Strength, charisma, composure, rapid-decision making — all on little sleep — are all-too-often what make up a typical shift for many service industry professionals among popular nightlife venues in Ottawa.
And student patrons may be surprised to learn many of the bars and clubs they frequent are staffed by their own classmates.
“They don’t realize it’s other students like them who hold this together,” says Gary Fine, Carleton student and bar manager of the Liquor Store Party Bar on York Street, located in the Byward Market.
Fine, 23, is a multi-faceted Carleton psychology student, currently writing his honours thesis in preparation for grad school and gaining field experience at the Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research.
“Getting up for morning classes is a nightmare,” Fine says.
The fourth-year says he is under pressure 24/7 as a bar manager, and the stress from his job can sometimes take its toll.
“[The hardest thing] for me is there is constant stress, no sleep,” he says.
“Your attention is constantly being asked of you.
“Meanwhile there’s music pounding and stimulating your limbic system at all times,” Fine says.
Like many service industry professionals, Fine has worked his way up the ladder from the young age of 17 — from hosting, to serving, to bartending, to promoting and marketing, and now bar managing.
In the past six years, and now as manager of one of the most popular weekend party destinations in Ottawa, Fine says he’s “seen it all.”
Fine says he sees regular fights both in and outside the building, as well as major vandalism to the club, which he says has become a serious problem.
“[They] tear apart the venue — the other night someone tore out a hand dryer,” he says.
While Fine says he is lucky to have a team of staff to defuse most of these issues, he says he wishes student patrons were more aware of the repercussions of their behaviour when drinking.
For Carleton aerospace engineering student Matt Aalbers, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays are spent running the show at Barrymore’s Music Hall on Bank Street — a 460 patron-capacity venue.
Aalbers says he does everything he can to remain active as a manager.
Bartending staff must be supervised for the level of service they are delivering to patrons and whether they are refusing service when patrons are intoxicated, while security staff must comply with safety protocol and treat patrons respectfully, Aalbers says.
“When you hear about a bar getting sued, everyone gets hit,” he says. “Everyone’s open to liability.”
Which makes his job difficult since patron misconduct occurs often, he says, and issues erupt almost every shift.
Tracy Lacroix, an articulate and professional woman with thick-framed glasses, is one of the bar and restaurant managers at The Fox and The Feather Pub and Grill on Elgin.
LaCroix has worked her way up within the service industry for 19 years.
Over those years, she says she has gained respect but experienced the brunt of some serious public service challenges along the way.
“People don’t think that this is a real-life job,” Lacroix says. “They kind of look down on you. [They] have no idea.”
More often than Fine and Aalbers, Lacroix says she typically caters to an older, more established clientele.
However, in a similar light, nightly routines tend to involve defusing conflict, explaining policy and exercising constant social responsibility.
“I never sit still,” she says.
Lacroix says she once encountered a male patron who spit in her face when she explained he was being denied service as he was evidently over the legal limit.
But regardless of what happens, there’s always another drink to serve and fight to break up — and class in the morning.