Survival Of The Fittest
This nugget of information was posted on 11/05/10 at 10:26 am by Lee and is filed under A View From The Bar.
Hello, I’m Lee, a bartender at MOJO Leeds. A ‘bartender’ is someone who makes a few drinks but more importantly has mopped up every kind of human liquid and I’ve certainly had that luxury.
This is the first of a series of articles and rants about life within my industry, starting from us all taking a deep breath when the ominously titled ‘credit crunch’ was announced, delivering an uncertain future.
Many venues have been bordered up and you can’t help but wonder…why are we still here?
Could this be a ‘biblical bar cleansing’? A chance to start afresh without middle of the road bars? Don’t get me wrong, there have been losses on the good side, the odd Ale house we used to frequent (but for some reason recently neglected) has gone and we raise our tankards to you, martyrs of the holy grog! However, most places have closed because they lack the heart of a good booze merchant…character!!!
We want venues with interesting artefacts not plastic copies of some random watercolour. Good music, whatever your taste (every genre has a golden centre). Real people serving, not mindless drones afraid of showing one shred of individuality. All these simple basics are the most commonly discarded.
Venues that may consider themselves the underdogs need to stick to their guns, craft identities and be proud to do their one thing very well. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a pub crawl consisting of nothing but top notch bars? We may be left with fewer venues but this surely means a better night out will be had by all…Bartenders and customers alike.
