My First Night as a Barman – A Complete Disaster!
I was living in a high rise apartment in Carrington Street in the city and needed a 2nd job. I approached the husband of one of my Dad’s staff at the time, who happened to be the Manager of the Astor Hotel & Bull & Bear Hotels. I got the job and was given a 2 minute crash course on how to hold a tray and how to pour a beer by my mentor Grant. He is a no-nonsense guy with a very dry sense of humour and was the type of boss that just throws you into the role and you will learn the ropes.
I was given my first shift from 6pm – 10pm on a Thursday night, and on the night nervously walked along King William Street until I reached the basement level pub called The Bull & Bear. I was a bit toey and hoped I would do a good job, and would hopefully impress my co workers. Grant was not at the pub this night and told me to ask for Sophie when I arrived. I walked in the pub and Sophie came up to me looking a little stressed and said to me ” I am glad you are here, I have an intoxicated guy at the end of the bar and I need you to help me with him”. I responded eagerly with a “no problem”.
Sophie said ” can you just go up to that guy and tell him he can’t have any more alcohol”. I had no idea what I was facing but thought to myself ” I am a polite guy, I will just tell him he can’t have anymore alcohol, and offer him something else”. I didn’t realise the guy had been in the pub all afternoon, and also didn’t realise I was the only male staff member on shift. The guy had a goatie, a yellow t- shirt on and was a bit scruffy, but fairly scrawny. I went up to him and said ” G’day mate, how’s it going? Just thought I would let you know that I am not able to give you any more alcohol, but I can make you a cup of tea or get you a soft drink”. I had no idea of how this simple statement would be received and what drama it would cause.
The guy’s eyes lit up and he went berserk. He said ” you gotta be f%@kin kidding me you wan@er.” I thought to myself ” this isn’t going well, but I will stay polite”. He then picked up his bar stool and hurled it over the bar crashing into all the spirit bottles and breaking all the mirrors behind me as well. The guy certainly had my attention now and I was in shock. All I could say was ” take it easy, take it easy” with upward palms in a very defensive stance. This guy was really upset and he wasn’t finished yet. The entire bar went silent as they watched my reaction to this madman. I grabbed the phone and just hammered as many zeros into the phone as I could. I was freaking out, but wanted the guy to know that I was calling the police and they were on their way.Lucky for me Sophie had slipped into the kitchen and had rung the police separately, as my phone dialling was useless.
The silence in the pub was bizarre, it seemed like we were all in slow motion and all the patrons were holding their breath. What do they want me to do? Jump the bar and belt him? Restrain him? Or ignore him? Everything was going so fast in my mind and while I was thinking of my next move the guy leant over the bar, picked up the cash register, held it above his head then dumped it on the floor, totally destroying it and sending coins flying everywhere. He pushed over a few more bar stools then headed for the stairs. He ran halfway up then kicked in 3 very expensive Coopers Liquid filled neon signs.
This guy was outta control and jumped into a cab that was parked out the front of the pub. The police arrived a few minutes later but missed the offender. I was then told another police patrol tracked the cab down and had arrested the man within 5 minutes. I found out afterwards the guy was an out of work miner from Kalgoorlie on a bit of a downer. I then had to start the clean up while Sophie rang Grant to tell him the good news.
Grant turned up at the pub about 45 minutes later and had his poker face on. He came up to me while I was sweeping the broken glass into a dustpan and said ” busy night?” I said ” yeah, was a bit eventful….sorry about that!” . He estimated that we had about $8000 damage on my first night. The funny thing was that I had only been in the pub an hour or so and didn’t even get time to pour a single beer. I asked him if he wanted me to come back? He said …” I will let you know, maybe as a cleaner next time”.
It certainly was a baptism of fire and one I will never forget. I worked at the bar for another 3 months before I changed jobs and worked for Hungry Jacks.
