Sarah Morrissey has been a fixture of New York’s bartending scene for greater than 15 years, helming the cocktail applications at a number of the finest bars and eating places within the metropolis. Earlier than her present position as bar supervisor on the celebrated Le Veau d’Or, a Nineteen Thirties bistro lately reopened by cooks Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson, she labored at Frenchette, Ernesto’s, Expensive Irving and Dutch Kills, amongst others. Right here, Morrissey shares why, at this stage in her profession, she went in pursuit of a job at a sequence restaurant. 

—Chloe Frechette, government editor, Punch

That is an excerpt from our publication for the trade, Pre Shift. Subscribe for extra tales like this.

I’ve labored most of my grownup life in bars and eating places. Rising up in New Jersey, my first job was behind the counter on the native Dairy Queen, dumping twist cones in multicolored sprinkles and mixing up lots of of Blizzards for braces-clad Little Leaguers. I jumped on the probability to work at Il Palazzo pizza store, slinging slices and fountain Cokes. I used to be quickly promoted to cater waiter—sporting black pants and a white button-down, typically even white gloves—at their occasion house on the second flooring. Suppose weddings, Candy 16s and retirement events set to a soundtrack of Frank Sinatra. I used to be a number at Chili’s off of Route 23 proper earlier than the Willowbrook Mall. I beloved watching the bartenders make enormous batches of Margarita combine out of water and inexperienced powder, and spying on the servers arguing over who received the higher part.

In 2008, I moved to New York Metropolis, one thing I had all the time dreamed of doing. I labored in Irish bars, dives, espresso retailers, no-name eating places, something I might do to scrape by. I went by means of numerous pairs of Converse earlier than I might afford Danskos. I spent a very long time barbacking, carving ice, making syrups, chopping garnishes, hauling Kold-Draft and pebble ice up and down stairs. We received into arguments concerning the freshness of juice and spent hours tasting each model of rye available on the market. It was the second Golden Age of cocktails and I belonged to a bunch of nerds who cared solely about bettering the ingesting experiences of everybody we served. I used to be pretty sure my days working at chain eating places have been behind me.

Lots’s modified since 2008. I won’t be capable to do Fernet photographs like I used to, however I’ve turn out to be a really exact bartender who is aware of when friends wish to be taken care of and, extra importantly, once they wish to be left alone. I proudly work at some of the celebrated French eating places within the metropolis. So why was I now, at this level in my profession, critically contemplating working in a sequence restaurant?

I ought to make clear that this isn’t simply any chain. It’s not TGI Fridays or Applebee’s. It’s Hillstone, a bunch of eating places that has been working in a choose few American cities since 1977. Typically it travels below totally different names, however the menus are, for essentially the most half, deliciously acquainted. There’s sushi, burgers and steaks, salmon and ribs, and naturally the well-known Spinach & Artichoke dip. The wine record is small and primarily from California, with not a single orange or pét-nat in sight. And the bartenders could make a imply drink—they don’t jigger, they roll their drinks and shake their Martinis with no vermouth. It is without doubt one of the hardest reservations to get within the metropolis, proper up there with Carbone, as a result of folks love this place. On the finish of the day, nonetheless, it’s nonetheless a sequence.

However I took the recruiter’s name. Once they requested me, “Why do you wish to work right here?” I considered it for a minute and stated, “I desire a dependable future, I would like stability, I would like one thing new.” They begin their managers off with 90K a 12 months, full advantages and PTO. There’s upward mobility, assist with retirement funds, the choice to maneuver to totally different states and work with totally different groups. If you wish to be a bartender, you need to work a minimal of a 12 months on the ground to have the ability to be part of the bar workforce. You need to show your self.

When the time got here for me to path, I placed on my first-day “supervisor outfit”—loose-fitting black pants, black shirt and blazer, liquid black eyeliner and a not-too-bold lip. A part of being a [front-of-house] supervisor at Hillstone can be managing the [back of house] and the kitchen. I had by no means heard of this. In all of the eating places I’ve labored, cooks are the kings and FOH has no jurisdiction with them. There’s a kitchen supervisor, however the GM can be on the cross calling the tickets the way in which a chef would, similar to I’ve seen in traditional French eating places. However right here, every morning, the opening supervisor meets with the kitchen supervisor and tastes each single sauce, dressing, garnish and some dishes collectively, to make sure that they’re made completely and precisely the identical. I received to style with the chef that day; I spent 2.5 hours following him round and serving to open the restaurant. I reduce onions, segmented grapefruit, portioned out ribs and tried my hand at filleting salmon.

The restaurant lastly opened and there I used to be: chopping bread, flipping burgers, rubbing sauce on the ribs I had simply positioned on the grill and calling again orders. I used to be really working the road, watching the GM run the cross, the bartenders shake drinks and the servers run their very own meals. I knew this was a check and I used to be undoubtedly passing, however shouldn’t I spend extra time on the ground? I didn’t receives a commission for my path, however I did get a free lunch on the bar. I ordered the sandwich that I really like a lot and an iced tea. I requested to take a look at their beverage record, some gentle studying whereas I ate, and realized that they’d a Paper Airplane on the menu; some mixology snuck in. I watched the bartenders make rookie errors, however deal with their friends with real kindness. Many of the FOH had by no means labored in one other restaurant earlier than. They solely labored at this chain—they solely wished to work at this chain. The GM requested me if I believed I might be capable to match myself right into a restaurant that had very particular guidelines and requirements: “You continue to do it the restaurant’s manner, even when your manner is best,” he informed me. 

I discovered rather a lot that day—above all, that I don’t wish to work in a sequence restaurant. I’ve spent an excessive amount of time studying about cocktails, spirits, wine and meals, and that starvation to be taught and enhance received’t ever go away. I might by no means be the most effective model of myself there, simply fragments of myself. However the reality stays that I’m virtually 40 and there’s not that a lot I can present for myself in the way in which of regular grownup life. I don’t personal 3 % of any bar, I don’t have a podcast, I’m not consulting on a challenge in Tulum, I don’t have my very own canned cocktail—shit, I don’t really personal something. I work service in a single restaurant 5 days, 50-plus hours every week. However I do run my very own cocktail program and am an integral a part of the administration workforce. Will these lengthy hours of sacrifice and work making different folks’s goals come true be price it? I’m undecided, however I do know I’m going to work my ass off to make my prospects glad. If I can ship the identical manner that Hillstone artichoke dip does, I’ve received.

Photograph Credit score: Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Pictures