Anyway! About this new job. I went in for my first day on Monday. It was a very slow day which was perfect. I got to understand the nuances discerning the work on a bar on a boat, which was my previous job, and working at an actual land based bar. One of my favorite differences so far is the fact that at a real bar, all the liquor stays in its place permanently, unless you want to clean the shelves or rearrange some things. Back on the boats, you had to bring out a good 40something or so bottles of liquor every day from some different part of the boat, and then put them back at the end of the night. Such a pain.
That's a very small thing though. This position is rather glorious I must say. This place sells quite high end spirits and wine. I've had very limited exposure to the good stuff, so on my first day the owner of the place and I got to work on changing that.
-- Have you ever noticed that there is a word missing from the English language? I'm not talking about from the outside perspective where something doesn't translate properly. I'm talking about when you start talking then realize there is a word missing from your vocabulary that you're certain if it existed, you would know that word. Here's an analogy.
hunger:fed::thirst:______
Fill in the blank. You can't! If you're hungry, I will bring you food and I have fed you. If you're thirsty, I will bring you water and I have ______ you. What have I done to you?? Let's call this word sponged for now. --
He sponged me. Oh, he sponged me all right. He sponged me right and good. He sponged me with some of the best shit they carry. I was shown to appreciate the different characteristics amongst several different scotches, as well as an assortment of American whiskeys. I tried at least 10 different types of wine, and even practiced making a few of their signature beverages... and drank them in their entirety. How I did not leave drunk is beyond me. Perhaps buzzed in the first hour of my shift, but I honestly left feeling just fine. Probably because of all of the Andersonville Midsommarfest drinking I had been exposed to in the previous 2 days.
It was pretty amazing! I learned a lot and made a decent share of income considering how few people actually came in that evening. But that happens when you're serving the good stuff, I suppose.
The next day I was open to a plethora of new experiences as well. One of those was champagne tasting. Now, I'm no novice to tasting wine. I'm from Washington state, land of the largest amount of wineries and acres of grapes outside of California in the United States. Now, am I a pro? Definitely not? Am I good? That's for sure arguable. But I get it. I know the process, I know what to look for, I know what I think. And of course when doing all this in front of people who have been doing it as a living for a number of years, I shut down and keep my opinions to myself and know not what to say when asked my opinions. Naturally.
Champagne tasting... now this is a completely different element. This isn't a very common practice, especially among people in my skill set. Champagne is expensive and it doesn't last long after its open.
My second day at the bar, the wine/spirits rep to whom I was introduced and thusly got me the job at the place stopped in with a handsome French man representing Champagne Lanson. We popped some bottles, tasted, I for the most part was ignored (which I thanked the high heavens for... I definitely didn't want to be asked my opinions on my first champagne tasting. "Umm, good? Uhh... there's bubbles!") I was included every once in a while whenever a word was brought up that they thought I might not know. Yes, I was talked down to a lot, but that's to be expected. I was not going to tell these people, "Blargh, I've been tasting wine for years in Washington! Of course I know what that is!" It was a bit trying, but I remained quiet and open to whatever they wanted to teach me. If I knew the word, then I learned it a second time. Being cocky and too confident is not going to get me far in this job and if I ignore any helpful suggestions on vocabulary, then I could be missing out on a lot of the wine world that I actually don't know about. Pro-tip from Angel! Don't be a dick!
The rest of the day was good. Waited on a couple tables, nothing too difficult. It's wine and whiskey, occasionally some cheese, and even less commonly a cocktail.
There are times at this place I definitely feel out of my element. The first day not so much. The owner is this magnificent beam of light who has an incredible amount of faith in his employees, which is something you don't come across too often. My second day was very informational and I worked with who I am going to say is something of their 2nd-in-command guy there. Handsome, charming, intelligent, has an opera-singing girlfriend who looks like Anna Chlumpsky from My Girl if she grew up to be more thin and more beautiful than she currently is. But there was a lot of "you probably have never heard of these types of grapes," and "I'll teach you that word later," which sort of knocked me down a few pegs. But that's what the military does, right? Degradation until they can build you to their own brand of perfection?
Maybe I'm the grapes. Grapes are fine as they are. Sweet, smooth, enjoy on occasion but not every day. But you break down the grapes. You take from them what you want, expose them to a bunch of processes they otherwise would never have been exposed, and after a period of time you come out with a product so special and so rare, you can then put your label on it and call it the taste that represents you.
Quenched.
ReplyDeleteThough sponged has an enjoyably dirty aura around it when used as a verb like that.
Quenched doesn't work in the same way as hunger. You can't take in a homeless man and quench him.
DeleteEven in the Bible (how do I know this?) it says "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink." They didn't have an adequate word to use there so they had to have that big clunky phrase.