Tales From An Airport Bar
Tales From An Airport Bar
Ep 6: You Can't Get Hungover If You Stay Drunk Featuring Spencer
Ever wonder what really happens behind the scenes at airport bars? Join us this week on Tales from an Airport Bar as we welcome my longtime friend Spencer, an airport restaurant veteran with over 13 years of experience. Spencer shares his unforgettable journey through various airport eateries like Riata Grill, Blue Mesa, and Uno's Pizza. From the grueling morning shifts and the unsympathetic owners to the labyrinthine badge process, Spencer reveals the gritty reality and rollercoaster of emotions that come with the territory. And don't miss the wild story of how a Yelp review almost got him fired—it's a cautionary tale you won't soon forget.
The episode then takes a hilarious turn as I recount my own whirlwind experiences, including an unexpected promotion that led to my role in opening a new IHOP. This sudden change caused a comedic and contentious exit from my previous job at Cantina. As we reminisce about workplace drama and job transitions, we also highlight the sense of camaraderie found at our beloved local hangout, The Apple. Whether it's bonding over bingo or enjoying good food, The Apple serves as a sanctuary where employees and patrons alike can unwind and create lasting friendships.
Finally, we explore some of the most outrageous and heartwarming airport stories: a chaotic adventure with a family friend during COVID and the unforgettable saga of a burst bathroom pipe that flooded a lounge and a Starbucks with ankle-deep water. These tales underscore the unpredictability and community spirit that define airport life. As we wrap up, we express our gratitude for your continued support and encourage you to like and follow the show. Remember, "you can't get hung over if you stay drunk!"
https://imgur.com/a/ML78ylz
(link to videos of pipes busting from Blake's story)
Welcome back, guys. Pull up a bar stool, grab a beer. Welcome to episode six. Tales from an Airport Bar. Our guest this week is my good, good friend, spencer Spencer. Welcome to the podcast this week. Thanks for having me, sir. Yes, sir, how are you doing today? Living the dream, man. Stop that. Start living the life. All right, give me a little background. How long have you been working at the airport, where all of you work? Oh man we got what kind of concepts?
Speaker 2:Like over 13 years at the airport, 17 in restaurant industry altogether, Most of the stuff I've done in the airport. I started at Riata Grill. It was like steakhouse and kind of Tex-Mex. They had really good tamales.
Speaker 1:I remember that place.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Upstairs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, where Buffalo Wild Wings is now. Yeah, it used to be Riata. Yeah, that's where my daughter works. Oh, that's right, all right. So anywho, yeah, that's where I started at the airport and then moved around as stores opened. It was just better money to go to new terminals, new stores. In reality, I was in Terminal D, the international terminal. I was just getting into the airports.
Speaker 3:the morning shifts, yep, where you know what you had to do Get what you can get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so morning shifts in the international terminal is a little rough.
Speaker 2:But again, that was 13 years ago, so tipping culture was even different then. Like, the airport was the expensive place to go. Yes, like now, you can't go to CC's without dropping 100. So it doesn't really pay out that way. It's evened us out more. So, yeah, now the airport's not as fancy as it used to be. So, yeah, then went to Blue Mesa, opened that store from Blue Mesa.
Speaker 2:Well before Blue Mesa was a Uno, a Mexican food concept. Blue Mesa was Mexican food and then before that was Uno's pizza. Yeah, so Riyada was FGR foods or whatever. I forget what their company name was, but anyhow, the guy that owned the place wasn't that cool. So I opened this other pizza place for him. And there was other bartenders that I worked with that were giving up their ships at Riyada to work over at that place. And he just told us all hey, you can work two days over there, that's it. And I was working like working like three days at each restaurant. So three days at Rihanna and then three days at Uno.
Speaker 2:The guy came in. The owner was like nah, y'all can work two days over here. I ain't got to explain nothing to you. I was like dude, you just took $1,500 a month off of my table. I need more of an explanation than just we're all on the same board here. He was like I got 2,500 employees. I don't have time to care about you. I took my badge off, threw it at him, bounced it off his chin. I had already started opening Blue Mesa probably five, six days prior to that. That was hilarious how I got that job. Blue Mesa used to be below Rihanna. It's our outdoor patio. I could look over and see their full restaurant Open concept. They did like fried food or no, the Blue Mesa. It turned into a gas monkey, but before it was Blue Mesa, which was a great Mexican restaurant. Yeah, still is. They're food. They also have an iconic brunch in like downtown Fort Worth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the mimosa brunches oh for an iconic brunch in like downtown Fort Worth. Yeah, the mimosa brunches. Oh, it's incredible Omelet bar anything. Enchiladas Adobe, chili, anything you could think of it's incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2:So I was working at Riatta and all my buddies got hired on to open the new Blue Mesa. The owner was already being dicked, so we all wanted to leave and they sent me Back in the day with the airport. You had to get all your badge paperwork, print it out and then use the same colored pen to fill it all out. Well, I remember it was worse than going to the DMV trying to get a badge.
