I decided to follow the work and travel advice of a best friend and my sister and take a job slinging bottles here in Buenos Aires. Although i’m not a big Tom Cruise fan, his role in the 1988 box office classic, Cocktail, inspired me to pursue this new venture.
Thanks to my basketball buddy Anibal, I started bartending at Buller Pub in Recoleta last night. The staff was awesome, although 80% of them only spoke Spanish. The customers were a mix of English speaking tourists and spanish speaking porteños. I think this is going to be a great place for me to network, practice my Spanish and learn some local cocktails! I’m also very excited about seeing the inner-workings of a foreign business, restaurant and kitchen.
Within the first 5 minutes of arriving yesterday, it was determined that Gareth wasn’t going to fly. It was too difficult to say in Spanish, yet alone English… “what, Garfield?” So, I opted for with my first name, Andrew (Andreas) and it stuck. My alter-ego is now Andreas the Bartender.
Needless to say, when I finished up at about 2:30 last night my head was spinning from everything I had to absorb: Spanish, cocktails, food and everyone’s name! Luckily the girl who trained me last night spoke very good English. However, tonight is a different story. I was told the guy training me tonight doesn’t speak a bit of English… interesting.
Regardless, this is already better than my days of “bartending” at Applebee’s in Dunkirk, NY. For starters, I don’t have to ask every customer if they would like to try our “Perfect Margarita”. And, at Appleebee’s they would limit people to 4 or 5 beers a night, where as at Buller they have a wall-of-fame behind the bar for whomever can polish off at least 18 pints in one sitting! This one has your name all over it dad.
I realized this was the place for me when the night ended with a full-fledged water war between waiters, bartenders and management.
I guess we’ll see what happens.
Hey, this may seem random or an odd question or maybe you have been asked this a few times. I’m curious as to whether when you went to Argentina did you enter in on a Tourist Visa or did you get a Working Visa? I am asking because I am going to be studying in Argentina (going in a few days) and living there until the end of next July. I have been told by my University back here (in the UK) that I can enter in and study on a Tourist Visa, but have to exit the country every 90 days and then re-enter. I want to know would I be able to work on a Tourist Visa? If you do not know the answer that is fine. Thanks.