By Brandon Hernández

Miller’s Field bartender Ciara Guedesse has had a front-row view of San Diego’s beach-bar scene since she began serving the hard-partying masses in 2001. In August 2009, she was named PacificSD’s co-Bartender of the Month (along with younger sister Lindsay Willis).

With more than a decade behind the bar, Guedesse has gained a sobering perspective: that despite the camaraderie among their patrons, bar owners were competing against each other in ways that didn’t contribute to the common good.

Six months ago, to establish greater solidarity in her sandy corner of the industry, Guedesse formed the Beach Bar Guild—a collective of bar owners and their staff who meet each month at one of the member’s venues. To date, nearly 20 bars and restaurants have joined the group.

“The idea came about when I started seeing a disconnect between the staffs at Pacific Beach bars,” says Guedesse. “People were becoming overly competitive as opposed to cooperative, and it hit me that we’d all be better off if we worked with each other.”
Guild members, for example, strive to prevent drunk driving, collaborating with RADD (Recording Artists Against Drunk Driving) and the Hospitality Task Force of Discover Pacific Beach (the neighborhood’s business improvement district) to make sure all bartenders, servers and security personnel are better trained to protect their customers.

They’re also pooling resources in support of neighborhood fundraisers and community causes (like saving the Pacific Beach Christmas Parade) in an effort to improve business for all members, as well as the bar- going experience for patrons.

“The Guild is open to anyone in PB or Mission Beach who wants to work to create a better industry,” says Guedesse. “We are adamant about giving back to the community we work and live in—and unifying the beach bar community, one bar at a time.” Safer drinking, better service and more profits? If Guedesse has anything to do with it…“Guild” it, and they will come.

ciara.beachbarguild@gmail.com

BEACH BAR GUILD MEMBERS

Brewley’s Pint
Bub’s Dive Bar
Cabo Cantina
Dirty Birds
Firehouse
Fred’s Mexican Café
Guava Beach Bar & Grill
Miller’s Field
Moondoggies
Pacific Beach Alehouse
PB Shore Club
RT’s Longboard Grill
Sandbar Sports Grill
Sneak Joint
Tap Room
Thrusters Lounge
Typhoon Saloon

According to Sarah Ellis at Jayne’s Gastropub in North Park, becoming a great bartender is simple. “The best way to learn about drinks is by drinking them, and I dedicated quite a bit of time to my studies,” she says. Being well-versed in the cocktail classics (and keen to the importance of proper dilution, accurate jiggering and fresh ingredients), Ellis feels free to experiment: she’s now working on a line of bottled aperitif cocktails, including one made with Cymar, an artichoke-based liqueur. “Imagine being able to pop open a little bottle and have a perfectly crafted, bubbly pre- dinner cocktail,” says Ellis, who, off the clock, pours on the punk as the guitarist for her all-girl band, Lady Parts.

jaynesgastropub.com

For mixologist Shawn Barker, landing at the venerable Betrand at Mister A’s high above Bankers Hill is a career pinnacle.

“I’m honored and excited,” says the San Diego native, a 13-year food service industry veteran. “It’s an opportunity to further develop my craft while working alongside some of the most respected individuals in the San Diego restaurant scene.”

Barker has crafted a drink list for Mister A’s featuring contemporary cocktails and archetypal classics, tapping his experience working in Las Vegas and L.A. with Wolfgang Puck, for whom he developed custom bar menus at Chinois, Spago and other signature eateries.

Barker’s time with Puck was equal parts education and awe.

“Wolfgang’s little touches of humor made seemingly complicated dishes easy to understand,” he says. “Having such knowledgeable chefs at each location expanded my own palate, which helped me to taste the small nuances that also make good drinks into great ones.”

Such flavor acuity will be crucial to meeting the discriminating tastes of Mister A’s clientele. “Whether you like vodka, gin, whiskey, rum or tequila, we have diverse drinks from which to choose,” Barker says. “The flavor profiles are wide-ranging, too—tart to sweet, herbal to spicy and everything in between.”

