Blogs

By Wynter Holden

After getting turned down by two bartenders at Chandler’s Regal Beagle, we finally hit the mark with someone who couldn’t refuse or pawn us off on someone else: the token new girl. Michelle Anthony is a tiny, adorable blonde who giggles nervously when she talks, loves gymnastics, and holds down three jobs while going to school. She doesn’t have the accent, but her Minnesota roots show in her bad sense of direction (which way’s north again?) and her love for the Vikings and the Twins.

Chow Bella: Do you know where the bar got its name?
Michelle Anthony: Three’s Company.

CB: Impressive. Are you even old enough to have watched the show?
MA: Actually, I didn’t know because I’ve never watched it, but a customer told me. My parents told me, too.

CB: What’s your favorite drink to make?
MA: Adios Motherfuckers are kinda fun. They’re blue and all the liquor you need is right there. You just grab four bottles at a time and pour ‘em in. It’s simple and pretty.

CB: How about yourself. What do you like to drink?
MA: I’m a vodka girl. Grape and Sprite, very simple.

CB: Wait, are you even over 21?
MA: I will be on Saturday!

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By Wynter Holden

Everyone’s always trying to find out what’s under 21-year-old bartender Naomii Musial’s skirt. That’s because the slender, tanned brunette works at Tilted Kilt, the South Tempe bar that combines Hooter-licious hotties in teeny plaid minis with the perks of an Irish pub and sports bar. Outside of work, the Wisconsin native is a club-hopping socialite who spends her down time cheering for the Green Bay Packers or watching Tarantino flicks with her boyfriend. Naomii took a few minutes to chat with me about that infamous plaid uniform and her plans to wiggle out of it someday soon.

Chow Bella: How long have you been bartending?
Naomii Musial: About seven or eight months. I started as a server here. I kept telling them I wanted to [bartend] and they finally let me try.

CB: Why the Tilted Kilt?
NM: I came in here and I liked the atmosphere. I'm a very upbeat, outgoing person and that's what this job is like. They wanted us to talk to everybody. And I'm a great talker.

CB: What did you do before you started working at the Tilted Kilt?
NM: Before this I was a Hooters girl. And a cheerleading coach.

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By Wynter Holden

Bartender Crista MacKenzie of Chez Nous in Phoenix is every man's dream girl -- a lot of sugar, with just a touch of spice. She doesn't drink much, loves her native Arizona and is devoted to her four-month-old son. Aww...how sweet. If not for the blue-tinged platinum locks and swirling tattoos spanning her right side, Crista could easily be mistaken for the perky young soccer mom in the cubicle next to yours. That is, until you get her talking.

Chow Bella: When did you start bartending?
Crista MacKenzie: I was doing hair back in 2003 and I was struggling for money, so I got a job at Chez Nous. Six months later, they started training me to bartend. Hair styling and bartending, they're both the same type of job. You deal with all kinds of people.

CB: Why do you like bartending?
CM: A lot of people would say the money. It is cool leaving with cash every day, but for me it's more about meeting people. My fiancé Robert is a stay-at-home dad and I give him a lot of credit for it. I feel like I'd go insane if I stayed at home and couldn't go out and meet people.

CB: Any cool jobs before you became a bartender?
CM: I managed a sub shop for 5 years and that was really cool. I got to throw food at people on that job. I actually did all 3 [hairdressing, bartending and working at the sub place] up until January when I was 6 months pregnant.

CB: What drink do you absolutely love making?
CM: The "Ocean Water." We made it up a few years ago when I was first bartending and learning all of my drinks.

CB: How do you make it?
CM: Wait. Is this going to be published? Well, as long as it has my name on it, I'll tell you.

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Notice the short cropped hair, the year-round uniform of board shorts and comfortable sandals. The perfectly tanned skin. The lack of sweat on his brow, even in 100-degree temperatures. Yes, you guessed it. Copper Star Coffee owner and master barista Bill Sandweg is one of those elusive creatures we rarely see in Phoenix -- the Arizona native. Crikey, we finally found one! We stalked Sandweg on his own territory and he shared some adventures from the urban jungle.

Chow Bella: How'd you break into the coffee business?
Bill Sandweg: I've been in restaurants for like 20 years. I've done time at T.G.I. Friday's Oregano's, Starbucks, Pizzeria Uno...

CB: Done time? You make it sound like prison.
BS: If you knew the T.G.I. Friday's that I worked at, then yes, you'd definitely realize I was doing time.

