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About the Author There simply is no easy way to explain author Ray DeGraw Jr.  People have been trying to do it for years, few have...

Chapter 16 You’re Welcome! I have been accused of many things in my life.  I have been told I am arrogant, brash, have a small shred of...

Chapter 15 $2.13 and the Art of the Tip In my 20 years of tending bar, it never ceased to amaze me how many people out there don’t know...

Chapter 14 There Are Only Ten Drinks  (Time to get technical!) There were three questions that always seemed to pop up from customers on...

Chapter 13 Millennial Madness The walls were slowly closing in on me.  Madness and depression were taking their grips on my once...

Chapter 12 The Great Escape, Part II In spite of my triumph over the Brothers Grimm, I couldn’t help but feel underappreciated.  I felt...

Chapter 11 All Good Things Must Come To an End Life can certainly be a funny thing sometimes.  Just when you’re up, something will come...

Chapter 10 Just What the Doctor Ordered I have found over the years that there is nothing more important than being prepared for your...

Chapter 9 The Help I have, in this short life, done it all.  I have worked for a newspaper, I have worked in construction, I have worked in retail, and god help me, I have worked in an office.  Out of all the occupations I have had, nothing compares to the people I have met while working in the food industry.  Food service workers come from all different backgrounds, all different occupations and span all different types of skill sets. Those who have your typical nine-to-fi

Chapter 8 Ownership In all my years of living on this planet we call Earth, I have never encountered a group of individuals who cry the blues more than restaurant owners.  The world is always out to get them.  The beer distributor is screwing them, the guy selling produce from the farm is jacking up his prices, coffee is through the roof, Uncle Sam just wants more and more and the damned liberals are sending us all to the poor house.   I personally have never worked for an

Chapter Seven The Cast Hipster Henry Well, if dealing with millennials isn’t bad enough, meet Hipster Henry.  A simple minded sheep whose beard hasn’t molted yet; he takes his daily vitamins via the best rootin’ tootin’ local IPA you got on tap!  When asked what he wants, he calmly runs his fingers through his two foot beard and spouts out as many big time words as he can muster.  When describing the latest beer with the chocolate raspberry notes and medium strength APV with

Chapter Six If You Build It, They Will Come Let’s face it, the true ambition in life is to find your significant other.  To find your true love, get married, knock boots as often as you can, and eventually raise some kids of your own.  After all, nobody gets out alive so if you don’t pass along your genepool to the next generation, your time in this universe is up!  It always amazes me that when you look close enough at the things you’ve accomplished or want to accomplish in

Chapter Five Zanzibar! It seems silly to me now as I think back to it...you know, “throwing” away my "so-called" career and a college degree.  I can’t even imagine what friends and family thought, let alone my poor mother.  She was always there for me though, and let me just kind of figure things out on my own.  I was the fifth kid in the family and the only boy; all my other sisters had moved out of the house and become successful in one way or another with families of thei

Chapter Four The Great Escape The first couple of shifts weren’t the easiest, which is always the case when you start working a new bar.  Learning the bottle placements, glassware, menu and register (not to mention all the little quirks of a new restaurant).  It also took time to learn the dos and do-nots with the new staff and ownership. Then there was dealing with the special treatment of certain everyday regulars.  But it was also tough on my legs.  Sitting and vegetatin

Chapter 3 Another Bump in the Road When growing up, my father and I loved watching Cheers together on Thursday nights.  Seems a bit odd to think my dad would be promoting a show about drinking, loneliness and alcoholism, but it really wasn’t about that.  It was all about the characters and their individual stories and what made this group of loveable losers find each other in the dank basement bar amongst the brownstones of Boston. It showed us that despite what we were, or

Chapter Two Life of the Party I guess I always pictured tending bar as throwing a party every night and getting paid for it.  Quite...

Life Behind Bars (Everything you did and didn't want to know about the restaurant industry) By Raymond DeGraw Jr. To my wife, Kathy, for always believing in me no matter how crazy or harebrained my schemes seemed to be.  For always encouraging my want and desire to be a bartender, and for knowing that happiness is not a big house, a flashy car or a week in the islands every year.  Oh, yes, and for letting me retire in my mid-30’s!  I’ll make it up to you sooner or later!  I p