Meet Felicia Uribe, a bartender from Redlands, California working at Ermanos Craft Beer and Wine Bar on Fourth Avenue. Uribe gave the Daily Wildcat some insight on what goes down while working at a bar in Tucson, including weird forehead kisses and missed connections.

The Daily Wildcat: How long have you been bartending?

Felicia Uribe: I’ve been bartending here for about 3 months now.

How’d you become a bartender here?

I was living in Southern California for a couple years. I moved over here in May. And then I just applied for the job and got it. And I’ve been a server at other places for about, like, five to 10 years. 

What drinks do you like to make?

Um well, we only serve beer and wine here so we don’t really make drinks. Like, we don’t have mixed drinks here, but I love pouring beer. That’s my favorite thing to do. My favorite beer is Hangar 24—that’s the brewery—and I like anything that’s like pale ales or Pilsners. But I only like that brewery because it’s from my hometown.

Do you have a most memorable customer?

Um yeah, there’s actually a couple. I had one who … they ordered, like, three bottles of wine, so they were pretty out of control, and they were, like, in love with me by the end of the night. Whenever I got off of work they were trying to have drinks with me, and then one of them came up and gave me a kiss on the forehead before they had left. So those are the ones that are pretty memorable.

Do they come back a lot?

Yeah, they come at least every Friday in the mornings, so they’ll probably be here this Friday because I work Friday mornings. 

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen happen here?

Um, I’m trying to think. There’s a lot of stuff that happens all the time. I would have to say the weirdest thing is we’ve had homeless people come in because we give away free samples, so they’ll come in and have free samples and I don’t know they’re homeless. And then I end up finding out about halfway through our conversation that they’re homeless. 

Not too many crazy things happen, mostly everything happens outside of the bar. Mostly just people who come in already drunk and try to buy beers and we can’t serve them any more.

What do you appreciate in a customer?

Um, I appreciate people who are really open to trying new things. I appreciate that they are considerate of the fact that I am doing a job for them and that they appreciate the time that I take to let them know and take care of them as well. That’s pretty much it, just being courteous and being respectful and being open-minded about what we have on our menu.

Do you have any other fun stories or things that have happened here?

Oh god, it’s mostly like back-of-the-house stuff like … us with customers. The biggest thing is people take your kindness for flirtation and then they think that you’re gonna like start a relationship with them. 

One of the weirdest encounters we’ve had is with one of our cooks. I had a customer come in and he asked specifically for her, so I thought they were like a family member or a friend and then come to find out that he had just had a conversation with her and fell in love with her, and he was like 30 years her senior, so he was like 50-something. He had asked her out, and she was just really uncomfortable with the whole situation because of the way he had approached her. 

It was pretty funny because she was out in the back making a phone call and so he had just walked out and was just standing there while she was on the phone, and they didn’t like know each other, so stuff like that. Just like getting too close for comfort sometimes because people do take your kindness and just being really friendly—a lot of people take that the wrong way.

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