One thing lead to Another

One of the things I love about being a bartending is the creative aspect, I'm serious, the technical part is easy, anyone can learn how to use a jigger, shake a cocktail, follow a recipe, blah, blah, blah, but how many of us can talk to a guest for a few minutes and know exactly what they want? I can, I'm actually pretty good at it, especially if it's actually slow enough for me to ask the questions I need to. It definitely takes finesse. I work at a cool place in Atlanta called The Soundtable. There are chill nights and turn up nights. One of the things I love about Soundtable is the fact that we don't carry a lot of mainstream spirits, no Ciroc, no unnaturally flavored liquors, no corona. Some people get it and adjust, but others tend to be mad and sometimes take it out on our tips, it happens, anyway, one night a woman comes in and is dead set on Crown Apple. Unfortunately that is one of the things we don't carry, we have Crown, but not the apple flavor, it was like she couldn't get past it, I served other people and came back and she didn't know what she wanted. She finally says " Just make me whatever, but sweet", I smiled to myself and thought " Watch me work". So already because she was stuck on Crown Apple I knew my base spirit would be Lairds Applejack, it's the closest thing, then I thought what else can I add to bring out more apple flavor, pear liquor, acid it balance and sugar for sweet, the icing on the cocktail....Peychauds bitters, for an extra layer of flavor and color. I shook it and strained into a martini glass, garnish with a zest of lemon for extra freshness and done. She ordered 4 more and hugged me on the way out, she whispered a thank you in my ear for not giving up on her ( at least I think that's what she said, lol ). Later I added that cocktail to the summer cocktail list for Serpas and named it One thing lead to another..... It's our job to get every guest the best experience possible, some are jerks, but most are not, all you can do is your best. Still in motion Keyatta