- Okay, bartenders in this day and age
are definitely artists if you've ever seen
any of those finer craft drinks being
put together, you know it is no small task.
Meanwhile they are also mastering the art of conversation.
- Fort Lewis College sophomore,
Payton Rutkowski who is not quie
old enough to even drink yet introduces us
to the sensory experience of crafting fine drinks.
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] What I wish I had more for bartending
is time with people, time to get to know them.
You're busy making drinks throughout the evening
and you just get brief moments to meet people.
You can learn a lot from everybody
and here at the Ore House
we serve a lot of successful people.
There's a lot to be learned from our customers.
My name is Mark Daley,
I'm a bartender and I work at the Ore House
in Durango, Colorado.
(upbeat music)
one of our most popular drinks
is called the Desperado.
We're from the Southwest so I always
like having a Margarita on our cocktail list
and it's quite fun, and it's once again
a very simple process and done in a classic style.
We just take a half smoke green chili
and it's a process of letting that tequila
and the chili just blend together for a few days,
not too long or it becomes too strong.
And just fresh lime juice that we squeeze daily
and some organic agave nectar and quantro,
and then we burn a sage leaf on top
for your garnish which smells you know,
gives off a wonderful odor to the bar.
When people see fire on their drink they ask questions.
For our AKA fancy boys we call them that we use,
and the old fashions and like a Manhattan
or a whisky or bourbon or anything a spirit on a rock.
We'll simply boil water, put it into a cooler
and probably four big pots of water
and we'll let that sit there for two and a quarter days.
Then we pull it out of the fridge
and let the ice sweat a little bit.
What happens in the fridge is the water separates
so the impurities fall to the bottom.
There's a top layer that freezes
so we crack it out of the cooler
and then put it on a cutting board
and score it with a knife and we actually
have ice cutters and we tap the ice cutters,
making ice cube blocks that'll fit
into three different sizes of glasses
and they're clear so that's
what's really special about them.
You can see right through the ice cube.
They're beautiful.
Yeah I am definitely a people person.
I have fun making drinks so I try
and share that with the customers you know,
and they enjoy it.
There's a lot of times where I can't say a word
and I'm a gabby guy you know.
To hear people say they're enjoying themselves immensely
just watching me go through the mechanics
of making several cocktails is quite entertaining
and you know I laugh and giggle
and sometimes make mistakes and I try
and share that with the people in the bar around me
because I'm serving an entire restaurant drinks.
♪ Just can't live without you
- [Man] Daily shot back.
- Tony come back.
And often times people do get involved with that
and they ask questions all along the way.
Occasionally you might forget a thing or two
and have to start over again but yeah,
it is very interactive nowadays with the customers.
So you never know what anybody is gonna order.
You can find the big, burly, rugged mountain man
coming through the door sitting down
and ordering a cosmopolitan.
There's no right or wrong and if it's what
somebody wants I'm glad to make it.
I'd be more happy to make you what you want
than to stray you too far from it.
I think that's what makes a good bartender.
(upbeat music)
- The Ore House in Durango, what a cool atmosphere,
you know what I wanna do?
I wanna sit at Mark's bar
and kinda take in that burning sage.
- Mm delightful, I feel like you guys would get along.
Yes and perhaps you can have one of those desperados.
- Ooh.
- As your signature drink. - That would be good.
- and you can pay Mark a visit,
check out the link for more.