Speaker 3:I remember you used a blue or red pen.
Speaker 1:I used to be a badge sponsor, so I'm the one that had to make sure all that paperwork was correct.
Speaker 2:Oh, because in the Inheritage you were allowed to be a badge sponsor. You have to be a minority to be a badge sponsor.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I was a liaison through HMS Host at the time they don't get the tax cuts if they don't have their sponsor, thing of minority. So I walked down, had my buddy send me the email, printed out all the badge paperwork, filled it all out, and then their area director was down there at the store one day and I've seen them from the patio walk down there and hand them all my paperwork. He's like oh, when did we? When do you start? When did we hire you? And I was like well, you haven't hired me yet, but you're going to like here's all the paperwork. You don't have to worry about that, just give me a call when you're ready. Like two days days later they're like hey, man, we need you here at four o'clock today.
Speaker 2:Cool, I was like all right, but I told you that's how I got blue Mesa and then from there ended up going to Cantina with you guys. That's a whole nother got fired for some. I've never been fired from any place in the airport for doing my job. It's always some bogus BS. Like blue Mesa, it was a Yelp review and then a week later the company had to send out an email that they will no longer fire anyone over Yelp reviews, because everyone started writing Yelp reviews to get people fired. When you're making five $600 a day, it's kind of like a mafia.
Speaker 3:Like everyone, wants your job, whether you know it or not, or whether you want to believe it or not those jobs are very coveted.
Speaker 1:That's how it was at Blue Mesa.
Speaker 2:Then I left there and went to Cantina and met you guys. Hell yeah, from Cantina I did Rodeo Bar, which was just hot dogs and chips and a lot of drunk people oh for sure, a whole lot of drunk people. Then I left and a lot of drunk people yeah for sure, a whole lot of drunk people, jesus. Then I left Rodeo and went to Cantina for Star. That bar was the most disgusting bar I've ever worked in. Took a one and D. Yeah, like they're currently tearing it down and turning it into a Chili's Thank God.
Speaker 1:Because you know we need more Chili's on the planet.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, well, you're doing the international thing, bruh.
Speaker 1:That's.
Speaker 3:Americana baby.
Speaker 2:I want my baby back bro.
Speaker 3:I want my baby back. Baby See, exactly, exactly Chilies. Baby back Barbecue sauce. Get in my belly, all right.
Speaker 1:So I remember working with you the first time. I remember the first time I ever was introduced to a vaping device that had I guess it would be considered a controlled substance Anyways a THC vape. You guys have one at work and we're like, hey, check this out. You want to elaborate on that at all, spencer? I want to say that was a Saturday. Both of you guys were there.
Speaker 3:I want to say Spencer opened, chris was the mid and then I was a closer. We were all there in transition that day.
Speaker 2:I think I were all there in transition that day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I had to go home early that day.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you got to remember too, I'm 35.
Speaker 3:You're old and I'm just trying to get laid before I graduate high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a big age difference here. Shame on you when me and the teen agent bring in some new age scientific weed that you push a button. I was getting cartridges and filling them at this point. They didn't come free. You had to get two separate things and heat it up with a blow dryer and all kinds of stupid stuff. What a time to be alive. It was great, but it was like the crack of marijuana, mr Chris here, doesn't know.
Speaker 1:It was like a microwave. Yeah, let me tell you something you don't know about me, joe Brogan, I smoke rocks.
Speaker 3:I smoke rocks baby.
Speaker 2:So if you've ever handed Chris anything to smoke, it happens quickly and intensely yeah.
Speaker 1:It happens quickly and intensely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like that scene in Half-Baked where Snoop Dogg comes down and smokes a whole joint like two puffs. That's what it's like sharing with you.
Speaker 1:Yes, I will ghost your weed my bad Secretly, I like that stuff.
Speaker 2:I want to say subconsciously, I knew you were going to rip it and not be able to stand. Not subconsciously, we just knew it, we knew it.
Speaker 1:Next thing. I know I'm freaking, slobbering on myself wondering what terminal I'm in.
Speaker 3:Just like the passengers. I think you thought what planet you were in.
Speaker 1:Man, yeah, that was another level that day. What was that? Some?
Speaker 3:Greek food. Chris, you're going to have to go home.
