Tuckahoe Inn bartender Billy Muller makes a great drink

We sat down with the longtime Tuckahoe Inn bartender for a bit of a chat and a bit of a freshly made painkiller. See recipe after interview.

Q: How and why did you get into bartending?
A: Believe it or not, I started in the back of the house. My parents had a breakfast/lunch place called “Our Place Too” in Somers Point. I started working there at 15. I got out of high school, went to culinary school, did the grind around here. I worked for a bunch of restaurants, and I was all about it, but I never found the right place. A girl I worked with previously was a bartender at the Tuckahoe in the summertime. She asked if I wanted to barback for a summer. I did it, got a taste for that money, and the rest is history.

Q: What’s the best part of the business?
A: It’s a lot of things combined. Obviously the money’s good. I love the interaction with the people. You never know what you’re getting when they walk in the door – so there’s an allure to that as well. I’ve met some wonderful people over the years. You establish your regulars and they’re the ones who keep you going. Obviously being a tourist-based area, you get a lot of visitors in the summer months, but winter time is still the regulars and locals that get you through.

Q: What about the most challenging?
A: For me, I would say the most difficult part is no matter how bad of a day you’re having, when you walk in the door, you turn it all off and you put your best foot forward. You’re the figurehead of the restaurant. You’re an integral part of what somebody’s experience is at the place. You’re one of the first people customers interact with. I always say we make drinks and we run damage control.

Q: What do you like about working at the Tuckahoe Inn?
A: The family that owns it, The Merrymans. They’re phenomenal people. I’ve gone through a lot of milestones in my life – getting married, when my son was born, losing my parents – a lot of major events that these people helped me through as much as they were my employers. They’re very family friendly and put a lot of emphasis on that. It’s the right fit for me. They’re basically my second family.

Q: What drinks are trendy going into the fall?
A: We do a lot of seasonal drinks. We try to rotate and keep it fresh. We’ll start doing a lot more with bourbons, whiskey. We’ll start selling a ton of pumpkin martinis and stuff like that. But people also drink what they drink regardless of the time of year.
Interview by Kristen Dowd. Photos by Stef Godfrey.

Painkiller Recipe

“This drink actually came from a bar in the British Virgin Islands,” Billy said. “I used to do a Night in Venice party for a couple in Ocean City, and they used to frequent this bar in the Virgin Islands in the offseason. They brought the recipe back and asked me to make it.”

Ingredients:
Dark rum
Pineapple juice
Fresh orange juice
Cream of coconut puree

Directions:
Start with a standard shot of dark rum. Add the pineapple and orange juices in a 3-to-1 ratio and then add about three tablespoons of cream of coconut. Shake it up over ice and serve in a hurricane or pint glass. “We don’t do it here, but you can also top it with fresh shaved nutmeg,” Billy said. “These have a cult following with me at work.”