Grand Haven woman shakes up her dream job—one cocktail at a time
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Shannon O’Keefe of Grand Haven is shaking things up at Off The Chain Brewstillery.
The barista-turned-bartender once told her coworkers that her dream was to be a bartender. Why? Because she loves to "shake it."
“I do the shake,” O’Keefe said. “Bartending, it made me feel good. I'm active, and I make it with love.”
O’Keefe has Down syndrome and works at Kenzie's Be Cafe, mastering the art of making a latte and serving it up to customers. The cafe’s assistant, Jennifer Gill, saw O’Keefe’s dream on a poster back in August.
“Everybody has their dream jobs, their big dream jobs on the wall," Gill said. “As I was looking around, I saw Shannon's.”
Her dream read: To be a bartender.
“And that's when I thought, ‘Well, gosh, that's doable.’ So I talked to Shannon that day, and I said, ‘So Shannon, you want to be a bartender?’ I said, ‘What do you want to be about it?’ And she said, ‘I like the shake, shake, shake’ and she showed me all of her moves," Gill recalled. "And I thought, well, who wouldn't want to have a drink by Shannon? You know, that would just be so joyous. And then I thought, oh my gosh, I have the perfect people.”
Gill asked her friends, Off the Chain owners Kurt and Wendy, to show Shannon the ropes of bartending.
“And no ifs, ands or buts, sight unseen, [Kurt] just said, ‘Yeah,’ and I'm like, ‘That's it?’” Gill said.
Soon after, Shannon was behind the bar with Lexi Enyedy, the bar’s mixologist. The two work very well together.
