Issuu

Open bar

Winging it

SOund deciSiOnS

BaRs

CLuBs

e d i gu 2018

a special supplement to the reno news & review

RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide

03.08.18

A speCiAl supplemeNt to ReNo News & Review

2018

BaRs

CLubs

Guide W h at a r e y o u l o o k i n g f o r i n t h e b o t t o m o f t h at g l a s s ?

elcome to our 2018 Bars & Clubs Guide. I know I say this about a lot of guides, but this is one of my favorites. And in a drinking town like Reno, why wouldn’t it be? The local bar scene is vibrant these days, from downtown to midtown and pretty much all across the valley. Really, regardless of what you’re looking for, there’s a bar to fit your needs. But what are you looking for? That’s the question at the heart of this year’s Bars & Clubs Guide. What do we want out of our bar experiences? If you happen to be looking for love at the bar, there’s a story in this guide that may be of interest to you. Regular contributor Matt Bieker did some reading on classy ways to use a wingperson and tested a few out on the town. You can read that story on page 14. If, on the other hand, you’re just looking for entertainment, turn to page 17 for a story about Reno’s mainstay music venue bars. Of course, you may actually be looking for something a bit more low-key. In that case, read contributor Fil Corbitt’s story about his search for a bar without TVs on page 6. And if all you want are a few good stories about bars, we’ve got those, too. Over on page 21, you can read about what bartenders say they get out of their work. And on page 10, there’s a story about Jungle owner Matt Polley’s aspirations to keep his bar thriving in downtown Reno. And turn to page 4 to read about the reopening of a longtime Reno favorite—Corrigan’s Bit O’ Ireland on Wells Avenue. Also, thanks to RN&R Contributor Eric Marks for our cover photo of K J Flippen at Z Bar. Happy reading, and, please, drink responsibly. Don’t drive. Cheers, Jeri Chadwell Special Projects Editor

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RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide

opeN

baR By JeRi ChAdwell

jeric@newsreview.com

C orrig an’s Bi t o’ i re l and reope ns

n Jan. 1, 2017, a Facebook post from Corrigan’s Bit who’d ever spent time there Richard Jackson, Rebel hooper and O’ Ireland announced that after 30 years on South in the past, the bar wouldn’t donal Caldwell stand in front of Wells Avenue, the bar had lost its lease and would feel all that different. Corrigan’s Bit o’ ireland holding a painting of the bar’s past patrons. close, effective immediately. “Our aim is not to photo/JeRi ChAdwell The post was shared 43 times and commented on by be some kind of upscale dozens of people, who recounted their memories of the bar, mixologist bar,” Jackson asked to retrieve mementos and knickknacks, expressed said. “We want to keep the spirit of the old bar and just clean condolences, and bemoaned the loss of their favorite place to it up. I think we’re going to definitely succeed in that and get Underburg and Guinness. probably grow a few new customers and a lot of old customOn July 6, 2017, another post was made on Corrigan’s ers who are anxious for us to get open.” Facebook page. This one said to “keep faith” because a rebirth But old customers won’t be the only ones returning when was in the near future. Now, the bar reopens. According to seven months on, that rebirth is Hooper, he was ecstatic to the close at hand. point of stopped-in-his-tracks Friends Richard Jackson and when bartender Donal Caldwell Rebel Hooper are reopening said he wanted to return to Corrigan’s Bit O’ Ireland. It Corrigan’s. But, according to holds a significant place in the Caldwell—who’s been tending pair’s shared history. Jackson bar at 40 Mile Saloon since tended bar at Corrigan’s starting helping to open it five-and-half in 1993. years ago—the decision was “I met Rebel in passing at an obvious one. He too has a other places, but it was here history with the bar. that we really started hanging Caldwell’s family moved to out together,” Jackson said. “I the U.S. from Ireland when he can’t tell you how many hours was 5 years old. They lived in we logged in this bar, and, so, New York and Arizona before we just wanted to perpetuate settling in Reno, where his donal Caldwell the bar—because so many of us father, John, took a job at a chain Ba rt e nde r have made so many friends here. restaurant. When the restaurant Of my current friends, I’d bet wanted to relocate the family half of them I met here.” to Houston, John met with Ray On a Monday afternoon Corrigan, owner of the newly in late February, Jackson and opened Corrigan’s Bit O’ Ireland, Hooper were at the bar meeting with vendors and contractors. and ended up taking a job as the day shift bartender. Noel Foley, A fresh coat of paint on the front door was still wet. Inside, who opened Foley’s Irish Pub, was the swing shift bartender. sawhorses and building materials vied for space on the floor “They used to have a little marquee sign between the bathalongside new refrigeration units, and the long bar was rooms, ‘Welcome to Corrigan’s, the only place with authentic covered in a plastic sheeting. But underneath the tarps and Irish bartenders,’” said Caldwell. He was just a kid when his dust, renovations were nearing completion. dad took the job at Corrigan’s, but it wasn’t long before he “This mirror was original from when I started coming in was also involved with the bar. here, but it was covered up over the years with shelving,” “My very first job—I was 12 years old—I would come Jackson said, leaning against the bar. down here every Saturday morning and swamp out the bathThere is new, simple wooden shelving surrounding the old rooms,” he said. mirror now. The floors are also new, as is the lighting, and Afterward, he and Corrigan would take trash to the dump the bathrooms have been completely redone. But, to anyone and cans to the recyclers.

