Jack O’Brien shaking it up behind the bar at Blyth and Burrows in Portland. Photo courtesy of Jack O’Brien

Jack O’Brien, 25, of Westbrook, has been a bartender for three years at Blyth and Burrows in Portland. He took up mixing drinks as a hobby, then got a job in a bar and learned how to do it professionally. He loves the creativity involved in melding cocktail flavors.

What’s your favorite drink to make?

My all-time favorite is a riff off of a Negroni. It’s called “The End of the Road,” and it’s equal parts green Chartreuse, peated scotch and Campari. I’m fascinated by this one. It’s got the bones of a Negroni, but it has a lot of unique elements to it. All those ingredients are incredibly potent and strong on their own, so finding a way to balance them in an equal-parts drink like that is really unusual. On paper, they really shouldn’t work, but somehow they still do. If someone were to come into the bar and order that, I’d both be happy and also impressed.

Why did you become a bartender?

Bartending for me started out as a hobby. I turned 21 during the pandemic. So when I finally did join the (drinking age) club, I spent a paycheck stocking up my home bar and kind of experimenting with different drink recipes. I started at Blyth and Burrows as a bar back and I immediately was bit full force by the cocktail bug, just seeing how creative you can push the drink medium.

What do you like best about being a bartender?

I really just love the freedom to be creative at work.  I’ve been so fortunate to have a lot of teachers. Our staff is made up of kind of a hodgepodge of people who’ve been in the industry for the past 15 years, and people like me who are just coming up. And so having us all put a different spin and aesthetic into our drinks is just so cool and refreshing.

How do you deal with people who have had a few too many, or who are being jerks? 

That doesn’t happen very much. It’s a careful line to walk. You don’t want to give an inch, but you also don’t want to escalate the situation. So I find that kindness is usually the best tool to use. I try to just stay composed and even-keeled.

What are some of the toughest things about being a bartender? 

I would say the hours are definitely tough at times. Serving people at dinner time, when you yourself would like to be enjoying a meal, can definitely be tough. I think the trickiest thing is that you’re always on display when you’re bartending. You’re kind of expected to give something of yourself to your patrons. That can definitely be kind of challenging at times, like when you’re not in the mood that day, but you still have to kind of put on a show.

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