Speaker 1:You don't look so good, Chris I think I got this.
Speaker 3:Why don't you go ahead and head out? I think that's probably exactly what I told you.
Speaker 1:I believe it was the Romulan, because I got there and I saw.
Speaker 3:Chris looking through me like I was a ghost and like I was haunting the place, like I was Casper, Like here you want some of what Chris had. I said not really, but I'll try it. You're like no man, he just took too much. I don't really want to be whatever this is, but I'll try it. Everything in moderation.
Speaker 1:I still felt like.
Speaker 3:I was floating, but I didn't feel like I was. I don't know.
Speaker 1:At this point in my life, I've learned my lesson. Are you sure I never repeat the same mistake twice? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure it happened 35 minutes ago.
Speaker 3:And then God, one of the first times Chris ever came over to my apartment when I was living in Uptown living the party life as a bachelor me and my roommate at the 5 Mac. Shout out to the OG. We just purchased this bong together, which was about I don't know what, do you think? Two feet tall. At least it had like a.
Speaker 1:I'm a large man, and I mean, I'm not as big as you, spencer, by any means. You are giant, but I'm six foot tall and this thing was half the size of me, easily.
Speaker 3:Easily so. His name was LeBron James. You're six foot tall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just a little bitty compared to you, but we had just gotten this and Chris came over.
Speaker 3:This was whenever I first started working and met Chris, probably maybe six months in, maybe less. This is going on 10 years now. Yeah, at this point, yeah, this was one of the first instances and I said, hey, we got a new bong, come check it out. He said, okay, and Chris is a connoisseur, but he also does too much and goes, he goes. If there's a wall, he's going headfirst through it.
Speaker 2:Hey, this guy ain't half-assed a single thing in his life. No, that's what I'm saying. He's going for it.
Speaker 3:He's reaching for the peach, all right, and so I knew what it was. I knew that this thing would knock you out. It was probably about three feet tall, probably had like four different levels. Anyways, it's crazy. I'd like to think he did a third of it or one one hit. He had to go on the patio smoke a cigarette man, and then he was like I don't think I can drive home tonight I think this thing had 17 chambers in it.
Speaker 1:No, how many, honestly. How many, how?
Speaker 3:many chambers are there 36. We still haven't got to the bottom of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so literally, how many filter chambers did that thing have? There were at least four.
Speaker 3:At least four honeycombs? Yeah, it was. It's really scientific. I can't get into it right now.
Speaker 1:Anyways, Chris was knocked out.
Speaker 3:Was it for ants? That's one of the first times I've ever seen Chris just like.
Speaker 1:I'm tapping out.
Speaker 3:I was like, hey, I can't drive home tonight, I may have to sleep on your couch.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm gonna at least have to sit here a good hour.
Speaker 2:Chris, that was one hit. Nah, chris is taking more naps on my couch than me.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we went okay. So with that being said, all that said, 20 minutes later we go up on his rooftop where I can smoke a cigarette, get some fresh air. This guy's really high.
Speaker 2:Let's put him on the roof.
Speaker 3:After that it was good. That was a hell of a view from the garage top, oh man.
Speaker 1:That was overlooked. All of Dallas. Ultimate bachelor man. Yeah, that was a cool place.
Speaker 2:Have you all seen the TikTok, where it's the dude with his two buddies. He's like, yeah, have some rooftop beers with the boys. Yeah, roofie boys. And they're like, no, no don't do all this stuff.
Speaker 3:I have not seen that. That's incredible we do roofie boys?
Speaker 2:Dude, he's got like a compilation where he does it like eight different times, like that, no.
Speaker 3:You can't say this oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Look that up, people. Pretty good stuff. I don't know the guy, it's just a funny video. Let me go so.
Speaker 1:I want you to tell me about the time, this one time, at band camp. So you worked with us. So how did you exit when you left Cantina jose? Through text what happened?
Speaker 2:oh okay, so that's interesting. That brings us back to the originally, when I had opened blue mesa and they fired me. Like I worked with y'all for a little while and then, uh, I got a text from. So there was, this guy drew and I trained him as a server, then trained him in the bar, then it turns out he's friends with owners or some crap and the AD, they're buddies, so he ends up becoming a manager, and so when they fired me, he had just started becoming a manager for Blue Mesa, which was DB Mitchell, it's a company and they opened to IHOP and wanted him to be the GM.
