Spilling Secrets

A bartender opens up about what it’s really like to spend your nights as a therapist/wingman/entertainer/best friend for an entire roomful of inebriated New Yorkers.

Photos by Eunice Choi

The unspoken agreement states that patrons are ordering that next drink and staying a little longer because they’re having so much fun, not because they don’t want to go home to an angry spouse, or worse, to an empty apartment. Their sad stories are for your entertainment and shared with incredulity, not out of a desperate need for someone to talk to. With a good bartender, that illusion is never shattered, and the patrons get the healing they really need. The casual conversations about their lives provide an outlet so they can go home free of anger. The advice offered as a natural part of the discourse actually helps them figure out what to do.