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This project was sponsored by a grant from Southern Comfort.

Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans

Paul Gustings

“If you have people at the bar that respond to what you do, that’s always a lot more fun, and that has to do with performing. Because you’re always on stage. People are always watching what you’re doing."

– Paul Gustings

Originally from the Netherlands, Paul flipped a coin one day, headed to the United States, made his way to New Orleans for a visit and ended up staying. Twenty-three years later, his bartending resume includes some time spent behind the bar at places like the Clubhouse of the Galloping Gooses and Brennan’s Restaurant. Paul’s prickly personality eventually found the right fit at two bars in the French Quarter: Tujague’s and the Napoleon House. While he appreciates a good cocktail, he also appreciates the cocktail connoisseur and hasn’t much patience for less. He’ll take the time to make traditional cocktails the right way and will appreciate you for knowing enough about cocktails to order them. So belly up to the bar, serve Paul a smile, and he’ll serve you a well-made drink.

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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: Paul Gustings, bartender
DATE: March 29, 2005
LOCATION: Napoleon House
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans

Amy Evans: This is Tuesday, March twenty-ninth, two thousand and five. This is Amy Evans for the Southern Foodways Alliance, and I’m with Paul Gustings at the Napoleon House. And it’s approximately eleven o’clock in the p.m., I believe. And, uh, Paul is closing up shop. And where here to talk to him about his time tending bar in the city of New Orleans at the Napoleon House and at Tujague’s, correct?

Paul Gustings: Tujague’s, yes.

So are you a native of New Orleans?

No, I’m not.

Where are you from originally?

I’m from the Netherlands. [BIRTHDATE: August 6, 1956]

Oh, okay. When did you come to New Orleans?

Two weeks after Mardi Gras. I don’t remember which year…Yeah, I think it was nineteen eighty-one or nineteen eighty-two, I’m not sure…It might be nineteen eighty, I don’t remember.

So what brought you here?

Uh, I came to see some friends of mine, and I was going to stay here about two, three weeks and then go somewhere else.

Ha! [Laughs]

Yeah, really. A normal story. There’s a few people like that.

Oh, I’m sure. So was this job one of the first jobs that you got when you decided to stay or did you work somewhere else?

Um, no. I had, uh, how many jobs? I had like four of five jobs before that…My first bartending job was really interesting, actually.

Where was that?

It was at Funky Butts, which—which was not the Funky Butts it is know. At the time, it was the, uh, Clubhouse of the Galloping Gooses, which was the local chapter of the Hell’s Angels…And it’s quite different the way it is now because now it’s—

Yeah, I would say.

—it’s just a music club now. But that was one of my first jobs, and I got this job [at the Napoleon House] in, uh, nineteen eighty-six…So that’s how long I’ve worked here, since nineteen eight-six.

Did you bartend in the Netherlands before you came over?

No.

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So you learned on the job?

And, yeah, you learn on the job.

So what was it like?...Being thrown to the lions and learning on the job?

I’m not being thrown to the lions; I am the lion.

Oh, okay.

[Laughs] You know? Uh, I’m not easily intimidated.

Yeah?

So, you, know, people ask you for something [and] you don’t know how to make it, just tell them. And most people don’t know what the hell they’re drinking anyways…You fake it. You lie. [Imitating a customer ordering a drink. Assumes nerdy accent] “I’ll have a purple whoobbely-boobely upside down.” “Sure! No problem. Here you go.” [Customer then says,] “That’s not how it tastes like at home.” I say, “Well, you’re not at home. That’s how we make ‘em here.”

[Laughing]

People don’t know. They have no clue, you know…And it’s, uh, and it’s kind of interesting when there are people—there’s a—there’s a whole group of people that write books on the bar business, drinks, uh, which ingredient to use for whatever, which utensil to use for whatever….It’s kind of refreshing to get those people to come in [who know about cocktails] because they kind of picky about what they drink. They’re not jerks. Actually they’re all really nice people, which really surprised me.

Yeah?

[With even more emphasis] Really surprised me. But they—they know exactly what goes in a drink. They know exactly how to drink it, how to make it and stuff like that. And it’s kind of a—it’s kind of nice to have somebody that really appreciates when you make them a drink the right way…And unfortunately, they don’t come in that often, you know?

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So what makes a good bartender in the [French] Quarter? Just getting by or—

I don’t really know. Um, I don’t really know. I never thought of that.

Patience, I would imagine—

Oh, no. No, no. No patience. No. Because, uh, well it depends. Some people do. You know, the thing—it really depends on how people approach you, you know, [with] how patient you are. Or how nice you are to them, or how not-nice you are to them. What makes a good bartender in the French Quarter? I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea. Because the only place I was bartending was in the French Quarter, so I don’t know. I don’t—uh—

Well people obviously revere you as a bartender, and you have regular customers that come to see you. What do you think that is [short pause] that brings them back?

Because I’m such a wonderful person. Obv—well, of course that’s what that is!

[Laughing]

What do you think?! God!

Well, you know, you could pour with a heavy hand, you could—

No, that has nothing to do with it.

—toss bottles in the air.

No, I don’t do that neither. I toss people out the door.

[Laughs]

Uh, well first of all, you have to have a sense of humor. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you might as well forget it. Uh, I don’t kiss anybody’s ass. Nobody.

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So what keeps you doing it?

I’m used to it by now…You know, and it is—it’s like you said earlier on. It’s like what’s the good thing. What’s the bad thing? I don’t know. You know, some times it’s not—it’s all bad. That’s just the way it is. But sometimes it’s all good. Sometimes things go well [and] you have really nice people. Uh, you know, you have a good time doing it. Sometimes you walk in and it’s just—it’s just not like that, you know?

What is a nice customer for you? Is it someone who’s chatty and friendly or—

No, that depends. No, that really depends on—on how they are. Well, first of all, if you don’t understand my kind of humor, then [laughs]—

[Laughs]

—you’re at a loss anyway. [Short pause] You know, I’d really like to know how many people walk down the street and go, “Honey, was that guy nice to us, or was he an asshole?”

[Laughs]

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So when did you start working over there [at Tujague’s]?

Uh, s—s—seven and a half—almost seven and a half years ago.

How is that different from the Napoleon House?

[I]t’s very different. They have—they have a lot more people that come in every single day. You know, we have a lot of locals that come in here, but they don’t come in every day. They come in whenever they’re in town. There are people there [at Tujague’s] that live right down the street, and the first thing they do in the morning when they wake up? Go to Tujague’s. It’s getting [to be] less, but it’s still, you know—It’s a much bigger bar. And it’s a completely different set up. But the bar is in the front, with the dining room in the back. Well here [at the Napoleon House], the dining room is everywhere—in the front, in the bar, everywhere.

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[T]here is some, you know, scholarship about how the word “cocktail” came about and [how] the Sazerac came about and all that, but I mean, [all the different cocktails being served] in different bars around the city and how you learn to make them and how people drink them and—

How I learned how to make them? I still don’t know that. I just pick it up somewhere along the line. Yeah. Uh, there’s a lot of—there’s a lot of drinks that I make that nobody [else] makes anymore.

Like what?

Absinthe Suissesse. [short pause] Ramos Gin Fizz made the right way.

What’s the right way?

With the real—it’s a very complicated drink. It’s got like f—ten ingredients. And what people do—and that’s—that’s my point. When Cipriani’s gets “Best Bar in [the] United States” because they squeeze the orange for you right there—a lot of people take shortcuts. Like a Ramos Gin Fizz, you really need powdered sugar. But [short pause] you know, people go, “I don’t need powdered sugar; I’ll just use sugar-water.” You can’t do that. That’s’ a very different drink.

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So do you like to perform? Is that something you like about your job? To be kind of on stage?

Well that’s what it is. Basically. Do I like it? I don’t know. I guess.

Do you think you’re good at it?

Does it have—that has something to do with whether or not you have a good night…It’s like, you know, when people walk in and sit at the bar like [sighs and makes face] you know they’re bored and they don’t want to talk to you then—I go look out the window. Or I go do something else, you know. But if you have people at the bar that respond to what you do, that’s always a lot more fun, and that has to do with performing. Because you’re always on stage. People are always watching what you’re doing. Which doesn’t bother me. And there’s a lot of people that come and sit at the bar and watch me make drinks. Because they’ve never—I don’t know—they whether—I don’t know. They might drink at Wendy’s [fast food restaurant] or something. I don’t know…And they’ve never seen how you make a—the weirdest I’ve ever had was ten college kids who didn’t know how to make a Bloody Mary because they had never seen a Bloody Mary made from scratch…I mean it’s like, “Where do you go?” You know? No, they’re used to Mr. T’s [Bloody Mary Mix] or whatever that stuff is. But, um—

Well I saw you today when you came on your—your shift and you rearranged the bar from—from Greg’s [Cowman’s] bar—

I’m left-handed.

Yeah? Okay. [Laughs] Well, you could tell. I mean it was a completely different type of set-up.

Yeah. Well, they never set the bar up the same way. I never—I’ve set this bar up the same way since I’ve worked here. Everything is exactly in the same spot. That’s why I can do this with my eyes shut.

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