For three years I worked in a country western bar in NYC.
Yeah I know it sounds ridiculous and silly but it was true. For three years and
well until I left New York to move to LA whether I wanted to admit it or not it
was home. Those that worked there where my family and friends. I knew it was
always there if I needed a place to hang. And now, like a lot of things that
where a part of my New York experience, it ‘s gone.
I had gone into the place a couple times usually for theater
meetings and such. It helped that a girl from our theater company worked there
and could get us a deal on drinks. It was loud and was basically in many ways a
frat bar where Jewish cowboys from Long Island and New Jersey could live out
there Johnny Cash fantasies’. I didn’t hangout there too much because well I
was broke 90% of the time in my early 20’s and didn’t want to spend money on
booze. But after the fine dining place I worked at closed due to the owner’s
stupidity I needed a job and was desperate. So one night while hanging with the
theater friends,I asked my friend if this country western place had any
openings. She laughed and said “You don’t want to work here trust me”. I said”
I don’t care I need money I’ll even be a busboy”. She said we’ll see. A month
later she called and said “I can get you on as a host, you want a job?” I said
yes.
I realized in the first hour that this place was different.
I was helping taking tables for the lunch rush. A customer was complaining
asking why there food was taking long. It had only been maybe six minutes since
they had placed there order. I ran back to the kitchen and said to the GM, a
sassy Brazilian woman, that hey the customer was asking where there food was.
She told me to tell them to go fuck themselves the foods coming. I thought wow
that’s cool. Because in fine dining the customer no matter how idiotic, how
mean, how wrong they are is always right and that well it was always the waiter’s
fault. But to hear the GM back me up was liberating.
See that’s the thing people who have never worked in a bar
or restraint have trouble understanding. Things go wrong and in a rush at a small place
the staff is trying to get your food out to you as fast as possible. But they
also have to deal with eight other orders coming in at once. Some person
decides they’re going to order off the menu or make the order complicated so it
slows down the whole dang process. At the same time more customers are coming
in and they want service right away. The waiter has to remember that that
person ordered a coke no ice, the friend wanted an Arnold palmer, the other
friend wanted a beer with three limes. Make sure there is extra guace on the
burrito they might ask. Of course when you mention that we have to charge extra
they get mad. That table behind you wants the check now and wants to split it
three ways and so on.
So the server deals with shit from customers. At the same time the bartender has to deal
with not only there own customers who all want food and beer but also the
service bar because hey they also have a beer and burger special. If things go wrong the bartender or server
takes the blame. Management usually blames you.
But this time not only did the GM have my back but so did
everyone else. We didn’t pool tips but everyone watched over each other. From
the GM down to the bouncer we had each other’s back. I think that was the thing that made it a fun
place to work. We were a family.
We supported each other’s plays, art shows, concerts or
whatever. When one got married everyone would try to go. When one had a kid we
all tried to see the baby at the hospital. When someone got mugged we collected
money to help the person out. When someone lost a loved one we were there.
During my first
thanksgiving working there the GM asked what I was doing. I was going through a
breakup at the time and was probably just going to work. She told me to come over afterwards to her place.
She was cooking for everyone who was staying in town. I did and the food was
amazing and I felt at home. Of course it wasn’t always perfect and we all did
fight but it was like how a family fought. You still loved the person no matter
how crazy the other person was acting.
Of course outside the family aspect of things there was
always hilarity. Whether it was the fight with the drunk Irish guys who tried
to gouge out my eye, pretty boy Ryan Gosling hanging in the office, famous
Yankees smoking weed outside, the customers who tried to steal all of the
cowboy memorabilia, me streaking or dancing shirtless on stage with the bands, the
famed Phil Korshak spitting fire. It was a circus so much so that when my mom
visited even though I wasn’t working there anymore I had to bring her there so
she could meet everyone.
Yes the place had a reputation of being kind of a fratboy
place and was kind of like the cantina scene from Star Wars, but the regulars,
the real ones also became our friends. Whether it was Czop telling me what I
was doing wrong with women, Rodney telling me to always take a chance in life,
Pablo telling us to fuck every person we meet, Tom and Pete being well Tom and
Pete. Johnny the doorman and Pond Scum telling me life lessons and so many
others who became not just customers but friends.
I left after three years from a combination of burn out and
also because the owner and I did not get along. The GM from Brazil had left and
she had protected the entire staff from his mood swings. I am not going to go into details or do name
calling, but I saw the writing on the wall and knew it was time to move
on. I would still come by and me being
me,order maybe two beers and hangout for a couple of hours. During Hurricane
Sandy, I hung out there as the storm raged in the street.
The night before I was to leave New York for LA I swung by
one last time. A lot had changed. Most
of the staff I had known at the beginning of my time there where gone. But it
didn’t matter because when you worked at this place you where in a special club
forever. I said goodbye to everyone including my best friend who I had gotten a
job there. I looked up at the stuffed buffalo above the bar and walked off into
the night.
Now it’s all gone. It’s funny I haven’t been back to New
York in almost two years. But according to everyone it’s changed immensely.
Almost everyplace I worked at is gone. McCormicks the hangout for the crew from
work and where I worked for almost a year is gone replaced by something else.
The Madhatter another favorite place is now a gastro pub. Even the theaters I
performed at are now something else. But I always thought that this place with
it’s country western style would be there. I always figured I would come back
and walk in on a Monday night and surprise my friends and see all of the regulars
drinking and arguing about something ridiculous.
My mom talked about how she lived in Seattle in the 70’s and
what an amazing town it was to live in. She talked about the bars, bookstores,
little places that gave it it’s character. She also talked about how two years
after she left it was all gone. I never fully grasped it until I left New
York. It’s funny it’s like a whole part
of my life that had a significant impact has just faded away. But that’s part
of life. Things are supposed to change and grow and evolve. If they don’t ,
well they become stagnate. But I hold
onto the memories.
Like the narrator in the Road Warrior said at the beginning
it’s gone but the memories remain. Memories of Super Bowl parties. Scumfest, Of
blood wrestling, Margarita Fridays, climbing up to the roof, illegal
Shinerbach, people falling in love, bands that where good bad and ugly. Of friendships
that will last forever even though we’re all scattered in different places. Of
a Kentucky Grizzly and the Pope of Murray Hill, the Swede and Butch, Handsome
Phil and Sara, Eric and Bia, Walt and Leslie, Aaron and Jenny Star, Ash and
Rick, Lillie and Marconi, Jill and JD, Michelle and Andrea , Chris and Anka,
Scott and Tristan the Jersey Redneck, Sid and JT and Stephon, Trey and Nadine,
Tracy and Emily, the guy’s in the kitchen, Amy Wood and Thea, JoJo and
Charlotte, Meg and Andy and Sam, Jack Grace and Daria, Johnny the doorman and Ritchie, Scum and Czop
and so many others. I sit here now in LA,a place with it’s own certain
bizarness but I remember a place, a bar with peanut shells on the floor and a
stuffed buffalo . There where moments I wanted to burn it down but now I find
myself sad that’s it’s gone. Things evolve
and change,but the memories and friendships remain forever.