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“And then he’d take me out to lunch,” Caldwell recalled. “And, God, the best memories of my childhood were actually in this bar. So, for me, this is really coming home.” It won’t be long now until he can. Hooper and Jackson are hoping to have the bar open within weeks—at the latest, in time for Saint Patrick’s Day. When Corrigan’s reopens, customers will be invited into a space that’s both new and familiar. The bar, which became non-smoking during its final year of operation, will be non-smoking still. There will be 10 beer taps, featuring Guinness, of course, but also a few local brews and rotating options. Some may be saddened to know that the old jukebox has been replaced by a newer model. Overall, though, Corrigan’s seems much the same as it was—a neighborhood bar with history. “What Corrigan’s is, is what every bar should aspire to be—a neighborhood place where you’ve got a ditch worker next to a lawyer, and they can still sit there and have a good conversation,” said Caldwell. “Well, it’s like the pub life in Ireland. You socialize in the pub. This is where you come. And this is what Corrigan’s is.” Ω riChard JaCkson and reBel hooper hope to have Corrigan’s Bit o’ ireland, 1526 s. Wells ave., open Before saint patriCk’s day.

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FlickeR out I WA s s u r e I WA n t e d A BAr WItH no televIsIons

By Fil CoRBitt

Armageddon was on the television. In this scene, Bruce Willis kneels and runs his fingers through an ashy black silt as the camera pulls into a close up. His eyes narrow from behind the glass mask of an astronaut suit. And then a commercial break. A man dressed as a cowboy is on the screen, in front a Pepto Bismol banner. He’s doing the charade motions for heartburn and indigestion. For diarrhea, he smiles and bends over sideways. We ordered cheese.

We were at Royce, one of my favorite bars with one of my favorite burgers and one of my favorite bartenders, Joey Parazo in town. It’s the perfect size and feels like an old friend’s living room. There’s a portrait of a Labrador retriever above the fireplace, flanked by a big leather couch. On every other wall there is a large, flat-screen TV. They’re usually on mute while Joey plays well-curated cross-genre playlists from behind the bar. I do have fond memories of these TVs. I remember the Cubs World Series games back in 2016. My friends and I stopped in on our way to a Halloween party, and the bar was packed full of Cubs jerseys and attentive eyes looking just slightly above everybody else’s heads at one of the three screens. My friend Kent wore a black executioner hood and lifted up the bottom to take sips of a beer, which seemed to

really upset a woman sitting next to us. She yelled at him to take it off. He did, and the Cubs immediately made an error. The woman and her boyfriend changed their minds and yelled at him to put it back on—an executioner’s rally cap. The crowd swayed and leaned forward as Chicago just barely pulled it off, and Kent managed to take a drink through the hood, leaving the foam imprint of a mouth on the outside of the fabric. Those moments of excitement and camaraderie—a mass of worked-up people huddled around the glowing TV—are truly special. But it’s hard to remember them, months later, as something called Cake Boss plays on all of the TVs in Royce. I bring all of this up because I have a hypothesis. I think a bar without TVs is better than a bar with TVs.

“FlIcker out” contInued on PAge 9

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“Flicker Out” cOntinued FrOm page 6

BRoadCastiNG I’ve been flirting with this idea for a while, and decided to start the search for this mythical, cozy, TV-less bar. First up on my mental checklist was Ceol. The lighting is great, and the happy hour is pretty unrivaled—$3 pints and free popcorn. Ceol is frequently my go-to for an after-work meet up. (OK, I don’t have a job.) Ceol’s one drawback is that it’s a little bit cavernous. On a weekday, especially if you show up with one or zero other people, there’s a small reminder that there is more room if you just had more friends. It’s a good bar, but it’s not the sacred place I’m looking for. The word “pub” is short for public house. “Public” meaning it's a social institution and “house” refers to the room itself. It’s a home away from home. Across the street and down a few blocks from Ceol, Public House is another one without TVs. It’s a cement room with big communal tables on one side and a bench area with small two-tops on the right. The only thing resembling a TV is a glowing arcade hunting game in the corner.

Working on the prompt of “folkloric family stories” we all told tragic tales of our grandparents in an America we wouldn’t recognize. We made stuff up. We laughed. We ordered more wine. And then I saw it in the mirror—a tiny TV, playing USA curling. It’s high and in the corner, and though every bar stool is taken, only one person was looking up at it. I snapped back into the conversation but started mentally running through my favorite bars in the world. The JT in Gardnerville—a small TV high up in the corner. Zach’s Lucky Spur in Kingston, Nevada—a small TV high up and in the corner. Bar do Biu in São Paulo, Brazil—a slightly larger TV, but high up in a corner and mainly playing concert DVDs or soccer games. I have seen all of these TVs turned off during business hours. It’s selective. And that was all I needed to disprove my hypothesis. A bar with no TVs is not necessarily better than a bar with TVs. I guess it depends on how many, how bright they are, and what’s playing on them. Back in Royce on another day, The Green Mile started to play. Multiple people asked about it, and

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oN seCoNd thouGht, mayBe theRe is a small tV somewheRe iN a CoRNeR, Ready to play somethiNG Good, eVeRy Now aNd theN. The night I was in, the room was pretty empty. I read a book in the corner, and everyone was quiet. It’s not quiet on weekends. Public House is close, but two bars in, and I’m starting to think this mythical bar doesn’t exist. Death & Taxes meets most of my checklist for this cozy, dark, no-TV bar. But, seeing as I don’t have a job (mentioned above), I decided I could not afford one of their very delicious cocktails for this story, especially after dropping eight whole dollars between the other two bars. So, I start reaching outside of the go-to midtown institutions—looking for something with atmosphere, something older. I thought of Louie’s Basque Corner, but remembered the two flat screens behind the bar playing interviews with NFL players during the off-season. I thought of the Santa Fe, but they’ve been “temporarily closed” for quite a while, and I can’t remember if there’s a television in there. Coney Island has three TVs, I believe. Then I got it. The Halfway Club. Upon arriving, my friends grabbed a booth and ordered Picons and cold, red table wine in a carafe.

