Z Tavern

I’m a bartender. A bartender in a ski town. I’m also single, 37 and living on a twin bed in my parents basement. I am the modern version of a ski bum.

I work in a dive bar in A-town; second home to movie stars and CEOs. The town, not the bar. My bar, well, the bar where I work, I certainly don’t own it, is home to the service industry. The people who prepare and bring food and retail products to the rich and famous. The real locals, not the people who think of themselves as locals because they call A-town home for one to eight weeks a year.

I like the vibe of Z Tavern. I bounced back and forth across the country a number of times (NYC, LA, NYC, LA) before giving up the coasts for the mountains. A love/hate relationship with the entertainment industry introduced me to a number of movie stars, and, with the beautiful exceptions of Lisa Kudrow and Melanie Griffith, two very gracious and classy women, I’ve found celebrities to be mostly overrated. I’m sure there are many more exceptions to the rule, but, in my experience at least, it is still largely the rule.

Z Tav is an island in the sea of fur and jewels, which is why I’m still there three years later. This was supposed to be a quick fix while I wrote a book. Turns out it takes more than a ski season to complete a novel. I’m at three ski seasons, six off-seasons, three summers and still working...the current draft is 31 pages.

I love where I work, I love my boss and I love (most of) my co-workers, one in a getting drunk and going home with every so often kind of way, but I’m burning out. I know it’s hard to imagine burning out in this glamorous world that I’ve laid out for you, but I am. Worse than that, I’m taking it out on customers which is effecting my income. While a good chunk of our clientele comes for the abuse, turns out not everyone likes it.

So I’m thinking, if my bad attitude is costing me money, maybe I can at least find a purpose for the ride. That’s my goal for this winter. To share a few stories, survive my job and save up enough money for my next adventure, in the true ski bum style.

-powder on!