From behind their bars, they’ve seen it all. Blossoming love affairs and breakups. Fights and reconciliations. Joy and despair. They’ve served as amateur psychoanalysts, sounding boards for business ideas, and the voice of reason—some people need to be told when it’s time to go home While many people become bartenders for practical reasons—the flexible hours, the wide availability of jobs—others find the profession a calling.

“It takes a very special human to be in hospitality,” says Amie Ward, president of the Baltimore Bartenders’ Guild. “We enjoy putting other people’s needs before our own. We are creative in our solutions. We can empathize, actively listen to people. There’s nothing easy about that at all.”

Bartending has changed dramatically in the last decade. The dawn of the craft cocktail era has attracted those with creative and even scientific minds to the profession. The ability to make drinks using liquors and ingredients from around the world is finally treated with the respect it deserves by restaurateurs, customers, and critics alike. Although getting the perfect head on a beer is an art unto itself, engineering a cocktail using sous vide shochu with coconut, cantaloupe juice, yogurt fat-washed soju, and egg white, as Gabe Valladares can do at CookHouse, is something different entirely.

In Baltimore, designer cocktail bars like Rye, W.C. Harlan, The Coral Wig, Southpaw, Dutch Courage, and Kenwood Tavern peacefully coexist with beer bars and corner pubs. They are all important parts of our city’s social fabric, as are the people who work at them.

There are more than 610,000 bartenders nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statitics. We’re lucky to have some of the best of them right here in Baltimore.

Gabriel Valladares

CookHouse

Saturday nights at 10 p.m., Bolton Hill’s CookHouse transforms from one of the best restaurants in the city to one of the best cocktail bars…anywhere. The man responsible for this metamorphosis, Gabriel Valladares, is just 25 years old, but to sample one of his drinks is to taste the work of a wunderkind.

During the weekly three-hour sessions (and of course during  CookHouse’s regular dinner service), the self-taught Valladares’ creativity is evident in every sip. Each cocktail on the menu is a Gabe original.

Take for example The Cilantro. Valladares, CookHouse’s bar director, is a lover of mezcal, and he had begun to experiment with sous viding liquor.

“Mezcal is Mexican, and I wondered what else was in that realm,” he says. “Cilantro popped into my head, so I sous vided cilantro, a little bit of honey, and mezcal for eight hours. My friend Lane [Harlan of Clavel and W.C. Harlan] inspired me to do my own tepache, which is basically fermented pineapple juice.”

But Valladares wasn’t done. To garnish the drink, he added little pellets cleverly dubbed “lime caviar” on the menu. They’re made by combining sugary lime juice and the chemicals sodium alginate and calcium lactate, an idea he read about in a book published by The Aviary, the cutting-edge cocktail bar in Chicago. When the pellets pop in the drinker’s mouth, they add a kick of acidity to the smoky drink.

“It was a one-and-done thing that came together really well,” Valladares says of the concoction. But that’s not the norm. The ability to accept failure, he says, is a key component to being a successful mixologist.

“I’ve done so many cocktails that literally taste disgusting. They never make it onto the menu. Not everyone is going to like everything you do. That can hurt my ego. But putting your creative aspects [forward] brings people in.”

Judging by the crowds that flock to CookHouse, Valladares’ wins far outpace his losses. A former student at Maryland Institute College of Art, he’s also an avid photographer, and his beautiful shots of the restaurant’s food and drink routinely wow people on Instagram.

“I love when new people come into the bar,” he says. “My goal every night is to blow their minds and give them an amazing experience.”

Kim Vo

Dutch Courage

Kim Vo sees potential ingredients for cocktails everywhere. Over the summer, she challenged herself to begin making drinks with zero waste. This she took quite literally. Vo used corn as the backbone for the drink she calls La Cosecha, which means “harvest” in Spanish. Not only did she juice the kernels, but she turned the cob and all of the husk into a stock.

“When you put them together you get the most powerful corn flavor,” she says.

From there she added mezcal and basil to the stock. Next, she put in a little watermelon. She even pickled the rinds for garnish so they too did not go to waste.

