Our team of writers, designers, and photographers have a profound respect for bartenders. They’re so often a second set of eyes and ears for what’s happening in parts of our larger beer culture. And right now, we miss them like hell.

Together with Captain Pabst, we wanted to offer a gesture of our love by profiling a dozen bartenders, and tipping them each $100 to help them through this dark, crazy timeline that hopefully we get to look back on together over a bar, a beer, and a collective sigh of relief.

Here’s to better days ahead.

I met Jeff Larsen when he started bartending, and then began curating the beer list, at one of my favorite bars in Chicago: The Long Room. During those first couple encounters, it became clear that he had a vision—and he was not about to bend to any salesperson's false understanding of what charm means. His approach was all about quality, and building relationships that weren’t served with a side of snake oil, and it was admirable.

Charm is what I eventually discovered in Jeff. In the ensuing years, he has since become a voice of reason, understanding, and an important part of my family. He has the ability to listen—even though he might not want to—with a grace that is formidable. I count myself fortunate to know him and to have broken bread with him.

Jeff’s the last person my wife and I visited before this all happened, unsure when we’d touch cheeks again. He made me a Negroni served down in an iced rocks glass—it’s apparently an odd order, but it’s always granted. My wife, fittingly, drank a La Fin Du Monde.

Words by Matt Modica

Good Beer Hunting

Good Beer Hunting

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