His personal favorite? The Best of Times—a mix of organic citrus vodka, grapefruit juice, elderberry liqueur and Aperol, a scarlet Italian aperitif. “It blends a balanced sweetness up front with a smooth bitter finish, has several layers, and changes as it moves through your palate.”

Other Barker specialties include the Skyline Manhattan, a softer riff on the traditional cocktail, and the New Orleans-inspired Sazerac, which he describes as “smoky and earthy on the palate, with anise on the nose. Great for sipping on a colder night out on the penthouse patio at Mister A’s.”

See you at the top.

Stephanie Woods, who tends bar at Sandbar Sports Grill in Mission Beach, ended her tenure as the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club’s Miss Emerson last month.

During her recent tenure as “Miss Emerson,” the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club’s (OMBAC’s) community spokes-model, Stephanie Woods fell in love with the tight-knit community of Mission Beach—so much so that she found herself a gig slinging drinks at the neighborhood’s Sandbar Sports Grill.

The Pacific Beach resident says OMBAC members and M.B. locals tend to drink in a circuit, hopping from watering holes such as the Pennant and The Beachcomber on Mission Boulevard to the Coaster Saloon and Sandbar, both situated across from Belmont Park on Ventura Place (a homecoming of sorts for Woods, who grew up in Ventura, California).

“South Mission is a culture unto itself,” says Woods, who, as Miss Emerson, posed for photos and volunteered her time at blood drives, youth sporting events, the club’s horseshoe and volleyball tournaments and at last month’s Over-the-Line tournament. “A lot of people that were born and raised in Mission Beach have never left Mission Beach, or they don’t make it much further. If you see a Hawaiian shirt in Mission Beach, I guarantee you, they’re affiliated with OMBAC—that’s kind of their signature.”

Woods’ own signature is old-time rock and roll and punk rock, including Agent Orange, Tim Armstrong, Operation Ivy—and especially The Misfits. She’s also known for sporting knee-high socks, cracking jokes and her love of Jameson Irish Whiskey and chilled Smirnoff 100 Proof Root Beer Vodka.

Since Woods is the only employee who digs root beer vodka, management knows whom to question should the supply run suspiciously low. And there are other telltale signs.

“When I’ve had too many cocktails, I go cross-eyed,” she says. “My (coworkers) all like to tease me about it…but I just have fun with it.”

Getting to the root (beer) of the problem—what a cross (eyed) to bear.

Sandbar Sports Grill, 718 Ventura Place, Mission Beach
858.488.1274, sandbarsportsgrill.com

Stephanie Woods
Age: 28
Lives In: Pacific Beach
Hometown: Ventura , Calif .
Hangouts: Green Flash , Wave House, Sandbar
Band: The Misfits
Drink: Bloody Molly (like a Bloody Mary, except with Jameson Irish Whiskey instead of vodka)
Movie: Elf
Sport: Horseshoes
Pet: Beagle puppy named Jameson
Best Tip: Paid $300 by a regular to learn the University of Michigan fight song.

AIRR bar manager Scott Morgans in the "white room."

By Pat Sherman
Photos by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan

During his nearly 10 years as a bartender, Scott Morgans has become a good listener, taking things in stride when a patron starts to clear the air, put on airs or blow off steam.

Now, as bar manager of the Gaslamp’s newt hotspot, AIRR Supper Club and Night Club, Morgans is taking the hot air out of conventional cocktail ingredients, working with executive chef Brian Redzikowski to launch an innovative drink menu with a modern flavor profile.

Using a trendy culinary technique employed in the AIRR kitchen known as sous-vide (pronounced “soo-veed”), cocktail ingredients are vacuum-sealed in plastic bags, then left to stew for months at a time.

One of the resulting beverages, Blueberry on the Rocks, starts with a macerated blueberry and vodka mix that’s given the sous-vide treatment.