In November, Vo tapped into her Vietnamese roots to create the Snug Bug, her take on a Hot Toddy inspired by artichoke tea. She made a tincture using the artichoke heart and charred the leaves. Then she added carciofo, which is an artichoke-based amaro, and mixed in a cane sugar spirit, plum liqueur, and reduced cider syrup.

“It gets wild,” she says. “It’s toasty. It’s earthy. It’s just perfect for the season.”

The drink demonstrates the scientific way that Vo’s brain works. She earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University but gravitated toward the hospitality industry because she treasures the interpersonal relationships.

“Ultimately what I love about cocktail bartending is the connection with people, both the guests and other people in the industry,” she says.

After stints at hotel bars and the late, great whiskey-focused bar Bookmaker’s in Federal Hill, she’s been the bar manager at Dutch Courage in Old Goucher for three years. During her time in the industry, she’s seen the world of upscale cocktails change dramatically.

“Cocktailing was [once] kind of like a very exclusive practice,” she says. “You had to go to a speakeasy or a craft cocktail bar to find a good cocktail. But post-COVID, with Instagram and that whole boom with social media, it’s more accessible.”

She believes that the culture she has helped to create among the staff has contributed to Dutch Courage’s welcoming spirit.

“It’s a completely supportive environment, and it really lends itself to this uninhibited creativity,” says Vo, 33. “The owners are super supportive, and we have a very, very tight staff. And I think, honestly, our guests have the most fun because we’re all very happy.”

Charlie Vascellaro

Clandestino

There’s no mystery as to why people enjoy going to the tequila-centric speakeasy Clandestino in Belvedere or, for that matter, any of the other establishments where Charlie Vascellaro has worked over the course of his 20 years behind the bar.

He knows how to throw a party.

“I’ve always felt like, being the bartender, you are the host of the party, which I’ve had plenty of experience doing at home over the years,” he says. “I was always the kind of guy who hosted the parties, and everybody would come to my house, and I would make the drinks for them. When I first started tending bar and I was worried about my relative lack of experience, I used to coach myself and say, ‘Just make them like you make it at home.’”

That policy has served him well. At Clandestino, which he manages and helped open in 2022, he specializes in preparing cocktails with a Southwestern flair.

Vascellaro, 59, who spent much of his childhood in Arizona, originally started bartending because he liked the hours. They allow him the freedom and flexibility to pursue his other passion: writing about baseball. His work has appeared in The Baltimore Banner, Baltimore Fishbowl, and New York’s Village Voice, for which he writes about “the Mets and all of their travails.”

Each year during spring training he returns to Arizona, where he curates museum exhibits about baseball (one on the history of Japanese-American baseball history eventually made its way to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles) and organizes baseball-themed trips for groups of senior citizens. The groups of 35 to 40 people take in games at the spring training homes of the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, listen to guest speakers, visit museums, and eat all their meals together. It’s intense, Vascellaro says, but his bartending skills often come in handy.

“You’re kind of a public speaker as a bartender,” he says. “You’re a public persona. So if people have anxiety about public speaking, bartending can get you over that. And I think you’re also a peacemaker. You’re creating an atmosphere. I think the skills that you learn as a bartender definitely cross over in real-life situations quite often.”

There’s another perk of bartending, he says, that works out well for his hybrid career.

“I pick up a lot of writing assignments behind the bar, too. Editors, publishers, come into the bar and I get introduced to them not only as the bartender, but as a guy who does some writing. And before you know it, I’m working for people who were my customers at the bar before. It’s perfect.”

Dan Burks

The Prime Rib

Over the course of his dozen years behind the bar at The Prime Rib, one of Baltimore’s most venerable steakhouses, Dan Burks has developed a somewhat simple philosophy of bartending.

“The customers that come in are generally nice folks,” he says. “A lot of them have been coming in for years and years and we know them, and we like them. It’s easy to give good service to people that you like.”

Burks, 47, has been doing just that since he started bartending in the late ’90s on the Eastern Shore. A music performance major in college, he had a feeling that he would gravitate to the hospitality industry. (“With that degree, you’ve got to eat, sleep, and breathe music,” he says.)

When he found his way to The Prime Rib, he knew he was home.

