I was briefly skimming this mildly interesting article in the Globe and Mail about bitters, when I came across something in the comments — a reference to a bartender as a “bartista.” Commingling, of course, “bartender” and “barista” (there’s a word for that sort of smushing together of words, but I can’t think of it at the moment) it perfectly captures the haughtiness of some of the bartenders who take themselves too seriously.
There was an online argument I almost posted about a couple of weeks ago — can you, or should you, order a cheap drink like a Jack-and-Coke at a place that specializes in fancy cocktails? One side of the argument is that it would be like ordering a Big Mac at a steakhouse. The other side of the argument is that, if the bartender has the ingredients, he or she should make whatever you order — their job is different from that of a chef.
Personally, if I feel like something particular, I’d like to be served that — or at least, the local version of that. That’s why most steakhouses (heck, most restaurants) will have a burger section on their menu. But I’m also not a rude jerk-off, and if the bartender has serious skillz, then I’d like to see what he or she could do with a simple mixed drink.
But some people, once they have a little bit of knowledge, quickly devolve into holier-than-thou pricks about it. That’s why it rubs a lot of people the wrong way when a $6-an-hour high school kid in their after-school job gets to be called “barista.” That’s like a “sandwich artist” — yeah, right.
And that’s why, as the craft cocktail and micro-distillery movement continues to rocket off into the stratosphere (and, god love me, I approve of rediscovering classic cocktails, and I would kill to open my own micro-distillery) I nominate “bartista” as word of the moment.
The Globe and Mail article, by the way, doesn’t really get into anything all that interesting, except it mentions that a lot of craft bartenders are now making their own bitters, rather than relying on a company like Angostura to make it for them. I’m *still* having trouble finding a reliable source of Angostura bitters, but I was super happy at Christmas to get three bottles of a bitters called Underberg, which are similar (enough).
Grant Hamilton
5 Responses to “Word of the moment — ‘bartista’”
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“Portmanteau”.
Thanks! Not remembering was wrecking my brain. You ever tried to Google for a word just by typing in definitions? It doesn’t always work.
I have, and it never works the way you hope it will. But sometimes you wake up from an hour’s worth of digressions and think, I still don’t know the damn word, but man I learned a lot of other, almost-related stuff…
If Elvis could order a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich wherever he went, you can surely order a jack and coke at even the finest of establishments. But then again, he was the King.
Just make sure it’s Jack Daniels, because trust me, you want no part of a whisky that goes by the moniker “Yukon Jack”.