When you talk to someone in the bar or booze industry about “Hey Bartender,” Douglas Tirola’s 2013 documentary chronicling the 21st century rebirth and rise of the American cocktail scene, one specific quote from the film is likely to be mentioned. The line is uttered about one-third into the film by Fords Gin founder Simon Ford: “Bartenders are rockstars that couldn’t be bothered to learn instruments.”
The rockstars in question — particularly the influential bartenders from the early aughts that served as the film’s “talking heads” — happened to be performing at a uniquely transitional moment within the industry, and were captured by a curious filmmaker seeking to bottle something that turned out to be lightning.
“The film was cinema vérité. It was telling the story of how it was and what took place as it was happening in real time,” Tirola says. “We were lucky enough to capture a quick, live moment of something that grew at the right time.”
Ten years after “Hey Bartender”’s release captured the movement, we’re still seeing the fruits of such growth: These days, any city large enough to have a professional sports team will have a thriving craft cocktail scene. We’ve also witnessed some maturity and better identified issues that the industry still struggles to work through. Watching the movie in 2023 — which you can do for free on YouTube — still delivers a jolt of energy if you’re a cocktail enthusiast, but it may also leave you pondering its legacy. To
