Sun Interview shines on Karla Voth

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This article was published 07/11/2014 (4196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Q: What originally was your career path? You said to me before we got into this, “I thought I was going to be a therapist — now I kind of am one.”

(laughs) Well, when I was little, I’d hear, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And I was like, “I want to be a psychologist.” So apparently I want to fix people’s problems. And then that changed and about Grade 11. I looked into the fun of bartending. I was almost 18 and I thought, this looks cool — I’ve seen it on TV and I hear about it. And the guidance counsellor — I asked her if there was anything I could do other than business to go into it, and she said, “That’s not a good career. How can you have a family if you’re working nights?” And I said, “I’m almost 18. I’m not looking to have a family right away. So if I own my own bar, I can build up enough money that when I have a family, it’ll run itself.”

Q: And there are all kinds of people — nurses, firefighters, police officers — they all work nights.

Exactly. There are tons of jobs that aren’t exactly super family-friendly but people need to do them. So that was my determination — I’m going to do this and I’m going to prove her wrong.

Q: Wow!

Yeah. So I took hotel and restaurant management at ACC. It was a super program, great folks, lots of fun. So I graduated from that in 2010, took a little job at a local café/motel in Carberry — The Robin’s Nest — it used to be the Four-Way. I worked for them for about a year and a half, and I was the unofficial supervisor, front-desk clerk, main server or waitress — whatever you want to call me. So I got some experience doing that.

Then my dad saw an advertisement for SUDS — they were looking for a bar supervisor. And I thought, “Why not?” So I applied, got the job, and I’ve been there since — this is my fourth year on the job. I was bar supervisor my first year, and that was the year of the strike, 2011. But we managed — we didn’t lose too much, being basically closed for 45 days.

And then the second year, I came back and they turned me into the front-of-house supervisor. So I took over a little more. And then it was me and a gentleman who did the kitchen. We ran that and ended up with a huge profit — we ended up with $20,000 at the end of it.

So that ended up in the Brandon Sun, it was on the radio. I ended up getting an interview for Maclean’s magazine because, unfortunately, SUDS’ reputation had not been the most promising financially. We’d had a few bad years and then all of a sudden, we go from a strike here and not making a lot of money to — snap your fingers! boom! — we’ve got 20 grand in the bank! So that was really exciting.

And that’s where the dream of doing upgrades and renovations came from. So then I requested coming back another year and they said, “Of course we want you back!” They asked me if I wanted to be the general manager, to do the whole thing, and I said, “Of course — that’s what I went to school for.” Boom! I was general manager.

Q: So even though you enjoy this, the dream is to have your own bar?

Yes. My goal is to have my own bar or pub or restaurant. I started out wanting it to be a local restaurant — a little diner. But after working here all this time, I think a pub would be excellent. Because you still get the food, and you get the drinking aspect, and you can still have entertainment.

Q: SUDS is run by a board, though, and while a person who works anywhere has supervision, I would think this would be a bit onerous. You’d like to be your own boss, I’m presuming? And this is a stepping stone to fulfilling your dream?

Yeah, it’s a huge step. Because now, with this general management stuff under my belt, it shows that I can run a business. And luckily with the year that we made a ridiculous amount of profit and all the hype I got from it, that also shows that I can succeed in turning businesses around. So when I want to go to a bank or an investment company and say, “I need $200,000 to open ‘Karla’s Bar’,” and they go, “Well, what makes you think you can make money at this — how am I going to get my money back?” I can show them I turned this place around. I worked at this hotel. I’ve done stuff that proves I can run a business effectively. So eventually, at some point, I’ll have to spread my wings and move on.

Q: But you’ve no intention of doing that really soon.

No. It all depends. My contract is year to year. So every April, we talk about whether or not I’m coming back. The SUDS board has yet to say no and I’ve yet to say no, but it’s hard to say. Every year you look at how much growth needs to be done. I would like to leave SUDS knowing it could almost run itself — that a new manager could come in, I could just hand him a binder and say, “This is what’s worked for me. Best of luck. Here’s my number if you have any questions in the first couple of months.” And to know that it can just do its own thing — that BUSU can sit back and know that SUDS will survive.

Q: You’re really passionate about this! Why?

I don’t know. I’ve always been a people person. I’m a chatterbox and I get into something and if I like it, I’m 110 per cent behind it. And I love the atmosphere of the hospitality industry — the people and the visiting and making people happy and getting to know about stuff. I always joke about “Bartender Cable.” You see the action and you see the drama and you see the comedy and you get live music all the time. And people talk about sports, so if you miss the hockey game, you’ll never have to wait to see who won. And you’re involved — you’re involved with everyone. Especially here, because it’s such a small university and this is the campus bar. Students feel it’s like a piece of themselves. I know lots of students, regulars, who come in all the time, whether it’s just to eat or hang out. A lot of them have said they feel more comfortable coming here instead of another establishment because they know they’ll be taken care of.

Q: You said that years ago you wanted to be a psychiatrist. Is what they say about bartenders being an ear for their customers really true?

The joke that a bartender really is just a cheap psychiatrist is true in every essence of the joke. I have students who’ll come in and say, “Can I get a double rye and Coke?” And you go, “You don’t normally have a double rye and Coke.” And they say, “It’s been a rough day.” And you say, “What kind of day?” And the next thing you know, you find out they passed their exam or they failed their exam, they got into a fight with their girlfriend or boyfriend. They’ll pour their heart out to me. And I don’t tell anybody about it. And they’ve learnt that, as a bartender, it’s almost like that attorney/client privilege or doctor/client privilege. A bartender’s not going to go off and spread your information around.

I don’t even know if they realize they’re doing it, but they’re sharing their lives and their secrets with bartenders. And I talk to other bartenders at other establishments, and it’s the same. If you ask that right question, you can get the customer to tell you their entire life story.

Q: And as a people person, you thrive on that?

Extremely. I don’t have to go on Facebook to find out what everybody’s up to these days. I just find out from here.