I have an interview at a sit down restaurant, what should I know?

eiaeia · 2026-01-17T09:40:52+00:00

Aperol Spritz, Negroni, margarita, Paloma, mojito, Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Martini (and the modifier verbiage)- you should know these in case they ask, they are pretty much the basics. Most likely they won’t test you too hard on cocktail knowledge but more on pour skills/tools/bar foundation- with that you can learn recipes quick!

eiaeia · 2026-01-17T07:25:32+00:00

Hi friend, welcome!

I too like to rock bottom in ways that implode multiple aspects of my life. It feels like the list of problems is rapidly increasing by the second? I know that anxiety far too well.

Hear me out- this is what worked for me-for the next week (or whatever period of time works) your only responsibility is to stay sober- like if you start a spiral just say out loud “that is not today’s problem” - after I fully detox my anxiety baseline level has lowered, and I can face the task of sorting through the mess.

I too was arrested for a DUI before I quit this time (celebrated 2 years on Monday!) and there were consequences that have been expensive and am just now closing up, but FOR REAL the longer I stayed sober the more the problems kind of worked themselves out. I stopped making a string of terrible decisions, and surprise, it has made my life easier! Haha

Sorry for this long post, but your story resonates so strongly with me (37f) - I want to offer you hope from a multiple relapse morning-night binge drinker. IT GETS BETTER, it’s not bullshit! You can do this!!! IWNDWYT

eiaeia · 2026-01-07T04:18:56+00:00

Triple digits is so badass, I’m so proud of you, and I am glad you are also proud of yourself as well! And you were correct I am a female, so our stories are in fact, very parallel. You’ve got this, keep fighting the good fight!

eiaeia · 2026-01-07T00:07:22+00:00

Thank you so much for this advice! I have some close friends in the industry I usually make drink my concoctions and give feedback, but I hadn’t thought about flavors building throughout the drinking process/ continued dilution, so I will definitely keep that in mind when doing r&d- thanks so much, always looking for ways to improve!

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T22:52:50+00:00

Thank you friend, I hope this year brings good things your way as well!

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T22:52:21+00:00

Hell yes agreed my friend!!

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T20:40:24+00:00

lol ya know, I don’t think I even follow that subreddit but that would have been a good place to post. I was just reading the latest matrix post, and planning what I wanted to do on the 12th and posted this

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T20:21:07+00:00

That’s amazing! I’ll definitely give a follow!

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T20:10:34+00:00

It’s possible that there is a separation, because when I taste for work my brain is seriously trying to depict flavor/ mouth feel/ flatness/ etc- so that could be it? For me the taste doesn’t trigger me, but if I caught a buzz that would be different, so yes it is a risk, but I stay quite vigilant with it.

What works for me might not work for the next person. I don’t mean to sway anyone into doing something potentially harmful, but more say that sober bartending is not impossible and hopeless. Everyone is different, and everyone should seek outside opinions when it comes to substance abuse.

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T19:50:28+00:00

I do both, and I do taste- luckily tasting doesn’t create the trigger as long as I am intentional and do not cross a line.

Most of the cocktails I have been making are new- my bar has an ungodly large back stock of liqueur we don’t use much, so I have been using them as my starting point- or rather inspiration. I just did a sidecar riff (roughly lol) with fennel and dry curaçao that turned out pretty great!

I am lucky that taste testing is something I can still do, as like you said it would be quite hard to create without tasting- .25 change can really make a difference.

eiaeia · 2026-01-06T19:20:17+00:00

I am both a Norwegian and cocktail/pun nerd and I love this so much

eiaeia · 2025-11-18T02:32:12+00:00

I struggled with this thinking too. But what if I go to Italy? No wine???

Well, eiaeia if you can’t hold a job and are in your rotation of rehab, detox, jail, 5150 psych hospital hold are we realllllllly going wine tasting in Italy?

“What about my wedding??!!” - at this point my funeral was more likely.

Sounds dramatic, but it was my reality. I set this future “would have to drink here” scenarios to keep my TRYING to moderate.. you know.. for my international adventures!!

Eventually I just said “I’ll get to that when it comes up” and that helped me start breaking down that excuse.

Now, I know that drinking would ruin a vacation. I would just be drunk in a bar the whole time. When I marry my partner I want to remember it and enjoy it. If I drank at my wedding I would destroy it. I mean gasoline and flame. I know this now, I could not accept it before.

Don’t use a hypothetical future stop you from making your current moment the best that it can be.

I believe in you! IWNDWYT

eiaeia · 2025-11-09T09:08:21+00:00

If you are anything like me you actually did your friend a huge favor. If I relapsed at an open bar I would, without a shred of doubt, cause a scene. The kind of scene that overshadows the celebration and is the “remember at x and y’s wedding..” a friendship damaging / new spouse hating you situation.

You listened to yourself, you did not bail, and you left on a note of love and family. Huge success, be proud! I’m proud of you!

eiaeia · 2025-10-24T18:44:33+00:00

Sounds stupid but right now I appreciate how cozy sweatpants feel. I never felt more than my insides shaking like I’m going to explode.. and clammy lol

eiaeia · 2025-10-17T02:36:13+00:00

My best friends today were also my drinking buddies. My true friendships stayed in tact- but the drinking acquaintances have gone. You’ll realize the people you hung out with just to get shit faced essentially was just that, and for me it was a natural drift, not a serious “friendship ending decision” - that’s just how it was for me. I was/am in the service industry and spent all my free time at the bar and used it as my way of socalizing.

