Meet Darius
Darius has been with Fairhope Brewing for over 11 years now. We first met Darius when he used to come enjoy beers at the taproom as a patron. And a quick recollection is that he loves coming on “pint night” and heading home with 3 or 4 new glasses. But his personality let us know we needed to get him away from working behind the scenes at Mobile Infirmary and out in front of the people where he could do his work!
We brought Darius on as a Friday bartender in 2014, and he was still working normal hours at the hospital. But once we needed extra help on our bottling line, we knew he was the right man for the job. Some quick negotiations, and Darius joined our team full time. From working on the bottling line to the canning line to repping at events to keeping with inventory, Darius has had his hands in many activities at the brewery for the last decade.
There have been about 575 Fridays since Darius joined the FBC team, and we would ball park he has been behind the bar for about 525 of those. And he’s developed a lot of loyal customers and made some great friends over all those years. From a big smile to always a handshake, you know you will be taken care of when Darius is manning those taps.
A few interesting notes you might not know in regard to Darius being connected to beer names we’ve had over the year:
Long Handshake (porter): One Friday this older man enjoyed his chat with Darius so much that he started shaking his hand after closing out his tab. The handshake went on for so long without the older man letting up that they were basically just holding hands while the man continued talking. A few of us at the end of the bar were absolutely cracking up watching this scene unfold. When the man left, one of us commented, “Dude, that was a long handshake.” And a beer name was born!
Harmonica Man (stout): The day Darius was posing for a photo in front of our mural for a Mardi Gras in July promo, a man walked by us playing his harmonica. The taproom was not close to being open yet, and the man did not say a word as he walked by. The man then walks into the taproom, and we follow. He proceeds to play his harmonica in all different corners of the room, still not really saying anything to us. Not sure how to react, we just let him go with it. Once he was done, he said to us, “Just checking out the acoustics in the room. Thanks fellas.” And with that, Harmonica Man walked out of the taproom never to be seen again.
This Gentleman (imperial stout now on tap): I was in my office one Friday when someone came in unannounced to sell a product and wanted to speak with me. Darius texted for me to come over to the taproom for a minute to see what the guy wanted. As I walked in Darius laid out his hand and simply said, “The gentleman.” I was thinking, ok, great introduction bud. Do I remember what the guy wanted? Not a chance. But this quick phrase made its way onto a keg collar!