Speaker 2:So he calls me why I'm at shift with one of you guys. Yeah, one of you guys were there and I got the call and he's like hey, man, we're open on this IHOP. Uh, we start trending on Monday. I need you to come open this bar for me. I do recall that, and so I was like all right, bet. And then I just stopped showing up to candy Tina, as one does, and it was probably a week after I hadn't shut up for any of my shifts, like the first two days. I called, said I had some car trouble or some shit. Jose was like will you get your shift covered? And I was already calling you guys. You were like yeah, we're going to make more money. There was three of us on the shift there only needs to be two, so it's not like I was being a douche about it.
Speaker 1:Everyone was in on it, everyone was in on it, except for Jose. So the week after not showing up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was our bar manager who was on our last podcast Go on and I still hang out with Jose at the Hyatt. Bought him some drinks, he bought me some drinks.
Speaker 1:He was on our last podcast, love Jose. Please come back, jose.
Speaker 2:But as a manager, I guess he felt he had to write up some kind of termination letter. And what was funny is he threw in this deal. Like in our group chat, we decided to include him because we're cool with our managers. We go out, we have beers, we you know we're all just here to work.
Speaker 2:We're not doctors, that's it. And so he was in our group chat and there was a message. We had this girl, patsy, that worked for us. Super cute, fun, energetic, bubbly, really tiny, short girl, dynamite, with a lot of attitude, but really tiny girl, you know. There was a message, a tiktok little meme, something. It was like a picture where it had a basically a stick figure and its dick was out and it was resting on the other stick figure's forehead and she said some comment that that gif was an appropriate reply to.
Speaker 2:But jose felt it to write up in his message, like through corporate and stuff, that I was doing inappropriate, insubordinate things on group messaging. On a work group message, I was like no, that's not what it was, because there was another deal where the liquor cage downstairs had way too much of absolutely nothing and we were getting bitched at for stocking liquor upstairs. We were like, well, you have all this BS down here. I just sent him pictures of that because he sent a picture of the upstairs cage. So I sent a picture of the downstairs cage. He was like, well what, we got a lot of shit we don't need down here, man, everything up there we're using but anyhow. So I just saw him. After that happened, I saw the termination email or whatever and I was like that's stupid. So I emailed it or forwarded it to all you guys. Email or whatever. I was like that's stupid. I emailed it or forwarded it to all you guys. We all had a laugh about it.
Speaker 3:It's probably like three weeks later.
Speaker 1:I do remember.
Speaker 2:It's probably like three weeks later I'm at my local bar, the Apple, off of Trinity. Shout out to the Apple, that's a great airport bar. The pizza's amazing.
Speaker 3:Pizza's incredible.
Speaker 2:You have to get that very large pizza. Medium's not as good.
Speaker 1:You've got to get the XL the New York style, real New York Don't forget about that?
Speaker 3:Friday buffet, baby, yes sir, that's incredible Two drinks free buffet.
Speaker 2:They do that every day from like 1 to 4 o'clock, monday through Friday, like 1 to 4 o'clock and then they would have that.
Speaker 3:What was that game, that raffle game? That's fucking numbers.
Speaker 2:They don't do the raffles anymore.
Speaker 3:That used to be fun though we still do bingo on Friday nights Didn't Parker win one?
Speaker 1:Oh, Parker wins all the time. My eight-year-old kills it at music bingo.
Speaker 2:It's a very family-oriented place. Everyone's been working there for 15, 20 years.
Speaker 3:It's really cool. You feel like a family. When you're there, you see people that you know. It feels almost like a cheers bar.
Speaker 1:We will have a future show featuring from the patio of the Big Apple.
Speaker 2:It's a really solid airport bar. There's a lot of community there.
Speaker 1:You feel?
Speaker 3:protected as an airport employee drinking in that bar, even as an employee there's people there that are waiting and drinking for people that they're going to pick up from a flight. Oh yeah, All the airport there's people there that are waiting and drinking for people that they're going to pick up from a flight. Oh, yeah, yeah, all the time, yeah, like I'm waiting to go to Terminal C to pick up the flight from Temecula.
Speaker 2:So it's like three weeks after I don't know. It's like three weeks after all that BS happened with him and the email and I see him in the Apple and he's like, hey, hard feelings. And I was like there's a little hard feelings. I don't feel the termination letter was, you know, necessarily accurate but. I understand yeah, I was like I understand your position you're doing, you know your manager, tutorial bs.
Speaker 1:But come on bro you didn't have to fire me.
Speaker 2:I quit a couple weeks ago, but you didn't notice and I could have been straight up with him, but I wasn't, because I I mean, he has to do his corporate thing, I have to do my fuck you employee thing. So it was a fair trade. There's two sides to the coin. Jose's still a great guy. We hang out, we love him.
Speaker 1:Yes, Jose will be a repeat guest on the podcast, I promise.
Speaker 2:Maybe even a reunion with everybody.
