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Wandering bartender Tetsuji Ono explores cocktails to suit people and food

2023.12.14

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A circle of friends connected by goo touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.

On October 10, wandering bartender Tetsushi Ono will appear. We asked him about how he became a bartender, his title of “wandering bartender,” and mainly about how he communicates when serving cocktails at his restaurant.

What inspired me to become a bartender was Tom Cruise.

Celeina (MC): Let me start by introducing his profile. Tetsuji Ono is a wandering bartender from Oita Prefecture. He started bartending in his hometown of Oita, later standing in bars in Yokohama and Tokyo, and currently works as a bartender at the Chinese restaurant “Nanpu-ro” in Ginza. At the same time, he travels around Japan as an event bartender for liquor manufacturers and importers.

Takano (MC): You are a wandering bartender because you bartend at events.

Ono: That’s right. I think it would be more accurate to say that I was a wanderer.

Takano: But sometimes you still wander, don’t you?

Ono: Yes, that’s right.

Celeina:Because you were wandering at Naeba this year, too, weren’t you?

Takano:That’s right. We were next to each other at the “Fuji Rock” event. We greeted each other. Johnny’s highball was delicious.

Ono: Thank you very much.

Takano: You are dressed in your usual attire today, and the silk hat suits you well.

Ono:It’s not self-branding, but there are not many bartenders who wear hats, so I thought it would stand out.

Takano:But you really wore that outfit at Fuji Rock, didn’t you?

Ono:We wear silk hats every year at Fuji Rock, and then all the other bartenders started wearing hats as well.

Takano: You are creating a bit of a culture.

Celeina: The vests are nice, but they also have name tags. It says “TETSU-G.”

Ono: I’m allowed to use it like a bartender’s name like that.

Celeina:Then it is “TETSU-G” instead of Mr. Ono.

Takano: I would like to ask you many questions, but what made you want to become a bartender in the first place?

Ono:When I was in junior high school, I got hooked on Tom Cruise and watched a lot of movies. Among them, I fell in love with the movie “Cocktails,” in which Tom Cruise plays a bartender. Tom Cruise has been in many movies, but bartending was the job that I thought I had the best chance of being in. I don’t think I could be a pilot, either.

Takano: Spying is not an easy job to become, either.

Ono:Yes, that’s right. Bartenders were the closest to me.

Takano:They look cool, don’t they? When they make cocktails, they throw shakers from their backs.

Ono:Throwing the bottle and turning it. That was cool.

The counter is a tool for communicating with people in a safe environment.

Takano:You are originally from Oita, so you had a bar in your hometown, didn’t you?

Ono:I trained as a bartender in Oita for almost 10 years, and when I was about 30 years old, I came to Yokohama to start.

Celeina:What was it that brought you to Tokyo?

Ono:I happened to be from Oita, and a mama who runs a club in Yokohama invited me and said, “If you come, I’ll make a bar for you”.

Celeina:That is an amazing coincidence.

Ono:I didn’t know them before they invited me, but I happened to meet them and they asked me if I wanted to try it, so I came out.

Takano:I think bartenders need a variety of skills. Of course, making drinks and communication skills are important, but what kind of training did you have?

Ono:A surprisingly large number of bartenders are shy.

Takano: Is that so?

Ono:I think so. At least I think so. I have the impression that a bar is like a tree that stops, a place where customers can feel at ease, and for bartenders, the counter is a place where they can communicate with people in peace.

Takano: In a space called a bar, the roles of the bartender and customers are sort of fixed, aren’t they?

Ono:I find it difficult to talk to people without a counter.

Takano: That’s interesting.

Celeina:You were a wandering bartender, so did you give yourself the name “wandering bartender”?

Ono:I started calling myself a “wandering bartender,” but actually there was a senior bartender who was more wandering than me, and after meeting him, I thought I was no match for him, so I dropped that name.

Celeina:Does that mean that your senior was more active?

Ono:That senior member was always there, no matter where we went. We were on the same team at Fuji Rock, but he was more active than me, so I thought I couldn’t win.

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