Well I'm not going to messing around the bushes; I got fired from my job two nights ago.
You know it's not that many chances in a man life that he can get to look himself upon his own reflection and question what he had gain for whatever he believe in. That night was one of those nights. Here I'm at a cross road, funny it seems that I was anticipating the inevitable but yet I never thought fate would come to meet me this urgently. Life definitely has a sense of irony, when you're most prepared it's when life would be so kind. Yet the turbulence started when your complacency self has taken over.
Hahaha I'm babbling am I'm not? I guess it is not my fashion to do it so, but tonight it is a definite special night to me. Well tonight I'm no longer a bartender any longer, it's not that I don't have the ability but it was a promise to myself that after my journey of the current job I would never formulate another Martini ever again. It is not the fact that I despise the status of ones responsibility but for the past three years of my life I traded so much for what I thought was descent.
Last night I was let go from Reikyu, the most ironic of the part that after all the disasters I fixed, all the rewards that we reap, and the three years that probably shorten me life span all I got was lousy phone call from my friend Mark crying the fact that he had no control over the situation and he only done what he was told from his father. To most of my friends who heard the story they were furious way more then I could imagine. However they were perplexes that I show absolutely no emotion about the whole ordeal. I must confess that the first minute I got the news deliver that I was being let go by my so call "friend" of three years I was more or less stun for about a minute. Usually time does not bother me so much, yet that particular minute seems to linger in an eternal suspension. But I told myself in my mind "All good things must come to an end" and yes my final year being a mixologist; I've lost the passion and the nocturnal taste of the night. I celebrated with my closest of friends Steve and Will, which I admit that the only thing I really appreciated from Reikyu is the fact that I was fortunate enough to make two best friends of my life. It is not a usual occasion that one would earn soul friendships, especially from my past I had two of my dearest of friends betray me before. I guess this going to be a long blog. I'm not trying to discourage my audience but this is going to be a story of Reikyu of 3 years that I was with. I'm not writing to satisfying my appetite for anger nor trying to bias any fact into my favor. However this story must be told before time would distort the clarity of a place that affects so many lives that I have seen and met. To me as a person I must write it down because I will not dishonor the people that used to work there or the people who are still make their livelihood from that establishment.
Let see it's all start in November of 2003, it was one of the worst year of my life I lost my car to an accident for well over 4 months and two of my best friends were not willing to help me with any financial situation because of their responsibility to their spouses, funny it seems that both of them got their wife and girlfriend because they were all a parasite to my condo when I had the support from my family back home. Life was pretty much very unkind I was broke my girlfriend who dances at the Lodge decided it was a good idea to ride another guy stick shift because he loves knobbing her in his Lotus. I was about to give up on life because all the stress gave me a permanent migraine that to this very day it still manage to haunt me from time to time. So I had a nervous breakdown the dotcom careers that I had since 1999 came down just like a deck of cards that shower upon me like a jet fuel that burn all those lost souls on September 11, 2001. I gave away all my possession, all my computer equipment because it was like a dagger that pierces the soul of my passion. All my work clothes because I learned to hate the sadistic of the business, all my old identity was nothing more of the past and I went forth on a new journey. I came across from few of my classmates from the university and said that Reikyu a brand new Japanese restaurant was just opened and they are looking for a bartender. At first it didn't really peak my curiosity much due to the fact that many people warned about me about the owner. Mark used to be in a gang KB or so call "Korean Boy" and at the time most of my friends from the former years were Vietnamese and Japanese, they were a band of mostly petty Korean thugs that hangout at the rave scenes around Dallas during the 90's selling ecstasy and K and occasionally shot another gang members car just for a pure childish kicks. Most of the time KB guys would pick a fight with LDP or "Little Dog Pound" (yeah its sound gay.) which is a Vietnamese gang which I used to hangout with some of the member because they attended at my University. Yes you'll be surprise that even you're in a gang you got to have a college education I guess it's must definitely an Asian things. Anyhow I got to know Mark by reputation and just a couple of shoulder brushes at nightclubs from time to time but never a direct confrontation. However the first day I walk into the life of a bartender, who would have thought the lady luck would take me so far away from
Reikyu year one.