Speaker 1:That'd be awesome.
Speaker 2:Bring the Yoakums on.
Speaker 1:Come on, guys, speaking of friends, there was this one time you had a run-in with a friend's mom on her way to a funeral.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so a really good friend of mine. I grew up like these guys took care of me when I was kicked out and 16 and living a hard life and whatnot. But so like two years, yeah, again 35. So half a lifetime ago, ok, so I still hang out with his parents, ironically this was only a no, spencer. I'm old, my life's half over. I mean we're all dying from the moment we're born.
Speaker 3:Hey, we're all dying. Let's just get through this, yes.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go. So if you'd stop interrupting me, you smirky little neighbor, All right.
Speaker 2:So all right, so ironically she came out I think it was a thursday, but I had monday woke up early, put the kids on the bus and stuff and then went and got saltgrass and then their house was just down the street and so I stopped in there. It's usually just his dad, his mom's always traveling around, but anyhow, stopped in there, brought him a porterhouse, we smoked, had a good time, gave him some lunch, was like all right, man see y'all later.
Speaker 2:Nice visit. They're kind of like parents to me Mine are dead or dead. So a couple days later on that Thursday she calls me. She was like, hey, are you working? My buddy's mom and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm at work. She, yet I was like, uh, d extension, I'm down at d one through four. She's like okay, I'm gonna come down there. I got a flight to catch. I was like all right, cool.
Speaker 2:She walks up, sits in the bar, tells me about, uh, how her aunt, I think, passed away and going to the funeral and I was like all right, so I'm serving her drinks and uh, she's there for about three hours flight delays and weather or something, but uh, y'all gotta understand. I've known this woman more than half my life, yeah, yeah, and she's been like we used to steal cigarettes from them because they have cartons and there was always booze out, because they're alcoholics, like good people, but they smoke weed cigarettes and drink. Well, she doesn't smoke cigarettes anymore, but anyhow, they still drink a lot. So I've seen this lady drink my entire existence of knowing her that's's how you know her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by no means necessary. Did I think I was ever going to over-serve her?
Speaker 3:She's a professional drinker.
Speaker 2:Solid professional drinker. So we're about two and a half hours in and I'm like, hey, you know they changed your gate. You got to go over to Terminal E now Is that like E20 something? I was like you need to get going. You got 30 minutes until they start boring. So she pays out, goes, and I think it was six Tito's and cranberries in two and a half hours, which I mean for normal people it's not that bad. But after the sixth one and listening to her talk and stuff, I was like, hey, what time did you hear about this funeral stuff? She's like, oh, I got the call at seven this morning. I was like, oh, it's like 6 30 at night. I'm like, well, did you wake up and have some drinks? She's like, yeah, yeah, I've been drinking all day. I was like, okay, now you got it, now it's making sense. I was like, well, don't talk to anybody, just get on the plane and get going head down, show them your boarding pass yep just roll on.
Speaker 2:So I'm walking, I'm doing my bar thing, it you know, our bar is a big triangle. There's four gates, two on each side of the bar, and we're the only thing down there I see, so with delays. I mean there's 80 people standing around this bar You're getting rushed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like an ant pile and you drop the freaking sugar cube on it. So I get a call from her husband, my buddy Mark, and he's like dude, what the fuck did you do to Angie? She is wasted. She doesn't know where she's at, doesn't know how to get to her gate. And I was like, oh my God, are you serious? So then I call her and I'm like hey, where the hell are you at? She's like I'm by the bathrooms. I'm like there's a thousand of those. Can you see some numbers or signs Like which bathroom are you by? And I was like, okay, I know exactly where you are. So I go up there. I find her and I'm like we got to fucking go. I look up the gate again. I'm like, all right, cool, we got to get on the fucking Skylink, take the train over to E.
Speaker 2:It aborted when I was talking to her. It was three minutes past shutdown time. I was like, yeah, now we're at, I think, 12 minutes until departure. I was like there's no way the door's going to be open. I'm taking her there. We're on the train riding. She's got the waist. It's staggering Ladies in their 60s.
Speaker 3:That train's hard to stand on sober. It goes fast and it stops fast, but you don't want to sit yeah, so I mean we're she's holding on to me.
Speaker 1:I'm better, I got her backpack or suitcase or whatever.
Speaker 2:And we get there I have to take this later down, then run over to it and they're standing at the gate with the doors closed and she's like hey, hey, I need to get on this plane. And they're like what's your name? She tells them her name and they're like okay, cool, I need to get on this plane. And they're like what's your name? She tells them her name and they're like okay, cool, frontier. They open the door and this lady took her off my arm and fucking walked her down the jet bridge.
