Calling all the shots

Aubrey Henry

Editor’s Note: This week marks the third, and final, week the news and features sections examine the role of alcohol in the lives of college students.

Constant activity, bustle and chatter are typically part of the experience Thursday nights at the Howe Avenue Chili’s bar and grill. Behind the bar a sturdy, friendly-looking man with short brown hair zips back and forth between customers, simultaneously concocting drinks while effortlessly maintaining rapport.

“How’s it going fellas, what can I get you?” he asks a small group of men who settle down in front of the bar.

His accent is unmistakably British, but the men, adorned in ball caps and other sporty attire, don’t appear to notice it. The group responds with closely staggered volleys of cheerful-sounding “Hey Danny” and inquisitive “What’s up man?”

Daniel Freer, originally of Leicester, England, responds with a warm grin that speaks volumes in itself. The senior finance major has been bartending at Chili’s for more than three years and enjoys his job tremendously. Although he’s found success in bartending in the way of healthy earnings and balancing it with his college responsibilities, Freer has cautious advice for students envisioning themselves trading their days on the grind for cocktails and wine.

The veteran “mixologist” stresses that getting a job behind the bar is a lot like applying for jobs attractive to large groups of people.

“It’s all about who you know and experience,” Freer said adamantly. “These bartending colleges where they say you can get your bartending degree and then go downtown. It’s just a bunch of bull.”

Freer previously worked at Chili’s in the Bay Area city of Pleasanton, where instead of working behind the bar, he worked on the restaurant floor as a server.

“I served for a little bit-you ultimately want to be a bartender,” Freer said. “It was about three months after I turned 21 that I became a bartender.”

Freer said serving is akin to a rite of passage for prospective bartenders going to work in restaurants, particularly corporate chains.

“Pretty much all the corporate restaurants promote from within,” Freer said. “Bartenders have to know the menu and the specials still. That’s why I call it being a ‘glorified server.'”

Being that he once had dreams of being a soccer star, bartending wasn’t always a focal point of Freer’s day-to-day lifestyle. Before he ended his soccer career with the Hornets in 2000, “taking a shot” held an entirely different meaning to the aspiring baller.

“I did good until I got to Sac State,” Freer said with a chuckle. “I got MVP of my high school league and first team all-conference in my junior college, so I thought I’d go on and be a soccer star somewhere. I just kind of came back to reality here.”

After an admittedly disappointing season, Freer decided to re-focus his energies on his educational goals as well as finding a decent-paying job. He was reluctant to revisit his old occupation at first.

“For some reason I just didn’t want to go back and work at Chili’s,” Freer said. “I applied at a few different places and then just decided it’s something I know and it’s something I’m good at so I went back.”

With his current shifts typically ending around midnight during the weekdays, Freer is left with ample time to study for classes, run errands or just catch up on sleep.

“It’s great hours. I work four days a week and I make more than $20 per hour,” Freer said a with smile. “It gives me plenty of time to study.”

The benefit of working in an entertainment-based nighttime setting has yielded social benefits to Freer as well.

“You meet so many cool people,” Freer said while mixing a cocktail. “My girlfriend and I met here.”

Along with his learned bar skills, Freer’s generally positive attitude lends itself to his current profession so much his routine could appear overly easy to the uninformed. According to Freer, working behind a bar is a matter of time management. While schmoozing with customers could be fun, and potentially earn you a better tip, the other responsibilities of the position can’t be ignored.

“You’ve got to be able to multitask,” Freer said in a serious tone. “You’re given a lot of responsibility and some people can’t balance between working and talking.”

Besides constantly keeping up with the customer’s drink and food orders, keeping the bar area clean and keeping track of bar stock, Freer must also be aware of what’s going on around him.

“You have to monitor people,” Freer said. “If you get somebody drunk and you let them get visibly, completely trashed and they get in a car, drive off and hurt somebody you can be held responsible. The same goes for minors. You’ve got to card everybody and have a card for every drink.”

Although he has lived in the United States for quite some time now, the cultural differences between the bars and bar-goers in the U.S. and U.K. are still glaringly apparent to him.

“This country is so service-oriented that you tip for everything,” Freer said between orders. “That’s at least a dollar per drink, whereas in England, you don’t tip at all.”

The social climate within the bars he’s visited in both countries is another difference Freer has noticed.

“Here, you go into a bar and everybody’s in their groups and kind of stick with people they go with,” Freer said. “In England you go there and everybody’s sort of milling around talking, having a good time, but I think that has a lot to do with the size of the town I lived in.”

Freer said friends visiting him from England are consistently surprised by the behaviors some American drinkers exhibit.

“They just can’t believe how many people drink and drive here,” Freer says. “I’ll take them to bars or parties, and then they see people get in their cars and drive off and it blew them away. Everyone in England takes taxis or takes the bus or walks to the local pub over there, but the punishment is pretty much the same.”

He believes England’s legal drinking age of 18 and a more relaxed attitude toward alcohol are part of the reason drinking and driving isn’t the huge issue in England it is here.

“People are more responsible because they’re exposed to it at a younger age,” Freer said. “It’s nothing new and you don’t have to do it under wraps. To have to wait ’til you’re 21, it’s ridiculous. You can go off to die for your country here, but you can’t have a beer afterwards.”

The party of men in ball caps gets up to leave and bids Freer farewell with the same enthusiasm they exhibited in their greetings. As soon as their seats are empty, several more customers slide into the briefly vacant seats. Freer grins and greets them immediately and then takes their orders. Although he undoubtedly knows his way around a bar, Freer is slightly less certain about plans after he graduates.

“I don’t know what I want to do with it,” Freer said of his upcoming finance degree.

After pondering the idea for a few seconds his eyes light up.

“I want to get a job, that’s what I want to do,” Freer said with a laugh.

It’s quite possible more than a few of his customers hope he sticks with the one he’s got.

Aubrey Henry can be reached at [email protected]

Check out the other stories in our alcohol coverage:

Once upon a drunk dial: Late-night, intoxicated phone calls remain popular with college students.

Police target underage drinking.

Dial up a designated driver with Safe Rides.

Alcohol sales up to individual CSU campuses.