Bartenders do not solely exist to crack open your cans of Lone Star and stir up your Moscow mules. They are also our "psychiatrists, comforters, wingmen, shoulders to cry on and always-waiting high five," Máté Hartai, beverage director of HG Sply and Remedy, reminded us in a Facebook post that went viral in July. Dallas had just been shaken by the killing of five police officers, but he found the words to explain what made bartenders and bars such an integral part of our lives and the healing process. "We have a city in shock, hurt, scared, angry, bleeding," he wrote. "Our greatest gift is that regardless of what happens, people come to us. In times of joy, sadness, celebration, mourning and all the shades of human emotion. They come to us." To Hartai, being a bartender is more than a job. It is a higher calling.
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