“We Cryovac all of the air out of the bag, and then we let that sit for four to six months,” Morgans says. “The flavor that creates is just amazing.”

The mixture is then poured into a martini shaker with ouzo (an anise-flavored aperitif) and shaken with an egg white.

“You just get this intense, blueberry-flavored cocktail,” Morgans says. “It’s amazingly creamy and rich.”

Meanwhile, when someone is up in the air about what they want to drink, Morgans recommends the Eight—AIRR’s signature cocktail, comprised of Grey Goose L’Orange vodka, an orange slice, lemon and cranberry juices, with a muddled Serrano chili.

AIRR bar manager Scott Morgans relaxes on one of the red room beds with food servers Vera Alexander (left) and Darlene Powell.

“It’s got that little hint of spice on the end of it, with a sugar rim,” he says.

The restaurant, nominated for a 2011 Orchid award in interior design by the San Diego
Architectural Foundation, is divided into two disparate halves, with a cocktail lounge bathed
entirely in a spicy, red color, and the dining room done up in starkly contrasting, minimalist white.

Morgans says the red room best suits his personality.

“It’s more of a kick-off-yourshoes, jump-on-a-bed-vibe,” he says. “We’ve got these big TV trays
where people can sit down on the couches or beds and enjoy a cocktail and eat their food.

“You’ve got a cocktail in one hand and the chef ’s tuna tacos in the other. Is there nothing sexier than eating dinner in bed at a nightclub?”

How about the go-go girls gyrating in the red room windows Friday and Saturday nights?

“That doesn’t hurt,” Morgans says.

Scott Morgans
Age: 29
Neighborhood: Encinitas
Music: Hip-hop (work); Metallica or Toby Keith (fishing); classical (studying)
Sport: Snowboarding
Plan: Working toward a biology degree at Cal State San Marcos
Flick: Any of the Airplane movies
Book: Where the Red Fern Grows
Addiction: Pulling pranks on people

AIRR’s “Ten” on the rocks, comprised of habanero-infused tequila, Patrón Citronge liqueur, lime juice, simple syrup and a lime wedge.

Chef Brian Malarkey and Stingaree owner James Brennan survey the site of their new North County eatery, Burlap. (Brevin Blach)

By Pat Sherman
On any given night, tens of thousands of San Diegans flock to the city’s swanky night clubs and restaurants—marveling at light displays, killer DJs, gorgeous go-gos and other flourishes.

What club-goers usually don’t see is the extensive planning and foresight that go into designing, building and running a top-tier nightspot.

Never content to rest on their laurels, San Diego’s architects of ambiance are keeping buzzy, always looking toward their next new project or renovation—determined to keep their brands fresh, and San Diegans satisfied.

PacificSD checked in with a few of the city’s leading nightlife purveyors to learn about their plans to expand their empires and rock our worlds.

Good Time Design
Ty Hauter (who met his wife on a blind date featured in this magazine) is owner of Good Time Design and managing partner of RT’s Longboard Grill in Pacific Beach; Bubs @ the Ball Park in East Village; Tipsy Crow and Culy Warehouse & Event Center in the Gaslamp; and a few other San Diego County locations. He currently has a construction crew working on new digs at Market Street and 8th Avenue downtown, the site formerly occupied by Bar Ninety.

The project, a new East Village eatery & nightspot called The Bootlegger, is being developed in partnership with the owners of P.B. Shore Club and is less than 60 days from opening, Hauter says.

The Americana-themed resto will take diners back to the time of prohibition and feature “choice comfort food, cool cocktails and classic rock.”

Construction work at the Knotty Barrel Gastropub.