Speaker 2:I was like no way this just happened. I stand there by four American gates and watch the closed doors of people's faces all day long.
Speaker 3:They'll close it 15 minutes early.
Speaker 2:Give you the double bird and then smile at you Well, we're down at D1, and they're like excuse me, I missed my flight. They're like too bad, d24 is customer service. Like they don't even talk to them or help them. It's insane.
Speaker 3:They're like, we've been waiting for you. We'd love to have you Come on in.
Speaker 2:Come on in, baby, here's the red carpet, let's go.
Speaker 3:Took her off my arm and walked her on the flight. Here's a glass of milk, get on the plane.
Speaker 2:And then she calls me on the plane and she's like I'm on the plane, there's a really nice guy next to me he grabs the phone he's like hey, don't worry bro, I think she's about to go to sleep pretty soon.
Speaker 1:We're going to make sure she's cool.
Speaker 2:I'm like all right, I'm kind of like I don't know who those guys were, but shout out to them Good people everywhere.
Speaker 3:She called me. When she got there she was like yeah, I made it.
Speaker 2:Those guys on the plane were so nice. That's fucking awesome that just goes to show, man, there's a difference with alcohol in the airport and I don't know what it is. I've been around alcoholics and an alcoholic my whole life. Something about the airport changes the drinking.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. Something about the airport changes the drinking. I don't get it. Well, I also think since COVID, things have changed a lot. I think people are a lot more paranoid to fly. I think they're taking Xanax, whatever. No, COVID was way worse. What was?
Speaker 3:it Two months into our COVID quarantine in our state. You look and you see, and it says alcohol sales are up 532%. You're like Jesus.
Speaker 1:Christ In times of crisis.
Speaker 3:They already had to be high here. What is there to do? Here you go drink. That's the culture.
Speaker 2:As long as I've been drinking, I feel since after COVID, the chemical composition makeup of alcohol, something has changed. Do they make drinks differently now? I don't know. Something is different. Y'all watched me and Corey sit there and kill candles.
Speaker 1:It's called promethazine. No, promethazine was fun, made my wee wee happy when these people are taking these tranquilizers and whatnot before they ever get to the airport and then, all of a sudden, they're delayed and they're like, well shit, I'm going to have a drink. They forgot delayed and they're like, well shit, I'm gonna have a drink.
Speaker 2:They forgot they took something, they mixed that alcohol with whatever they took. We see that all the time and that was because all the delays, even weather delays, and I tell people multiple times I'm like, look guys, don't take your medication till wheels up. Yeah, like chew it up, snorted if you wanted to work that fast. But you go ahead and think you're boarding in 10 minutes you pop a pill, walk over to the gate. Now it's the late hour and a half.
Speaker 3:The Xanax ain't waiting. And let me get a double jack to wash it down. That's not going to work. But I also think, since COVID, anxiety and all that stuff has gone up, so everybody's on it. So maybe that's part of it, that everybody's taking it and everybody's drinking it.
Speaker 2:It got so bad during COVID that the FAA changed rules and regulations for alcohol brought onto the aircrafts. You can no longer since COVID that's when that started bring alcohol of your own onto an aircraft. They went from 3,200 cases in over 12 years to 38,000 in one month.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like. I watched ladies in their 50s duct, taped to wheelchairs and gagged, being rolled out of airplanes. It was a bunch of people that didn't know how to travel, but now they were getting paid and had some money in the bank and flights were cheap and the kicker was you could take your mask off if you were sitting in a bar drinking. So lots of people that don't usually drink, maybe even you yourself, sir would have sat in a bar and possibly ordered a cocktail.
Speaker 1:Can I get a Corona please From here? Maybe you have it.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to drink it, but I'm going to tip.
Speaker 2:Can you salt the?
Speaker 3:rim. I want to lick the bottle.
Speaker 2:So COVID was a shit show. Like we watched a lady walk into the back of Cantina, drop her panties to knee level, squat and just piss in the middle of the back of the restaurant and then pull them up and walk out like it was a normal Wednesday, dude, yeah.
