Meet the publicists, property managers, musicians, and lobbyists who just might make your next martini.
We'd been working with Regan Communications publicist Arika Beaudry for months before she casually dropped into conversation that, after putting in a full day’s work fielding press calls, dreaming up marketing plans, and soothing harried clients’ egos, she often ends her night behind the bar at Clery’s (113 Dartmouth Street, Boston, 617.262.9874), slinging drinks for an additional eight or nine hours.
It’s easy to understand the motivation behind picking up a few extra shifts at your local pub: the hours suit the schedule of those with a nine-to-five gig, the money is tough to beat, and there are worse things to do on a Thursday night than mix a few martinis and chat it up with the regulars. But what is it about bartending that not only draws those looking to make a little extra cash in the short-term, but then keeps hold? (Beaudry, for one, has been working at Clery’s for over five years now.) To find out, we went looking for bartenders for whom the job is secondary to some other career path or life plan.
For Beaudry, it’s simple: identity. “Yeah, the extra money is nice, and I’ve come to depend on it and it helps me live
in Boston and travel and do fun things,” she says. “But honestly, [bartending is] a huge part of me. I would feel lost without it; I would not be me without it. I’ve just been doing it for so long, and I’ve been at the same bar for so long, and some of my best friends work there. Every night is really long and hard, but it’s just so comfortable.”
Brent Barlow, who can be found behind the bar at the Beacon Hill Bistro (25 Charles Street, Boston, 617.723.1133) when he’s not teaching voice lessons or performing with his band Slow Motion Driver, agrees. “The money, I think, is probably the biggest draw of bartending,” he admits. “But especially where I work, where the restaurant is small, we have a lot of regulars who come in, [and] you kind of feel like you’re part of a small family back there.”
Alisha Joubert of Mantra (52 Temple Place, Boston, 617.542.8111), who also dabbles in real estate and property management, goes so far as to liken her bartending work to a gambling addiction. “Once you do it, you don’t want to go back and do the regular Joe Schmo nine-to-five thing,” she says. “Also it’s so flexible, you can bartend three nights a week and have four days off to yourself and still make that same amount of money you’d be [making if you were] working nine-to-five.”
For many bartenders, their cash-strapped college years pushed them into the restaurant business — it’s an attractive gig for undergrads, after all, given its built-in social life and flexible schedule. Later, for young professionals in their 20s and 30s who continue to moonlight behind the bar, sometimes it’s more about the social element than the paycheck. Gary Murad, a vice-president at O’Neill and Associates who works as a government lobbyist, attests to that. “I guess I’ve gotten to that stage where it’s probably less to do with the money and more to do with a good social outlet,” says Murad, who bartends once a week at Vox Populi (755 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.424.8300). “You’re working full time in a suit and tie every day, [so] being behind a bar is like a social outlet for me. [The] people I work with at the bar, people who come in, seeing my friends ... it’s like being out, but being behind the bar.”
And for those looking to hang out without dropping two months’ rent on their bar tab, bartending can be a good option for a weekend night. High-school biology and chemistry teacher Gene Roundtree isn’t much of a drinker, but he enjoys meeting people and soaking up the (grown-up) scene at Audubon Circle (838 Beacon Street, Boston, 617.421.1910), where he mans the bar a couple of nights a week. “Being a bartender allows me to be out, be in that kind of social atmosphere, be where there’s a lot of really interesting things going on, and meet a lot of interesting people without having to be spending money and [without] having to be drinking.”
But it can be a delicate balance juggling a full-time career, a bartending job, and a social life. The late nights, for example, get to Murad sometimes. “By [closing time], I’ve had a long day, I’ve been up since maybe seven, 7:30, and it’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m wiping down liquor bottles and beer coolers and dreaming about my bed,” he says. A regular Friday morning conference call after his Thursday night bartending shift doesn’t make things any easier — but it’s nothing he says a few cups of coffee can’t cure.
What about letting coworkers at a day job know about the night one? It’s a tricky subject for many of the bartenders we spoke to. Jill Zahareas, who dispenses booze at the Bar Room (5 Broad Street, Boston, 617.723.7877), says discussing her second job with coworkers at tradeshow management firm Hill & Partners can be awkward. “Sometimes I get a little uncomfortable when they ask questions about how much I make or whether I’m working on a certain night,” she explains. “It can be tough to work until two or three in the morning and wake up a few hours later for work. I don’t want them to think it will influence my job performance — that’s important to me!"
But no matter how firm these bartenders are about keeping their two lives separate, all agree that the skills they’ve developed behind the bar have carried over to their day jobs — to positive effect. “You’ve got an order of 10 drinks, you’re three deep at the bar, and you’re remembering — it may sound kind of cheesy, but PR’s like that, too,” says Beaudry. “You have sometimes eight to 10 clients or five things going on a day, three events you’re working on, and I think [bartending has] just given me the skin to balance and take what’s thrown at me.”
Kimberly Doyle, an artist who also works in finance, says that nights behind the bar at Prezza (24 Fleet Street, Boston, 617.227.1577) serve as inspiration. “Since I’m a big portrait painter, I see people who are happy, laughing, having a nice time, [and] I can take that vision and put it onto canvas,” she says. Murad, on the other hand, values the people skills he’s gained at Vox. “My [day] job is a very people-oriented line of work. It involves a great deal of relationship-building, interpersonal skills, communication skills. I think people who work in the service industry — particularly the front of house: bartenders, waitresses, cocktail waitresses, that kind of thing — learn a lot about people and how to interact with people from different backgrounds, different age groups, and I think you translate that into the real world.”
Joubert agrees. “You definitely learn how to deal with people — especially when they’re drunk,” she says matter-of-factly. “You learn people’s true colors when they’re in that state.”
There are other life lessons to be learned behind the bar, too. “Years ago, when I first started bartending, one of my managers said to us, ‘You’re always on stage when you’re a bartender, no matter what. When you walk behind the bar, you’re performing,’ ” Barlow recalls. His experience on the Beacon Hill Bistro “stage” now helps him when he performs at local spots like the Middle East, the Cantab, and TT the Bear’s.
So how much longer will our bartenders keep up their late nights and hectic schedules? “I don’t think I’ll be able to do it forever, but I think I’ll do it until it starts feeling like a chore or it’s interfering with anything else in my life,” says Beaudry. Murad agrees. “I’m sure at some point I’ll hang up my beer opener and my shaker glass,” he allows. “When it stops being fun or if it starts interfering with my career, that’s when I hang it up.”
As for Zahareas, she’ll continue bartending for “a couple years at the very least, or until I find a job that will enable me to live comfortably without bartending.” She pauses. “Ah, who am I kidding? I’ll be slinging drinks forever!”
