Party Snobbery: If You Can’t Afford to Hire a Bartender . . .

"If you can't afford to hire a bartender, you shouldn't be having a party." That's the mantra of New York hipsters.

Now here’s a rule I did not know:

“In my opinion, if you don’t have a bartender at your party, you’re a loser,” said Dustin Terry, who lives a floor below Ms. Argiro and said his job was to get models and Saudi royalty into hot clubs. “The bartender brings class and sophistication.”

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender,” he added, “you shouldn’t be having a party.”

That seems to be the consensus of a growing crowd of 30-something New Yorkers who wish to signal they’ve graduated from post-collegiate squalor to young professional coming of age. No matter how small their abodes, they won’t invite friends over for cocktails without the assistance of a bartender — even if there’s barely room for the bartender to stand.

Now, I’m not sure what Procurer of Models and Saudi Royalty pays these days but this would have put the kibosh on most of the parties I’ve attended.   Indeed, I make a decent living and the only party I’ve hosted at which I’ve employed a non-me bartender was my wedding.

via Glenn Reynolds

FILED UNDER: Uncategorized, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    Indeed, I make a decent living and the only party I’ve hosted at which I’ve employed a non-me bartender was my wedding.
    Well, that’s because you’re not a greed-ridden douchebag, James. Congratulations.

  2. James Joyner says:

    Heh. I dunno. Maybe I’m being selfish by not hiring a bartender and spreading the wealth.

  3. Alex Knapp says:

    I tend bar at my own parties. I don’t trust bartenders to properly mix a drink that doesn’t involve chocolate or use of a blender.

    A couple of years ago, I went to a “martini bar” — that didn’t serve gin. And when I asked for my “martini” to be served perfect, I was served vodka with no vermouth.

    Ugh.

  4. James Joyner says:

    Alex,

    You would have been perfectly justified in going Lonesome Dove on his ass.

  5. Tony says:

    Every so often I go through 30 second mind-flips where I briefly turn from a moderate conservative into an incredibly dour, humourless socialist. They tend to be set off by things like the discovery that Procurer of Models and Saudi Royalty is now apparently a recognised career path. The same thing happened a few months back when I learned that at some point along the line Party Promoter has come to be seen as an actual job.

    Anyway, as others have noted, the key thing to take away from this is that Dustin Terry is a complete anus.