Hauter and longtime night-lifer Kenneth Lovi also just launched a new eatery at Market Street and 9th Avenue called The Knotty Barrel Gastropub, which will offer an array of craft beers and feature a rustic ambiance comprising wine barrels and reclaimed wood surfaces. Ted White, executive chef of Kensington Grill, and sous chef Eric O’Connor, formerly of La Jolla’s Whisknladle, are also onboard. The menu will include items such as bison or salmon burgers, seared Ahi street tacos and a Duroc pork dry aged porterhouse with hickory smoked sea salt.

In September, Hauter hopes to break ground on a project similar to Bub’s somewhere near 30th Street and Adams Avenue. Meanwhile, plans are also in the works to open yet another eatery on Coronado Island, this one offering patrons a relaxed atmosphere in which to enjoy a glass of wine or craft beer while sampling contemporary cuisine infused with authentic French and Italian flavors.
knottybarrel.com, goodtimedesignsd.com

NightlifeSD
NightlifeSD’s David Laurent, who owns Eden nightclub in Hillcrest and is a partner in Side Bar in the Gaslamp, foresees greater exposure for his brand in the coming year.

NightlifeSD is also part-owner of the recently opened Ciro’s Pizzeria and Beerhouse in Pacific Beach. There are additional plans to open several additional Ciro’s locations around the county.

Laurent says he’s also in negotiations for a sushi restaurant concept in the Gaslamp.

“It will be kind of an upper-end, trendy restaurant on Fifth Avenue,” he says. “We’d definitely look to have live entertainment, like a DJ.

“It’s not a done deal as of yet,” Laurent says, “but if all works out, we’re looking at a potential opening in the first quarter of 2012.”

Laurent also hopes to capitalize on the growing popularity of electronic dance music, creating a 1,200-person capacity concert venue featuring big-name DJs.

“I’m looking at a couple of potential spaces,” he says. “This will be the biggest project that I look to embark on in San Diego.”
nightlifesd.com

An architectural rendering of Stingaree’s new Guest House venue.

SD Creative Media (SDCM)
Matthew Spencer is co-owner (with Tyler Charman) of SD Creative Media, which owns Firehouse in Pacific Beach and is a partner (along with Cohn Restaurant Group) in Vin de Syrah and Analog in the Gaslamp.

Spencer says he has several projects on the horizon, including a sushi lounge and a speakeasy-style venue specializing in craft cocktails—on a larger scale than has been done in San Diego.

“I really want to find a space where half of it is hidden,” Spencer says, noting the “one-stop-shop” essence of New York City’s underground SOHO club, the Kenmare.

Spencer wants to open his sushi lounge in Pacific Beach or an adjacent beach community. It would feature punked-out Harajuku-style food servers.

“You know, the girls around Japan that wear all the Hello Kitty stuff and the crazy watches,” Spencer says, adding that old Bruce Lee films will be shown on TV monitors, as chill lounge music plays in the background.

“We’re kicking around the name, Kung Foo Sushi,” he says.
sdcreativemedia.com

Femme fatales celebrate nearly-finished construction and design work at F6ix.

RMD Group
Mike Georgopoulos of RMD Group (part-owners and operators of Fluxx, Side Bar and Ciro’s Pizza) is still amped about the recent opening of Ciro’s Pizzeria and Beerhouse in Pacific Beach.

Georgopoulos and RMD Group are poised to open San Diego’s much-anticipated, 350-person capacity hip-hop club, F6ix, at the Corner of F Street and 6th Avenue in the Gaslamp—the former, subterranean site of Sin night club. The club is set to open sometime around June 1.

“Our tagline is ‘redefining the hip-hop experience,’” says Georgopoulos, who envisions F6ix as the antidote to San Diego’s house music-heavy club vibe. “We really think we can make this a very RMD -type place, with great service, a good crowd and great music,” he says.
rmdgroupsd.com, F6ix.com

Enlighten Hospitality Group
James Brennan, the visionary behind mega-club Stingaree and the unimaginably popular Gaslamp restaurant, Searsucker (co-owned by chef Brian Malarkey), is a majority partner in Enlighten Hospitality Group.

