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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992                   TAG: 9201270197
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY                    PAGE: 38   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Joe Tennis
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

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BARTENDER MORE LIKE HOST

Rusty Davidson never has to worry about never having a job.

"If you can wait tables, cook or tend bar, you can never be out of a job," he says.

Davidson, 39, knows. Since age 16, he's worn many hats in the restaurant business - including that of a cook and a manager.

Today, he's a bartender at Pargo's in Christiansburg, near U.S. 460 and Virginia 114 (Peppers Ferry Road).

Often, he's called on to be a counselor to patrons who belly up to Pargo's glossed, black wood bar. But, he says, "I don't think we solve anybody's problems."

Instead, he thinks a bartender's job is to be a host. "You meet a lot of interesting people. You never know who's going to come in."

Bartending is not the same job it was 10 years ago, Davidson observes. "People are drinking less. People aren't out as much. . . . Times have changed. I remember times when people were passing out on the bar."

Such situations have to carefully watched these days, in case of liability lawsuits for drunken driving or other alcohol-related problems, Davidson said.

One of eight bartenders at the restaurant, he makes $4.50 an hour plus tips - which range from $35 on a slow night to $100 when the booze and money is flowing.

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