Collegiate Times

Ryann Fowler, a bartender at Sharkeys, fills up a pitcher

"I'll have a pineapple mojito, two blue motorcycles, three dirty girl scouts, and sex with an alligator."

It's not exactly your grocery list. In fact, most people would have little idea what most of your requested items even are, let alone how to make them in mere minutes amidst a bar teeming with people all toting their own cryptic orders.

In fact, you might not even know exactly what you're asking for at times, but it's the bartenders who respond more often than not with immediate action to such a request.

It's what they do, so the knowledge has become innate and the desired result is simply a matter of execution.

This is the conclusion I've come to because it seems every time I go downtown, I hear more drinks I haven't heard of than ones I know.

It's one of those jobs where you watch the bartender make some fancy drink and say, "That looks like fun, and I bet I could make some money doing it, but I wonder if I could actually do it? What would it really be like to be on the other side of the bar?"

"It's not something you can read books about or take a class on," Sharkey's bartender Ryann Fowler said. "You could have been doing it for a month or for seven years and you still learn something new every day."

There are bartending schools or classes that focus on basic skills, such as cocktail recipes, how to use bar equipment, appropriate conduct and stocking a bar, as well as developing a working knowledge of local and state laws and training in recognizing and dealing with over-drinking.

These classes are voluntary and designed more to develop bartenders' mechanics than their performances, similar to college classes that focus on theory, law or ethics to give students a basic knowledge in their profession. Still, the best way for any of us to really learn what we're doing is to do it, Fowler said. When a chance presented itself, Fowler jumped behind the bar to see if she could swim.

Fowler said she began as a server at Sharkey's in 2004, and following her graduation from Virginia Tech in May, she was given the offer to tend bar.

"At the time, I was the first girl bartender in a while," Fowler said. "It was a great opportunity and a great paying job, so I took it."

She said she loves tending bar full time, but admitted that it's a different lifestyle than most people are used to.

She didn't seem to begrudge her odd hours, but joked about the way her schedule is so different from the ordinary workday. "When you get off at 4, 'til you wind down a little after work, you might not go to bed until 6 in the morning. Then," she laughs, "it's tough because you'll have someone call you in the early afternoon and wonder why you're sleeping, or you'll have to set your alarm to go to the bank."

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