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somebody launched into a conversation about films they’ve seen recently. There was a group sitting around the fire, debating a Marvel movie. I caught up with an old friend, and the TV slipped from focus.

Reality tV I have a vision of the perfect Reno bar. It’s a small, dark room near the river with a flickering neon sign out front. It has booths, a la Shea’s Tavern, has leather furniture and dark wood, like Royce, and plays Thelonious Monk when it’s raining out—or Disintegration, but quietly. When it’s snowing it plays Fionn Regan—and on a hot summer night, Glen Campbell or Earth. And there’s a fireplace with real wood that the barback has to carry up from the basement. And, of course, there is no TV. This place is for drinking—and telling stories. On second thought, maybe there is a small TV somewhere in a corner, ready to play something good, every now and then. But there’s a remote control on the bar with the power button clearly marked. Ω

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RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide

T h e J ung le g e T s a m ake ove r

Bartender Chris Kepley chats with customers on a recent sunday afternoon. pHoto/JeRi CHADwell

out of the

wiLd by JeRi CHADwell jeric@newsreview.com

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The Jungle— formerly Java Jungle—has been a mainstay on First street near the river for almost three decades. The little coffee house has long been known for its funky decor, open mic nights and coffee concoctions.

matt Polley Owne r

charcuterie plates and fried chickpeas with crispy sage and brown butter. And the cocktail menu has been expanded to include drinks like “Black Manhattans” and “Caipirinhas.” On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Jungle was busy with customers drinking mimosas and eating avocado toast and tritrip omelets with Gruyere from the new brunch menu. From a spot at the end of the bar, Polley surveyed the crowd before summing up his hopes for the future. “We’re looking, here, to be the Death & Taxes with food,” he said, referencing the popular midtown bar. “We have a direction, and we’re moving towards it. It’s always kind of been like that here. It’s nothing new.” The Jungle is locaTed aT 246 W. FirsT sT. learn more aT TheJunglereno.com.

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bar, he placed brightly colored furniture and hanging lamps and painted one of the walls with a swirling green and yellow design before affixing men’s ties to it. “And it didn’t resonate very well,” he said. “But what it did do, I believe, is allow for a transition from the 1990s beatnik coffee house to something that does have another 25 years of staying power. It was time for the Jungle to grow up, really.” So, Polley began thinking about where to take his businesses next—and he waited. Funds for new changes, he knew, might be a few years down the road—but, he recalled, laughing, “Not having any dough motivates you.” A few months ago, Polley again invested in changes to the Jungle. He pulled out the funky lamp shades, the multi-colored floors and the wall of

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ties—creating a simpler, more modern space. “Frankly, with our evolving community, I thought it needed to be elevated,” he said. Additional cosmetic changes will have to wait, so, in the meantime, Polley has turned his attention to the plan’s other crucial aspect—food. “We’ve changed and evolved our menu in a way we’re very, very proud of,” he said. “So it’s the Jungle, right? There’s the bar and bistro side, and the other side is the coffee house and café. You can come get great sandwiches. We’ve got a great brunch menu. … We’re doing our own pastries, fresh every day. Breads—we make our own foccacia, our own sourdough, our own onion rolls. We’re big on sourdough. We’d love to do sourdough pancakes here in the future.” The Jungle recently revamped its menus with more sophisticated fare. A “bar bites” section features dishes like

For the last 17 years, Matt Polley has owned the Jungle. Thirteen years ago, he opened a bar—Jungle Vino—in a connected space across the hall. The two businesses did well—first, remaining open through the recession and, then, remaining relevant as Reno’s midtown district flourished with new competition. He rebranded the businesses to simply “the Jungle” five years ago. But about two and a half years ago, when the coffee shop was celebrating its 25th anniversary, Polley began to wonder if his businesses had enough staying power to last another quarter century. He made the decision to update both spaces. “The idea was to bring the spaces more together and jungle them out—keep it artistic and funky,” he said. Polley painted over some of the older artwork on the walls and ripped out the old mosaic tile flooring, replacing it with blue and brown wooden floors. In the

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RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide

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Inside the Eldorado 345 N. Virginia St. Reno, NV 89501 www.eldoradoreno.com 775-786-5700

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03.08.18

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winging it H o w d o y o u g o a b o u t m e e t i n g p e o p l e at t H e b a r ?

By mAtt BiekeR

n the age of online dating, much digital ink has been spilled on the subject of how to successfully meet people face-to-face, and the bar is a go-to venue for dusting off your atrophied social instincts. i say that without irony, as i personally consider approaching a total stranger to be daunting when i’m not sure how my efforts will be received.

RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide

Reading articles like the Washington Post’s account of a “professional wingman” (think more “etiquette coach” than “sleazy pickup artist”) can seem like a laundry list of dos and don’ts to be remembered simultaneously while flirting—things like maintaining open body language by holding your drink low and away from your chest and asking the right questions to establish common interests. But some of the theories also made sense to me. I decided it couldn’t hurt to practice being more approachable, so with reference material in hand, I enlisted my brother, Sean, and two friends, Steven Carlson and Krista Anderson, to meet me at the bar to come up with a game plan. It immediately became a slightly awkward conversation: we’d never engineered a plan to meet people at bars before, and now we were trying to strategize something that’s typically an organic experience. Since we are all within the same age range, I assumed our experiences at the bar would be fairly similar. Still, with Krista being the only female of our group and my brother having spent the past few years

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attending college in Southern California, it became obvious we didn’t have a consensus on what works best when approaching—or being approached—by someone new. We started by discussing the seemingly obvious interaction of buying someone a drink. Pop culture would have us believe that this is the expected way to introduce yourself to someone waiting at the bar, but the real-world circumstances that determine whether or not someone will appreciate such a gesture range drastically. “I wouldn’t buy a drink for a girl unless we’d already been talking for at least a little bit of time,” said Sean. In his experience, starting an interaction that’s dependent on buying a drink is already problematic. Instead, he felt like it was more appropriate to offer a drink as a way to extend a conversation he might have already been having. That way, at least he knew there was interest beyond the just the drink. Also, it avoids the implication of putting someone “on the clock”—or assuming you’ve bought their time. That assumption, Krista agreed, was a definite way to cheapen what could

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otherwise be a nice gesture. Buying a drink, she said, shouldn’t obligate anyone into a conversation—let alone anything more. “I will definitely say I’m hesitant to accept a drink because a guy might expect something in return,” she said. “I think if you’re genuinely just trying to talk somebody and you don’t have this intention like, ‘I’m going to take you home tonight,’ then it’s normal—it’s a more natural conversation.” By this point, we all agreed that buying a drink wasn’t as necessary as being genuine with your interest in someone in the first place, and that no one wants to feel obligated in a social setting. The assumptions that crop up when drinks are bought, we also agreed, must be pretty universal. But in reading an article called “How to Flirt with a Girl at a Bar, According to Girls,” we came across a suggestion that none of us had ever encountered before: If you buy a drink for her, you should also buy one for all of her friends. We thought this was outrageous, as none of us guys had ever felt required to do that—nor could we afford it—and Krista had

certainly never expected anyone do that. In seeking an outside opinion, I introduced myself to Holly O’Connor and Kat Krakowski, who were at the bar celebrating Kat’s birthday. “I don’t feel like a lot of guys just go up to a girl and want to buy them a drink these days—that has changed a lot,” Holly said. “So for them to buy your entire group a drink, that’s crazy to me. I’ve never had that happen.” I was relieved to hear that Kat also agreed and that I wouldn’t have to drastically increase my budget for future nights out. Once again, they agreed that accepting a drink doesn’t necessarily mean they’re more inclined to speak to anyone, and that guys should instead pay attention to any cues that indicate interest in the first place. “I think your body language changes, you know,” Kat said. “You try a little harder with how you look. You laugh more. I think that girls definitely play with their hair more. They kind of glance over there. It’s definitely the traditional flirty thing.” I thanked Holly and wished Kat a happy birthday and returned to my table, vindicated that we weren’t totally off on our understanding of dating culture, and with renewed skepticism of any coordinated dating plans. It also struck me that I had basically just done what I set out to do: initiate a conversation with women at the bar. By approaching with genuine interest and with no other intentions except to ask their opinion, we had a natural conversation where nobody felt pressured or otherwise had their night disrupted. When I introduced myself as a journalist who wanted to talk about dating, it even took them a minute to realize I wasn’t just using the world’s worst pickup line. I was beginning to suspect that over-preparing for a first encounter might not be the best way to meet

I peRsoNally CoNsIdeR appRoaChING a total stRaNGeR to Be dauNtING wheN I’m Not suRe how my effoRts wIll Be ReCeIved.

people—but I felt like I needed at least one more male opinion on what, if anything, makes for a successful dating strategy. I ran into my friend Nate Emme later in the night, and he introduced me to the larger group of friends he was out with. I asked them what they felt was the most important factor for meeting women. “It’s confidence above everything,” said Corey Allan. “Whether it’s interpreted obviously or on a subconscious level, I don’t think any girl at a bar is going to enjoy you seeming like you lack confidence.” The line between confident and obnoxious, however, is easily crossed—especially when you’ve been drinking—and resorting to backwards male stereotypes like being the “alpha” can come off as both offensive and desperate. “An over-masculine presence is definitely a turn off most of the time,” said Matt Egan. “If you’re trying to push your masculinity on women, they usually don’t like that.” “If you start off super desperate, you’re done,” agreed Nate. Ultimately, the consensus was that being respectful and honest when asking for someone’s attention is important—especially if sex is your end goal. It’s important for men to remember, but equally applicable to everyone—and it seems to be a better plan than any other tips you’ll read about online. “Above all, it’s just realizing that you’re a human being, and they’re a human being,” said Julian Emme. “Don’t put on a weird front to get with somebody because, if it works, it’s going to screw you over. You’re going to feel really bad in the end.” Ω

friends matt egan, Corey allan, Kyle o'donnell, Julian emme and Nate emme take a moment at the bar to pose for a photo together. photo/matt BIeKeR

