LAWRENCE, Kan -Closing time on Massachusetts Street is chaotic with countless KU students emptying out of the bars. Many of which have consumed numerous drinks and will continue partying until much later in the night. However, the employees of the bars on Mass. Street do not get to leave as soon as the bars are closed.
Have you ever wondered what the bar scene is like after all of the drunk people are gone? “Basically, we pick up the empty bottles, wipe down the tables, and mop the floors. Depending on the night we get out between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. It’s not the most glamorous part of my job,” says Sandy Ta, a Quinton’s cocktail waitress.
Matt Katz, a bartender at a bar on Mass Street explains, “ We clean up and count money after the last person leaves. Friday however, was not the normal closing routine a guy was found inside after close with a dislocated elbow. We had to call the ambulance he was very intoxicated. But, other than this rare occasion it is the same routine usually getting us out between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. depending on how busy we were that night.”
Working the late night shift might help benefit their pocket, but cleaning up after the bar goers are gone is not as glamorous.