Serving it forth

A look at the hard work behind Tulsa's exploding food scene

(page 3 of 4)

Alice*, Manager and bartender
A longtime bartender, Alice stepped into a management role at a popular local dive after more than a decade on the job, adding stability but sacrificing some flexibility.

I started out serving and waiting tables and just worked my way up to becoming a bartender. Once I started, I was hooked on the easy money and the flexible schedule. I’ve been here 13 years. They offered me the management position when I was two years here, but I wasn’t ready then. I wanted to play still.

As a bartender, you definitely have a flexible schedule because everybody’s always wanting to pick up shifts. Daytimes are seven hours and nights are eight hours. Generally I do about 31 hours behind the bar per week. But as a manager, your flexibility changes. The bar becomes your life. I even do bar paperwork now when I’m off. Anytime anything’s wrong, you’ve gotta step up and fix it. Usually it’s staffing and running out of things — normal bar problems.

The late hours are super tough because the hours of operation are ridiculous compared to an office job, the sleeping patterns and just missing the sunlight, especially. I sleep late, I miss half the day, and that’s what sucks. That’s what I do with a lot of my spare time. I sleep.

I have had to find insurance all on my own. I know some places do provide insurance, and we’ve talked about it here, but it’s something about how it changes the insurance, the bar’s insurance. It’s been a crazy process until just recently, when my mom helped find a cheaper [policy]. Finding insurance on your own is ridiculous. It’s crazy.

I recently rolled my foot texting and walking, like a goofball. There are no sick days. I stayed home about a week, but then I was going crazy and getting bored, so I came back to work. And the paychecks were getting smaller.

Bartenders rely on tips. If there’s an unexpected dip in tip income, I just don’t get to go out and play as much. I have to be good and stay home sometimes. Tip your bartenders. We rely on it big time.

There’s never a dull moment. We’re never totally dead. There’s always someone here drinking. Daytime is completely different than night, but you can serve 70 or 80 during the day and 200-plus at night. Thursday is our crazy night — karaoke. It gets pretty insane. We have so many regulars that come here every day.

Every once in a while, I worry about safety, but not really. I guess because I’ve been doing it so long. You always worry about crazies out at night. Just people wandering out and about after 2 a.m., that’s never a good thing. I find myself peeking. I’ll peek and I’ll look on the cameras sometimes before I come out. It’s a good idea to be cautious.

As long as you have people around you, if you have bouncers and regulars, I feel like it’s a safe job. But things can always go awry. There’s always that possibility in an environment with alcohol and late nights. There’s usually a guy here at night when I take out my trash. I’ll say “one more beer if you wanna stay while I take out the trash, or do it for me.”

I’m on my own, so I don’t have to worry about supporting anyone else. When I was just bartending, I would make time to be off and spend time with family or friends. I would take two weeks off here and there and go to a beach somewhere. But that’s what I like to do. I bust my hump for three months and then take two weeks off.

I love my job. It’s my career for now. I don’t have an active thought process right now about exploring or changing careers. I’m not trying to figure that out or anything. I have great support from my owners. They’re good guys. They’re pretty knowledgeable. I’m comfortable where I am.