The Palomino's Lauren Landa has only tended bar for a year, but she worked her way up from being a waitress at Bay View's super-popular corner tap. "I begged (general manager) Tim Farley to let me, and when I got my license he said I could," says Landa. "I love it."
In her short time behind the bar at Palomino, 2491 S. Superior St., Landa has managed to invent her own cocktail (whose name isn't fit to print) and to diversify with another bartending job across town at the new Café Corazon, 3129 N. Bremen St., too.
We caught up with Landa for a quick Q&A in this latest bartender profile.
OnMilwaukee.com: Tell me about this drink you invented.
Lauren Landa: It's called the "F*cking Awesome." (Co-worker) John Craft and I made it together. It's Jameson, ginger ale and orange juice, and you have to shake it up.
OMC: What's your least favorite drink to make?
LL: Any dumb shots like a "Redheaded Slut." Just because of the name. A "Dirty Condom?" Who drinks that?
OMC: What's the most ridiculous thing you've seen happen in this bar?
LL: I've seen a grown man get his shirt ripped off by a little, 5-foot-tall girl.
OMC: Would that be construed as a bar fight?
LL: No, because he was just trying to get her number, and she wasn't having it. The more that he tried, the more she got upset. She just pushed him away and ripped his shirt off. I laughed. It was last call, everybody out the door.
OMC: Have you ever had to break up a bar fight?
LL: Yeah, I've had to break up two bar fights. One was outside, and one inside. It went well, because I don't think anyone was really going to hit me. I came out in a little black dress and was like, "Come on guys."
OMC: Do pick-up lines at bars work?
LL: No.
OMC: Never?
LL: No.
OMC: Who are better tippers, men or women?
LL: Men.
OMC: Where do you go to drink when you're not tending bar?
LL: I like the dive bars. I like The Newport. Otherwise, I go to Blackbird.
OMC: What's the best part about being a bartender?
LL: Definitely the fun. I don't feel like it's going to work; it's like hanging out.
OMC: What's the worst part?
LL: Rude people and obnoxious guys.
OMC: Do you drink when you tend bar?
LL: Sometimes.
OMC: Does it make it harder?
LL: No, it makes it easier.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