One of Brennan’s current projects is preparing for the transformation of Stingaree’s first floor into the standalone Guest House venue, which is set for a June 6 opening with DJs Scooter and Lavelle.

The venue, Brennan says, will have an intimate, library feel and will feature electronic dance music, big-name DJs, fireplaces, bookshelves, catwalks, go-go dancers and leather arm chairs.

John Lyons Systems, the company that created the sound and lighting for Encore Beach Club at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, is taking on the same task for Guest House.

“I really think it’s the missing piece of the puzzle from what we set out to create six years ago at Stingaree,” Brennan says.

Banking on the continued success of Searsucker, Brennan is preparing to open a North County restaurant and night spot called Burlap, at the corner of Del Mar Heights Road and El Camino Real in Carmel Valley. Searsucker’s award-winning chef, Brian Malarkey, conceived Burlap’s America-Chinese bistro menu.

The roughly 9,000-square-foot space, which will include an outdoor patio with koi ponds, a bar and fire pits, is being designed by Thomas Schoo (Searsucker’s designer), and will have a capacity of about 500 persons.

Verant Group
Eric Lingenfelder of Verant Group (owners of True North and West Coast Tavern in North Park, Brewley’s Pint and Tavern at the Beach in Pacific Beach, Sand Bar Sports Grill in Mission Beach and Offshore Tavern in Bay Park) will open their first Gaslamp venue sometime in August.

The 8,000-square-foot space, located at 5th Avenue and Market Street (the site of the soon-to-close Whiskey Girl), will be similar in theme and ambiance to West Coast Tavern, Lingenfelder says.

“We’ve been excited to get into the downtown market, because we’ve been around for 13 years,” says Lingenfelder. “This location became available—and we jumped on it.”

The as-of-yet unnamed, two-story eatery will cater to sports fans and others with more than 40 widescreen TV s, a VIP lounge, three bars and 30 draught beers.

Trivia On Tap: “Verant” is an anagram of “Tavern,” a nod to the group’s first venue in Pacific Beach. verantgroup.com

Bar West owner ventures 100 feet east of I-5
Mike Reidy, owner of Bar West night club in Pacific Beach, is in the final throes of opening a bar at 1310 Morena Boulevard in Bay Park, the current site of live music venue O’Connells (located just off I-5).

Reidy will assume ownership of the venue June 6, with plans to reopen it sometime around July 15 as The Griffin, named after the mythical beast that is half lion and half eagle. Reidy will replace old, stained carpeting with hardwood floors, adding comfortable booths, new lamps and a red color scheme.

“We’re going to roll it out and bill it as more of a dive bar—pool tables, the whole deal,” Reidy says, noting that after two months he will begin booking DJs and live bands.

Reidy hopes to cater to students at nearby University of San Diego. Hours of operation will likely remain 11 to 2 a.m., seven days a week.

Other touches may include food trucks, televised UFC fights, Keno games and bar trivia nights.

“It’s going to be an interactive type bar,” Reidy says. “It’s not a place where you’re going to go there and just sit and drink your sorrows away. There’s something you’re going to be able to do every night of the week.”

Also on the Horizon …
Opening in July is the new La Jolla location of steak and seafood chain Eddie V’s Prime Seafood (on the site of the former Chart House restaurant at 1270 Prospect Street).
eddiev.com

Now open at 1108 S. Coast Hwy 101 is Union Kitchen & Tap, from Eric Leitstein, owner of PB Ale House.
localunion101.com

Slated to open June 15 is Barry Braden’s Local Habit, a new restaurant at 3827 5th Avenue in Hillcrest, serving craft beer and pizza made with organic ingredients.
mylocalhabit.com

By Davd Good
Photos by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan

When booze and photo booths collide, risqué snapshots ensue.

Alexis Piotrowski, who slings drinks at North Park’s U-31 four nights a week, sees it all the time. On at least one occasion, she’s had to toss patrons out for sexing it up in the club’s memory-making contraption.