Speaker 3:Should I tell the story about the leak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Spencer. I'll have to show you video of this later. This was insane. This was probably I don't know maybe four months ago, something like that, not that long ago. Okay, it's a Saturday, I'm working alone, open the bar, no problem, chilling, hanging out. It's like 1245. I've got an hour and 15 minutes. I'm about to go home, just chilling, cruising, all of a sudden straight across from the bar. So our bar doesn't have walls, so you can see into the terminal. So it's the best people watching on the planet. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:Uh, I start to look across it. There's a lounge across from us and there's a starbucks to the left of that and then to the far right there there's an escalator that comes down to the train that takes you to all the terminals, to kind of give you a description. So I'm looking straight ahead to the lounge and I've got a full bar. I start to see something coming out of the ceiling and it's a liquid and I'm like is there water leaking? It's not raining. And then I start to notice the color of the liquid is more of a golden hue and I'm like, hmm, okay, and at first it's just a small leak, but there's a half inch on the floor and then one of the ceiling panels like if you can imagine in an office, like the giant rectangular ceiling panels one of those falls through because it's so soaked and now there's just a waterfall of yellow and yes, sorry not to interrupt the story, guys but we're outside with a nice view of a little foyer behind us kind of area and they're trimming trees.
Speaker 2:So, as Blake's telling the story, there's a guy holding a giant branch, so it just looks like a freaking tree walking, one of those like gorilla suits or something like.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to take you seriously, like I just can't focus right now. I just can't do it. There's a whole tree just bouncing. This tree is dancing behind you. I don't know if you know this all right.
Speaker 2:So ceiling tiles are, and then orange amber, yes, and one has fallen.
Speaker 3:A second one falls, and now it's about 10 gallons of water dropping every three seconds, I don't know, and they're yellow.
Speaker 1:I remember the video.
Speaker 3:Yes, this is now going into the restaurant. It's going into the passenger lounge where two flight attendants are trapped. They have to step up onto that exterior bar and help them Build a ramp. No, I'm just walking through it. I'm in my Skechers. I don't care, I'm walking through it and I have to step and help these two flight attendants out of the lounge because the floor is a half inch to three inches of piss, because you come to find out that these were the bathroom pipes that have now busted.
Speaker 2:So we're ankle deep in urine.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so I get them out of there. I get their luggage out of there right before it goes all the way. Now it's going into the escalators, it's going into the back of the restaurant.
Speaker 1:Now there's a waterfall.
Speaker 3:It's going into the Starbucks, and now there's like the the video on this was great. There's a glass gate I'll have to put a link to it in the fucking description of this video because it's insane. You won't believe it. And then so our exterior is like a small thing, glass wall.
Speaker 3:Now it's coming in through there, it's coming through the exit, and so there's a phone on the wall where it's like that movie, the Blob. That's literally what it is, but it's airport pits, the worst pits, the worst you could ever imagine. There's pieces of paper in it. It's insane. And so you know there's that phone for the airport on the wall if you have an emergency or whatever you can call like you get the white phone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can pick people up in wheelchairs at the restaurant yeah, you know, if you know your extension I picked that up and I'm just pressing zero. I'm like, hey, the pipes are leaking, I just need somebody out here. They they're like what? And I'm like, yeah, there's about 50 gallons of I don't know what. At this point I haven't figured it out. I know it's a weird color, but I'm like of water leaking from the ceiling. Can you please get someone here? They don't believe me. They're like sir, what are you talking about, ma'am? There is piss flying out of the ceiling. Piss flying out of the ceiling. Starbucks is underwater.
Speaker 2:It's like if the Titanic was a toilet.
Speaker 3:Yes, Our restaurant's underwater. Can you please help us? She's like I don't believe you.
Speaker 1:Can you please?
Speaker 3:just send someone to be whatever. Please come out here. It takes them an hour to get out there. They get one of those giant trash bins that they wheel around the airport and they just put that underneath. Within 10 minutes that's filled and overflowing. Don't let go, jack. They have that overflowing into a trash can and then they have to get another one. I'm like who is going to move this? Anyways, the craziest thing I've ever seen. People are just walking around. I'm like you might not want to walk through the piss and shit.
Speaker 2:Because people are coming down the train escalators. At this point there's peanuts just floating around. It's happening so quickly.
Speaker 3:I've just seen people slipping and sliding everywhere.
Speaker 2:I swear to God, people have snorkels out. People have fins.
Speaker 3:They're getting through it, so people are coming down the escalator. It's happened so quickly, within a 10-15 minute period. The airport doesn't believe it.
Speaker 1:There's no one.
Speaker 3:No, there's no one there to even. Is this a morning shift?
Speaker 1:Yes, it's about 1 o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday?
Speaker 3:Yeah, nobody's there, and so the people that need to fix things aren't there or they're not listening.
Speaker 1:And the 2 o'clock hasn't showed up to relieve you.
Speaker 3:Bailey. I'm like Bailey, where are you? You won't believe this shit, literally this shit. Bring your floaties, little guy.
Speaker 2:And they won't.
