Cocktail Party Myth #3: Refrain from criticizing the bartender.
First off, the gentleman mixing the drinks is most likely not a bartender at all, but rather a befuddled oaf who thinks a muddler is someone given to interfering in the affairs of others. Which is exactly what you should do. Don’t be afraid of brazenly moving behind the bar and seizing control of the apparatus. If an incompetent sea captain is about to steer the bloody ship into an iceberg (or drown a martini in sweet vermouth, as the case may be), it is a gentleman’s right, no, duty to shove him aside and seize the wheel/cocktail shaker. Poorly executed cocktails, after all, have wrecked many more evenings than rogue slabs of ice.
