Jim Kazakov reflects on 40 years as a Tahoe bartender.
When driving up winding Kingsbury Grade toward South Lake Tahoe, it’s difficult not to admire Tahoe Ridge Resort. The tall structure sits atop the cliffs of the Carson Range, just before the road drops toward the lake, and it offers stellar views of the Carson Valley.
Having this kind of vantage point gives a person a unique perspective — especially when the view hasn’t changed for four decades.
Tahoe Longtimer
Jim Kazakov recently celebrated 40 years of working as a bartender at Tahoe Ridge Resort, which is managed by Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Kazakov is the longest-term employee, not just at this location, but in the entire company, which employs more than 7,000 people in the United States and Mexico.
Kazakov tends bar at the Bear Trap Lounge & Bar. Located next to the resort’s restaurant, The Ridge Club Bistro, the bar features cozy mountain décor and valley views beyond the pine trees.
The resort is primarily for vacation club owners, but it encourages locals to visit the bar and restaurant. Just tell the gate attendant you’re visiting the bar.
“We not only have our old owner base, but we have a new base of vacation owners as well,” Kazakov says. “It’s awesome because I become quick friends with everybody. I’ve had friends here from 35 or 40 years ago, and they’re letting me spend their vacations with them. Before the owners check in, they sometimes come up to make sure I’m still working here.”
Kazakov, originally from British Columbia, Canada, lived in the Tahoe area for 20 years, but now he lives in Gardnerville. He originally worked for Harvey’s Inn (now Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Hotel & Casino) as a barback.
“Tahoe has changed quite a bit; it was just a little ski town then,” Kazakov says. “There’s a lot more traffic now than there was when I moved here. That’s why I moved down to the valley, to get away, and now the traffic has followed me there, too.”
Through 40 ski-season winters and wedding-celebration summers, Kazakov has seen a few trends come and go.
“Old things are becoming new again,” Kazakov says. “The old fashioned and Manhattan are popular again as well as martinis. Bourbon has become crazy popular all of a sudden.”
Other trending drinks include the cosmopolitan and lemon drop martini. The Bear Trap Lounge & Bar sells a blueberry lemon drop made with Reàl cocktail syrup. As for beers, Kazakov says the hazy IPAs are trending right now as well as the Rogue Dead Guy IPA and the Great Basin Icky IPA.
The most popular drink at the bar is the raspberry lemonade cocktail made with SKYY vodka, raspberry liqueur, sweet and sour mix, club soda, and a lemon twist. Bar visitors also will show Kazakov en vogue drinks on their cell phones and ask him to make them.
“I usually go, ‘Wow, that sounds really expensive!’” Kazakov says and comments on another surprising choice. “When it’s snowing outside, people want frozen drinks, for some reason.”
Kazakov’s favorite cocktail? Simple: Grey Goose vodka and soda.
“I used to work with a guy who drank a drink called an ugly brown dog. It was Kahlua and grapefruit juice,” Kazakov says. “That being said, nothing surprises me anymore. If you can order it, I can make it.”
