It’s a late Saturday night, from outside you can hear a pop song playing, getting louder as you get closer. As you start to get into the door of Malarky’s the music and loud chatter fill the walls of the bar. You can faintly smell the food from the dinner shift from hours ago and hear the sounds of ice and drinks being poured. You look to the bar and see bartenders hard at work. Behind the bar working, you can see a young bartender by the name of Addyson Downs.
Addyson Downs is a sophomore criminal justice and psychology double major at Buena Vista University. She started working at Malarky’s Bar and Gril in March and is currently a bartender, usually working three days a week. Downs began working there because she is trying to make money for her college tuition here at BVU. As well as a former coworker had told Downs it was a friendly environment with great people. She also needed something to do besides just her academics. “I might be sleeping all day if I wasn’t working,” said Downs.
Downs got close with her coworkers and even her boss over the past seven months working at Malarky’s. “Malarky’s is like a family, you know? A big family, everyone is friends,” said Downs.
Working in the food industry can be mentally draining and it’s important that one maintains a strong mentality. Downs chooses to mentally prepare herself for a weekday shift with music. “It’s all in the music. On the drive there it depends on the music that I listen to. Either pop music or 2000s like the premium music of the 2000s or Suicide Boys.” She says, “It goes from how my day was before the start of my shift. If I had a long day of class, I would listen to more rap or even heavy metal to boost my mood. But if it’s a calmer and steady day I’ll go with R&B. The music I pick sets a tone on how I want my shift to go.”
Downs mentions Saturday nights can be chaotic depending on the college students, and safety can be a concern. “Say one of the teams lost the game and they come in rowdy. That is like immediate safety concern because there has been fights before with them,” said Downs.
A usual Saturday night gets busy as described by Downs. “It’s usually up to four to five tables at time, while towards the end of the dinner shift it starts to calm down and decompress,” said Downs. “Then when bar gets going its calm at first, but as it gets later into the night, When people start coming in, that’s when it starts to get just kind of like a little overwhelming at first, but then your kind of just get on autopilot and just start pouring, drinks.”
Downs never feels the pressure when people will try to buy drinks for others that are underage, she goes onto mention how it would be a big fine for not just Malarky’s but herself as well. According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, the fine for the licensee is $1,925 and the employee $645. As this is the case, she states she doesn’t want to sabotage her career or the bar.
Downs’ Boss, Josh Niemeier mentions her great work ethic, and her effective ability to collaborate with coworkers and bond with customers. “Addyson will do anything to get a task accomplished. She also works well with her fellow employees; she can really lighten up any tense situation,” said Niemeier. “She has a wonderful rapport with customers and will effectively manage taking orders and making conversation. She is a dependable, reliable, and tenacious employee.”
These shifts end up resulting in late nights and lead into Sunday morning. Downs mentions how these shifts interfere with her sleep schedule, and how she would spend most of her Sunday sleeping to catch up with her energy. She goes onto say how these shifts are also positive, and it feels very rewarding from the tips she makes during the night. “I usually don’t wake up until the afternoon or even towards later in the evening around six or seven,” said Downs. This could affect when she has homework, but she says she pushes on and tries to make it through, so she knows her assignments are done and ready for the week.
Being a bartender has had some positive impacts on Downs social life. “I’ve got to know a lot more people on campus and kind of just seeing um the same faces that I’ve seen, you know, you kind of become more friendly with them and stuff. And then you see them in the halls and stuff, and they would say hi or whatever, and it’s nice,” said Downs.
Downs is like Superman, having two different sides to her life. Some may know her as a student and others only may know her as a bartender. “I feel like people only know me as a bartender. Like Superman, how he takes off the glasses and it’s like you got two different people in you at the same time,” said Downs.
Addyson mentions how working late-night shifts like this really doesn’t affect her academics. She claims when she first started out it was a bit rocky. It was difficult to get into the groove of things. But over time she eventually learned how to balance it. “That doesn’t really interrupt anything. Like I know earlier this year, it was a little difficult trying to get into the groove of balancing it. But now it is just kind of an extra lot of schoolwork, because what I see it as just working harder. It’s just two things that I must work hard at.”
At the end of the night, Addyson Downs is like everyone else, who found an opportunity to earn an income to achieve a higher education. She balances her life of work, academics, and social life while working late nights and dealing with the chaos of a college town bar.