CB: Tell us about it.
BS: This was the T.G.I. Friday's in Marina Del Ray which, thank God, is no longer with us. It was a violent and horrible place. I pepper sprayed a customer once. Some customers walked out without paying their bill and we followed them into the parking lot and said they needed to pay us. The guy clocks my waiter, so I pepper sprayed him. A few minutes later the cops show up and my waiter has a big 'ol slab of steak on his eye.

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By Wynter Holden

38-year-old bar manager Amy Ziegler is a tall, slender, no-nonsense blonde who looks like she could do some serious damage to any boozehound who treats her like a Coyote Ugly babe. As a kid she dreamed of being a ballet dancer, but as she cockily points out there isn’t much of a market for 6-foot-tall ballerinas. Instead, Ziegler opted for a different kind of dance, pouring pints and dodging propositions from flirtatious patrons at the British Open Pub with equal grace.

Chow Bella: What’s your favorite drink?
Amy Ziegler: Stoli Orange and Seven.

CB: Is there a drink that you cringe at the thought of making?
AZ: Yes, an “Adios Motherfucker!” It has the same ingredients as a Long Island Iced Tea, with blue Curacao as well. The name says it all. I dread serving those because I know that someone’s on a mission…to get totally wasted.

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By Wynter Holden

Who is Fair Trade Café barista Xoë McAleece? Go back a few years and there's no record of her existing at all. No birth certificate. No high school records. No trace of her before she turned eighteen. We caught up with the mysterious Xoë (pronounced zoh-ee) and she revealed how a Midwest girl trapped in a vanilla life changed her name in tribute to a pagan goddess and found happiness in the big city with a baby, a boy and lots of coffee.

Chow Bella: How long have you been a barista?
Xoë McAleece: About five years. I started making coffee at this awful little coffee shop and I think I made the worst drinks in the city. Now I work at Fair Trade and I have people tell me I make the best drinks in the city.

CB: Do you drink coffee?
XM: I’m a coffee whore! I will drink coffee all day, every day. Coffee is an addiction. It’s one of the only legal narcotics left. Coffee and smoking.

I’ve been getting free coffee for basically five years because I’ve been working as a barista. Then I had my daughter and I was on maternity leave for nine months. I had no idea how much of one’s income could go to coffee!

CB: Hey, aren’t pregnant women supposed to avoid coffee?
XM: Shh…It was totally decaf. Actually, because I was an eight cup a day kind of girl, my doctor said that if I [quit] completely it would send my baby into withdrawal. So I cut down to one cup a day.

CB: So why is your coffee the best in town?
XM: I’m a geek. I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking coffee, trying to figure out how to pull the best shot of espresso and asking expert after expert. I’ve looked up all of the international standards. I personally hate bad coffee. If I go to a coffee shop and get bad coffee it ruins my whole day. I know that’s ridiculous, but hey, everyone has their weird passions. This is mine.

CB: Ok, where’d you get the name Xoë?
XM: I’m named after an Aztec earth goddess. I decided that Xochiquetzal would be ridiculous to write on all my application forms and driver’s license and stuff, so I shortened it to Xoë. People get really annoyed with the spelling. Telemarketers won’t even say it. They just spell it. They’re like, “is X-O-E there?”

My middle name is the Gaelic word for "strong woman." But I realized after changing it that it’s also the word for "phallus." So my name’s like Mother Earth Penis McAleece.

CB: What kind of weird things have you seen on the job?
XM: We have a homeless guy who comes in here. One day he came in and his whole face was busted up and bruised, like he had just come from a fight. Little tiny guy, but with really old eyes; one of those guys you just don’t want to mess with.

Then he leaned in really close and motioned us to him. And he whispers, “You’re going to the death chamber…”

The next time he came in, I said I’d call the cops. He goes, “That’s fine. You can call my Aunt Millie for all you want, but she won’t answer the phone. She’s strapped to a board after what I did to her.”

Creepy.

By Wynter Holden

Bartender Scott Pierce (a.k.a Pandora) is a quirky, outspoken and totally flaming queen who isn't afraid to let it all hang out. He loves to wear tight leather corsets, although he switches to muumuus in the hot summer. He digs beehive hairdos. And he wants to open a B&B in the Bahamas with his hubby. You can find Scott's "gender outlaw" alter-ego Pandora hosting drag bingo or gay movie night (think Mommie Dearest, coat hangers and Barbie dolls to beat) at Ice Pics in downtown Phoenix.

