Counter culture

Reno’s a town brimming with bars and coffee shops, so there’s no shortage of hangouts from which locals can choose. Perhaps you’ve even got a favorite of your own, a place where you know the person behind the bar and that person knows your favorite drink and how you like it served. But how well do you really know your bartenders and baristas?

In the case of photographer Cesar Lopez, the answer to that question is pretty well. Lopez is a man about town—and he pretty much always has his camera in tow. Follow him on Instagram (@delafotoreno), and you’ll see. His account is packed with pics of Reno coffee houses and bars and the folks who frequent them—including the ones slinging drinks. Inspired by Lopez’s photos of these familiar faces, the RN&R set out to get to know a bit more about some of Reno’s baristas and bartenders.

Peter Barnato
The Loving Cup, 188 California Ave.

What have you learned about Reno from your vantage point behind the bar?

I know everything, I feel like. That’s probably the best possible way to get to know this city, especially locals—depending on where you’re bartending. I’ve always kind of stuck with mostly neighborhood bars. You get to know all of the facets of people—the best of people, the worst of people, myself included.

What should Renoites know about you, about your life and passions when you’re not working?

Well, I just love Reno. I had a lot of opportunities to leave, but I wanted to stay in Reno. … I grew up here. My parents were here. And I grew up at the Elks Club. My first job was when I was, like, 9 years old washing dishes. I am [an Elk now], and my grandpa was. We grew up there, working in the kitchen and setting up for events and stuff. I remember my first experience recognizing what a bar was. After we were done with our dishwashing shift, we’d go over to the bar and Tuffy the bartender, who seemed like he was 100 years old at the time, and he’d serve us drinks and let us sit at the bar when he was cleaning it up. Me and my brother and my cousin pretended we were sitting at the bar like the old boys. I don’t even remember what it was, probably Shirley Temples. I just remember loving that whole culture. Even at that young age, it stuck with me.

Joey Parazo
Royce, 115 Ridge St.

What have you learned about Reno from your vantage point behind the bar?

I feel like in the time I’ve been behind the bar it’s also been during this time of great change in Reno—more bars, more restaurants, more everything every which way, it seems. But it seems like a lot of people are doing a lot of the same things. Some are branching out and trying different types of foods and different themed bars and stuff like that, but I feel like, not just in Reno but in other towns I visit, the same thing is happening all over America right now. There’s lots of midtowns popping up all over the place with lots of new restaurants and cocktail bars and yoga studios and stuff like that, which just seems to be the norm. Call it gentrification, call it what you will—but I feel like, yeah, if that’s what people seem to be wanting, then that’s what you do.

What should Renoites know about you, about your life and passions when you’re not working?

My passions have always been the same. I like to get outdoors. I like to travel. I like to just bear witness to things I haven’t done before. … I feel like, back to what we were talking about earlier, there’s this influx of people in town, and I’ve noticed a lot of push and pull with locals that have been here and newcomers. I feel like a lot of locals … can get impatient with people from out of town. … It’s a lot of road rage. That’s one of things I’ve been noticing … and, when I’ve seen it, it’s road rage from Nevadans with Californians. I don’t know if it’s just driving style or what, but there’s this butting of heads, if you will—and I can only take so much of that in a given week before I have to leave and go to the mountains, go to the desert, just try to get away from everybody and find solitude.

Louis Gezelin
Magpie Coffee Roasters, 1715 S. Wells Ave.

What have you learned about Reno from your vantage point behind the bar?

From behind the bar? It’s always been a pretty eclectic city, I think. The variety of people is pretty vast and awesome. The culture is expanding, though, too. … The cultures aren’t as disparate. I don’t know how to explain it. There’s more cohesion, it feels like. The city is really working together to create something new, something fresh. There’s an excitement kind of buzzing about. I hear it in the coffee shops. … There’s so much happening now that wasn’t happening 10 years ago. … But there’s also this other side of the city, that, you know, is like patient dumping and stuff. I was a social worker for Washoe County for a bit. … I’m curious to see what’s happening now in regards to addressing those issues. Because I do hear about that in the coffee shop. … There are all of these nonprofits trying to do something for the homeless population and the mentally ill populations that really have been ignored for a long time. So it’s exciting to see where that’s going to go, too.

What should Renoites know about you, about your life and passions when you’re not working?

That’s interesting. It really is. You know, I mean, I’m a barista. I’m back in town. I moved back into Reno about a year ago, and I started working in the customer service industry—and what I do in my free time is a lot of school work. I’m a PhD candidate, in Santa Barbara, for psychology.

Josh Patten
Reno Public House, 33 St. Lawrence Ave.

What have you learned about Reno from your vantage point behind the bar?

It’s a drinkin’ town. It’s incredible to me. … Everybody here partakes in one way or another. … I was talking to Vince [Fernan] about it the other day. From here, if you had a good arm, you could probably hit at least a dozen bars with a baseball, just from standing here at Magpie.

What should Renoites know about you, about your life and passions when you’re not working?

Well … I am a fairly private person. And it’s not that I’m trying to hide anything at all. I just, like, value my privacy and my anonymity. So … this is out of character for me to agree to this, but I’ve always liked your publication, and I really love Cesar [Lopez]. … I don’t have social media. I don’t, like, project my life to the rest of the world. But I do live a public life, and I am every day behind a bar in the public eye so I realize there’s a weird disconnect there. … The one medium in which I kind of share more of myself in a real just wide open to whomever is through KWNK and my show every week. My show is called Staxofwax, and my DJ alias is DJ Dr. Dankenstien—and I talk about my feelings a lot more on the air, but, again, I don’t post that anywhere.

Vince Fernan
Magpie Coffee Roasters, 1715 S. Wells Ave.

What have you learned about Reno from your vantage point behind the bar?

You really meet a bunch of different people, but I’d say, at least here in Nevada, we’re all very individualistic people who also respect others as individuals. Does that make any sense? It’s like I’ll do me, you do you—and as long as we don’t butt heads about it, we’re cool. Especially here, too, at Magpie, there are different types of people who love to hang out here, and we all get along, dude.

What should Renoites know about you, about your life and passions when you’re not working?

Nothing. Nothing. I don’t know. In my mind, it’s like, at work, when I’m here, I’m providing a service—and you are getting to know a part of me, but it’s also like I don’t need to be known around town at all. If we get to know each other, that’s tight. … When I’m not behind the bar—I don’t know. I’m just another Renoite, dude. I don’t know why my mind goes right here, but, immediately, it’s just, like, “Dude, I’m just another customer or another patron in any other establishment.”