Going with the flow

Amid the drunken yelling, waving dollar bills and throngs of partygoers, Chapel Hill’s bartenders keep the customers happy and the alcohol flowing, working their way through the town’s booming night life.

“Our job is to be nice — to make people feel good and comfortable,” said Chad Lloyd, Top of the Hill’s bar manager. “That’s why the bartender is usually everyone’s favorite person.”

In a job that boasts lucrative pay and late hours — starting when most people are headed home for the day — these night owls often deal with the best and the worst Chapel Hill has to offer.

“It’s fast money, not easy money,” said Derrick Pertell, a bartender at Linda’s Bar and Grill.

Others stressed that the pace of Chapel Hill’s bar scene makes them work hard for their pay.

“It’s very hectic in a college town,” said Jason, a bartender at East End Oyster & Martini Bar who would only reveal his first name. “People are out to get very drunk instead of just out for one drink. It’s a totally different atmosphere.”

But some say it is that very atmosphere that makes tending bar in a college town so much more enjoyable.

“It’s always different,” said Erik Stubbs, a four-year He’s Not Here bar veteran. “There’s a wide selection of drunk people in a college town, so the people and faces are always changing.”

Often, the drunken antics of this kaleidoscope of bar crawlers provide bartenders with the amusement they need to get through the long nights.

“I was trying to kick a New Zealand rugby team out one night because it was 2:30 a.m., and they started serenading me,” Stubbs said. “I guess they thought that if they sang to me I’d let them stay. It was hilarious.”

Women flash them for free drinks; men wave $50 and $100 bills in their faces for service after 2 a.m., Lloyd said. Once, Eric Gossett, a bartender at Goodfellas, sold the shirt off his back to a man for $75.

And Pertell ended up with a light blue bracelet one night in exchange for changing the radio station — bartenders never know just what their night will bring.

Mark Burnett, a veritable institution after 27 years behind the bar at He’s Not Here, said that even though people sometimes go a little bit crazy, it’s all in good fun in Chapel Hill.

“I remember the last basketball championship we won,” Burnett said. “People were naked, painted blue and hanging in the trees. But there’s no meanness here — it’s really pretty docile. People are partying, not going out and tearing stuff up.”

Not all drunken hijinks are as entertaining, though, and bartenders have their own lists of annoying customer habits.

Stubbs put belligerent underage drinkers at the top of his list. “Everyone with a fake ID has their own story, and they assume you’re a moron,” Stubbs said. “We don’t get mad when they try to sneak in, but when they argue, it gets kind of old.”

Amy Anderson, a Goodfellas bartender, said people’s attention-getting tactics both amuse and annoy her.

“It’s just funny to see the different ways that people try to get our attention,” she said, laughing. “The tapping of the credit card is one of my favorites to watch, but it’s so annoying when people wave money at you.

“And don’t touch the bartender. There’s a bar between us for a reason.”

What, then, after the last customer has stumbled out and the final empty bottle has been thrown away, has the staying power to keep bartenders coming back for more?

“I like people. I like young people, and it’s fun,” Burnett said.

“It’s also a nice camaraderie,” he added.

“When you start working at a bar, you go out with those people, so you have the ‘He’s Not crew’ and the ‘Lucy’s crew’ and the ‘Goodfellas crew,’ whatever. There’s always a late night somewhere, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.