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f you want to hear live music in Reno, you can—any night of the week. And you can find pretty much any sound you’re looking for. Want to hear some big names or maybe a rock ’n’ roll cover band? The casinos have got you covered. If you want to make music with other people, jam sessions and open mic nights are in plentiful supply, from local coffee shops to Irish pubs. But if you want to get your fill of touring and local bands, you should head to the bars. (You could, of course, hit up Holland Project, but it’s an all-ages venue, and this is a bar guide, so we’ll leave it there—save for this one pro tip. If you’re 21 or older, join the mass exodus of adults that often happens between sets. They’re headed to 40 Mile Saloon—and, soon, Corrigan’s Bit O’ Ireland—for a drink.) From punk shows at Shea’s Tavern on a Thursday to a double-header with bands in both of Jub Jub’s Thirst Parlor’s two venue spaces on a Tuesday, there’s live music to be had any night of the week. There are plenty of reasons for this, too. An obvious one you might have read about in publications ranging from Bloomberg to Rolling Stone is falling album sales, a reality that bands large and small have adapted to by touring more often. And then there’s the local music scene. The Truckee Meadows is home to a ton of bands that also play the bars.

stoRy aNd pHotos By JeRi CHadwell

The local live music scene is a symbiotic relationship wherein bands, bars and we—the drinking music lovers—benefit. For the most part, the community’s role in this relationship is to be good patrons, paying our tabs and door charges. The bands, of course, put out the word and put on a good show. And the bars bring them in and host them. It’s a beautiful relationship, really. And a look behind the scenes of some of Reno’s live music bars reveals that— like most relationships—it’s a lot of work.

HittiNG tHe RiGHt Notes “There are a lot of things that go into making a music venue great—everything from your building itself to your equipment, but also your staff, and I think most importantly, how you’re treating the bands,” said Dave Masud, who does booking for Jub Jub’s. Jub Jub’s has two venue spaces at its Wells Avenue location. Masud books for the smaller, barroom venue. In the end, he said, the key to a good show boils down to making people feel comfortable. But there’s a lot of work that goes into that. Faith Zaumeyer, Jub Jub’s owner and the primary booker for the venue’s large showroom, explained that there’s plenty of research to be done before booking bands. One of the things she and Masud do is look to social media to see if a band has local fans. They check to see if there are conflicting shows that might draw a similar crowd to the one they’re considering. And they think about which local bands would make fitting openers.

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With its showroom space, Jub Jub’s brings in some larger touring acts. Handled right, it can be a boon for the local bands that open for them. “It looks great on their resume,” Zaumeyer said. “It makes them excited as a band. When you’re booking, out touring, you can put that on your profile.” Masud, who is also a touring musician, said, in the end, he tries to provide the kind of show he’d like to walk into, and to take care of bands—from pairing them with openers to paying them. Taking care of the bands that play at his bar is also a primary concern for Peter Barnato, who owns the Loving Cup on California Avenue and is also a musician. Barnato’s is a much smaller venue than Jub Jub’s, and providing a good show there comes with a different set of challenges. “I probably only book three percent of bands that come to me, and it’s not because I’m being snobby or whatever,” Barnato said. “We’re just a very small bar, and it’s important for me to be able to bring a crowd enough to be able to pay a band properly.” Paying bands properly is also a reason why the touring bands he books are only accompanied by a local opener about half the time. “It’s nice to have someone that’s local open, but a lot of the times those local bands are donating their cut to the touring band—which is cool, if the touring band takes care of them in their city,” Barnato said. “We did that for years, where we’d play for free in Reno with a touring act, and then we’d go to, like, Seattle, and they’d do that for us.”

“Sound deciSionS” continued on page 19

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“Sound deciSionS” continued from page 17

the funk exchange performed at the Saint in midtown on february 24.

Barnato explained that 100 percent of door charges from his bar on live music nights go the band, so, with smaller shows and touring acts, it often works well to have just one band on the bill. “And a lot of times there’s just not enough local acts in town to even support those shows,” he added. Of course, Barnato wasn’t implying a shortage of bands in town. But there’s no shortage of bars hosting shows either. So how do bars that host live music strike a balance to keep Reno’s scene thriving and themselves in business? In part, it has to do with cultivating a sound that locals can expect to hear at their shows. It’s something they go about in different ways.

StRikiNG up the BaNd

“i love doiNG touRiNG aCtS oN the weekdayS, BeCauSe people have a diffeReNt miNdSet.” peter Barnato Owne r Of t h e L Ovi n g C up

A few weeks ago, Barnato was preparing for a Sunday show with Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, a touring band he described as gothic country. After that, he’d booked a psychedelic band from Seattle. The two bands’ sounds are pretty distinctive, but Barnato said they both fit the general theme of shows he books at the Loving Cup. “I mean, we definitely sit in that indie-rock scene for sure,”And we’ve had all of the subgenres here. I think of, you know, like college radio. If you were to listen to XMU on Sirius—that’s probably where we sit.” At Jub Jub’s, Zaumeyer and Masud take a different approach. With two venue spaces, the larger of which is often used for all-ages shows, they try to book a bit of everything. “We try to do it all—because we just want to represent Reno, and Reno is like that,” Zaumeyer said. “We’re not cut into any particular box. I think Reno people are pretty eclectic, and so we try to share that.” Show’s at Jub Jub’s regularly run the gamut from country to punk or hip-hop. Of course, at the Loving Cup, Barnato’s college radio sensibilities also yield a wide range of sounds— from noise rock to outlaw country. The bars have different approaches to booking, but neither is really interested in limiting the scope of shows they bring in. The same can be said of the Saint, which opened in midtown in 2016. “When we opened, I really wanted our main focus to be everything that stems off of the tree I would call American roots, so from country to rock ’n’ roll,” said owner Arthur Farley. He didn’t intend for his new music hall and taproom to do much in the way other genres like hip-hop or hardcore. “We do those things occasionally, as sort of like a special focus night, but mostly it’s like old country, classic country, rock, blues, jazz, you know, ragtime,” Farley said. “So everything in that American roots pantheon is where we want to be.” A part of Farley’s aim with the music he books is to attract people of different ages. Reno, he said, is too small of a community to focus on younger audiences solely. “We need the entire town to meld together and hang out and come down to events,” he said. “I think Artown does a really good job with that, but I think we need to carry that through the whole year.” But, for Farley, it’s actually important that the Saint be associated with more than music—and that’s a challenge, he said, given the large size of the venue, which doubles as a barrel house for Brasserie Saint James beer. “That’s the double-edged sword of being the kind of venue I think that I want Saint to be and that I like to go to—and that is that it should be intimate enough and warm enough and welcoming enough that you actually would go there for a beer or cocktail, regardless of whether or not there’s a show,” he said. With a venue the size of the Saint, Farley often books shows on weekends, when there’s the potential to draw a crowd. But for Barnato at the Loving Cup, weekdays are actually a favorite for scheduling shows.

