Part 1: Whiskey Girl 1991- 1993 

I'm 23 living in NYC, running with a fast crowd, bartending at the hottest bar, The Whiskey, at the Paramount Hotel. I started working here a few months after they opened. The opening of any new restaurant or bar in NYC is always a disaster especially when the wait staff is hired based on being a model and not really trained to serve customers at a high volume, though they look great in the uniform; grey Capezio cat suits. Smart businessmen the owners are starting off with models, then three months after opening, quickly replacing the bartending and waitressing positions with actors. Now we're having a good time. One of my bosses, Paul Montana is close to my age and married to Sports Illustrated cover model Ashley Richardson while my other boss, Rande Gerber, in his late 20s, is dating "Kate". We all know Kate is code for Cindy Crawford, but have to pretend otherwise to keep things private. The Whiskey isn't a nightclub. It is a very small upscale bar, in a boutique hotel, Paramount Hotel, owned by Ian Schrager which opened about a year before The Whiskey set up shop into the southwestern nook of the hotel as an entity all to her own. To my knowledge, Schrager was forbidden a liquor license and that's how The Whiskey got in.

Some nights get really wild. When Paul is in he likes to party and party with the staff. Someone always ends up dancing on the bar on one of those nights. The low ceilings make it extra tricky to really express your self, but somehow the girls manage. I believe it's called liquid courage. Rande wears the pants in the business keeping all us chickens in line. He does a really good job as far as having a vision, mood, and creating ambience. The music has to be just so, Clapton, Led Zep, The Stones, classic rock and currently we can't play enough of Nirvana or Pearl Jam's CD "Ten". We even had the band members of Pearl Jam come into our tiny little bar during their "Ten" tour. Rande has fantastic taste in music. The music is a saving grace for me, a  self proclaimed rocker chick. I would shoot myself if I had to listen to techno all night. Working 12 to 14 hour shifts you'd better like the music. It's a long night if you're standing there being a bitch.