Ben Raskin

Category: Bar Life

  • Frequently Answered Questions at Keys On Main

    Frequently Answered Questions at Keys On Main

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    Ben Raskin
    in

    Last Wednesday was slow at the club. There was approximately 20 people in the room watching the dueling piano show. Unfortunate. Not because we didn’t sell a lot but because the show was really good. I usually don’t watch the show. More often than not, I’m too busy to enjoy the pianos. I hear the…

  • The Perfect Bar

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    Ben Raskin
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    It starts with a smell. Nothing is more important when stepping into a bar for the first time than how it smells. It should be musky, wet with just a hint of rot. There needs to be memories of perfume, bleach and dust in the air. Even bars that offer anything and everything you’d want…

  • Laryngitis Commando

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    Ben Raskin
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    The end is nigh. That’s fancy English speak for the ending is coming soon but I can’t know for sure. For the last three weeks, I have been disabled in the talking department with a case of laryngitis that has had me oscillating between Kathleen Turner and Tom Waits. Part of the time, I am…

  • White Girl Drunk

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    Ben Raskin
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    If asked what my favorite part of bartending is, I would answer quickly and with the utmost certainty. It isn’t the pile of cash tips in my bucket to be counted at the end of the night or the quickly sipped beer I put away while counting my earnings. It isn’t the thrill of pouring…

  • Fireball is for Losers

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    Ben Raskin
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    I don’t drink from pints nor do I consume from handles. Having limitations in your liquor consumption means having standards. That is not to say I won’t take a nip off your bottle or have a monkey pull from the handle—I’m not uptight or anything like that. I just think that it is better to…