“People take very sexy photos in there,” she says. “And the girls can get pretty wild.”

So, how does she maintain decorum?

“I take a very harsh tone, and I slap my hand down on the bar,” she says. “I think when someone slaps their hand down, it means business.”

Recently married, Piotrowski has tended bar at U-31 for the past three years. And when she’s not making drinks, she’s usually consuming them, giving love back to area watering holes and the mixologists who visit her at U-31. She also likes to frequent bars in her native Tucson, where the drinks are cheap and enjoyed while escaping the heat and monotony of the desert.

“I took my husband back there for the first time and things were, you know, fun,” she says. “Now, we say the couple that drinks together, stays together.”

When the mercury rises, Piotrowski favors a desert drink she calls the Paloma, a mixture of Squirt and tequila, served in a glass with a salted rim. And though she has yet to invent her own drink, she likes to add a personal touch to existing faves.

“I improved on the gin and tonic by adding St. Germain to it,” Piotrowski says. “It has floral aspects which bring out the juniper and other aspects in the gin.”

Through the years, Piotrowski’s tip money has gone into her arms, in the form of tattooed sleeves and some other naturebased designs she created herself. For her, skin art symbolizes growth and change.

When not club hopping or getting inked, Piotrowski hits the lanes. She owns her own shoes and bowling ball, and says she prefers the company of old pros.

“If people invite me bowling, I will not say no,” she says, with an easy laugh. “I like to go when everybody is like 70 and up. They’re all in such good moods and they’re happy to be there. They’re pumped and I’m pumped. I’m like, let’s get our
bowl on, you know?”

Alexis Piotrowski
Age: 29
Music: Led Zeppelin, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf
Reads: George Orwell’s 1984, Ayn Rand’s Anthem
Passion: Jewelry design, mixed media art
Bowling average: No comment

The Infadel at the Turquoise Room

Story and photos by Pat Sherman

Poring over the cocktail menu at La Mesa’s Turquoise Room is like liquid archaeology—an exploration marked by progressive sips, proving just how cool our grandparents could be.

“We get senior citizens coming in saying, ‘We haven’t heard of a Harvey Walbanger in 40 years. We didn’t think anybody
knew how to make that anymore,’” says Turquoise Room manager Josh Christensen.

Pre-retirement age patrons dropping in to grill ‘n’ chill at the adjoining Riviera Supper Club (a DIY steak house under the auspices of former Turf Supper Club owners Tim Mays and Sam Chammas) are often pleased to unearth the Turquoise Sour, a combination of Rye whiskey, fresh lemon juice and simple syrup served up with a float of red wine.

Christensen recalls the first time he ordered the drink, originally known as the New York S our, from a veteran Seattle mixologist.

“He whipped it up and I thought, ‘Did you just put wine into my whiskey? What are you doing, man?’” Christensen says. “I think six later I was like, ‘This is the greatest drink of all time!’ My wife and I were rolling out of there.”

When the drink was created in the 1880s, it called for a red wine known as claret, though Christensen prefers a pinot or other dry red wine.

Enthralled by the unlikely marriage of wine and whiskey, the Turquoise Room staff voted it onto the menu.

“We’re all pretty similar in our views and our likes,” Christensen says. “We take pride in making classic cocktails, making them correctly and making them strong.”

Drinkers wishing to replenish their strength for summer might consider an equally muscular number known as the Infidel.
Christensen introduced the drink after a trip to Nicaragua, during which the only ingredients on hand were limes, sugar and “killer rum.”

Turquoise Sour

“It’s just an old-school Cuban daiquiri,” Christensen says. “When people used to order daiquiris back in the ’40s and ’50s, that’s what they would get. It’s almost all booze.”

