News

Bartender of the week - Brian Loeser of Carleton Grange
June 29, 2006
Roger Anderson
Full Article: Bartender of the week - Brian Loeser of Carleton Grange

While it's obvious that Brian Loeser is extra attentive to his customers, it's not unlikely that as he hands a beer across the bar, he's looking at the television reflected in its suds.

Loeser has worked every day since the World Cup started June 9, so a soccer game is always on or about to begin on the two flat-screen TVs behind him. For Loeser, that's a good thing.

"It's been a ton of fun. I'd be watching the games anyway," the soccer fanatic said. "Either it's really crowded and I'm busy and I make good money, or it's not and I get paid to watch the games, so it's never a bad thing."

A special education teacher, Loeser started bartending after the school year ended. He learned his bartending skills while studying abroad and living in the Carleton Grange (bar's namesake, a student living facility in London, where he worked at a few local pubs while becoming friends with co-owners of the recently opened Carleton Grange.

The bar is like a little piece of London. All the artwork adorning the walls is either about or from London. Between the bar, indoor restaurant seating and an extensive patio, the Grange offers patrons the cleanliness of a brand-new space with the service of a veteran business.

Days vs. nights "It goes from Bloody Marys and Irish coffees to Cosmos and things like that. I was surprised how many people like Cosmos and foofy blended drinks. . . . But still more than anything, it's still beer drinkers."

World Cup crowds "We were always going to get good people here for the big games, but I think we've been surprised by even the smallest games, (when) we get a handful of people."

The house pick "St. Georges. That's the one we sell the most of. . . . It's from Young's Brewery in South London. One of only 14 bars in the country to carry it."

Horror story "My first night working at this Irish pub in London . . . they assume you know what you're doing, and they send me down to change a few kegs. I didn't know the kegs are that different over there. It's a whole different process on how to undo them, and the first one I open up literally exploded on my face."

Across the pond "Bartending there is not like bartending here. It's a lot of Jack and Cokes and beer. Nothing really foof or frills about it."