As in any industry, working in hospitality means there are great and not-so-great days — but for bartenders, the most unfavorable shifts often come with swarms of boisterous, inebriated guests. Having to keep a service-forward mentality while partying crowds are enjoying their leisure time is no simple feat.
Seasoned bartenders can usually detect when these nights are on the horizon. Some occur on an annual basis, so service employees can properly stock their stations in anticipation of the heavy traffic. But other times, unforeseen problems arise, and bartenders must adapt à la minute to execute seamless service while powering through the unexpected.
For better or worse, it’s all part of the gig. Here, bartenders share some of their least favorite nights of the year to work.
St. Patrick’s Day
Of all the holidays associated with heavy drinking, St. Patrick’s Day might be the ultimate. Participants knock back dyed-green beer, Mimosas, and shots — all while dressed in funky verdant garb. And the festive scene is anything but calm. Pub crawls and raucous parades flood the streets, and the constant consumption paves the way for less-than-optimal outcomes.
“It’s all suburbanites, no one’s costume is as funny as they think it is, and the whole point of the holiday is to drink so much green beer you leave puke that looks like old Lucky Charms milk on the floor of a random bathroom,” says Sam Donner, a bartender at Lemon, a cocktail bar and performance venue in Chicago.
Nikki Schultz, a bartender at the buzzy Thunderbolt cocktail bar in Los Angeles, agrees. She says she’s lucky because Thunderbolt doesn’t welcome heavy drinking on holidays, but from previous experience, she knows St. Patrick’s Day celebrations can bring out the worst — and it’s not for her. “No green beer towers, no shots named after horrific events, no sweaty, gross dudes stinking up the place with their beer farts and putting their pee and puke in places it doesn’t belong, no mountain of broken and lost phones, no sticky floors, just no,” she says.
Halloween
On Halloween — and all of Halloweekend, for that matter — bars are madhouses. And it’s not just the masquerade and zany garb: It’s the sheer influx of humans. Once past a certain age, some celebrants ditch trick or treating for marathon drinking. Maybe they feel energized by a showy get-up or the thrill of being someone else for the night. Whatever the case, bartenders often receive the brunt end of their misbehavior.
“Putting on a costume lets people hide their inhibitions and pretend to be someone else for one night, but it doesn’t mean you get to drink for you and your alter ego,” says Preston Lee, managing partner at Lemon.
Thanksgiving
Dealing with drunk crowds is sure to bog down any bartender, but the worst feeling of all might be the quiet FOMO of working on a holiday typically spent with family. Thanksgiving is one such case. Sacrificing the annual feast with family and friends for a night shift can be discouraging, if not saddening.
“Although we get to work with our friends most of the time (and maybe some people even get to work with family), we certainly are far from a home cooked meal at the bar,” says Scott Kitsmiller, bar manager at Gus’ Sip & Dip, a new cocktail hotspot in Chicago.
Luckily, working on turkey day can come with a wholesome nightcap, he says. Nearby service workers congregate at local watering holes for post-shift drinks, and a semblance of a holiday celebration starts to form.
“Those nights do tend to be filled with all the friends and loved ones, and, in my experience, most people are bringing their leftovers to the late-night bar afterwards anyway, so you kill two birds with one stone,” Kitsmiller says.
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is a holiday full of fireworks, countdowns, and lip-smacking lovers — and lots of bubbly. Sparkling wine, usually Champagne, is always in vogue at the dawn of the new year. Revelers tend to douse the night in all things classy, opening higher-end Champagne or reaching for top-shelf liquors. Sips of bubbly punctuate the whole evening — from the first greetings to the midnight countdown to the ensuing all-nighters.
“People crush sparkling wine and stay up way past their normal bedtimes,” says Javen McKenzie from Lemon. “I also had two trays of sparkling wine knocked out of my hands, so that definitely colors my view on it.”
Personal Tough Times
Working through unanticipated roadblocks might be worse than the annual chaos-bringing holidays. When hit with these circumstances, bartenders try to ignore what’s bogging them down, and run a smooth service while they’re on the clock because, to the guests, it’s any old night.
“The worst night to work is the second day of my period,” says Schultz. “Everything takes more energy, my brain is foggy, and I’m uncomfortable … but I still gotta hit ’em with the same razzle-dazzle all night long.”
Service industry roles come with camaraderie, but they also require constant reliance on coworkers. If a bartender calls out, work is piled onto whomever is there. Sarah Morrissey, a New York City-based bartender, says her worst working nights are when a manager doesn’t alert her that a barback has called out.
When managers do offer a heads-up, staff can plan to clock in early to account for the extra time needed to set up for service. But when bartenders are uninformed, double the amount of work awaits, starting off the night already two steps behind.
“You have to run around like an idiot, you won’t have time to eat family meal, and if you do it’s scarfing down two bites and then you have to run service where you have to pretend everything is fine when the bar is a dumpster fire,” Morrissey says. “And the shift ends and you’re double-exhausted and you sit on a stool, open a beer and think,‘What is my life?’”