“I love doing touring acts on the weekdays, because people have a different mindset,” Barnato said. “I think people want to go out, and they’re a little more attentive on the weekdays, versus weekends, when people are in a little bit more of a party mode, which makes it hard in a space like this to have a show, to have people pay attention.” Barnato actually has a standing show on Thursday nights— a jazz night featuring local musicians from the Reno Jazz Collective. “I think it’s the coolest night in Reno, like, anywhere,” he said. “You’ll come in, and it’s dark in here. Everyone’s sitting down. There’s incredible music. There’s professors and traveling professors from the university jazz program who sit in. There’s improvisation. It’s just this really cool, almost community-feeling scene.” The Loving Cup is well-suited to accommodate weekday shows in its small space. But Barnato books weekend shows as well. Unlike some of the larger bars, he doesn’t do presale tickets online and sometimes has to turn people away at door when the bar gets too packed. But Barnato thinks that’s a good thing. “That’s a healthy thing for this music market, because Reno as a whole is really bad at presales, like, historically bad,” he said. “People in Reno do not buy presale tickets.” When larger bands see poor presales, he said, they’ll sometimes cancel a show. “But Reno always comes out strong,” Barnato said. “There have been shows where you’d have, like, 10 percent presales, and then the shows sold out.” Bringing out the right size of crowd for a show can be a balancing act. Barnato cited the Slim Cessna’s Auto Club show—saying that had he booked it for a Saturday, he likely would have looked into moving the show to the Saint to accommodate more people. “That’s another thing with this area, I think, is us working as a team with stuff like that and knowing what’s best for the market, and not necessarily just your own bar,” he said.

CalliNG the tuNe In the end, Reno’s live bars try to look out for what’s best for the local music market in their own ways. Zaumeyer and Masud strive to represent Reno through the eclectic and all-ages shows they book and work to give local bands a leg up by pairing them with touring acts. Barnato seeks to create a sense of community with jazz night and concerns himself with not oversaturating Reno with too many shows. At the Saint, Farley envisions a place where people of all ages feel comfortable hanging out, regardless of whether or not there’s live music. And, as he looks to the future, he wants that comfort to spread beyond his bar. Farley thinks a key to that is having people in midtown who don’t just feel at home there, but actually are. “I think that Reno’s on the right bell curve,” he said. “I do think that we need a little bit more density of population. We keep hearing about all of these people moving here. I’m not sure where they’re moving to, though. We need more people living in the center of Reno.” Farley would like to see parking requirements for new housing construction in midtown done away with. And there’s a parking lot on the north side of the Saint he’d like see housing units built on. “Ultimately, you can’t have vital businesses like this or restaurants or anything without population density that’s in a close proximity, and that’s something that’s still sorely lacking,” he said. Ω

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Tender heaRts Story aNd photos By JeRi Chadwell

retty much anyone who’s spent time in a bar is bound to have heard some version of the adage “bartenders make great therapists.” It’s an easy comparison to make. After all, pretty much any bartender will tell you that she’s used to listening to people’s problems, hearing their life stories, or just being the sounding board off which customers bounce their inebriated ideas. A lot of the times, people come to the bar and want to talk about why they’re there. That’s true regardless of whether it’s a happy occasion or an unhappy one that gets them there. But how often do people stop to wonder how and why their bartenders ended up in the same place? What motivates a person to become a bartender? What makes it worth sticking around? We asked them.

B A rT e n d e r s d I s c u s s W h y T h e y d o W h AT T h e y d o

RoyCe 115 Ridge st. Joey Parazo started tending bar at a bottle shop in midtown five years ago. He’s had two bartending jobs, but explained that both basically fell in his lap. “Both of my jobs bartending, the proprietors have reached out to me, specifically, just because they knew I was out and about on the scene,” Parazo said. “I knew a lot of people. I think, ultimately, they thought that I’d bring people in.” Parazo—who holds a degree in anthropology—doesn’t just know a lot of people. He’s also interested in knowing more, in general, about people. It’s something he realized he could learn from behind the bar. “Ultimately, the reason why I got into in the first place was knowledge of what’s available beverage-wise,” he said. “But it slowly evolved into this yearning for wanting to know more about why people come to bars. Usually people come to bars because they want to escape their lives. And feel like I wear many hats. One of the hats is kind of like therapist. … I get a better idea of, I guess, the human condition. I feel like there’s a pretty good cross section of the people of Reno who come in here. And I feel like the picture for me is clearer, just talking with people, finding out what’s going in their lives and stuff.” Joey parazo mixes up a Royce Refresher with cucumbers and gin. “Tender heArTs” conTInued on pAge 22

