The new film Hey Bartender!, which premiered in New York two weeks ago, officially opened June 14. The documentary on bartending in the era of the craft cocktails weaves together the stories behind two operators: New York lounge Employees Only and Westport, CT-based Dunville’s.
Pictured at the June 5 premiere, from left, Jim Meehan of Please Don’t Tell (PDT); Steve “Carpi” Carpentieri, Dunville’s; Charlotte Voisey, portfolio ambassador, William Grant & Sons; Steve Schneider, Employees Only; “King Cocktail” Dale DeGroff and Douglas Tirola, writer/director/producer of Hey Bartender.
The film, produced Douglas Tirola, focuses on a pair of bartenders with rich back stories–ex-Marine Steve Schneider of Employees Only, who aims to become a principal bartender at the best cocktail bar in the world, and Dunville’s owner Steve “Carpi” Carpentieri, who left a white-collar job to buy a corner bar in his hometown and is struggling to keep it afloat.
Hey Bartender! Also details the changing world of bartending and the rise of craft mixology. It features cocktail luminaries including DeGroff, PDT’s Meehan, Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske, and Clover Club’s Julie Reiner, who offer insight on how bartending became a celebrated profession.
For more on the movie and where it’s playing, visit the Hey Bartender! Facebook page. To read a Q&A with producer Tirola on why he opted to tell the story of this community, what he was trying to capture, and how making a movie about bartending changed the way he drinks, visit this Village Voice blog.