Well Drinked

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