I know that's a weird title for a crafting blog post but my husband Tom and I just returned from Atlantic City where we have been going for our mid-winter break vacations for the past 5 years. We always go Valentine's week. Another couple goes with us, John works with Tom and his wife Teddi is a nurse. We all get along so well and have a great time together. I'll be writing more on our trip in my Menopausal Monster blog but thought I'd write about Cesare in this one since I haven't anything else to post about just yet, lol. Who is Cesare? Not that I'm a bar fly or anything, lol but Cesare is THE BEST bartender I have ever come across.
Let me give you a little background. Yes, we go to the casinos, but we aren't gamblers. We only play with what we can afford to lose. We don't gamble all day and night. We walk the boardwalk, even in February! At least when the sun is shining and the wind isn't too strong. We take in shows every night and Tom and I will go to the I MAX theatre at least once.
Tom doesn't play the machines at all and John will on ocassion. The guys prefer to sit at their favorite bar, Firewaters in the Tropicana, where we stay. Tom will give me some money to play the machines with and trust me, it does not last very long. If I'm lucky enough I will keep earning measly credits to allow me a longer play time, but that isn't often. If and when a waitress comes around I will order a Black Russian. Seems to be my favorite drink when I'm playing the machines. I can never think of anything else I would like to have. A Black Russian is made with Kahlua and Vodka. Seems like a simple enough drink but it always tastes different every time I get one. Most of the time they are good enough, but once it tasted like black licorice which I abhor.
Now Tom and John not only enjoy their beers at Firewaters, they also shamelessly flirt with the young female bartenders. John usually introduces himself by his given name but always introduces Tom by a made up name. Once it was Bill, another time it will be George or a goofy nickname like Sparky. How they keep it straight I'll never know as the bartenders change shifts frequently and they will see the same ones several times over the course of our 5 day stay. John and Tom or Sparky never reveal what their real jobs are. John is always the instigator and Tom just goes with the flow. One time they were carnival workers, another time they were Pit Bosses from Vegas. This trip John made Tom a lawyer. I don't know why they think they might be impressing the young things because both John and Tom are going on 58, both are balding, John is about 100 pounds overweight and Tom could stand to gain 10 more pounds. Teddi calls him Skinny *ss. (hee hee).
Do Teddi and I worry?? Nahhhhhhhhhh. Besides, when I join the guys for a drink I am always introduced as Sparky's wife. The bartenders seem very relieved.
So where does Cesare fit in? Thursday was a gorgeous day, the winds had died down and it wasn't raining or snowing, the sun was shining brightly so we decided to walk the boardwalk and went to the Trump Plaza. Teddi and I went upstairs to play a few machines and my $40 was gone in less than 5 minutes so I went downstairs to join John and Sparky at the bar. OMG the bartender was a MAN. And he was pretty darned cute too! He called me 'sweetheart' which I didn't mind at all ( hey, I'm 55, I'll take what I can get ) and fixed me the BEST Black Russian I've ever had. Two ingredients......that's it, but it was fantastic. He also added 3 marachino cherries on a stick and layed it across the top of my glass. I love cherries and they were gone within minutes so he replaced them. I was so busy chatting with John and Sparky that I only had a couple sips from my drink. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cesare stand in front of us, he picked up what I thought was a telephone and said "Security, Security, this is Cesare, I have a lovely young woman ( isn't he the BEST!!) here who is only eating cherries and not drinking her cocktail". The phone turned out to be the soda dispenser handle. I went on to say how my drink was the best Black Russian I'd ever had and he explained that any good bartender will use more Vodka and less Kahlua. That they tend to think of it as a woman's drink and add too much Kahlua, making it too syrupy. He must have something there because it really was good. I had three.
Cesare was very attentive to ALL his customers, men and women alike. John and Sparky ordered Coors Lite and Cesare always put a few more on ice for them and kept them coming which the guys liked.
As I said, Cesare was really cute. He was probably in his mid to late 40's and I thought that he bore a striking resemblance to Bruce Willis. Or maybe Bruce bore a striking resemblance to Cesare. I mentioned it to Tom and John but they just shrugged. When Teddi joined us I mentioned it to her but while she knows who Bruce is, she doesn't watch many movies and wouldn't know if Cesare looked like Bruce or Pee Wee Herman.
I finally called Cesare over and asked him if he'd ever been told that he looked like Bruce Willis and he laughed and said yes, he gets that all the time. This is Bruce Willis before he shaved his head and when his hairline started to recede. Cesare not only looks like him, he talks like him. I would guess that Cesare is from New York, I detected an accent but it could also have been a Jersey accent. I didn't ask.
I just liked looking at him. Hee hee.
If there were a contest for the BEST BARTENDER I would nominate Cesare hands down. He was attentive, friendly, made us laugh, and Teddi and I are going back to Trump Plaza next year to get some more Black Russians and ogle Cesare. John and Sparky can stay at Firewaters.
