6 Local Bartenders We Love

Favorite Cocktail To Make: Negroni: It's the perfect combination of bitter, sweet, and botanical. Favorite Cocktail To Drink: Moscow Mule. Favorite Beer To Drink: 3 Floyd's "Zombie Dust". It's a mind-blowing beer. Most Popular Beer You Serve: Pabst Blue Ribbon. Favorite Bar in Cleveland/Akron: Annabel's, Akron. Favorite Patio: The Upper Deck, Portage Lakes. Best Happy Hour: Ray's Place, Akron. Craziest Thing That's Happened While You've Been Serving: An irate patron attacked me with her stiletto heel. Celebrities Served: The Vice President of NY's Hell's Angels, Evan Rachel Wood, Lady Dime (Dimebag Darrell's wifey). Most Expensive Tab: I don't know they exact number, but it was around a grand. A middle aged couple came to Devon Seafood Grill in Hershey, PA, where I was bartending. She asked for the most expensive liquor we had. At the time it was Louis XIII de Remy Martin, a cognac, which we served for $110 an ounce. She threw back shots of that and gave her husband a look which just dared him to ask her to stop. He sat there silently, completely cowed. He must have really, really screwed up. Biggest Tip: As a former NYC bartender, let's just say that the best tips weren't always monetary. Favorite Thing To Do When Not Drinking: Cooking, bike riding, and imagining my two cats on a tandem bicycle.

Favorite Cocktail to Make: An Old Fashion, a Lemon Buck or a Ginger, which is my spin on an Old Fashion - basically anything that starts with muddling ingredients and ends with bourbon. To drink: A Manhattan, yes with bourbon. Favorite Bar: It depends. I like hanging out at Ferris Steak House, my favorite place to catch a game is Grayton Rd. Tavern and I love Fatheads. I don't drink beer, but Derek makes one of my all-time favorite sandwiches and they have a bowling machine! Happy Hour: Well, since I work almost every Friday happy hour I'm going to say The Blonde - $5 martinis, wine & cocktails, almost everything on our list, not just a limited selection. Patio: I know it's not a bar but Guarino's in Little Italy is beautiful. Funniest thing: I worked at Howl at the Moon in the Flat's during its heydays and have witnessed some pretty outrageous behavior, most of which I can't repeat, but the bachelorette parties were always good for entertainment. The drama with those women rivals that of any Bravo Housewives reality show! One hint girls: liquor is truth serum, so never over drink at a bachelorette party. Admitting to the bride that you've slept with the groom is not a good thing when you're both drunk. Entertaining for the bar staff, yes, but it’s my guess the $200 you spent on the bridesmaid dress was a waste of money. Celeb: Sure, I've waited on my fair share of celebrities, bu they never really phased me. But one night Howie Mandel stopped in HATM after a performance at the Improv; my parents also came in that night. Howie was very low key, hanging back by the bar. You wouldn't have recognized him -- he was just in jeans, a T-shirt and a bandana. My mom came in and stood right next to him for about 20 minutes until she recognized him and screamed really loud, "Oh my god, you’re Howie Mandel!" He screamed just as loud, "Oh my god, your Kim's mom!" That still cracks me up. Most expensive tab: Not the most expensive but one of the most memorable: Two guys from L.A. that thought they were big shots and bought every woman in the bar "whatever they wanted.” They ended up with a ridiculous tab and didn't really meet anyone. Sorry guys, but men can be so stupid. Biggest Tip: Again, not the biggest but special: Bartenders usually don't take time off unless it’s an important occasion -- we hate to lose the money. When my husband and I were first dating he tipped me enough so I would take a Saturday night off to go out with him. That was sweet.