Today we want to tell you about guardian angels at the mobile cocktail bar—and the kinds of mishaps you can’t handle without them. On behalf of a catering agency, we were responsible for organizing the bar at an event in Hamburg’s old stock exchange. A wonderful venue: large rooms with a gallery, everything very elegant and lavishly decorated for the occasion.
There were three of us on site, busy bringing in the goods. With the drive still in our bones and a bit of time pressure, we were sorting crates of drinks into the round bar that had been provided for us. And then it happened: a bottle of red syrup slipped out of a carton in a colleague’s hands and shattered about a meter in front of the bar. Glass and syrup were spread all over the red carpet.
No one said a word. It felt like a hopeless situation. The guests would enter the hall in about half an hour. At that very moment, the head of the catering agency and his assistant were walking through the rooms for a final inspection. Removing syrup and broken glass in time seemed absolutely impossible.
Then an inconspicuous man, leaning against the counter, spoke up in the finest Hamburg dialect: “Oh—guess I’d better go get my machine.” It was the building technician. A moment later he returned with a large Kärcher (yes, we’ll allow the brand name here), drove over the stain and the shards two or three times—and EVERYTHING was gone. If the soundcheck hadn’t already been running, you would have heard the stones that fell from our hearts echo through the entire hall.
The rest of the evening passed without incident. But our colleague had been warned: from then on, he’d better look after himself—because his guardian angels were probably so exhausted from that masterpiece of a rescue that they might not be watching over him for a while.
In our minds, we raise a glass to the guardian angels who have protected us over all these years whenever things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Your moving bars Team