Chow Bella: How'd you get started as a bartender?
Scott Pierce: My parents were big drinkers, so we always had a bar at my house. For big holiday gatherings, my cousins and I figured out that if we poured people drinks, they would give us money. We used to get my family shitfaced! I could make the fiercest martini at age 7.

CB: What did you want to be when you grew up?
SP: I wanted to be Mrs. Wiggins.

CB: Who's that?
SP: Are you old enough to remember The Carol Burnett Show? Mrs. Wiggins was the secretary with the big ass and the leopard-print skirt who spends all of her time filing her nails and sharpening pencils. That was my earliest aspiration. I [did] the receptionist thing, so I got that out of my system.

CB: Where'd you live before Phoenix?
SP: I'm from DC. When Daddy Bush was in office, me and my friends used to write "eat my Bush" on tennis balls and throw them over the fence so his dog would get one and bring it inside.

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By Wynter Holden

California native Steve Delaney, who’s worked behind the bar at Tempe’s Rula Bula for over three-and-a-half years, is the only one in his family that hasn’t been to the Emerald Isle. He has no brogue, and I’m pretty certain he couldn’t direct you to Killarney or tell you what an Eriskay love lilt is. But when it comes to pouring the perfect pint of Guinness, he’s as Irish as they come -- no blarney.

Chow Bella: What brought you to Arizona originally?
Steve Delaney: Spring training, actually. I came out here every year, and when I saw the price of the homes, and the weather, I said I’m never going back.

CB: Where would you love to travel?
SD: I do want to see Ireland, and I’d love to do an African safari one day. I think that would just be a beautiful sight.

CB: Just to see, or to hunt?
SD: No, I don’t kill. I wouldn’t kill, because they’re bigger animals then I am and I wouldn’t take that chance.

CB: Is there a food or drink you have a particular weakness for?
SD: Lamb chops. I cannot live without lamb chops, with mint jelly, the whole thing.

CB: So how exactly do you pour the “perfect” pint – or will you have to kill me if you tell?
SD: The secret is…

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by Wynter Holden

Lisa Dowd is a witty, personable New York transplant who likes to gossip with her neighbors and knows an awful lot about "cawfee." Five years ago, she ditched a lucrative (albeit stressful) career as an X-Ray tech to open a small coffee shop inside a Scottsdale salon. These days, you can find her whipping foam and blending lattes in her downtown Glendale coffee house A Shot of Java. I sat down with Lisa at a shaky metal bistro table in the brick alleyway outside the shop, as tea-drinking poets and passersby eavesdropped on her fabulous stories.

Chow Bella: How did you get into the coffee business?
Lisa Dowd: My son used to play competitive soccer and his team won the state championship and the national tournament was in Hawaii. The first night, I was hanging out with one of the dads in the hotel and he's like, "what do you do? Are you happy?" I started bitching about the things I didn't like and said I wanted to own my own business. He said "I own a salon in Scottsdale and I'm thinking about putting a coffee bar in there. It's yours if you want it."

CB: Are you a coffee drinker?
LD: Yeah, I drink about four cups of coffee a day. I'd have to say my favorite drink is chai tea, though. And I make this thing called a cocomochanut that's really good. You can do it hot or cold, but I like it hot. Yes, even in the summer.

CB: Tell us the truth. If you're craving coffee and you're driving along the road and see a Starbucks, will you stop there?
LD: No, absolutely not. Never.

CB: Why make drinks when you're the boss? Don't you have peons to do that for you?
LD: Yeah, I do. I have a couple of really good peons. But I'm really anal. I feel more comfortable making the drinks, because I know I'm doing it with care and with love. And I'm doing it right.

CB: Ok, it's time for the "money shot." Give us your best on-the-job story.
LD: This is definitely a place where all the crazies come. I had one guy who came in and he was so eerie and bizarre; his spirit was just so dark, you know. It was around Christmastime and all of the Christmas lights around my counter burned out as he came in. I swear it was him!

CB: That's pretty creepy, but you can do better.
LD: Ok, I've got a good one. I was only open a couple of months, and this guy came in and kept staring at me. He had light blue eyes. He ordered coffee, sat down and kept staring the whole time and it was really uncomfortable.

Next day, he comes back with a friend and he's staring at me again. I think, he's gonna rob me or rape me. This guy is a rapist and he's scouting out the place and finding out that I'm here alone a lot.

A couple of days later the guy comes back and I'm thinking oh God, this is it. He comes up to the counter and says, "do you mind if I meet here once a week? I'm a minister and I'm with a Bible group."