The restaurant was so different from what it is now erected today, it started with very hip reviews from Guide Live and Dallas Morning News the place has so much potential with a very diverse group of young people. I was one of the oldest guys there at that time and yes we had shit load of chicks working all types Whites, Asians, Latinas. For a time it was good but with a new restaurant came the nightmare of the two years "you make it or break it hurdles." Drugs became constant rampant problems with the staffs both inside the kitchen and out, funny it seems that all the stress I got at that time I should have use it myself. Anyway most of the staffs end up leaving the joint because the restaurant itself couldn't pay their employee the paycheck for pretty much about 5 months. That time it was tough because the place was busy with credentials to be live up to, however success it's a powerful drugs when you're a trying to chase fame without examining the check book that can make one doing things right into doing it right now. To me I guess I was crazy because I got my ass from a hot fire into a frying wok, I should had left the job since the first month of working. Yet I stayed because I guess when a man lost everything in his life he is free to do anything and bartending was a more entertaining job then the false promise of riches on the internet. I decided to stay and work on a broken bars where most of the time we didn't have a bottle of crown to sell to any customers for weeks and half of the bar items we bought it out of the liqueur store because we were black listed on the weekly basis. For a time it was fun I started to hangout at Spike which has permanently become my constant drunken habit now. And nightlife was so fascinating to me, for the first time I broke out of the Asian circle and experience the nocturnal jungle on my own term. However things didn't turn for any better my saving from the fortune of dotcom was dwindling and the sight of making any descent living was out of sight. And of course things turn out to be a test for the truth when one day my boss disappeared without any warning. Well everything was falling apart, we couldn't make the rent and the paycheck to the crew was nothing but bunch of bounce checks the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I pity Mark's Dad because the fact that he pretty much lost their entire fortune from the old restaurant to Reikyu. Well at this point in time Mark was so addicted to drugs that he could no longer function. I would get a phone call from him occasional but he would dare come back to the restaurant which was disintegrating like a rotten timber. Of course thing didn't get any better, he took off and Reikyu itself lost direction, to make the matter worse beyond belief our restaurant got investigated by the law enforcement due to an excessive amount of fraudulent being written for fictional funds for ten of thousands of dollar. To me I was not surprise so much by the incident because Mark my dearest or friend has mind gone beyond the yellow brick road which only addiction and money could kept him going. His dad took over the business and I was the only person that could keep things together because I would lie constantly to everyone that everything would be alright and just hold on till my friend would return. We got ourselves a couple of Japanese manager to come resurrect a dying business but the funny thing was only thing they wanted was to have Mr. Lee sell the restaurant. Well I wouldn't blame them one bit because any business know that our restaurant has a prime location that would make Japanese man stop thinking about perverted sex. As Mr. Lee was going to sell the restaurant, the miracle happen they got some more cash to infuse the restaurant which to many people it' still a mystery to this very day. But let me tell you how we got our finances one is through
It took literally about 3 months for Mark to made it out of rehab, however despise he had self destruct everything that he dream of the future he still manages to come out with a new tricks from his hat. See nobody knows since the restaurant was open he always knew how to cut sushi since he was 15 years old from various Japanese chefs. As the storm passed by and the new day shall start finally our first year have a glimpse of survival.
Reikyu year two
I guess the word that sum up for this year it would be "growing pain", well for the most part now we have the chance to grow learning from mistakes of the first year. Mark finally cleans up once and for all from his addiction throughout the years. And now both me and him have the full responsibility to the restaurant without his dad which make things work way more efficient. We didn't have to deal with bunch of old dry Japanese and Koreans guy which their minds are noting but drunken relics of the past. Me and Mark started to change a lot of things, we took a lot of risks making sure that we would make the figures each night paying of the debt by serving alcohol to SMU minors during the summers till 2 am every night, which our establishment only have the license to open the bar until midnight. I remember that I had to work my ass off late every night not knowing when it was going to end, money was mediocre but the time was a hell of rewarding. I remembered that it was such a rush that we could turn a dying restaurant into a lucrative bar which we could make ends meet, that I would have to say is the philosophy of Reikyu "the mean justify our survival". So you can name it hustling drinks and drugs at the same time there are more of our place beneath the surface that anyone at the restaurant could ever imagine. However as the business was picking up by the help of our Mexican crew of the kitchen which I have to say that we got some bad ass guys in the kitchen, Chaucer's steak house came to compete with our place at mid year of our sophomore life. However fate it seems has the sense of irony that despise a massive amount of money our next door competitor trying to pour into luring the SMU crowd and dumping sushi to make sure that our place will be out of business. However it only took a bullet from one of their idiotic minors to shut them down for good after five month they were in the Mockingbird station. Personally the second year of Reikyu has to be the best year I ever had in my various careers even though it was not the money but I manage to make a few descent friends which I still treasure to this very day. As for the business itself things turned for the better because of our senseless disrespect of any thing tradition. Our creativity turned a sickening joint into a place that remember of our place by the delicacy, yet many patrons still called us ""A sushi joint by Spike" for a long time.
Reikyu year three
Ha-ha despise many hurdle the restaurant finally made it into the black as of the fall of last years, this year is truly a blessing to everyone however as for my passion got worn out by the fact that I had reach my potential as a mixologist. Despite the fact that even to this very day we still can do quite an improvement on the staff but I guess the Korean effect shall be the plague of Reikyu to the very end and there is not that Mark could do because he already fucked up pretty bad on his first year. Finally we got everything down to the point that we can make a fun bet on the sale numbers of the night without having to worry about getting a paycheck. However as any business would go success is a very intoxicating drugs and for many leader power can blind and betray them at the end far worse then a drunken sick from a gold digger. Like I say I have made one journey which I knew for a while that it has to come to an end not because that I hate my job but I came to term that my growth as a human being has reach its limit at Reikyu. I have to say that it's mix blessing that here I am at cross road back to my old career once more. It seems that anything in life no matter how bad it might be could hurt me emotionally anymore. Once your heart has lost everything you mind shall be open to any possibility. And I guess this is the philosophy that I shall live and never bartend ever again because I know that I will learn something new in life while shed away the things that you have grown to accustom to.
I guess the moral of the story is sometime life is just to damm short to care about who you were, what matter most is knowing who you are right now.
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