Bar night (1 of 2): Restaurant bar.

Last Thursday after an art exhibit opening I went to downtown, I went to a few nicer bars since I was dressed up.

The first was the bar in a modern, minimalist Italian restaurant, where I had actually been for a reception several years ago during the conference.

Like no-one was at the bar, but I got a beer anyway and read a newspaper...

The bartender was this late 30s (white) woman, who I heard call out to one (young) (muscled) (Mexican) waiter "Carlos!" in a distinct Spanish accent to catch his attention, and when that failed, started calling out sweetly, "Carlito..."

After a while, me and her started talking, and she told me that the business at the bar had dried up since they lost their liquor license for 5 weeks back in the fall; they used to have regulars and the place was packed, but the new mayor has been pulling licenses on back taxes, and since one of the owner's other restaurants was behind, they lost their license for a bit and all their regulars drifted to other places.

She also said she's surprised at how bad restaurant owners are with money. At one place she used to work, the owner had allowed like over 20 different people to write checks, and she didn't know how many were out there and then her account would dip and she'd bounce check after check until she realized that was happening.

"She called me up in her cigarette voice and asked me why that was happening to her," she said. "So, I told her to keep better track of her money and not have so many people be able to write checks, and she said to me, 'You're not my financial manager.'"

She also said that the owner of the current place's other couple restaurants have closed, since they were big and with elaborate decorations, and people don't go for that now; when they go out to eat, they want to be at someplace minimalist so they don't feel like they're spending money, even if they're spending money.

Then, somehow I found out that she was a ph.d. student who dropped out of her archaeology program this year, and had excavated in Peru.