Speaker 3:There's no one there to tell people when they get to the bottom of the escalator. Hey, you're walking through two inches of piss. I'm like go back up. Well, you still can Go back up. You know how to call Bailey and be like Bailey. You may not. You might need the four-wheel drive. Anyways, god damn, I don't know. The next day I came back and it was fine, but the bathrooms were closed for two months the main water line over IHOP.
Speaker 2:Kristen showed me a video at like 6.30 in the morning. It just busted through the ceiling so there were two pipes just right over there like little. As soon as you walk in, the restaurant host stands on the right side like rectangle l shape. Yeah, you think you're a rainforest cafe right yeah, and then the to-go area is all right there that sells the coffee. It, busted right over it, like one of the pipes, is just draining the bos system.
Speaker 2:Oh my god yeah so they were like, okay, we'll just uh, let's go ahead and tap them beers. Grab some bags of rice, we'll put them in front of the water flow, make it drain into the bar. Yeah, it took them seven hours to get it fixed.
Speaker 3:Didn't send anybody home no, no, oh, they didn't shut the restaurant down.
Speaker 1:They kept trying to set people.
Speaker 2:I'm like they're gonna walk through the cell cell, cell the piss had gone into the kitchen, I'm like, okay, yeah, we'll stay open. What about all the times?
Speaker 2:okay, so y'all remember back in like I would like to see time to time we are first responders 2014 ish, when, uh, uh, tgi fridays and terminal d remember that used to be at like d 34 ish. Yeah, it had that corner spot where Wolfgang Puck is now. So they had one of the cooks that was pissed off and he was dumping the grease in the drains every night. Yeah, I've seen stuff like that. Yeah, well, no, this was a big thing. Yeah, man Cause they it backed up Everybody's, shut down that whole section of D, like they had to find them, and that's what closed them down at that location, because they had to pay fines and they're like you're not renewing your spot now you allow this to happen now, that's insane.
Speaker 3:But so there's this, this bar that serves pizza in the airport. The cook in the back thought he could just put the pizza dough that wasn't good down the drain of the back and just shut that down. He was doing doing that every day. If he made a bad batch he'd just throw it all down the fucking grain and just push it down and just move on. Didn't tell any. Oh my god. I'm like grease okay, Maybe if you don't understand, but I'm like you put fucking pizza dough down the drain.
Speaker 2:You were managing at this point so you would remember that's when they changed the regulations. Then they had the grease things that you had to pour it in and wheel it all the way out to the front, that dude at TGI Fridays is why that happened? Because we used to have barrels that they would pump it into and take it down to the store.
Speaker 2:Well then, that dude did that to Fridays, cost him millions of dollars. And we're up in Riyadh at that point with mcdonald's below us. So mcdonald's grease flowed up into our restaurant like dude. It was raining down because it was, uh, above what do you call that? Metronia sea level.
Speaker 2:No, the restaurant was two-story with overhanging mezzanine mezzanine, yeah, it was mezzanine style which you were talking about. Scenery in the airport, dude, when I first I first started there, I was coming from street side and to the left of my bar in the mornings was just a full glass railing where you overhung and looked down on thousands of people walking by all day In the international terminal and brawls are not for every country Like that was one of the best times, like I went from street side to lookie here.
Speaker 1:Spencer, tell us how you really feel.
Speaker 2:And I made more money. Sorry for partying the morning. Bartending gig is rough though man, Especially if you go out and day drink afterwards.
Speaker 3:Well, that'll get you.
Speaker 1:Some of us bartenders don't even drink.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd sit in the parking lot and get high with you for an hour and a half and then be stuck in traffic for 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go. We got off at 3 if we hung out for an hour.
Speaker 2:Now it's 4.30 and I'm trying to go. Other than being traffic sober, though, touche, but I could have smoked weed and not been in traffic. True, like I'd still stop at the bar, because then I was like, well, there's going to be traffic, I'll just stop at the bar until the traffic dies down. Now it's 7 o'clock and I'm sleeping in the bar parking lot. Chris is on his second Domino's order.
Speaker 1:Spencer. That's about all the time we got for today. I have so much more to tell. We barely scratched the surface, spencer. We will have you back on. Thank you so much for coming on and being a guest this week. Guys, thank you so much. Remember you can support our show at the bottom of the link If you like what you're listening to. Please make sure and like it and follow us. Yes.
Speaker 3:It'll be in the bottom of the show description. Whichever platform you look at, there'll be a little highlighted button that says support the show. If you love us, show us some money, baby.
Speaker 1:We want to eventually get this going on YouTube, so show love and remember.
Speaker 2:guys, you can't get hung over if you stay drunk.
Speaker 3:Sure, all right, y'all Peace.
