NY Diary #1- Bartenders

Life beyond the bottle

In New York bartenders are never just bartenders. It's usually a second job for budding artists, actors and writers, to keep their rent and bills paid. Behind the bar, every bartender in the city hides a stash of hopes, dreams, and sometimes some real talent to boot. While you're drinking your beer, try offering a casual "what's up, man?". It won't be long before they give in to the temptation to reveal their true identity, declaring their ambitions to any who will listen.

Megan, at the Shade Bar in West Village, has a dozen or so visible piercings, and numerous highly original tattoos, including a reproduction of Salvador Dalí's 'The Great Masturbator', which covers an entire shoulder and forearm. She's always got something up her sleeve: in addition to writing pulp stories full of Kafkaesque surrealism (it is no mere coincidence that one of her eight cats is called Samsa), she writes scripts for underground shows, and is the creator of psychedelic glass sculptures as well as a poet and performer.

Not far away, just a block from NYU (New York University), we come across the V Bar, unquestionably the top haunt for aspiring-actor bartenders. Well-worn leather boots, variously-torn close-fitting jeans, T-shirts with a strategically-placed hole here and there, and big woollen beanies down to their eyebrows. This is the typical 'distressed look' both of the V Bar's customers - mostly spoilt-brat students at NYU - and of the penniless actor-bartenders. The V Bar is definitely a cool place for cool people, but a word of warning: don't be alarmed if you're there on a date, and the barman suddenly turns around and says "Hey, you! Get your damn hands off her!" He's not talking to you. He's just practising his lines for the latest in a long string of independent film he's worked on.

If you've missed an episode of the final season of Lost, simply call into the XR Bar in Soho for a Brooklyn Lager, served in a tankard by strapping Brooklyn good-guy John. With his 220 lbs of charm and wit, when he is not serving beer, he writes for cinema and TV. Feel free to ask him for a summary of the episode, he's a veritable encyclopaedia of script and screenplay knowledge.

Lately, following the recession, a new breed of bartenders has emerged in the city. If you come across someone who takes ten minutes to make you a mojito, it may well be a manager from some multinational firm, laid off as part of company downsizing efforts. In these lean times, the month's tips will at least cover the mortgage on the house in the Hamptons. If you happen to go for a drink in the city, try stopping to chat with the person serving you. You never know, you might be rubbing shoulders with the author of the next New York Times bestseller, or the artist about to create waves at the MoMA. And whatever happens, you can be sure you'll get to hear a remarkable life story.

Nick Landucci