“I’ve had other jobs here and there, but at The Prime Rib it’s not like we’re slinging beers and shots to a rowdy crowd that is out partying,” he says. “It’s a lot of martinis, Manhattans, and Old-Fashioneds. Anything served in an up glass. I’ve made a million Cosmopolitans. We go through a lot of martini glasses.”

The art of being a bartender lies not just in mixing drinks. It’s also knowing how to interact with customers. At an upscale restaurant like The Prime Rib, that’s even more pivotal. The affable Burks has a natural rhythm and intuition that keeps the mood upbeat yet still gives customers space.

“The people that we know we talk to all the time. But with some folks, you have to gauge whether they’re doing something. Are they buried in their phone? But you get plenty of regulars that want to talk sports. Some folks want to talk politics. And some people you can see that they’re with friends and they’re just catching up and bullshitting.”

On a recent night, a customer paid Burks a compliment that stuck with him.

“We’ve been coming here for a long time,” the man said, “and while we love the food and the atmosphere, we come here for you.”

Amie Ward

The Healthtender, Southpaw

Amie Ward loves bartending, and she’s devoted much of her professional life to making sure others in the industry have the tools to love it as much as she does. Ward is the executive director of Safe Bars, a nonprofit dedicated to making bars, restaurants, and other alcohol-serving spaces safe and welcoming for guests and staff alike.

She also owns and runs The Healthtender, a company that provides business owners and those on the frontlines of hospitality with the tools necessary to care for their bodies and minds.

“I started working in bars because those were the kind of people that I liked being around,” says Ward, 42, who has a master’s degree in kinesiology. “I liked talking to strangers for a living. I was taking care of myself, but I saw my peers were not. I created The Healthtender to teach people in the hospitality industry to eat better, take care of their bodies, and talk about the risks, because we have access to excess, we have weird hours, all that jazz.”

Ward started tending bar in 2009, and she says it took her a while to learn to counteract the physical and emotional challenges in the profession. Remembering to hydrate and eat while working a 10- to 12-hour shift (she always keeps nuts in her pockets for a quick snack), avoiding afterwork drinking sessions, stretching, resting—all of it is important.

“Bartenders and people in the industry are like endurance athletes, but we treat our bodies worse than any athlete ever would,” she says.

For Safe Bars, Ward’s work focuses on teaching the staff of any alcohol-serving establishment how to do bystander intervention, deescalation, and intervene in safe and non-confrontational ways to prevent sexual assault, sexual aggression, and other forms of violence.

“My world has mostly transitioned to advocacy work for the hospitality industry, doing a lot of health and wellness for people to make sure that they can stay in this business that we love for so long.”

But because she so treasures the work, Ward still steps behind the bar for the occasional shift at Southpaw in Fells Point.

“I love creating ridiculously over-the-top drinks and really special experiences for people,” she says. “I’m just one of those weirdos who loves the community and loves the job. I still have those moments when I want to be bartending. I fucking love it so much.”

Andre Levon

Clavel

Andre Levon, 37, has been tending bar for nearly half his life. A native of upstate New York, he started working at Turp’s in Mount Vernon before arriving at Clavel nine years ago. After all those years behind the bar, he still savors the relationships he builds with his customers.

“I find myself interacting with lots of different types of people,” he says. “You meet engineers and all these literate people. If anybody in the industry tells you that at this point that isn’t still a part of their job that they dig, they’re [over it] because it still is such a great thing.”

Levon has helped the popularity of the renowned Mexican restaurant’s cocktail list keep pace with its food. He leads mezcal tastings each Tuesday and, along with the team, plays a big role in curating the cocktail list. (He’s also part of the reason that the taqueria has been twice nominated for a James Beard Award in the Outstanding Bar category.)

He starts working on drinks three months prior to a menu change, a process that often includes traveling to Mexico, which is where he came up with the inspiration for the drink Tuba Por Favor. It’s based on the Filipino alcoholic beverage tubâ, which is made from the sap of palm trees and was introduced to Mexico centuries ago.

Levon’s cocktail combines tepache, coconut liqueur, lime juice, housemade kümel, and honey. It’s served shaken in a Hurricane glass.

“It’s a good amount of volume,” he says. “It’ll put a little buzz on but for the most part I designed it to be something that someone could enjoy for a while without getting too drunk.”

