Behind the Bar with Megan Gerlach

Story by Sandie Young | Photos by Kate Alexander
Athens is notorious for its late night lifestyle. Every weekend students break from the books and head to the Court Street bar scene. Lines spill out onto the streetas popular bars hit capacity. However, we tend to forget the people who make it happen: the bartenders. Mixology is just a fraction of what they do. Their stories often go untold and forgotten, overshadowed by the haze of alcoholic beverages.

You can see Megan Gerlach bartend at the Red Brick Sports Pub and Grillon Court Street. With thick dark hair, a big smile and the personality to match, Megan has been bartending at Red Brick since last March. She began as a shot girl and quickly made her way behind the bar. Megan told Backdrop a little bit about her life as a bartender.

SY: What is it like to bartend?

MG: It's the opposite side of what you're used too. Like once you're used to bartending and then you go on the opposite side, it's so different because you just want to go back there and make your own drinks but you can't.It's just looking at it from the other side, looking at it from the other point of view.

    
SY: What do you deal with during your late night shifts?MG: You have your typical college student that comes in drunk and orders like $100 worth of stuff and then they come back and they're like 'Oh did I really do that?' You've got your students that barf everywhere. You have your ones that flirt and think they have every chance in the world to get with you at the end of the night. Or you also have the kind where they're like, 'So, my name is so and so. Can I have what shot you want and keep one for yourself baby doll.' So one of my nicknames around the bar is doll. I'm the doll at Red Brick.    
SY: People call you that?

MG: Yeah a bunch of the regular guys, they're like 'you're such a doll. You're my doll. You're my new favorite bartender. You're my doll.'"

SY: Sounds like you have some admirers. Does it affect your schoolwork?

MG: It's so hard. I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. I startedbartending and you're up until 3 or 4:30 in the morning still cleaning up the bar and then you have to get up for like an 8 or 9 o' clock morning class and you're so, so out of it. You're just so tired and don't feel like concentrating. It just makes everything twice as hard.

SY: Understandable. Do you think you have to have a certain persona to bartend?

MG: You totally have to be a people person.

SY: When you're bartending, do you find yourself acting any different than the usual?

MG: I'm pretty much myself when I'm bartending, considering I'm a people person anyways. I like to talk and meet people but it

   
depends on the night, depending on how crazy the night is. Usually I'm pretty much the same person. It just depends on how much money I'm planning on making that night, like I know that sounds bad but sometimes you've got to flirt with certain people so you can get a tip out of them.

SY: Well, how would you describe yourself?

MG: Creative, talkative and me.

SY: Me?

MG: Like I am who I am.

SY: Any words of advice?

MG: You've just pretty much got to learn to deal with everybody's joking around and seriousness. You've got to learn to tell which one is which.

SY: Do you have any specialties?

MG: I have three of them. I have Cloud Nine, I have Sexy Megan and I have
Spring Break. Those are my signatures.

SY: What's in a Cloud Nine?

MG: You have to come to find out…