From Cocktails to Dreams

Day 6/366 days of writing and publishing articles in 2024.

I wanted to bartend. I kept imagining what it would be like. The movie "Cocktail" came out when I was in 8th grade, and I wanted to have Tom Cruise's life. I became a bit obsessed with wanting to bartend. I wanted to live in exotic places and make money. I kept that idea in the back of my mind and never let go of it.

Just before my 18th birthday, I was looking up bartending schools in the phone book and calling them to get info. I found one in College Park called Maryland Bartending Academy. I remember dialing. "Hello?" someone said. "Hi," I replied, "How old do you have to be to bartend?" "18 years old," the person said. "Can you tell me a little bit about your program?" I asked. "Yeah, it's two weeks long. It's Monday through Friday from 6-10pm. We have a bar here, and you learn cocktails. You have a practical where you have to make so many drinks in under a certain amount of minutes, and we have a written test," they said. "What is the cost?" I asked. "$440." This was 1993. I was a senior in high school.

I asked the guy, "So my 18th birthday falls on a Monday, May 9th. Could I start on my birthday?" "You sure can," he replied. I went to my mother and my father. "Hey! I want to go to bartending school. It's $440, and you have to be 18. I can start on my 18th birthday. Can I have that for my birthday?" No one knew then how far that $440 would take me. It went way beyond the restaurant business for 29 years.

I got to work for James Beard Award-winning chefs. I got to tend bar at the Nike convention in Hawaii, and Laird Hamilton was the guest speaker at that event. I got to meet Anthony Bourdain. I got to work events that I had to sign waivers for, that I wouldn't say where I was, for extremely famous wealthy exclusive events in Hawaii when I designed cocktails for people and their families for their private dinners in their homes. Big names. I got to work at a Forbes-rated hotel and design their cocktail menu. That restaurant was written up in Robb Report as the French Laundry of the East Coast when it was still open. I got to have conversations with billionaires sitting at my bar. Not millionaires, billionaires. I got to compete in mixology competitions. I got to eat things that people never dare to eat. Spider crabs. Puffer fish. Yep. I worked for a Japanese chef who was certified to cook puffer fish. And I ate it. I got to polish real Baccarat crystal glasses. I got to see and experience things that only seem possible in movies. I got to hear my boss tell the story of the night Carlos Santana dined at our restaurant. I got to make a specialty drink for Cal Ripken that I created just for him and talk to him for an hour and a half one night.

I worked in Dewey Beach at one of the busiest bars. I worked in the Caribbean and Hawaii. I saw firework displays that cost six figures for a private event. As I sit here writing this, it's almost shocking how far that $440 went. I graduated from bartending school before I graduated from high school. I wanted to be back there behind the bar. I thought it would give me something. And it did. For a lot of years. And then, one day, I didn't feel it anymore. But boy, what a wild ride it was.

More on this in some future pieces.

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