Although there’s no mezcal in that drink, it’s clear that the agave based liquor holds a treasured place in his heart.

“Mezcal is, of course, an agricultural product, but mezcal is a cultural product as well,” he says. “We have Mexico so close. We’re on the same continent, you know? And it is so vastly different from us. In a way, being able to drink mezcal connects me to this other culture in a really serious way in language, in art, and in cuisine.

“It doesn’t hurt that it’s delicious.”

This piece appeared in our March 2024 issue. For more great Baltimore stories, consider becoming a subscriber.

Amie Ward came up with the concept of becoming “The Healthtender” when she realized that people in the hospitality industry, especially bartenders, were under an enormous amount of physical and mental stress. Both alcoholism and even suicide were alarmingly prevalent in her industry. She decided to combine her background as a bartender with her 20 years of training in the physical fitness and wellness arena to create a program specifically tailored to those folks behind the bar.

Why did you see a need for mental health and wellness resources in the hospitality industry?
I started my programming back in 2015 because I had been seeing this disconnect between the amount of labor that we put in each day as bartenders, but how little we were taking care of ourselves. We’ve lost people in the industry as a result of suicide or because of complications from alcoholism, and that kind of took it to the next step of teaching people about trying to be a little bit more mindful about the way that they’re drinking and what’s actually happening to your body on a physical level when you’re drinking.

Was there a pivotal experience that made you realize you wanted to start improving the industry?
The Baltimore Bartenders Guild would do a monthly education event, and in December of 2015, I got up to talk about how to give yourself proper nutrition when you’re on a marathon shift. This woman named Lindsey Johnson, who runs a company called Lush Life Productions, was there. And she’s like, “You have to do this,” and that kind of inspired me to start putting together my business plan for The Healthtender.

How did it feel to be recognized as someone who could supply a need for not just your community, but the global bartender community?
There was definitely validation. I want people to feel good in their skin, I want people to feel good with their bodies and just be able to listen to their bodies and really understand that better. It’s been wild and it’s been awesome and I’m so happy that I do this.

What are some of the services that you offer to bartenders?
Lots of movement classes, stretching classes, mobility classes, boxing, because I love boxing. But my biggest thing and the thing I’m most proud of is being able to make classes that are adapted to every type of body. So making people who would never find themselves in any kind of gym setting or whatever feel really comfortable about it. I’m not a nutritionist, but I can teach people how to meal-plan. I am a Mental Health First Aid instructor as well.

What do you recommend as a good first step for bartenders if they are interested in improving their overall wellness?
Would you like to eat a little bit better? Would you like to move your body better? Would you like to feel less pain? I think taking a mental inventory of what’s going on in your world is a good start. I love when people just come to talk to me first because I always will talk to people for free without any reservation to find out what their needs are and kind of send them in the right direction.

How would you describe the community you’ve built?
This is just a group of humans that genuinely care, support, and want to see each other survive, thrive, and grow in their own journeys. It’s just so supportive, and it’s really the way that I want to see the industry going when it comes to mental health and being able to create that community literacy on the topic of de-stigmatizing sobriety, addiction, and the pursuit of mental health.

What are your hopes for the restaurant and hospitality industry in the future?
I really want a shape-shifting of the entire culture and the landscape of hospitality. I want health insurance to be a normal thing. I want five-day workweeks or 40-hour workweeks to be a normal thing. I want owners to pay their bartenders appropriate equitable wages. I want people who are generally more vulnerable as a population or in a marginalized identity put to the forefront so they can actually be the leaders that they were designed to be. I want the hospitality industry to prioritize people rather than profits.

Baltimore’s bar scene is changing (and growing) as quickly as you can down your next drink. That means we’re seeing more talent than ever before, and what used to be a “boys’ club” is showing off the skills and drive of some seriously talented women—and our drinks are all the better for it. We sat down with nine notable female bartenders to discuss their favorite drink trends, the local industry community, and where they spend their days off.

You can check some of them out and many others at the “Lovely Ladies Bartender Competition,” which is the kickoff to Baltimore Cocktail Week this Sunday, April 10, at Pen & Quill.

