![]() ![]() Schneider had made the pilgrimage to drink there a couple of times but kept himself to himself. Before long, Giglio had included his drinks in the Mr Boston cocktail guide he edited, and invited him to New York to bartend alongside the sort of folk who counted, even in 2007, as startenders.Įmployees Only, the New Yorkiest of New York bars and the cocktailiest of cocktail bars, had beckoned this Jersey boy since it opened, but their famously tight hiring policy and staff retention rates meant working there was more pipedream than dream. “So he hired me on the cheap.” All Schneider can remember about the drink is that it contained pomegranate, gin and Campari – but it worked. “He wanted someone to create a cocktail for his wife's fortieth birthday,” Schneider recalls. Giglio would clear his path to the bright lights and cool underground of New York City proper, a longterm dream for a boy who'd grown up on the fringes of the great metropolis. Next came the venerable Elysian Cafe in Hoboken, where he caught the attention of wine and spirits writer Anthony Giglio. There he took the first job he could find, in a fine dining restaurant, which added a raft of soft and decorative skills to the ribald banter and speed bartending he'd acquired in the dive bar. So, when he learned his best friend's mother was dying of cancer, he abandoned Washington to return to New Jersey. ![]() He began to explore everything from molecular mixology to making his own ingredients, and to consider bartending a career, not a stopgap.įriendship is important to Schneider. Competitive and focused, Schneider found the process of training for and winning competitions led him to take bartending seriously for the first time. At least it made me happy.”ĭischarged from the army, he won the first of many bartending competitions – the criteria were speed and accuracy – and gained enough money to clear a bunch of debt. Memorising prices and recipes and pour counts, these were motor skills I'd lost during my injury and I had the chance to learn them all again. “But being wide-eyed and open and learning something new helped me take a step away from all my pain. “I was working next to someone who was 30 years old and I thought he was so old,” Schneider recalls. Schneider was working alongside other injured marines, handing out towels at the gym, when he stumbled into the odd shift behind the stick at a dive bar in Georgetown, Washington. The camaraderie, teamwork and community of bartending proved a salvation both from physical pain and the ache of shattered dreams. “I was watching my friends go off and do what they wanted to do, while I was stuck in a hospital bed, doing brain rehabilitation.” “That feeling of helplessness was the worst,” he recalls. A night out culminated in a ruck that left Schneider with brain injuries so severe his family were told to prepare for the worst – and ended his promising military career. And, unlike most dumb decisions nineteen year olds make, the move had lifelong consequences. Then, like a lot of nineteen year olds, he made a dumb decision. He could swim carrying 30 kg of gear, endure simulated gas attacks, perform a gadzillion pushups, and was all set to ship out for Afghanistan. Schneider cruised through the gruelling basic training, finished number one in intelligence training, and progressed through the ranks like lightning. “The first thing I remember I said was, 'What the hell am I doing here? I've got a plane to catch!' and they were like, 'You're not going anywhere,'” he recalls.Ī high-school athlete, he'd enlisted in the US Marines in the wake of 9/11, a tragedy that hit right on his doorstep during his final year of school. Steve Schneider vividly remembers coming out of his two-day coma, awaking in a hospital bed as a seething ball of confusion and rage. ![]() Originally from: Bergen County, New Jersey, USA ![]()
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