Longtime Lower Burrell bartender mixes up a variety of drinks, flavors

Editor’s note: Building the Valley tells stories of businesses big and small and the employees who make them special. If you know of any standout employees, bosses or companies with a great story to tell, contact Senior News Editor Tom Fontaine at tfontaine@tribweb.com.

Amber Adda can’t remember how she landed a job at Magill’s Grill & Mogie’s Irish Pub in Lower Burrell roughly 20 years ago.

But she likes working there so much, she’s never left.

“I became friends with everyone. It’s like my second family,” Adda said.

Adda, 38, of Lower Burrell works part-time as a bartender at the Leechburg Road bar and restaurant.

She can make you a mixed drink to beat the band or lend a sympathetic ear if you’re having a bad day.

“I make really, really good drinks and martinis even though I actually don’t drink that much at all,” Adda said. “But I can make killer drinks just by following the recipe.”

Her best is the Long Island Iced Tea. She never gets them sent back, she said.

“I think it’s ’cause I don’t put too much sours in them,” she said.

Adda has been working at the bar since she was 17. In the two decades she’s been there, she’s worked as a hostess, bartender, waitress and manager.

She never thought she’d be working there this long.

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to do it past 30,’ ’cause bartending is a little harder on your body,” Adda said. “Not going to do it past 30, and then done it past 30. And then I said 35. And now I said 40. We will see if I stop at 40.”

Mogie’s owner David “Mogie” Magill said Adda is a valuable employee who has played a big role in the success of the business.

“She’s my No. 1. She watches out for my business. She keeps an eye on my business. She keeps an eye on everything,” Magill said. “She is somebody that every successful business should have.”

Adda credits her cocktail-making skills to the fact she was eager to memorize drink recipes and measurements when she was first learning the trade.

As a young bartender, customers would let her experiment with drinks. She would make just about anything for them.

She used to do a flaming Dr Pepper, a cocktail that tastes similar to Dr Pepper after the alcohol is set on fire, and a grasshopper, a sweet, mint-flavored drink.

“We would pick weird ones out of the book and make them,” she said.

Adda makes hundreds of drinks during her Thursday and Friday night shifts.

She makes specialty drinks during the holidays and off-menu drinks at a customer’s request (if the bar has the ingredients).

On Halloween, Adda makes drinks that contain dry ice, which are nice and smoky, but safe.

At Christmas, the bar makes “The Grinch,” a cocktail that contains creme de menthe, creme de cacao, half-and-half milk, whipped cream and candy cane bits. For New Year’s, it serves a variety of champagne drinks.

Adda usually works behind the bar by herself. That can be stressful because customers can be impatient and the bar is loud.

To get through, she deals with one person at a time.

“There’s not much you can do,” she said.

Adda also works as an apparel project manager for Polyconcept North America. She does that job from home.

She enjoys working at the bar because it gives her an excuse to get out of the house. She likes socializing with customers.

“I think I would go crazy if I didn’t do it,” she said.