Name: Briana Savage
Home bar: Bookmakers Cocktail Club
Years in the industry: 13 in the industry, 6 behind the bar
What’s good? “People ask me for Malört drinks, because I like Malört [Swedish wormwood liqueur] and I might be the only person that does. Basically they only drink Malört in Chicago and Scandinavian countries. But the way I was introduced was through the Bittermens Malört called Bäska Snaps, and that one is viscous and has a better flavor. I like it just like someone might like Campari or Fernet.”

Most exciting thing about Baltimore’s bar scene: “For me, I think, it’s the amount of passion I see among other bartenders. We’re all really supportive in a way I don’t see other places… Baltimore is all about trying new things.”

Name: Chelsea Gregoire
Current Bars: Pen & Quill (and Head Honcho at Drinkable Genius)
Years in the Industry: 10 in the industry, 2 behind the bar
What’s good? “Good egg white cocktails. I’ve taught more than one person how to properly shake egg white and humans are catching on and it’s great!”
Most exciting thing about Baltimore’s bar scene: “I love that this city, like nobody else, can do a fancy restaurant and a dive in one. I guess it’s because Baltimore buildings are generally small, so the spaces they have to put businesses in are small. So it’s dive-y in that it’s small and dark, and then you notice it’s got this incredible food program.

“Every bar in Baltimore is a little dive-y maybe in that it’s in the attitude of the bartender or it’s in the atmosphere. And they do it really well. Every time people come from out of town who are in this industry, they’re like, ‘I really love how everywhere feels like Holiday Cocktail Lounge in [New York City].’ That’s a huge compliment.”

Name: Amie Ward
Current bar: Aggio
Years in the industry: 7
What’s good? “I’m really striving for us to turn Aggio into Baltimore’s amaro bar because we don’t have anything like that . . . When I first started at Aggio, they were about to get rid of all the amaro [a bitter Italian liqueur] because it just wasn’t selling, it didn’t have any real big following behind it, and I said, ‘Hold on, just gimme, like, a month and see what I can do with it.’

“I’m mainly focusing on doing the whole education of what is amaro . . .There are the people that like that really hearty stuff, like Fernet is like getting smacked in the face with a Listerine bottle, and I tell that very joyously to anyone who gets one of the flights, but that might not be what you like. So I’ve been working on the flights and then trying to figure out what [individual] people like too and I’ll do custom flights on the fly as well.”

When she’s not working: “It used to be roller derby, but now it’s in the gym being a meathead (picking up heavy things and putting them back down again). I’m training for my first Strong Woman Competition.”

Name: Molly McNulty
Current Bar: Cultured
Years in the Industry: 8
Her favorite thing about bartending: “I’m actually also a painter, [I think of flavors] like colors. There’s so many ways to go with colors; I approach drinks the same way I approach painting.”
Advice for new bartenders: “I have a couple answers to this. Kindness is always the best tool in your kit. You don’t have to have double jiggers and crazy bar tools. You just have to be kind. And it is totally ok to not know how to make something and to not feel ashamed about that. What’s not ok is not having any curiosity about it.”
Most exciting thing about Baltimore’s bar scene: “There’s a lack of pretention in Baltimore bartenders. People are really creative and pushing each other to do new things…[but] it doesn’t feel snobby, it doesn’t feel like we have sticks up our asses about being the best part of people’s day—which is eating and drinking…People are doing really creative awesome things, but they aren’t being douche bags about it.”

Name: Constance Belton
Home bar: Club Charles
Years in the industry: 3
Her favorite thing about bartending: “My favorite thing about bartending is my bar . . . It’s the community of people who work there is amazing, like, Jeremy’s been working there for 12 years, some of the girls have been there for 8 or 9 years. I’m actually pretty new. People don’t leave; people love to work there.

“We have people that have come in the bar on a weekly or every other couple days basis for 20 years. A couple of months ago, a regular brought in her daughter on her 21st birthday…[and the mother] has been hanging out at the bar for more than 20 years and now she passes it along to her daughter. That’s a story I’ve heard from more people. Friends have said, ‘Yeah, my parents met at that bar.’ It’s has been open for more than 65 years. It was originally called the Wigwam, actually, when Ester opened it and now her daughter runs it.”

