The day I met Jeff and Matt I had been trying (and failing) at getting a job. I ran out of an interview for a bartending position at this Italian restaurant in Little Italy – a massive, poor quality print of the leaning tower of pisa by the entrance, old leather booths that stick to the back of your legs as you try to leave, paper flags crumpled in the windows – sandwiched between a souvenir shop and a shuttered pizza shop. I was having “disappointment” eggs at B&H Deli after giving up on getting a bartending gig. To be completely honest (including to Jeff and Matt – who I have never told this to) I had never been a bartender before, but I thought if I could get a chance at it, I could do a good job. As luck would have it, Jeff’s sister, Mina and I went to school together, and as I soaked up the last remaining yolk with my challah bread, I saw a post that read: “My brother is opening a new restaurant in LES [Lower East Side], looking for Bartenders, Servers, Cooks!” I immediately responded and by an even slimmer chance of luck Nudibranch was a block and a half away from the deli I was moping around at. When I walked in and saw the restaurant, with boxes covering the floor, plastic covering the untouched chairs and a half set up bar, I hoped that they were willing to give me a chance – and they did. They were opening exactly a month after our first meeting, so I spent those 30 days with a good friend, Andre Kaplan, a real New York bartender, training every Tuesday night. Going drink for drink until my notes blurred, and I couldn’t remember the order of simple syrup, gin, and lime or was it lemon?