keith waldbauer behind the bar at union

Rule #37 from the Modern Drunkard 86 rules of boozing [#] is, “Try one new drink each week.”

One of the beauties of living in Seattle is the sheer proliferation of bars/lounges/restaurants that allow you to easily follow that rule. Seattle Metropolitan magazine [#] in fact just released its Best Bars issue to help guide you through all of the possibilities.

While their list is fairly extensive, I feel that they’ve missed the mark only just slightly. Sure, a well-stocked bar and a delicious drink menu are important. However, these are merely the effects not the causes. Where a bar will be made or broken resides in the soul of its bartender. Without his or her knowledge, personality, and curiosity a bar is just a wooden plank to rest your drink upon. With these things, a bar can be outstanding; a place where you will return many a time and get giddy knowing your favorite is captaining the boat. Okay maybe that’s just me, but I think you know what I mean.

What I’m leading up to is this: if you want to know more about a bar you have to know about its tender and how better to know a bar’s tender than to go right to the source? We here at Seattle Metroblogging have taken the ultimate sacrifice and begun a series wherein we talk to Seattle’s good bartenders and let you get to know them a little before you take the plunge and enter their establishments.

First up? Keith Waldbauer from Union Restaurant (1400 First Avenue):

Whilst perusing your personal blog [#], I read that you started out as a server before stepping up behind the bar, but I don’t recall reading how long you’ve been back there. So, how long have you been tending bar?
The short answer is about 3 1/2 years, full-time. Back in the dark years of being a server, I’d try and help out bartending whenever the bartender would let me, and I also worked a few places where the waiters made cocktails, a situation that now makes me cringe.

Where did Ethan Stowell snap you up from to bring you to Union [#]? Any notable Seattle institutions on the resume? Any favorite places?
Three questions in one!!! No fair. Ok, Ethan actually didn’t really snap me up. I was in the process of moving from Ann Arbor to Seattle and he just happened to need a weekend bartender. The interview was hilarious and weird (he essentially looked at me, my resume, then back at me and said something like “well, you look reasonably sane” and that was that). I got extraordinarily lucky. Very few shifts pass without me thinking about how lucky I got.

Even though I grew up here, this is my first Seattle bar gig. A lifetime ago, I was a waiter at The Last Exit coffee house (RIP) when it was located on Brooklyn [wiki].

Favorite places? I actually hope to write a local guide to the best bars in the city. Here’s my list, in order…

• Zig Zag (best bar in the United States of America) [#]

• Vessel (Jamie Boudreau gets my vote as the most innovative bartender in Seattle, if not America) [#, blog]
• The Can-Can (Zack McPhee knows his bourbon and has a healthy respect for the history of our trade) [#]
• Sun Liquor (great vibe, great rums, a great hideaway from tourists and high-fiving frat boys) [#]
• Sambar (2nd best place for signature cocktails, after Vessel) [urbanspoon]
• Marjorie (great Caribbean feel and the cocktails are ginormous) [#]
• Mona’s Bistro (classic cocktails and tasty food) [drinkboy]
• Licorous (3rd best place for original cocktails, food pairs with the drinks) [#]

There are several other bars and bartenders doing great work, but these are the best spots in town for a tasty beverage.

Since you’re only at Union on the weekends, do you bartend elsewhere? Or should I just be jealous that you only work three (albeit long) days a week?
I currently only work three days a week, though that will have to change soon, given that I have a wedding and honeymoon to plan for. I’ll be looking to pick up a shift or two at some cool bar in the near future.

One of the reasons I love sitting at your bar is the well-stockedness of it. Okay, I just made that word up, but you know what I mean. How much autonomy do you have with what you have on hand and with creating the menu there?
Ethan pretty much leaves our inventory up to me, along with the cocktail menu. Since our menu is developing an Italian theme, he’s asked me to throw some Italian inspired cocktails on the menu, but aside from that he’s pretty much entrusted me with his stock, as long as I don’t push it to ridiculous limits. If we had shelf space and a huge budget, I’d stock everything I could get my hands on. There’s nothing I love more than walking into a bar and being confronted by a staggering amount of hooch.

Building on that, I have to note the current cocktail menu has a lot of old school drinks on it. Tell me how you got into classic and/or obscure cocktails.
We can blame Ben, Kacy and Murray of Zig Zag for that. I don’t think I’m particularly talented at inventing new cocktails (I go to Jamie Boudreau for that), so working and tinkering with the classic recipes jibes well with me. I’ve always been into history and I find the history of the cocktail and bartending fascinating.

I also like how you like to tinker (although I have to say I liked the falernum [wiki] much better than the artichoke stuff -Cynar? [wiki]- I tried there). How did you get into that aspect of bartending and how many new concoctions have you made up so far?
Yeah, making homemade syrups like falernum is pretty fun. By concoctions do you mean cocktails? Probably close to 100. How many were good? Probably closer to 2 or 3.

You’ve just gotten engaged. Congratulations! People always ask if chefs cook for their families; how about you? Does your fiancee get great cocktails at home or does she have to come into the bar like the rest of us?
Thank you. Yes, Christine sometimes gets cocktails. I’m not like a chef who hates to cook on his day off. She’d probably say I don’t make enough for her, though.

I have to ask, favorite drink please.
A rye Manhattan is the greatest drink on earth. Needs to be made with Vya sweet vermouth [#], though, for me to have an oralgasm. Must have bitters as well, and be stirred, not shaken.

Oh, can we have a recipe?
Hmm, the recipe for the rye Manhattan will actually be my next post over at AOL. ha ha. Sorry to trump you on that one. Still want it?? [Update: the tasted and loved Manhattan recipe is here #]

I was at a bar by my apartment recently when some kid rolled in and ordered a Dead Nazi [gross]. I almost barfed watching the bartender pour it. Of course, maybe it’s just me that thinks Jager and Rumplemintz shouldn’t go together. How hard is it to pour drinks that you find repulsive? And what was the worst thing you ever had to make?
Um, sometimes you just shrug and pour whatever they want (I don’t have to drink it!!). I don’t like Bloody Marys or dirty Martinis or hyper-sweet vodka drinks. I had one kid drink a Bloody Mary with his chocolate dessert. That was pretty repulsive.

Back to your blog. I read that you have an unfinished novel in your drawer. I’d think that bartending might be the perfect place to get material. Do you think you’ll eventually be inspired to pick up the novelist helm again?
Not going back to fiction, but I do hope to write a cocktail guide someday. I have my blog and I also just got brought on as a blogger for AOL [#], so that satisfies the writer bug.

You mentioned to me that you’re a trivia nerd. Do you have a favorite trivia venue in the city?
I love trivia nights at bars, but I haven’t been to one in a long time. However, I’m all about going to the Triple Door this upcoming Monday for their trivia night [#].