Name: Melissa Ray
Home bar: Roof Deck Bar at Camden Yards
Years in the industry: 19 in the industry, 14 behind the bar
Her favorite thing about bartending: “I’ve tried other things and I always come back to this. I like making new relationships and having my regular business. I’m very family-oriented and when I have my regulars it feels like a family. “
Advice she’d give to new bartenders: “If you’re excited about being in the business and you want to stay in the business . . . jump in and go crazy, learn as much as you can, get involved, ask questions, join the [Baltimore Bartenders’] Guild. Go to meetings. Get your feet wet.

“…And make sure you take care of yourself as well. Make sure you’re doing things that make you happy when you’re out of work. Go get a massage, get a facial, and go to the gym. Do things that help relieve stress. If you don’t take care of yourself you’ll feel like you’re just living one long night.”

Name: Pam Haner (not pictured)
Home bar: W.C. Harlan
Years in the industry: 10
What’s good? “I really like to do sherry cocktails, stirred cocktails, [I] like complex sippers. We have on our new menu one of my favorites, The Hermez, which is a sherry cocktail with pot-still rum, Priorat vermouth, and dry curacao that I like a lot. [For it] I infused olive oil with orange pekoe tea for the garnish.”

Her favorite thing about bartending: “It’s super creative, like cooking. Finding new combinations that work together. My favorite thing that happens is when you really think something is not going to work and it really, really does. One of the things that I was really surprised by is banana cordial and Fernet Branca is really nice together.”

Name: Anna Welker
Current Bars: Bad Decisions and B&O American Brasserie
Years in the Industry: 11 in the industry, 8 behind the bar
What’s good? “One of my favorite things is to get people to like gin who think they don’t like gin . . . Gin is just this big, beautiful world of all diffident styles that people don’t even know exists. I like to consider myself a ‘ginja’ or a gin ninja, if you will.”
When she’s not working: “My background is in theater . . . I love seeing creativity in motion, and I watch the set and costumes just as much as the actors. I know how much work and heart go into each show, and I know it sounds cliché, but it’s still magical to me. I still get butterflies watching a curtain go up.”

Name: Ginny Lawhorn
Current Bars: Sticky Rice Baltimore and Landmark Harbor East
Years in the Industry: 18 in the industry, 15 behind the bar
How the bar business makes a difference: “What I find most valuable about the bar and restaurant industry is that our industry offers hands on, in-house training and advancement through hard work that is becoming increasingly difficult to find elsewhere. You are able to join a restaurant family as a busser, move to a barback and be trained as a bartender the same way you can start in a kitchen with prep, move to a line cook, and be trained as a chef. This means the industry offers a unique opportunity for growth that can directly support so many people who might otherwise struggle to get their foot in the door for other careers.

“We have a responsibility to pay these options forward to anyone willing to work for them as they were afforded to us. I wouldn’t be in the position I am in if this weren’t true. I am thankful every day to be able to have a restaurant where we can provide these possibilities.”

Cora Flynn-Williams

McCabe’s
Cora
Flynn-Williams is the face of McCabe’s (3845 Falls Road, 410-467-1000),
the popular Falls Road pub in Hampden. On her rare nights off, she likes
it low-key and walking-distance from home. “I definitely stick to my
’hood,” she says—the ’hood, in this case, being Remington. Among her
favorite watering holes are Joe Squared, the Ottobar, and Long John’s
Pub, which she can see from her house. On a moist Tuesday night, she
enters Rocket to Venus. Before she can get to a barstool, two
waitresses, Katrina and Brie, run up and hug her. When she finally sits
down, both bartenders, Scott and Eric, come to take her drink order. A
pint of Guinness appears, and she takes a sip, leaving a tan foam
mustache on her lip. Moments later, a few patrons approach and give her a
hug—apparently, she knows everyone in the place. She doesn’t mind—she
chose this bar because she wanted to see people. Other nights, she might
want something quieter. Wherever she goes, she won’t stay out late. “I
have two kids who get up at 6:30 in the morning. And when I close
McCabe’s, I get home at 4:30.” Over another Guinness, she talks about
opening her own place someday, “somewhere where I can be an old-time
bartender, and talk to the customers.” In Remington, of course, within
walking distance of home.

