CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Elodie never grew up with older brothers. She also doesn’t have any uncles.
That’s why working as a glassie in Betoota’s Flight Path Hotel has been such a formative experience for her. Because at 19 years of age, she now has a group of mates who can play both roles.
Like most hospo workers, Elodie works inconsistent hours that aren’t very cohesive with the standard nightlife that her old school friends get to enjoy.
This means her current social circle is made up of 45-year-old Irish bartenders and Brazilian or Nepali kitchenhands.
Colloquially known as ‘The Pit’ – the Flight Path Hotel is a volatile pub that sprawls from a violent front bar right out the back to an raucuous beer garden. This means that lifelong bonds are formed quickly between staff, as the navigate an environment that have most police officers reaching for their hip.
At 2am every night, they knock off for staff drinks that can last until sunrise. Regaling stories about the shift beforehand, and educating Elodie about this crazy world.
“Right now my best friends are Colm, Eamon, Murphy and Fernanda”
“Fernanda is the closest in age to me. She’s 35 and from Rio De Janeiro. That’s in Brazil”
While her parents encouraged her to get a job at a pub to instil a bit of work ethic and save some money while she lives at home, no one could have imagined that this job would have the promising medicine student rolling Champion Ruby rollies like a champ and drinking up to ten pints of VB five nights a week.
“The Irish guys are so great” she says, before launching into an anecdote that proves that she now views the world through the eyes of a true hospo lifer.
“One night a drunken patron told me I had a nice arse in front of Colm”
“I was like ohhh nooo… Not in front of Colm haha. He’s like my best friend”
“The three boys took this guy out the back behind the cool room”
Elodie smiles and recalls her most recent encounter with the extremely violent vigilantism of Gen-X career bartenders.
“Oh my god you should have seen how badly they fucked him up.”
“Even Aashim the chef came outside and got in on it. He was out cold haha”
