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Bored Panda reached out to Rihards Gudzs, a bartender from Riga, Latvia, to get a glimpse into the highs and lows of the industry. He started out at 17, and now, at 25, he’s spent nearly a decade mastering the craft. These days, he shares his experiences and skills with the world through TikTok and Instagram.
“I got into this profession during my summer break between 11th and 12th grade. I was looking for a job to save up for my first car and the academy I wanted to attend,” he told us. “I ended up working at one of the most popular nightclubs in Riga, LaRocca, as a coatroom attendant. From there, I was offered a job as a barback, then became a waiter, then a bartender, then a senior bartender, and eventually a bar manager.”
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This man was adamant about getting back inside, and his four buddies could barely hold him back. They ended up all falling thru a chain link fence into a freshly dug pit in a construction zone across the street, and he came scrambling up on all fours like a demented spider monkey, rushed across traffic and back towards my bar.
Also outside with me was our head of security, who I will call Vance. Picture a man that is 6’3 260lbs and looks like a black Mr. Clean. Vance wasn’t paying attention to the fracas developing because he was on the phone talking to some of his employees.
The RedBull/GHB-fueled dumb**s went running straight towards the front door, and Vance was about a couple feet off to the side with his back towards the street.
What happened next was magical. Somebody hollered “Vance, look out!” And he immediately turned and unleashed the most bad**s roundhouse kick you have ever seen. Like, it would have made Chuck Norris cream his britches. Without hanging up his phone call he pivoted and launched that a*****e back towards the curb. Dude was knocked TF out, his buddies collected him and apologized and we let them GTFO before anything else happened that might require police assistance.
So what, you say? Bar fights are nothing THAT memorable if you’ve been behind the stick for many years, right?
***The next morning*** I am setting up the BloodyMary bar for the Panthers tailgate pregame b******t, when I hear this incessant knock at the front doors. Finally go to answer it and *it’s the d**chebag human piñata*.
“What do you want?”
“Sir, I’m really really sorry for my behavior last night, I was out of control and I am so very sorry. But at some point last night I lost a tooth and I was hoping you either found it cleaning up or maybe I could check to see?”
Sure enough the dumb**s was missing one of his front teeth, like a bicuspid or something I don’t frickin know I’m a bartender not a dentist. I didn’t think he would find it because the altercation happened *mostly* outside, but since he *was* carried out last night by security and his friends I decided to humor him.
I let him look around the floor while I continue setting up, when I hear him choke and snort. Bending over to look had caused the tooth *which was lodged up in his sinus cavity* to work itself loose.
Y’all, Vance kicked that man so hard his tooth got stuck in his nose for 8 hours. Still one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.
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The rest of her night was on the house.
“I’ve been behind the bar for eight years now,” Rihards shared. “How would I describe this job? It’s for people who want to start making money right away, without needing any theoretical training beforehand.”
According to Rihards, learning the basics and getting a quick rundown of the bar is enough to start working in low-end places within two or three days. “That’s all it takes to learn how to make the standard drinks from the menu and start serving guests for tips without worrying about quality, skill, or experience.”
At that level, he explains, you could walk into a small neighborhood bar with a six-drink menu, spend a day or two figuring out where everything is, and start pouring. But no matter where you work, Rihards said the most important part of bartending isn’t just making drinks—it’s charisma and communication.
“You can completely mess up a drink order or serve something totally different from what was requested, and it won’t even matter—as long as you know how to talk to people. If you communicate well, you can sell anything.”
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It’s no secret that bartending, or any service job, for that matter, is exhausting. But many people don’t realize just how demanding it really is.
“Being a bartender means coming into work every day without knowing what’s ahead,” Rihards said. “You have no idea what you’ll have to deal with, when you’ll get a break, or what time you’ll actually finish your shift. Some nights you’ll be on your feet running around nonstop, others you’ll be standing there doing nothing. And most importantly, you never know how much you’ll walk away with in tips at the end of the night.”
The job takes a toll both physically and emotionally. “It’s unpredictable in ways that can be both good and bad,” he added. “But despite all the challenges, all the stress, and everything this job puts you through, the financial reward at the end of the night usually makes up for it.”
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It was Halloween, long ago and I was either Hermione Granger or Data. A nice man comes in, dressed in a hooded black robe, nothing too exciting, with his friend and a massive duffel bag. I assumed it was full of d***s because this is the type of bar we were. He and his friend are very pleasant, ordering dive bar margaritas and wings. We talk about Halloween and when it should get busy for the evening when the man asks if I want to see the rest of his costume. I am not phased by this as a young woman working alone because if it turns out to be his p*nis I have many large friends nearby to call and make him regret this decision. And I love a good costume.
So the man bends down to slowly unzip his duffel bag and carefully grab the contents therein. IT WAS MASSIVE BOA CONSTRICTOR, which he then attempts to hand to me over the bar.
