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Nicest Bartender Around

Tommy Goulding

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The Liverpudlian owner of Rosie Connolly's Pub Restaurant (1548 E. Main St., 343-1063) has spent 17 years at the taps working with family at Penny Lane Pub and briefly at O'Brienstein's. Here are a few things you can learn from one of the city's most amiable barmen:

* The taste of Guinness is all in the slow pour. A fast one is wasted. Goulding tops the head of the Guinness with a shamrock.

* He now uses Fuller's in Rosie's black-and-tans ever since he found out Bass is now made in Canada.

* His favorite Irish whiskey used to be Black Bushmills, but now he prefers Red Breast, a 12-year-old, pot-distilled whiskey with a taste of vanilla.

* Speaking of Irish whiskey, Goulding says the fiery Jameson's (once the Irish Catholic whiskey of choice) and the smooth Bushmills (the Protestant pick) represent the two sides of that amber coin.

* "I frown on shooters," Goulding says. He's not a fan of high-speed, runaway drunkenness. "I do really worry about people gettin' home."

* Maybe this attitude came from his father, who he jokes would smack him in the back of the head if Goulding didn't sip his whiskey. "I spent good money on that," his dad would say. S



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