When the Clock Strikes 12 at Lucky Strike

It's 12 a.m. and Work is About to Get Busy at Fenway's Most Popular Bar

By Veer Mudambi

Midnight: a fairytale curfew when coaches turn into pumpkins or witches roam the night. When the clock strikes 12, we're programmed to feel that we're officially burning the proverbial midnight oil and putting in the overtime. It's a time for ending work, or at least the homestretch.

For Peter McLeod-Warrick, this is when his work is just getting started. As a bouncer at Lucky Strike bar near Fenway, he works Friday and Saturday nights from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Warrick and his co-workers have to be extra vigilant when midnight rolls around.

By this point in the evening, patrons have been drinking solidly for a few hours and anyone who rolls in off the street has been doing so elsewhere as well. It's the time to be on the lookout for someone getting a little too up in someone else's face or the sudden drop in tone when a drunken argument starts getting personal. Security staff drift through the bar, watching and listening for these subtle changes in patron conversation that could precede an incident.

"If anything," Mcleod-Warrick pauses meaningfully, "interesting... is going to happen that night, it'll start between 12 and 1," said Mcleod-Warrick. "That's when people start to get on each other's nerves." That's when a bouncer steps in, not necessarily to break up a fight, but defuse one before it starts and no, they don't bang people's heads together. How they go about that is something that McLeod-Warrick never fails to find, in his own words, fascinating and it's not the way you might expect.

Most movies and television shows portray bouncers as looming muscle posted outside a bar or club, animating only briefly to throw out trouble makers. It is true that they have to stand outside, in all weather, McLeod-Warrick confirmed sourly, (and without gloves, since fake IDs can be identified by feel).

It takes a lot more than just being a gatekeeper to be a good bouncer. Keeping customers in line while also keeping them happy (so they want to come back) is a balancing act that requires a mix of keen observation, diplomacy and conflict resolution. A degree in psychology is considered a plus along with a towering stature.

The first priority with any problem is to contain it, making sure it doesn't affect other patrons so staff have to be proactive. "It's usually an argument between customers or someone angry about getting kicked out," Mcleod-Warrick summed up.

The first kind is usually easier to deal with if caught early. In a heated argument, people get "a kind of tunnel vision," focusing on the object of their ire. A friendly intrusion at just the right moment, asking if everyone's alright and still having a good time, can act as "a wake-up call to dispel that angry tension and pull them back to reality."

Still, staff can't be everywhere and sometimes find themselves having to de-escalate a situation on the brink of violence. "When someone is already [angry] and thinking very irrationally," any number of things could set them off, said Warrick. "You have to be really careful how you come across" to avoid being perceived as aggressive or condescending.

A rowdy patron is still a customer and ensuring a single bad decision doesn't mean their evening ends in a jail cell can only help the business. "What's good for the business is good for us," explained Warrick. "If someone gets a little too drunk, it doesn't have to end with their getting arrested."

This can get difficult, especially on crowded nights where arguments can spread like wildfire. Lucky Strike is ideally placed to catch the people filing out of Fenway looking for a beer. When the Boston Red Sox are doing well, it's something of a mixed blessing for anyone who works bar security. "You have a very large crowd of very easily excited people," said Warrick, "especially when we're winning," he added ruefully.

This brings up the biggest stereotype about bouncers. Is being big really a job requirement? Mcleod-Warrick shifts uncomfortably. "I want to say it's not important but it kind of is," he admits.

This doesn't change the fact that a bouncer's most important muscle is his or her brain. That, as well as confidence, are the tools most likely to contain an incident. "You have to be willing to invade uncomfortable situations," overcoming most people's natural impulse to stay away from trouble. But for McLeod-Warrick, this can lead to the most satisfying points, "bringing a heated moment under control - that's probably my favorite part of the job," without ejecting them.