thread starter Thread starter donbosco
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To/For Those Who Serve: #OTD in 2019 (July 1) a talentless, elitist, curmudgeon with a snappy accent as his only positive whose career has consisted of cowtowing to rich, talentless, elitists, broadcast the message above assuring that any and every mixed beverage he would imbibe for the rest of his life would be some high percentage of spit.

I tended bar (not bartended <— that word should not be a verb) for 25 years in a career that ran from 1985 to 2010. I kicked it all off at a brand new High Country version of a Piedmont institution - the Blowing Rock Tijuana Fats. I knew the operation from many hours spent in the Chapel Hill Rosemary Street flagship, most times while simultaneously attending shows at the next door down-the-alley Cat’s Cradle. Having relocated to Boone on a crazy educational mission that took myriad twists and turns, all ultimately fortuitous, there I was - more than ready to apply my hard-earned Blimpie Base hand/eye coordination and dinner rush management skills to behind the bar service in a fake Mexican eatery.

I managed to parlay that opening at Fats’ into a career that ranged from work in all range of magical places - from bright and shiny to dark and subterranean to white tablecloth to peanut shell floor cantina in civil war plagued Central America. To this day one of the most - THE Most? - comfortable places on earth for me remains a bar.

People who serve will always be my people. The lore and the legends of service make up my sacred texts. Adages like, “If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean” apply to life in Big Picture Ways while “Always Carry Something - Before You Go Somewhere Look To See What Else Needs To Go There And Take It With You” will make everyone’s life better. The Maya revere Matthew 20:28, “It is better to serve than to be served,” (paraphrased) and many years ago I added that to my workbook.

Also added to that workbook was a rule I learned while trodding the boards at #BonleeHardware. Imagine what a great relief it was when my Deddy pulled 11-year-old me aside after a particularly tiresome interchange with a know-it-all regular and said quite simply, “The customer is NOT always right.” Indeed, once after confiscating a bottle of brandy, smuggled into Henry’s Bistro during one of my shifts, and being passed around at a table of ‘Rock Stars” the simple but direct admonition, “Pay up and I won’t call the cops until you’re out the door” that youthful #DeepChatham spirit came to the fore with a vengeance. Other great entries in the workbook would include, “Look fella, I don’t come to your job and fuck with you,” and of course, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”

Ah yes - Piers Morgan - what a fool and a tool - but what a great representative for trumpism.
 
Through high school and into college I slung sandwiches at folks. Tried waiting tables but it wasn't for me - I much preferred the creative act of "cooking," albeit with a very limited menu. Prep, expo, line work, cleaning... I really enjoyed it all.
 
donbosco said:
Got no former servers 'round here?
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Right here, DB (et al). It's the job where I probably learned the most about people/human nature. Most physically and emotionally demanding job I've ever had too but still enjoyed it. I found that the worst tippers tended to be the ones who could afford to tip well. It's difficult to appreciate the effort involved and the shit you take off people unless you've done a job like that, and that's why save for the service being absolutely horrendous, I always tip well.

/rant
 
Waited tables at Aurora when it was in Carrboro and Crooks’ Corner. Both in the ‘80’s. Both were mostly fun jobs and relatively well-paying while in college. One rarely left Crooks on a Th, Fr, Sat, or Sunday without netting $120-130 after tipping out. Good people at both places.
 
Zoo_View said:
Waited tables at Aurora when it was in Carrboro and Crooks’ Corner. Both in the ‘80’s. Both were mostly fun jobs and relatively well-paying while in college. One rarely left Crooks on a Th, Fr, Sat, or Sunday without netting $120-130 after tipping out. Good people at both places.
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I miss Crooks.
 
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