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John F. Klaus

The Prime Rib
John
F. Klaus has worked the bar of The Prime Rib (1101 N. Calvert Street,
410-539-1804) for 27 years, and, like the fine wines he serves, he’s
aged to perfection. Beneath his tuxedo, he’s Baltimore through and
through—born and raised in Waverly, he even performed as the Orioles
batboy during their 1983 World Series win. Not many bartenders can make
that claim. The bar is old-school cool—a blend of mirrors, onyx, and
leopard-print carpet. Between 5 p.m. and midnight, the bar will fill
several times and Klaus will mix hundreds of drinks. He’ll concoct
high-end cocktails and pour wine for customers and servers, all the
while playing the role of ringmaster. At the end of his shift, he hangs
up his tux, puts on casual clothes, and steps out onto a quiet Chase
Street. He’ll make his way to one of his two after-work haunts, The Owl
Bar at The Belvedere or The Brewer’s Art around the corner. This night,
The Owl is already closed, so Brewer’s wins by default. “I like it
here,” he says as he walks down the steps, “It’s dark. It’s easy.” In
the basement bar, he sips Dewar’s over ice, his usual. There’s a
familiarity to the bartending routine. “The same guy comes into the Rib
every night at 9:15 p.m. and orders a cognac. I know people by what they
drink.” I ask if he knows my friend Norm. “Sure, I know him. Crown
Royal on the rocks.”

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Shannon Cassidy

The Laughing Pint
Shannon
Cassidy’s day at The Laughing Pint (3531 Gough Street, 410-342-6544)
begins at noon. She doesn’t just work there; she owns the place. And
usually that day ends at 1:30 the following morning. So on her nights
off, she likes to cut loose. She calls a cab and goes to see her
favorite bartenders at saloons like Liam Flynn’s Ale House, The Windup
Space, or Dougherty’s Pub, where she is tonight. She orders her favorite
beer-and-shot combination—a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and a
Southern Comfort, Amaretto, and lime. She waves off the warning that the
night is young: “Yes, but I only have one night.” After a second beer,
she receives a text from a friend—“Michelangelo and the Four Asses.” She
translates: “That’s code to meet at the Mt. Royal Tavern.” It’s an
inside joke, alluding to the paintings on the wall and ceiling. When she
arrives at the tavern, she orders another Sierra Nevada, but the shot
is changed to a Peach Kamikaze, which tastes as bad as you would
imagine. Finally, she relaxes and reflects upon her six years of bar
ownership. “I’d like to have only one job instead of 12, and I’d like to
work only 50 hours a week instead of 80.” Then she laughs and admits
that she loves it. She receives another text, this time it’s from her
bartender back at The Laughing Pint—there’s a problem with the sink in
the ladies restroom. She shakes her head, “I never get a night off.”

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Nelson Carey

The Grand Cru
It’s
8 p.m. on a Thursday and business is good at Grand Cru (527 E.
Belvedere Avenue, 410-464-1944), the premier wine bar in tony Belvedere
Square. Every seat at the bar is taken, and the tables are filled.
Nelson Carey, the owner, can call it a day and leave the business in the
hands of his three capable bartenders. But before he heads for home, he
stops in at Swallow at the Hollow, a quick two-minute walk away. Behind
the bar stands Jeff, a 16-year veteran of Swallow. As Carey walks in,
Jeff draws a Guinness—no words are exchanged. A minute later, the glass
is set in front of him. Beautiful. He picks it up, “They pour a great
pint here.” Though located practically next door, the two businesses
can’t be more dissimilar. The Cru is noted for its 45 wines by the
glass, an even greater selection of bottles, and exotic draft beers. The
Swallow is an institution, albeit a shot-and-a-beer institution. That’s
the way Carey likes it. “I come here because it’s different. I come
here to relax, and I don’t want to go drink at the same place I’m
walking away from.” But there is a visceral attraction as well. Four
generations of his family have lived within three blocks of here. “I
consider myself worldly and well-traveled, and yet I keep coming back.”
Two contrasting bars 170 paces apart, and Nelson Carey is at home in
either.