A strange moment at a cocktail bar

In a land before Covid I’m leaving work tired and miserable and just walk into the nearest pub to binge drink my sorrows away. After a few pints I get bored because it’s loud and lonely and I feel really out of place drinking alone but I have no desire to go home or really do anything so I wander a bit.

I happen across some little cocktail bar and think fuck it let’s see what’s going on here. It’s not busy at all and relatively quiet so I take a seat at the bar. The bartender smiles warmly at me and asks what I’d like, I go for an old fashioned and watch as he puts it together. I’m used to pub cocktails where they’re not really made with any flare just thrown together to serve as many people as possible but this one was different. I see him meticulously craft an old fashioned with an interesting and rather long ritual that was almost hypnotic. He does this in silence we do not speak I just watch.

The drink is then served and I sip, he waits expectantly for my review and it’s the best old fashioned I have ever tasted. I savour the drink and just as I’m finished he asks if I would like another. I say yes and so begins the creation of another with the exact same ritual done exactly the same way not shortened by even a second.

This keeps going for a while and I feel the world almost melt away like he’s serving just me and nobody else is there. His smile remains just as warm and kind as when I first sat down with the only words uttered being “another?” until eventually I exit the trance and realise my awful mood has suddenly resolved itself. I pay the bill and leave feeling almost renewed.

I have no idea where this cocktail bar is and have never been able to find it again and the experience exists in my mind as almost a dream.