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Taylor Herrick had never tended bar before walking into her first day on the job at Hideout Lounge. It was April 1, 2017—the day of the annual Scalleycat bike race and scavenger hunt that brings people on bicycles out in droves to Reno bars. “I didn’t know what to expect, and it was so wild,” Herrick said. “It was my first day, and it was also my boss’s birthday that night, too. I ended up working a double. So I was here, I think, for 12 hours before I got relieved. It was so packed. It was so busy. Like I said, I had never done it before. It was really exciting.” Since her trial by fire during the busy Scalleycat event, Herrick said everything else has felt manageable. When she’s not behind the bar, Herrick’s day job is as a graphic designer for a publishing company—work she does remotely from her home. Her bartending gig serves as a social outlet for her. “Every day, I’m going to meet somebody new and something interesting is going to happen,” she said. “I just worked a Thursday night here, and somebody hit a 1,200 dollar jackpot. That was rad, and he tipped me out way too much money. He’s a regular here, but he just hit a jackpot and said, ‘Here’s a hundred and twenty dollars.’ I was like, ‘Cool. That’s what’s up.’” Herrick said her day is often made by the interactions she has with customers— and she sees improving other people’s days as a vital role for herself, too. “That’s another good thing about it,” she said. “I’ll have people come in and they’ll be like, ‘This, that and the other thing happened to me, and I’m having the worst day.’ And I’m like ‘I have the solution for you.’”

Sara Sakurada has been tending bar for nine years. “I guess the way I originally got into it is, I was working at a restaurant and going to school. When I turned 21, they asked me if I wanted to be a bartender. I was interested, and I just loved it. At the time, I was really young, so I was having a lot of fun with my coworkers. You know, it’s a lot of partying and drinking. It’s good money. It’s pretty easy. You get to meet a lot of different people. I originally started in Berkeley, which—similarly to Reno—has a lot of tourists and different types of people come through.” At one time, Sakurada intended to go to law school. “I went through the whole process, took the LSAT, just decided it wasn’t for me and just kept bartending, kept working on things,” she said. “About three years ago was when I got more serious about it. If I was going to stay in this industry, then I wanted to learn more about the history of cocktails, the history of spirits, mixing them together.” Sakurada began working at craft cocktail bars. She moved to Reno from Oakland about a year ago and has been working at Chapel since. She said that while having the knowledge required to make fancy cocktails is an admirable goal for a bartender, it’s not the most important thing. “At the end of the day, you’re still a bartender,” Sakurada said. “I’ve never liked the term mixologist. Knowing all of that is a passion of mine and something I enjoy doing, but, first and foremost, you need to be able to handle a crowd, manage a room. The manager here always says when he’s chatting with somebody he’s still taking time to think about the volume of the music, the state of the bathroom, who’s up next. So, there’s a lot of multitasking and social interaction that goes with it. Just knowing how to make drinks is not enough.”

“At tHe eNd of tHe dAy, you’Re still A BARteNdeR. i’ve NeveR liked tHe teRm mixoloGist.” Sara Sakurada B a r t e n d e r , C h a p e l tav e r n

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PiGNiC PuB & Patio 235 Flint St. Gabe Caballero has been bartending off and on for 20 years. “I started at a TGI Friday’s when I was, like, 16,” he said. “And then I just worked my way up until they made me a new store opener. So they’d send you around the country. They’d send you out there to train everybody and open the places up. That’s how I got started and learned how to be a bartender.” Caballero has spent the last eight months working at Pignic Pub & Patio. Prior to that, he helped open 1864 Tavern and worked there for four years. “It’s just something I like to do,” he said. “Plus, you can make a decent amount of money in a short span of time. You don’t have to work a normal 9-to-5, 40-hours-a-week kind of deal. I just have a really good time doing it. If you find a place where you like to work and like the people, it makes it that much easier, you know what I mean?” In Caballero’s estimation, bartending can be a good career option for anyone— provided they’re not looking for the finer things in life. “There’s a lot of pluses to it, especially if you’re the simple kind, you know, you don’t need a lot of extravagant things,” he said. “You can bartend, and you can make it pretty easily.” Like many bartenders, he’s learned tricks of the trade over the years. A central one, he said, is to approach people nicely. It’s a method he applies even when the people he’s dealing with have had a few too many. “If you’ve been doing it a while, you can tell if someone’s headed down a bad path or drinking more than they really should,” he said. “And then you’re like, ‘All right, you’re cut off.’ It’s easy. You say, ‘Hey, man. Why don’t you drink a water, and then we’ll get you a drink next.’ Most of the time, people are like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.’”

WoNdeR BaR 1195 S. Wells ave. Craig Gummer worked in the wine industry in California for many years. He’s also a graphic designer—a job he does from home. After moving to Nevada, he took a job at Wonder Bar, tending bar on Sundays. He, like a lot of part-time bartenders, considers it a social outlet. “It’s not that I wouldn’t get out, but this is a good opportunity to have something in my routine, to come see people I know,” he said. Gummer breaks out the crockpot to cook something to share with his customers most every Sunday. And he often knows everyone who comes into Wonder Bar during his shifts.

