This week, The Daily Wildcat decided to check out Casa Film Bar on Speedway Boulevard. The Casa Film Bar is not your typical bar. This bar, inside Casa Video, recently opened as a beer and wine bar serving craft beer, wine and coffee. It has the second-largest movie selection in the nation.
Here’s what bartender and UA alumnus Ty Young has to say on what it’s like working in such a unique bar:
Daily Wildcat: How long have you been bartending?
Ty Young: This has only been open for about three months, but I have been bartending for eight years.
How did you decide that you wanted to work at the Casa Film Bar?
When the opportunity arose, I jumped on it. I love film. I went to school for my first degree to become a screenwriter and ended up becoming a journalist. [I] decided six months ago to get back out of journalism and get into my roots as a screenwriter. There are 70,000 videos here. It’s the second-largest video store in the country. And I know a lot about craft beer. I have been teaching about it for about eight years now, so it just made sense.
What’s the best thing about being a bartender here?
Getting to know our customers and getting to teach them about beer. Most of our customers coming in are towing the line. They are trying craft beer for the first time. So for me, as someone that’s kind of an expert in this field, I get to take people from drinking major domestics to craft beer because we don’t have major domestics here. It’s all independent craft beer.
What’s your favorite beer?
That changes. It depends on the type of day, my mood, depends on what I am eating, depends on the season. There are so many and I have had thousands and thousands of beers in my life. … There is no way I could just choose one.
What’s your least favorite beer?
So I hate to say it, because it’s such a popular beer, but I really do not like PBR.
Do you have any memorable customers?
We have the ones that come in every Sunday, get their free popcorn and sit and watch movies and drink beer and talk beer with me. I mean, those are the most memorable. As of right now, we haven’t had to kick anyone out. People that come in here don’t get drunk. They come in and they appreciate the beer. But I have been a bartender for a long time, so I’ve seen a lot of the same customers, like the ones that talk, talk, talk. But luckily here if they are really chatty I can just put on a movie they like and they just watch the movie, so I don’t have to talk to them.
How do you handle the stress of being a bartender?
It is stressful. It’s a different kind of stressful. I have worked as head bartender at Old Chicago, World of Beer, worked at Dirtbags [and] each one has different stress levels. Here is dealing with all the tasters, because one person will go through four or five of these and you have to go in, get them a taster and tell them about the beer. Meanwhile, there are five other people around waiting for their beers. So you just kind of bounce off certain people and say here’s a taster and then get the next one. So that’s really the stress: making sure everyone has a good beer in front of them that they like. The last thing we want to do is sell you a beer that you’re not going to like.
Is there a certain strategy you use to destress?
I try to get customers to talk to each other. I introduce and say “Oh hey, so and so, you have something in common with this person.” That way they talk [among] themselves so I can handle another guest.
What do you think sets this bar apart from other bars?
Besides the free popcorn, besides the film, what sets us aside is that we have a to-go license, so you can build your own six pack. We are open till 1:30 in the morning. We have a really chill environment where you can sit around and watch films. We have coffee, tea and a whole bunch of other stuff besides just beer. … Plus our location: We are the only place in this general location that has what we have here. I’d say 80 percent of our customers live within a mile and a half.
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