Hey Bartender

After seeing Hey Bartender this afternoon, I was reminded by why I love this spirits industry so

much.  The synopsis provided by the filmmakers starts: "Two bartenders try to achieve their dreams through bartending.  An injured Marine turns his goals to becoming a principal bartender at the best cocktail bar in the world.  A young man leaves his white-collar job to buy the corner bar in his hometown years later he struggles to keep afloat." 

Indeed, while the film follows Steve Schneider, who starts at Employee's Only as an apprentice and strives to work his way up, while Stever Carpentieri is a candidate for Bar Rescue: running a bar in Westfield, CT he failed to evolve his once popular bar, and now struggles with a too frequently empty bar.  Filming began in 2009, with the final scene wrapping in January of this year.  Thus, we truly get to see an evolution of the personalities and approaches.  

Schneider starts as a humble apprentice.  We meet him as he arrives at EO in the early afternoon, as the junior member of the club he has the responsibility to set up the bar for what will be a crowded evening. (Fun fact: it's always a crowded evening at EO, the most popular bar by square foot in the country and perhaps world).  As time goes on, he gets more attention and increasing accolades.  While these are certainly deserved, by the end of the film you get a glimpse that there is still room to learn and grow. 

Carpentieri is introduced by reminiscing about the old days.  His neighborhood bar, Dunville's still has occasional busy nights at the beginning of the story, but business has thinned out mid-movie.  When a friend suggests a visit to Tales of the Cocktail he dismisses the idea at first, finally succumbing when he feels there are no other options.  It proves to be a revelation to him. Although we get to see him serve a muddled cucumber drink to positive reviews from a patron, the film wraps without letting us know if things were a success.

While this singular focus on the 2 characters is an accurate synopsis, it leaves much out.  Hey Bartender includes many of the cocktail heavyweights around today.  It was touching to see them all pay homage to Dale DeGroff, with nearly all the cocktail heavyweights listing him as the grandfather of the modern cocktail movement.  He makes frequent appearances, as does Sasha Petraske, Audrey Sanders, Tony Abou-Ganim, Simon Ford, Jim Meehan, Leo Robitschek, Julie Reiner... more than I can name.  One aspect that I really liked, and for me has always set the craft cocktail bars apart from the 'regular' bars is the level of hospitality you receive.

It's a fantastic glimpse into a life that many of us (me included) participate in, on at least some small level.   The Facebook page has a lot of great clips that didn't make the movie, so be sure to check that out as well.  I definitely recommend this to anyone that has any interest in the cocktail movement.