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fruity but not too sweet; while I had my scotch and IPA. The place was a madhouse, five deep at the bar behind us and total cacophony. Murray was three people down the bar making another cocktail and I remarked "the Talisker is a bit sharp" in a low conversational tone to my friend. He kept moving, snatching bottles with the speed of a snake's tongue and made no indication he had heard me. Moments later, he glided down the bar and said to me, "David, maybe you would like a Lagavulin 16 better than Talisker?" He had heard me over the din, but more importantly he wanted me to be happy; it meant something to him personally. When Murray leaned in and fixed his pale blue eyes on mine, I was flattered by his penetrating gaze, and the twitchy-whiskered intensity of his truly active listening. For just that moment, I was the show. (He is a gifted person. You would never know he was listening down the bar when he is in front of you. And he has a phenomenal memory, having kept track of each Scotch I have tried with him and built an accurate picture in his mind of what I like years later.) Not everyone can be a Murray Stimson, but we can all emulate his compassion for each customer even though he is a bartending God and nationally famous. His concern is the happiness of the person right in front of him, at that moment. The effect is quite flattering without being condescending. And of course he is fun to watch because he is as fast as lightning and as smooth as the Scotch he pours. Let the customer set the pace Lately there is a trend of being purposefully slow and wasting customers' time by taking them to school when they didn't ask for it. After a visit to the Bay Area recently, a veteran traveler and coffee friend remarked that "maybe the coffee bar owners think people in San Francisco won't get excited about a place unless there's a line. at his most receptive for the coffee. Being slow as some king of attribute to aspire to, or bludgeon your customers into accepting, will not relax most American customers. It will piss them off, making them unable to taste beautiful coffee. A culinary artist must always be quick as a snake behind the bar. And because it is a culinary art, the barista's every action must ooze confidence. This was the quality I most admired in the Italian baristas I observed in Milan: their rock solid underlying confidence that infused their motions with almost feline grace. A good performance is one where the years of experience have whittled away any dangling bits of nonsense and refined the motions to their highest efficiency. This is beautiful to me, watching real pros do whatever it is they do. And moving with a silky smooth physical style is not only mesmerizing to observe, but it will reduce mistakes and spills. Smooth efficiency is the number two key to speed on a bar. Rushing will slow you down with mistakes and creates anxiety in the customers watching your performance. However, as any serious music student knows, besides practice and experience, the key to a confident performance is in the preparation. Set the stage " He said he was at one of the newer big name espresso bars with only eight people in line and it took 25 minutes to get the straight shot he ordered. So he was frustrated and not Any smooth performance begins with all the props being where they should be. Arrange your work area according to your working style. For me, milk containers should be opened in advance (I hate wrestling with the little plastic rings, or worse, forcing open reluctant paper cartons in a slam), and arranged for easy access in your refrigerator. Syrup bottles should be shiny, not sticky, and arranged in order of usage, with vanilla and almond right up front. The all-important rag hierarchy is established with a portafilter wiping rag, countertop rags (sanitized), steamer rag, and floor rags to act as mini-mops for small disasters. Back-up rags are one step away. Cups, both porcelain and paper, should be clean and well stocked. Porcelain, of course, is stocked on top of the espresso machine 74 barista magazine