In Their Shoes: student bartenders

By Charlie Specht
Advisory EditorCourtney Shares stood behind the bar of The Burton Hotel, looking up at the patron who stood on the bar stool in a sort of drunken wonder.

Such a scene is pretty common for Shares, a senior who has bartended at the Burton since her junior year. She said she was a regular customer at the bar popular for its monstrous cheeseburgers and pub-like atmosphere before she asked the bar's manager for a job one weekend night.

She said she hasn't looked back since, noting time seems to tick by a little faster when she's behind the bar.

"It doesn't even feel like work," she said. "It goes by really fast, and it's like 'Oh my gosh, it's two o'clock already.'"

Erin Danahy can relate. The senior works with Shares a few times each weekend. She described a marathon shift last Alumni Weekend that included eight hours of taking burger orders followed by a full night of bartending.

"You couldn't move," she said. "I think I messed up 25 orders. I don't really mind when it gets that busy because it goes by faster, and you're not looking at the clock."

Danahy said the demand among students is always high for what they consider their rightfully earned free drinks. She said she balances her friendship with the bar's patrons with her responsibility to do her job.

"It gets annoying, but you have to laugh it off because you know they don't really mean it, and they're not going to remember it," she said. "You want to help everybody out, but you've got to do what's right for the bar."

Shares said the job is a win-win for her and Danahy, affording them the opportunity to mingle with friends while making money on weekends.

"I love it," she said. "It's the ideal college job, definitely. I hang out on the weekends with my friends and stuff, but I feel I don't miss out on parties. I can still go places until 11 (p.m.). I can still have fun. I don't miss out on fun things because I'm with my friends but I'm working and making money and having fun."

Danahy said the recent bar raids by the Cattaraugus Country Sheriff's Department have caused business to slow down but said in recent weeks more and more students are filing into the Burton's doors.

"It slowed down a little bit with everything that happened, but it's picking back up," she said. "It always happens."

Shares said stress can increase along with business but said perspective is key when she's got a room full of thirsty customers who want to be served.

"Sometimes it gets stressful, and it gets really busy, but you have to remember it's bartending," she said. "It's not brain surgery."

At the end of a night, Shares said the real payoff doesn't only come in U.S. dollars.

"Sometimes I just sit back and see the sloppiness in front of me," she said. "I look at the other bartender at the end of the night and just laugh because everyone's just swaying and bobbing. We see the interactions between people like who's going home with whom, who's in a fight. You see a lot bartending."

Danahy said that view is something she doesn't want to give up after graduation.

"I have people come up to me and say, 'I could never do that.' I love working here," she said. "I could bartend forever."
e-mail:spechtcj@sbu.edu