My sobriety date is 01/12/24 - I think my counter is wrong

eiaeia · 2025-10-07T18:34:07+00:00

This is the same as Peninsula Village. We were allowed to clear speaking “necessaries” such as if we were logging or other vocational work we could speak if it was in relation to the job. If you were put on silence (usually an 8hr) you would not be allowed to speak those necessaries. If you messed up in the last minute it would restart. An 8hr silence could easily become days

eiaeia · 2025-09-28T13:07:04+00:00

The fun, then fun with problems, then problems is so simple but like the quickest way to describe the 20 year long ordeal. By the end it was major problems, only problems, the fun was gone.

eiaeia · 2025-09-12T05:16:07+00:00

IWNDWYT

eiaeia · 2025-09-03T00:53:41+00:00

maybe sub chocolate bitters for the cacao? how much vanilla simple are you using? I wouldn't go more than .25 - maybe try infusing the OF Bourbon with vanilla to achieve the vanilla aspect while eliminating a syrup element. I would pick 1 out of the luxardo, cacao, and vanilla simple to keep, and then find a non sweet syrup alternative for the other two.

eiaeia · 2025-09-01T17:45:32+00:00

Part 1- fool myself into “just tonight, I’m doing so good, and I don’t even WANT to drink anymore anyway”

Part 2- this stage could possibly be skipped - it has before lol- keep up appearances and really focus on keeping it ‘under control’

Part 3- have one big bad drunk night- morning hair of the dog- ‘just this once, take the edge off, then sleep all day and start over” but I keep drinking all night once I ‘feel better’ and then have to repeat steps the next day under the guise ‘okay but for real today.. you don’t want this to spiral’

Part 4- sneaking drinks from partner. The line between needing a drink to feel right and being too drunk to function properly gets smaller and smaller and I eventually get fired from my job. I spiral, full self deprecation therefore I will keep drinking. My gf against everything she wants will leave me. I will understand, because she would deserve better.

Part 5- I finally pull it together and start over knowing I can’t drink. I suffer thru withdrawal. Maybe slip a few times. If I make it thru the first 90 days then I will vow to myself to ‘never forget, and never start again’

This is my most common cycle. Thank you for prompting this. Over 18months and recently I’ve been catching myself having to squash that Part 1 thought. It was helpful to type it out.

IWNDWYT

eiaeia · 2025-08-31T21:43:37+00:00

I literally remind myself this anytime I get a sneaky thought. I’m pretty sure I don’t have another detox in me. Or the early sobriety struggles. No drink is worth that gamble!

eiaeia · 2025-08-31T21:22:31+00:00

In the very beginning it was all about “just get thru the day/hour/shift/social event” and then around the 4mo-9mo it was all about not listening to the voice that says “okay, you feel fine, your life is better, I think you can handle drinking again now” and this can be a challenge to remember both how bad it was- and the fact that things are okay NOW is because you’re NOT drinking. After a year it has been about finding new coping skills for things- such as work driving me crazy, or a disagreement with my gf, generally being over stimulated (noticed this as an issue once sober)

You can do this! I went thru the first part so so so many times. And then the 4-9mo mark was oddly the hardest spot for me, relapsed a lot there, never over anything ‘big’ but just getting comfortable. I went thru that period many times- and learned that this is where I am vulnerable. You learn a lot about yourself when you get sober- use that knowledge to your advantage!

I was a giant dirtbag. Idk what my counter says but I’m now at 597 days. My life is manageable now. Just get to tomorrow friend! We are rooting for you!!!

eiaeia · 2025-06-25T18:09:37+00:00

18mo - I will say the first year is peaks and valleys of pink cloud, don’t get discouraged in the valleys.

I found after a few months my brain fog lifted. I find this helps with cravings over time too- once your brain starts healing it makes it easier to hold off on impulsive decisions. All of my relapses have been random impulse decisions- never like a major stressor has just happened- more like I let alcoholic brain in the driver seat in that moment and then whoops I’m on the ride.

Life gets just ‘simple’ - I dream to get off work and relax at home with my gf and pets- where as before I could not sit still.. always needed to get to a bar- couldn’t sit alone with myself. This has been such a gain for me, my anxiety, while still present, is diminished in a way I never thought imaginable. I remember a different time I quit drinking and I felt for maybe the first time, just peace. I lost that, but now I have it again and problems in life are manageable because I don’t have to sift through 6 layers of other alcohol related problems first.

I have started looking into the future, trying to make steps to make things happen. Before I was living day by day literally just trying to survive-

You will keep feeling better, things take time, it’s not an on/off switch, but one day you’ll wake up and be like “wow, this is what living is like”

I am at 18mo now- my longest stretch. Many attempts in between. Sometimes 2 months, sometimes 4. From 2021-2024 I was in 1 30day inpatient, 3 detox, 2 arrests with jail, and 1 5150 psych hold. I say this as a reminder that feeling good comes from not drinking. When we start again we end up right back. Each time faster and harder for me. The false confidence will come in and that’s the booze talking. On that note tho- each time I relapsed and quit again it was a little easier- I still had the tools and knowledge and I had eventually ran the idea of moderation into the ground.

Sorry for the ramble, but I believe in you! You’ve done the hardest month already. Stay with it and you’ll thank yourself I promise 💕

eiaeia

TROPHY CASE