The Riviera Supper Club, which opened in the late 1940s and thrived during the ’60s and ’70s as Jamar S teakhouse and Lounge, looks much as it must have when JFK delivered the commencement speech at nearby San Diego State University in 1963—dark wood interior, dim lighting and highbacked leather booths offering an uncanny sense of place. Mays and Chammas discovered the site after losing their lease at the Turf Supper Club in Golden Hill, opening Riviera in December 2008.

A piece of glass painted with the Jamar logo was discovered in a shed out back and is now backlit and displayed behind the bar in the Turquoise Room—its crest containing a goblet and a fish. Christensen says the staff is united in their theory that the image means “to drink like a fish.”

Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Room
7777 University Avenue, La Mesa
619.713.6777, rivierasupperclub.com
Happy Hour: 4 to 6 p.m. daily, $2 off sirloin and cocktails
Live Music: Monday through Saturday, 9 p.m.

By Pat Sherman
Photos by Brevin Blach
(Published in the February 2011 issue)

When you’re pouring drinks without a shirt on, pickup lines are part of the game.

“It just comes with the territory,” says Timothy Giebel. “It’s kind of a safe thing to hit on the bartender, because nothing’s going to happen.”

Giebel has been behind the bar at Rich’s in Hillcrest since the early 2000s. Rich’s is a predominantly gay club, but Giebel says it has attracted an increasingly diverse crowd over the past decade.

“It’s really mixed almost every single night of the year,” he says. “In Seattle the scene is very integrated. It’s more about the music than sexuality. When I moved down here I was shocked at how segregated it was—but I’ve seen it really progress.”

When not serving up Jäger-bombs or knocking back shots of Hornitos Tequila (his drink of choice), Giebel spends his time making babies—well, sort of.

“Rich’s is my mainstay, but I’ve got my fingers and toes in other projects,” he says. “I bought a horse for breeding purposes about three months ago.”

As much fun as he has when he’s off the clock, Giebel says he’s always content to get back in the saddle at work.

“A lot of us have been at Rich’s for more than nine years, so we’ve all grown up together,” he says. “I get paid to play, to hang out with my friends.”

How could you say “Neigh” to a gig like that?

Rich’s San Diego
1051 University Avenue, Hillcrest
619.295.2195, richssandiego.com

By Dave Good
Photo by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan
(Published in the January 2011 issue)

Kelly Sharbaugh thinks her blond dreads may have been the ticket that got her a free trip to Samoa in 2009. Once on the island, she joined the Galu tribe on the long-running reality show Survivor—she lasted 24 out of 39 days.

People Magazine’s TV Watch says Sharbaugh was “shocked and dumbfounded” to be, as they say, “voted off the island.” Banished from her tribe, she returned home to West Hollywood (where she lived at the time) some 14 pounds lighter.

“You just didn’t really eat. Period. Well, you could eat weird sh!t, or just not eat”

When she moved to California from her native Delaware, the hairdresser-turned-mixologist wasn’t into sporting blond Barbie look that has infiltrated the West Coast.

“I wanted something different,” she says. Despite appearances, however, this is no Rasta chick. “I definitely wear lots of makeup and dress girly.”

These days, Sharbaugh, 26, is on a different kind of adventure, doing a whole lot better than just surviving behind the bar at Quality Social in East Village, where she’s worked since the place opened in March.

“Right now, I’m enjoying the freedom and the lifestyle bartending gives me, and being able to travel whenever I want,” she says. “I meet a lot of interesting people. For the foreseeable future, this is where I’ll be.”

Given how her regulars flock to Quality Social when she’s behind the bar, it seems that Sharbaugh won’t be voted off this gig any time soon.

Cures What Ails Ya’
Using locally-sourced ingredients, Quality Social cures all of their own charcuterie in-house. (They even make their own ketchup and mustard.) Nonbelievers are encouraged to check out the on-site meat-locker and consider the fact that the bar’s phone number is 619.501.PORK.

Quality Social (A Bar. With Food.)
789 6th Avenue, Downtown, 619.501.7675,
qualitysocial.com