Take 5 with Christine Gilb

Title: Bar manager, Myth
Home town: Anaheim, CA

1. What makes someone good at working the bar?
You have to be a people person. You have to be able to listen. You have to be something of a chameleon and an actor. You never know what's going to come up or what people will want to talk about. I came to San Francisco on a theater scholarship at San Francisco State. But I've always bar-tended nights. Everyday is a character study.

People who come to the bar are looking for interaction and I really like that part of it. I pretty much always want to keep one night a week working the bar for as long as I can possibly stand up. It's good stories, good interaction you just get to meet so many people.

Experimenting is important. To be able to recreate a memory, something sensory.

2. How did you learn to work the bar?
I used to be a cocktail server. An old school bar man took me under his wing and taught me all the classics. When I turned 21 I could get behind the bar legally and I fell into it naturally.

3. What's your favorite fresh ingredient available right now?
I'm really liking peaches. I muddle them up and make an Old Fashioned with them instead of cherries. You get all the sweetness but it's different.

Over the Summer I also used cilantro. I especially like savory flavors, like tomatoes.

4. What's your favorite drink on the menu right now?
Well it's not on the menu but it will be soon. Green Tea Ice Cream--we used the Charbay green tea infused vodka, with a little bit of Vermeer, vanilla, rum and it tastes just like green tea ice cream.

5. If you could take one drink off every bar menu, what would it be?
The Mojito, by far! It's so labor intensive and they are never right, everyone wants theirs slightly different.