In this week's behind the bar interview, Colt & Gray's Kevin Burke weighs in on how he started bartending, his favorite spot to blind taste spirits and the Mustache Series.
courtesy of Kevin Burke
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Jonathan Greschler, who recently landed behind the bar at Fuel Cafe, started bartending right after college. "I was in North Carolina working at a microbrewery," he remembers. "The guys behind the bar were older than me, and they took me under their wing. We had an advantage, because it was a microbrewery so we were already snobby. Cocktails were a natural step."
courtesy of Jonathan Greschler
When Justin Lloyd inked the deal on Star Bar almost two years ago, he hadn't been behind a bar for fifteen years. His bartending skills, he admits, were a little rusty. "I bought Star Bar because I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny, but without being on the ground floor, you lose the connections -- you forget the tricks, he says. "I think it's important to be involved, though. It's something I really enjoy, but I hadn't done it on a daily basis for about fifteen years."
Michael Cerretani, barman at Boulder's Bitter Bar, has been bartending off and on for about a decade, but he didn't start down the craft-cocktail path until he landed a job at Bitter Bar a few years ago. 
courtesy of Michael Cerretani
If you're looking for a proper tiki drink in Denver -- you know, a Polynesian-themed sour rum cocktail that soared to popularity in the 1940s and 1950s -- Matty Durgin, barman at Madison Street, is your man. He's built a fan following for his tiki drinks, which he showcases once a week on Tiki Tuesday.
courtesy of Matty Durgin
Ryan Conklin, certified Cicerone and head barman at Euclid Hall, doesn't think his reasons for going into bartending were very different from what motivates other professionals in the industry. "Like a lot of bartenders, you just kind of have some sort of drive to it, whether that's getting behind the bar before you turn 21 and pouring a couple of beers, or being a kid and mixing together orange juice and lemonade or pouring a suicide from the soda machine," he explains. "You know you like mixing things together and seeing what you come up with. I think everyone knows early on."
courtesy of Ryan Conklin
This year will be my 25th New Year's Eve behind the bar.
My last post of 2010 was an amateur's guide to navigating New Year's Eve successfully, and those tips are still relevant for anyone planning a night on the town. But this year, I have a half-dozen tips for those of us who will be behind the bar:
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Growing up, I was a fat kid -- things haven't changed -- and I looked forward to egg nog every Christmas. I would drink tons of the stuff -- thinking, "It's milk, so it's good for you, right?" It wasn't until years later, during one of my thinner periods, that I actually looked at the nutritional information on the carton of egg nog....and holy shit! There's a lot of fat and cholesterol in there. In my warped imbiber's reality, I decided that adding booze cut down on all of that. So every Christmas, I'd get some cognac and add it to the egg nog. Healthier, right? No. But it tasted great, and made me feel even better. 
Then, about ten years ago, I was at a friend's house for a holiday party, and he was serving a Tom & Jerry punch.
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Kelly Wooldridge, beverage director and sommelier at the recently opened Trillium, was still in high school when he felt the first stirrings of interest in professional bartending. 
courtesy of Kelly Wooldridge
"There was this guy, Willie Grandison, at the American Restaurant in Kansas City," he explains. "This bartender had been there since the restaurant opened. I met him in 2002, and he had been there for almost thirty years. He was a Playboy bartender of the year, and he had this incredible joy for tending bar and being there with his customers every day. It was one of my first experiences with the hospitality of bartending. I was in high school so I couldn't drink, but I was so intrigued by the guy and his following."
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Is Denver just a pathetic, Midwestern version of Portland? That debate is raging across westword.com, particularly in the comments section after "Fifteen reasons why young people move to Colorado," but this city's beer lovers stand by their taps. 
Beer-loving Governor John Hickenlooper arrives at his post-inauguration party last January.
Says Max:
