Coyote Kilroy

The line of students snakes down the street and around the corner. As they get ready to enter the bar, it's easy to see why it is the second largest in Indiana. It's not even the weekend yet, and tonight 17 Kilroy's Sports bartenders will serve 1,500 people. \nIn a corner of the bar, Sports bartender Justin Morgan rhythmically mixes drinks. If his hands were to stop for a moment, you could get a glimpse of a bartender's wound. A bite mark scars the upper part of his right wrist. \nThe wound is a reminder of a typical situation on this typical night of bartending at Kilroy's.\n"Two guys started punching each other and for some reason the staff didn't get there or didn't see it. So I took off my apron and jumped over the bar with another bartender," Morgan, a junior, says. "As I was holding down one of the guys, he bit me." \nThe average bar fight usually flares because a guy looks at someone the wrong way, or two guys bump into each other trying to get through the crowd. \n"It's actually really hard not to bump into someone because it's always so crowded," Morgan says. "When I was working as a server I must have dropped about $100 worth of liquor just from people bumping into me."\nTonight three feet of wood separate the nearest customer from Morgan. \nA group of girls walk toward the corner bar. \n"Hello ladies, can I get you something tonight?" says Morgan.\nThey order six tequila shots and two amaretto sours, a Captain and Coke and three individual pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea. As Morgan prepares the shots, a man asks for drinks and is asked politely to wait one minute. Two hands turn four bottles of liquor upside down at the same time into a pitcher of ice, three times. \nHe prepares three other drinks and puts lemon on the shots. Two minutes later, he collects money from the girls, gives them change back and takes the next order ' all while laboring under the gaze of eight more customers leaning on the bar.\n"What most people don't understand is that the job is very demanding," Morgan says. "I mean, it's fun and I love it, but when there are 50 people all waiting for drinks at the same time, you can get stressed out."\nMorgan started working for Yogi's but got fired because he missed a mandatory meeting with excise police. \n"I know all my friends make fun of me because of it," Morgan says. \nHe headed to Kilroy's Sports, 319 N. Walnut St., and applied a little more than a year ago. \n"You have to start off as a server and then you can be moved up to a bartender," Morgan says. "I've been bartending now for the past seven months." \nAnd do people actually tell bartenders their stories? Morgan says that most people do talk to him and that's how a bartender builds a regular clientele. \n"Usually there are more regulars during the day, but I have about 40 to 50," Morgan says. "I see them as soon as they walk in the door, and before they get to the bar, I have their drink ready for them. I also try and get to them first if I'm really busy. They always come in and tip me very well."\nAlong with the conversational aspect of the job, Morgan says he likes introducing people to new drinks and the different liquors.\n"I think one of my favorite parts of the job is teaching people how to drink," Morgan says. "When I was living in Sigma Pi, I drank just to get drunk. But now I drink to appreciate the liquor, and I want other people to learn that. So when time allows I tell people about the different types of brands they can get."\nUnfortunately, on a busy night, there's no time for a lesson on which vodka tastes better with which fruit juice. It's just taking the orders, making the drinks and moving on to the next person.\n"Some bartenders will take the time and talk to a girl, but I'm supporting myself at school." Morgan says. "So I treat it like a job and try to move on quickly,"\nMorgan says that every bartender can tell when a girl is interested. \n"She usually ends up giving you a huge tip. I mean major overtipping." \nJanet Jackson's "Black Cat" starts playing at the stroke of midnight as the door closes for a while. The bar is too packed. \n"I think the worst thing is when you're really busy and someone waves their money at you or hits your arm with it," Morgan says. "That's really frustrating because you see them, you acknowledge them but you can only make drinks so fast."\nMorgan says most people are nice about it but sometimes people forget that you're actually working a job. The biggest bar faux pas? Not knowing what you want. \n"I mean, we're not trying to be mean, but if we have eight people waiting for drinks and you come up and have no idea what you want, we have to move on to the next person," he says.\nThe last person is served close to 3 a.m., and the bar is cleared. Servers begin doing their clean up work and reach home at about 5 a.m. \n"I'm up for a couple hours after work so that's when I usually study," says Morgan, a business student.\nThe next day begins with a difficult wake up at 3 p.m. and classes until 7 p.m. Then back to Kilroy's at 8 p.m., where Morgan gets ready for another packed house.