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"  John Myers, 44, BartenderThe Corner Room Portland, Maine I&amp;#039;ve worked at five places in town, and the same people show up at the same time and doing the same stupid shit. Some become friends, some become enemies, some become like family. I&amp;#039;m slightly grumpy, large and in charge. There&amp;#039;s no reason that tequila with less flavor should cost more than tequila with great flavor. Women will weep and get maudlin, men will roll up their shirtsleeves and start chest-thumping. But that&amp;#039;s not always true, either. I&amp;#039;ve seen plenty of guys cry at the bar. I&amp;#039;ve seen plenty of women scratch each other&amp;#039;s eyes out. There&amp;#039;s nothing worse than going to the grocery store and bumping into a customer who you barely know outside of the bar. It&amp;#039;s two people outside of context. My family owned a saloon outside of Chicago, like, the day after Prohibition, and they held it until about 1986. I just fell in love with watching the bartenders work. Even at ten years old, I said, &amp;quot;You know, that could not be a bad way to get through life.&amp;quot; I was cooking and got pissed off at a waiter and threw a skillet at him. The owners came. I thought I was going to be fired on the spot. They said, &amp;quot;You know those bartending shifts you want on Sundays and Mondays? I think we can do those this week.&amp;quot; I said, &amp;quot;Had I known that, I would&amp;#039;ve punched him in the mouth a month ago.&amp;quot; The key to the old drinks is fresh. Fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice. None of this ersatz corn-syrup-sodium-benzoate-number-six. There&amp;#039;s plenty of that at four o&amp;#039;clock in the morning \u2014 where you&amp;#039;re out of mixers and somehow ketchup and mustard end up in your martini. Some people swear they hate gin, and you put a great, old gin cocktail in front of them, and they say, &amp;quot;This is gin?&amp;quot; No shit. And they go out and buy a bottle of gin. Portland&amp;#039;s an interesting demographic mix, a little of everything going on. Captains of industry and captains of boats, rubbing elbows at the saloons. I always love it when a woman comes into the bar and orders whiskey. That&amp;#039;s a woman to keep your eye on. PLUS: Read More Bartender Wisdom on Eat Like a Man &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/bars/interviews/a10944/corner-room-bartender-092211/>