Get it together, or leave it alone

I went with some friends to a cool bar downtown--a bar I had actually been to once before, but at 6PM when it was empty and we had full rein of the jukebox and a big booth. But Friday night was basically the opposite: huge line with bitches and hoes cutting us like junkies gone cold turkey, the establishment busting at the seams with young drinkers, fedoras aplenty.

So we manage to get some coveted seats at the bar. I sit there watching the bartender for a while, and see something strange. He is making a drink right in front of me--picks a stout glass, fills it with ice and then a blue liqueur. I think absinthe or Hypnotic (barf). So that sits there while he makes this crazy elaborate drink which involves lighting an orange rind on fire. Then, he takes the blue drink and dumps it out. I think, "Oh, he made a mistake. Bartenders don't give a shit about the value of alcohol anyway. He just nixed his mistake." And he uses the glass for that other drink and serves it up. Fin. So I'm talking to my buddy, when I see the same set up--blue liqueur sitting in a glass in front it me, taller drink getting stuff poured in it, and I tell my friend to stop talking and watch. We both witness in awe as this guy creates the complicated drink again, and just chucks the blue alcohol away and serves the other drink in the glass. We find out later (from a more informed member of our party) that it's an absinthe coated drink. What kind of world is this that something like that exists, and over one person in the bar ordered it within a 30 minute time period, and--I dare say--there was nay a person over 35 in the bar. I witnessed 4 single shots of whiskey get purchased for $28. $28! That's enough to buy a goddamn bottle!

That said, who knows how much this other crazy absinthe lined drink was. And the truth is, I probably never will because it's more likely I will be living in a cardboard box under the bridge than order a drink like that without reservations.