Behind the Bar with the Best in the Biz
Editor's Note: This article was written before the COVID-19 crisis for what would have been our print Women's Issue.
You might expect career bartenders in Queens to be grizzled and salty, none too concerned with whether you live or die, but while some of the women below might sometimes call themselves rude and say they hassle their customers, in actuality they’re all extremely kind, attentive and exude a cool older-sister vibe that makes you feel instantly comfortable on one of their barstools, no matter who you are. They take pride in what they do and they love their customers.
For this Women’s issue, we sidled up to the bar to talk with three women who happen to be some of the borough’s most beloved longtime bartenders. There are over 119 years of experience between them! That’s an unfathomable number of beer barrels tapped, vodka sodas poured and woebegone customers counseled.
Johanna Cassidy—Austin’s Ale House, Kew Gardens
Age: 47
Years behind the bar: ~26—six years in Ireland, and around 20 in Queens
Technically, Johanna Cassidy was never officially hired at Austin’s Ale House. When she first asked after a job 20 years ago, the owner said they’d keep her on for a few days and then see how she was doing. Well, no one ever checked in with her after those few days to say whether she’d nailed the landing, so does she actually work there?—Cassidy likes to joke.
Called “The Assassin” because she never lets a customer’s drink sit empty, or even half-full, the job comes naturally to Cassidy, especially the socializing bit. She worked at a shopping mall when she was growing up in Ireland, and her mother dreaded accompanying her there because Cassidy knew everyone who worked in the whole center, and she’d stop to chat with them all.
“It’s like being a babysitter,” Cassidy smirks as she flies around behind the bar refilling glasses, closing out tabs, making stops for bites of the blackened salmon salad and sips of the water bottle full of Crystal Light that sustain her through each shift.
On her days off, you can find Cassidy perusing clothing racks; she lives next to a Century 21, and in another life, she may have been a personal shopper.
Trina Fieldstadt—Gottscheer Hall, Ridgewood
Age: 66
Years behind the bar: 33—for private events at a temple for 15 years, and around 18 years in Queens
If it’s a slow day at Gottscheer Hall, Trina Fieldstadt will sit with customers one-to-one, and catch up as though she’s entertaining in her own home. The old-timers come in with walkers and canes to hold court and play cards—speaking Gottscheerisch, an Upper German dialect. “I learned so much about the neighborhood from them; from their perspective,” she said. When her customers die, she attends their wakes and mourns them.
Fieldstadt loves her newer, younger customers as well, and even started stocking White Claw for them last summer. She’s especially protective of the young women in her bar when a lascivious drunkard starts prowling around making eyes at them.
Bartending has been her part-time job on the weekends ever since she started putting aside vacation money in 1986. During the week, she works in imports and exports for a German company (and don’t let the surname fool you; it’s her ex-husband’s. Fieldstadt comes from an Italian family in Williamsburg).
Working behind the bar for so long, Fieldstadt has developed a taste for the good stuff; her home bar is well stocked with not-quite-top-shelf, but nice, liquors—Absolut, Stoli and the like. If she orders a vodka soda for herself, she knows not to settle for the well pour.
Raquel Diaz—Dirty Pierre’s, Forest Hills
Age: 53
Years behind the bar: Around 35, on and off between school and office jobs—17 years at Dirty Pierre’s
Raquel Diaz got her start in the industry before she was even out of high school; a friend got her a waitressing gig, which led to tending bar, and she’s pretty much been serving up cold ones ever since. She gave corporate America several chances, but between the job insecurity introduced by the 2008 recession and not having enough time to go back to school, Diaz has always found bartending to be a fail-safe.
“It’s like being a psychiatrist,” she says of the profession and all the personality managing she does. But she wouldn’t have it any other way. “The bonds you make in this business, you make for life.” Diaz loves her regulars. They go to concerts, meet at the beach; many have become best friends. She’s even organized trips, busing groups of 30–40 folks from the bar to minor league ball games.
Diaz is a wine drinker herself, and she’s known for her sangria made with fresh fruit—she does a red with apples and oranges and a white with peaches, strawberries and mango.
Austin’s Ale House | @austinsalehousekg
Gottscheer Hall | @gottscheerhall
Dirty Pierre’s | @dirty_pierres
