Bartenders of NO - Home

INTERVIEWS
O’Neil Broyard
Greg Cowman
Gilberto Eyzaguirre
Paul Gustings
Gertrude Mayfield
Bobby Oakes
Michael Santucci
Martin Sawyer
Michael Smith
John Strickland
Floria Woodard

Cheers!
Drink Recipes

---

This project was sponsored by a grant from Southern Comfort.

Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans

Michael Santucci

“Mardi Gras? It’s like the Olympics. They should give it to the city every four years…Everybody in New Orleans loves Mardi Gras. Me, I hate it…I don’t like it, never did, it’s just too busy and a lot of work involved. Thirteen straight days of work. It’s a lot of work. The money’s very good, but it’s a lot of work.”

– Micheal Santucci

A native of New Orleans, Michael Santucci has been tending bar for thirty-two years. He learned his trade by accident he says, working at his father’s old place in the French Quarter, Mike’s Bar. Since then he’s held shifts at more than a few joints and mixed his fair share of cocktails. It’s not the cocktails that keep him in the business, though. Michael’s quick to confess that he’s in it to make a living. Today you can find him at the Touché Bar or the Rib Room (both part of the Royal Orleans Hotel), where he’s plied his trade for going on fourteen years, doting on locals and welcoming tourists. You might even find him having a cocktail around the corner at the Napoleon House at the end of a long shift. Wherever he is, Michael is good for a few stories and more than a few laughs. And he’ll be thrilled to make you one of his signature Mai Tai’s, if you’re in the mood for something tropical. As Michael says, the ladies like it.

---

What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

SUBJECT: Michael Santucci, bartender
DATE: March 30, 2005
LOCATION: Touché Bar
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans

Amy Evans: Amy Evans, Wednesday, March thirtieth, two thousand and five at the Touché Bar in New Orleans. This is Amy Evans at the Touché Bar with Michael Santucci, a bartender here.

Michael Santucci: New Orleans—[Sound of bottle hitting the bar as Michael sets up]

And, um, he’s setting up his bar and nice enough to spend some time talking about, um, his trade. So Michael would you, uh, mind also letting us know your birthday so we have on record what—

March fourteenth[beats on bar], nineteen forty-seven.

All right. And how long have you been bartending?

Thirty-two years. Thirty-two years.

Thirty-two. That’s some time.

Since nineteen seventy-two.

Yeah? And how’d you get into the business?

By accident…You know, my father taught me. You know, my father owned a bar [for] a couple years in the French Quarter. So I worked for him an just picked it up, and I was just very lucky. I worked all good places.

What bar was your father’s bar?

It was called Mike’s bar.

Mike’s Bar? Where was it?

Royal and Kerlerac [pronounces this Kell-or-ac]. On the corner. It’s still there. On the corner of Royal and Kerlerac [Streets]. It’s the R Bar now. He took that over in nineteen sixty-eight, sixty-nine. Sold it around [nineteen] seventy-two, which is when I went to work for Harry’s Place.

Okay. And so you just learned, you know, jumped both feet into the fire just—

That’s it.

—working behind the bar.

That’s it. Went to work at Harry’s Place. Goodtime Harry’s Place was very popular. Lot of ladies used to go in there. A lot of professional people…I started off [working there] a couple of days a week, and I just picked it up. And like I said, I was very fortunate. Every place I’ve worked—all very good places, where you can make money.

Yeah. And so that’s—is that primarily why you’re in it, to make money? Or do you like—

No—

—mixing the drinks or the people—

I’m in it to make money. And now I’m getting old, I don’t have many more years left in this business…In fact, four more years should do it. [Laughs]

Yeah?

Yeah, I hope so.

Then you’ll retire, huh?

Well, I might cut down, you know, maybe find something easier. Two days a week or something. You know. Eh, four more years. Maybe five, tops, in this place…If I’ll make it that long.

So you were born in New Orleans, obviously, yeah?

Yes. I’ve been working at the [Royal Orleans] hotel here for fourteen years now.

And you like it over here?

Yes, I like it. It’s—I think it’s very hard work sometimes…I like it. I mean, look, [it] pays all the benefits. [Short pause] Pays the whole package, uh, 401[k], dental—whatever. Healthcare…That’s one of the reasons why I stay here, really. [Short pause] Like everybody else. [Sound of cooler door being shut] What else you got to know?

Well, so tell me a little something about bartending in New Orleans. Since you’ve been around for a while.

Well I don’t think no city in—in the United States pours more alcohol than this city—the population—big [with] tourists…Lot of—lot of winos in this town. Lot of—lot of people like to drink. They come to New Orleans for two things: to eat and drink. Remember that. That’s what they come to New Orleans for, to eat and drink. Pour a lot of alcohol. Mardi Gras time.

-----

Uh-huh, and your famous Mai Tai you were telling me about yesterday.

Yeah, well, I think it’s good, Uh, and a lot of women like it.

[Short laugh] Yeah?

In fact, later on we’ll make you one, if I can find my—I have it. [Nobody knows about that. [Brings a bottle of Crème de Banana over and places it on the bar in front of the interviewer] A Chinese man taught me—said it tops the whole drink off. Women like it. [Sound of Michael’s ring hitting the side of the bottle] Basically, people that drink that, they just want one drink.

Yeah?

Basically women, they only want one drink.

So you think women like the—the fruitier, fancier drinks?

Yes, yes. Yes…Older women? Absolutely. What else? What else we got to go on to?

Would you consider the Mai Tai your signature drink?

Mm, probably so.

Yeah?

Yeah, I make a good Mai Tai. Basically, Mai Tai, Rum Punch, Hurricane—now a Hurricane’s sweet. I make a good Hurricane. Basically a Mai Tai and Rum Punch are basically the same. Different rums—dark rum, light rum. And you just got to make it a little lighter for women. You know, I—I top it off with Crème de Banana. That’s what makes the drink…That’s what makes the drink. Nobody I—not too many people do that. I don’t know anybody that does it except for the Chinese fella…Except the fella that taught me how to make it real good. A Chinese man…A Chinese fella—said top off with Crème de Banana, and they’ll love it. He was right.

-----

[S]urely you’ve got a lot of tourists coming through here.

Right. I like ‘em, you know. I don’t mind talking to tourists. I really don’t. [Sound of bottles being put away] Look, the worst thing about this job, it’s not pouring liquor, it’s the food.

How do you mean?

We got to serve food here…We—we have sandwiches—its just, you know, it’s the food. And I’m the only one in here. And sometimes food can be hectic…The Rib Room also. You know, if someone sits at the bar, they want food, you’ve got to serve them. [Sound of bottles being put away]

Do you share a kitchen with the Rib Room?

Yeah…All of us has got the same kitchen. All this you talking—[moves hand around to gesture that the two places are connected]—all this that’s connected? We got the same kitchen. The food is the only drawback.

---

To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.