“An hour ago when there were 10 people in the bar, I knew all of their names,” he said on a recent Sunday. “It’s people who work down the block. It’s people who live nearby.” He also generally knows their drink orders—which tend to be pretty simple. “Other than Bloody Marys, I don’t make things with three ingredients,” Gummer said. “It’s beertending. It’s not bartending. So, I don’t make cosmos or lemon drops because nobody asks for them. … It’s very few surprises, and I welcome that.”

death & taxeS 26 Cheney St. Truly Tanner got her first bartending job four years ago, at the age of 21. “I started in Truckee and TahoeDonner, at a golf course called the Tahoe Donner Lodge,” she said. “I started there, but I didn’t really know anything about bartending at that time. They taught me the basics there. I moved to San Luis Obispo after that and started at a restaurant.” While in California, Tanner studied viticulture and considered becoming a sommelier. However, the restaurant she worked at was also known for its craft cocktails. “That was the first bar I worked at that had house-made syrups and fresh-made juices and shrubs and blends and things like that,” she said. “It was my first introduction to craft cocktails. The idea of farm-to-table and all of that was introduced to me in San Luis Obispo.” A few years ago Tanner, came home to visit family in Graeagle, California, and wound up in Reno. “I grew up coming to Reno, so I’ve seen how much it’s changed—and in the last five years, especially,” she said. “I came into Death & Taxes. I discovered midtown. My family is all here, so I wanted to move back home and be a part of the new, up-and-coming craft cocktail scene in Reno. Now, a part of Tanner’s job at Death & Taxes is creating the house-made syrups, infusions, blends and garnishes that go into the bar’s cocktails. “During the day a lot of the times, it’s like a whole kitchen in here,” she said. “We’re constantly cooking. … I literally cut lilac out in Graeagle, and we made it into a rum-based liqueur. We got strawberries from the farmer’s market, and we made that into a vodka-based liqueur.” Tanner, who describes herself as a “hands-on kind of person and very social,” said she loves the opportunity to create new cocktails, including ones she mixes up on the spot when customers are looking for something different from the cocktails on the bars menu. She enjoys the creative freedom.

“That’s actually why I stepped away from the wine industry and into craft cocktails—because the wine industry is about tradition and will always be about tradition,” she said. “We expect certain things from certain types of wines, whereas now, with the availability of artisanal and craft spirits and … the fact that it’s not maxed out, it’s really more exciting to me. It’s exciting to be a part of it.”

Brittney Kelly

FouRth StReet BaR 1114 e . Fourth St. Justin Ross likes his job because, he said, “It’s not really too much like work.” He realizes he could make better money doing something else, but said he doesn’t much care. “I could go get a job at Tesla tomorrow and be making 40 thousand dollars a year,” he said. “I do not make anywhere near that here, but I get to talk to people, and I get to interact with people, and that’s what I enjoy.” Plus, he said, it’s a great place to showcase all of his useless knowledge. “I have the most useless knowledge you would ever imagine, like Lake Baikal in Russia contains one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. The largest quantity of metal in the human body is calcium. Most people don’t know calcium’s a metal. It’s useless. It’s never going to help me.” Before becoming a bartender, Ross managed gas stations. “And I liked that, too, because I could tell the same joke a hundred times to a hundred different people and get a laugh every time and not get criticized for telling the same joke over and over again,” he said. “They get irritated when I tell the same joke over and over here.” Ross is an easygoing guy who’s quick with jokes. Most days, he said, his job is fun—but not always. And he has a pet peeve that can ruin a good day quickly. “It’s not fun when people can’t learn to interact with each other properly,” he said. “You can talk politics in a bar. I know it’s a big rule—don’t discuss politics or religion in a bar. But you should be able to, because you should, at the end of the day, have enough respect for the person you’re talking to to be able to say, ‘We’re going to have to agree to disagree’ and not get into a screaming match over something. That’s just rude and disrespectful, and it drives me up a wall.” Ross said he personally doesn’t know the difference between right- and left-wing politics. “When I was in elementary school, the teacher said, ‘Republicans are this. Democrats are this. You should vote for whomever you think represents you best.’ And at that point, I forgot what a Republican and Democrat was—because my views and opinions are much more vast than a single word.” Ω

PiñoN Bottle Co. 777 S. Center St. Prior to starting at Piñon Bottle Co., Brittney Kelly spent nine years working at Whole Food Markets. While there, she often helped in the store’s taproom. And, eventually, she decided she was ready for a bartending job outside of the grocery store. “My experience was really just beer and wine, and when I was applying, I applied to a bunch of bars, and, basically, this is the one that wanted me,” she said. “And it’s a perfect fit for me. I really like it. I’m cool with not doing cocktails. I like just doing beer.” For Kelly, working behind the bar has been a way to put her customer service experience to use in an environment she much prefers. “In my other work experience, I was working customer service booth, so I was dealing with a lot of negativity—a lot,” she said. “I was in a management position, too, so trying to resolve customer issues. So this is more—I mean your interaction with people is completely different. People don’t really want to come in here and be assholes to you, because you’re a bartender. Basically, my interaction with people is way better now. It’s way more positive and fun and relaxed.” Kelly may be happy not to be mixing up cocktails, but she explained that there’s still plenty to learn, even at a bar that focuses solely on beer. “My beer knowledge still is pretty basic— because there’s so much to learn, which I think is really rad,” she said. “But, yeah, I look to my other bartenders who have been working here longer for that kind of knowledge and just try to teach myself as I go. Even customers have taught me stuff, too, especially here, because people who come in here are super into beer.”

03.08.18

RN&R Bars & Clubs Guide