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DAN ROOK
28, Lincoln Square

Behind the bar: Tuesdays through Saturdays at South Water Kitchen in the Loop

Bartending bio: At Dan’s first job bussing tables at south suburban sports bar The Goal Post in eighth grade, “they’d have a live feed from Ireland for the Irish football games,” he said. “These guys would be packed in shoulder to shoulder, and we’d squeeze in and help clean up [as they were] chain smoking and eating Irish breakfasts. I loved that job.” After graduating with an English literature degree, Rook took a desk job in marketing and found himself loathing it. “I enjoy having a lot of balls in the air at the same time. I sort of thrive on that, moving around, working on my feet. I can’t stand sitting in an office,” he said. “I thought about law school or getting my master’s. [Instead] I just started making drinks.” He started bartending during brunch service at South Water Kitchen in 2011 and eventually quit his day job to go full-time.

Signature drink: The Starting Gun, a gin-based cocktail with thyme and citrus flavors ($12 at South Water Kitchen)

Why he loves bartending: After revamping the beer program to feature all Illinois brews on draft, he trained with Mike Ryan at Sable Kitchen & Bar, owned by the same hotel group. “It became more than just shots and beers; I could see that I could do this professionally,” he said. “How to make a proper cocktail, the importance of quality ingredients, all that stuff.” He’s since stepped up the cocktail menu by experimenting with made-from-scratch shrubs, bitters and syrups. “If we can do it ourselves, we’re going to do it ourselves.”

Beer school: Dan is a certified cicerone, and, at the encouragement of his bosses at South Water, plans to try for master cicerone status next. “There’s only nine or so of those in the world. I’m terrified. It’s going to be quite the undertaking,” he said. “That being said, I don’t want to ever stop focusing on cocktails. The thing about beer is someone else makes it. … Even brewing beer at home, you gotta wait, and then you taste it and if it sucks, you have to go through the process again. You make a cocktail [that’s not quite right], you throw some bitters in there or something and you’re ready to rock.”

On the fine line between education and pretention: “We don’t ever want to be too snooty with geeking out on cocktails. Some people they drink what they drink and that’s fine, that’s what I’ll make,” he said. “But a lot of times people say, ‘I don’t know what I want,” or, “God, I don’t like gin.’ Well, why don’t you like gin? Because you stole some warm Beefeater out of your parents’ cabinet and got hammered on it? I always ask them what they normally like and try to extrapolate from there.”

Why locals shouldn’t rule out hanging out in a hotel bar: “If you have a pre-existing stigma of, OK, it’s a hotel bar, it’s not going to be good, you should get over that because you don’t really know what you’re missing,” Dan said. “I think hotels have woken up to that, too. People traveling want quality … and not just convenience.”

When he’s not bartending: You might find him listening to music, going to the gym or reading. “If I’m not geeking out on a cocktail or a beer book, I try to find something else good to read.”