I was so shocked I just said that was a health code violation and service animals had to be performing their tasks otherwise he needs to be back in his bag. I am also terrified; I do not trust things with too many legs or too few. They pick up on this and apologize and close out their tab, but man, that was a big snake, and I hope it had happier days after that than being carried around in a duffel bag and foisted upon unsuspecting strangers.
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And then there’s the wildcard—customers. You never know who’s going to walk through the door or how they’ll affect the rest of your shift. “You constantly have to handle situations that have nothing to do with your actual job. There’s financial responsibility, the pressure to keep up, and a ton of other things that pile up over time,” explained Rihards.
“But even though bartending can be a high-stress job, after a while, you start to see it differently. The chaos becomes just another part of the workday, and eventually, you don’t even think about it anymore, it just is what it is,” he said.
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One night downstairs it was crowded and 2 lads downstairs started arguing. One of them was part of a larger group, who all began to hassle the other lad.
The other lad snapped, grabbed his pint glass and smashed it into his face, and then his friend's face, and then his other friend's face. People were dropping like flies on the dancefloor and there was blood everywhere. The DJ pulled the music off instantly and we had to get police and paramedics in immediately.
We usually closed around 3am but I was there until 8 the next morning giving statements to police and cleaning blood from the floor, it was f*****g horrible.
After that we switched to plastic glasses and cans downstairs.
Of course, being a bartender means witnessing some pretty bizarre human behavior. Rihards shared a few stories—though, between us, these were the more PG ones. So you can imagine how wild it really gets.
“One night, when I was 20, I was working at a prestigious venue that, at the time, attracted both local businesspeople and celebrities. A guest sat at the bar all night, drinking and constantly trying to start a conversation with me,” Rihards recalled.
“He was persistent, but I kept it professional. At the end of my shift, I asked him to settle his bill since we were closing. Instead of paying, he grabbed my arm and said, ‘Come to my hotel room.’ I refused, but then he followed up with, ‘€2,000.’ After repeatedly telling him no, security had to remove him from the premises for harassment.”
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So it’s Crazy a*s dance/industry night with lots of college students. A guy racks a big tab and then doesn’t pay. Doesn’t walk out mind you, but makes a big stink and show about he’s not gonna pay. Turns out the cops were there doing rounds so the door guys point him out. Cops put him in an arm bar and basically smashed his face into the atm until he pulled the cash.
Broke his arm and I still remember the sound of a man in his late twenties screaming and sobbing in pain while two cops basically ground him into an atm machine for five minutes. After patron was hauled away in a cruiser the cops were totally unphased. Everyone on shift was pretty shocked, even a usually blustery door guy who was a marine in Iraq was quiet for the rest of the night.
That was when I went from ‘cops are a necessity because bad folks exist and who are you gonna call to your grandmas house and dust for prints when it’s gets burgled’ to ‘cops are a gang with a license from society they ab*se on the regular’.
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We had a bricked in and gated dumpster/oil dump in the back, and as I was taking out some of the trash for the night (about 2:45) I opened up the gate to a drunk couple that closed down the bar going at it. He had her bent over holding onto the dumpster as they were going to town.
After the initial shock I told them I needed to throw the garbage bag away and the guy literally reached his hand through the gate and said he'd toss it. I was laughing so hard I just handed it to him. To his credit, he did toss it in the dumpster and they kept going at it.
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2 guys come in, one just got out of jail. They were celebrating, drinking and eating. Now they clearly were hitting their limit so I politely cut them off at the bar. They get upset but go sit on the patio. I let the server know that I wasn’t going to serve them drinks as they were drunk. She agreed, BUT secretly poured them drinks while I was in the back swapping out kegs. It was caught on camera and the thing that saved my job and me getting jail time. I find out and cut them off with my manager asking them to leave. They throw a fit, threaten us, knock stuff off the table. My manager then calls the cops and lets them know. They get pissed but run out as one of them still has warrants, we found out after the incident. As they are backing out, they gas the truck hitting a curb and knocking the back end of the truck up. Picture a truck launching off a ramp backwards if that helps. Their bumper and tailgate end up smashing into a car that was coming in. The trucks back bumper hits the passenger side of the car, smashing the door and severing the arm of the woman in the passenger seat. Realizing what they did, the guys bail out and make a run for it. Poor girl was life flighted and the guys were caught trying to hitchhike a couple miles away. The waitress was fired and I got extremely lucky that I didn’t go to jail.
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I’ve got hundreds of stories after bartending for 25ish years.. good times!
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A guy walked up to the bar and asked for a drink. He was visibly hammered so coworker said he was going to close the guys tab and get him a cab.
Drunk guy responded surprisingly well. Said “ok, I just need to go to the bathroom first and I’ll be back”
Like a god damn toddler, this guy drops his pants to the floor and just starts p**sing. Bartender screams “ARE YOU F*****G P**SING ON MY FLOOR?” And the dude sort of snaps into reality, looks horrified at his d**k, and just runs.