About Jim's Saloon

In 1952, Jim first learned a little about tending bar while working summers during his college years on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. After graduating from San Diego State University, he decided to visit some Catalina friends who were working during the winter season in Palm Springs, California. One of those friends offered him a job as a bar boy at an exclusive resort hotel, the El Mirador. As a bartenders assistant he was not allowed to speak to customers nor pour a drink. He learned to make simple syrup, squeeze lots & lots of lemons and oranges and, since the particular room where he worked had a Polynesian theme, he learned to crack coconuts, peel bananas and get frost-bite making ice molds for Navy Grogs and Gold Cups; both exotic rum drinks. He also learned that you could make a heck of a lot of money in gratuities!

As he made more friends, Jim was introduced to the inner circle of the bartenders fraternity and was able to get hired at the first big country club in the desert, Thunderbird Ranch & C.C. where many famous folks from Hollywood were members or guests of members. He spent several years working the winter season in Palm Springs and spending summers in the beautiful Sierra mountain resort of Lake Tahoe, which sits in both California and Nevada, or Aspen, Colorado. The Nevada side of Lake Tahoe has splashy gambling Casinos and is wide open 24 hours a day. Back for winters in the Palm Springs area over the next several years, he twirled his barspoon and twisted lemon peels at several country clubs, restaurants and resort hotels as bartender and bar manager as well as restaurant manager.

Looking for a more structured life (read into that whatever sounds good), he next applied and was hired as a sales representative for Paul Masson Vineyards, a large producer and bottler of California varietal wines. With a territory that encompassed part of Southern California and all of Arizona, Jim was still in saloons but now on the other side of the "plank". The winery sales experience, in time, led to a life-long career with Brown-Forman Corporation, selling their famous spirits lines of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey, Southern Comfort specialty liqueur, Early Times Kentucky whisky and Canadian Mist blended whisky as well as, at various times, other lines of fine wines and imported spirits that the company marketed. (Those of you with sharp eyes may notice some spelling differences in the previous sentence, yet they are all correct. Anyone know why?) Besides selling and marketing all these fine products to licensed wholesalers and retailers in and around southern California and Arizona, he also spent many years as an Advisor to the United States Bartender's Guild, the U.S. affiliate of the International Barmen's Association. He retired in 1993 as an Account Executive and now works as a consultant to the liquor industry.

The old saloonkeeper has seen lots of changes in the bar and cocktail business over the past 43 years, but he is still sure of one thing. People still love to meet in the clean and pleasant surroundings of a well-appointed cocktail lounge where they can be served by a knowledgeable and friendly bartender who will mix their favorite drink, made with the finest ingredients, with accuracy and speed whilst they while away an hour or two and forget the troubles of the day.

Editors (Acats) note: The proprietor of Jim's Saloon is, in reality, Jim Chilton of Woodland Hills, CA, USA who welcomes your questions or comments via Email to chilton@earthlink.net]

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