Last Call for World's Longest Serving Bartender

Last Call for World's Longest Serving Bartender
Career SpotlightsInspiration
by Alex Rudloff on Aug 22nd, 2009
Say what you want about bartending, but it sure does seem to offer job security!After 77 years of pouring drinks, the Gusiness Book of World Records' longest serving bartender is finally hanging it up. Cammarata's Cafe, the establishment built by Angelo Cammarata and now owned by his sons, has been sold. Angelo is 95 years old.While others may be able to claim tending bar for long periods of time, what gives Angelo the edge is his start date – the stroke of midnight, April 7, 1933. The very second prohibition ended in the United States.For 13 years "The Noble Experiment" prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages. Angelo's father, Catino Cammarata, had the foresight to anticipate prohibition's end. He ran a grocery store at the time and was able to purchase an alcohol license in advance. Other businesses planned on serving drinks later in the day, but Catino and his family decided to make more of an event out of it. The moment the neighborhood clock tower rang, the Cammaratas begin carting beer off the trucks and selling to customers. With exception of serving in World War II, Angelo has been bartending ever since. While owning the bar is bound to improve what Forbe's magazine recently named as one of the worst paying jobs in the country, his real secret to job longevity may be found in how he views his customers. Angelo takes pride not only in his work, but in the relationship he has built with his them. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette back in 1999,
"A neighborhood bar is more personal between owner and customer. It gets to the point where they're not actually a customer. They're a friend."In 2003, he spoke with the Tribune-Review and likened his job to that of a psychiatrist or a priest, adding,
"I've talked to my priest. I told him, 'Your line is sort of similar to mine. You have to gain the confidence of your parishioners. If someone doesn't like your way, they can go to another church.""My bar, I have to be always cautious of my customers and be sociable with them. The next bar is only as far as your car will take you. I have to sell myself to my customers."As far as his place in the record books? Angelo feels pretty confident. In a recent interview with KDKA, he said
"Anyone who wants to break my record, I'm in my 77th year and I don't think there's another crazy person in this world that would try that."