currents - Pacific San Diego Magazine

groove
b a r t e n d e r
s h o w t i m e
Kelly Sharbaugh adds
Jameson Whiskey to
Quality Social’s homemade
pickle brine
c y c l e
t u n e
s p i n
- i n
RAD
HAIR
DAY
A dreaded bartender
returns from “reality”
By Dave Good
P h o t o b y
Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan
Kelly Sharbaugh thinks her blond dreads
may have been the ticket that got her
a free trip to Samoa in 2009. Once on
the island, she joined the Galu tribe on
the long-running reality show Survivor—she lasted
24 out of 39 days.
People Magazine’s TV Watch says Sharbaugh was
“shocked and dumbfounded” to be, as they say,
“voted off the island.” Banished from her tribe, she
returned home to West Hollywood (where she lived
at the time) some 14 pounds lighter.
“You just didn’t really eat. Period. Well, you
could eat weird sh!t, or just not eat,” she says.
When she moved to California from her
native Delaware, the hairdresser-turnedmixologist
wasn’t into sporting the blond Barbie
look that has infiltrated the West Coast.
“I wanted something different,” she says. Despite
appearances, however, this is no Rasta chick. “I
definitely wear lots of makeup and dress girly.”
These days, Sharbaugh, 26, is on a different kind of adventure, doing
a whole lot better than just surviving behind the bar at Quality Social in
East Village, where she’s worked since the place opened in March.
“Right now, I’m enjoying the freedom and the lifestyle bartending
gives me, and being able to travel whenever I want,” she says. “I meet a
lot of interesting people. For the foreseeable future, this is where I’ll be.”
Given how her regulars flock to Quality Social when she’s behind the
bar, it seems that Sharbaugh won’t be voted off this gig any time soon.
See more photos at
pacificsandiego.com
Cures What Ails Ya’
Using locally-sourced ingredients, Quality Social cures all of their own
charcuterie in-house. (They even make their own ketchup and mustard.) Nonbelievers
are encouraged to check out the on-site meat-locker and consider
the fact that the bar’s phone number is 619.501.PORK.
Quality Social
789 6th Avenue, Downtown, 619.501.7675, qualitysocial.com
70 pacificsandiego.com {January 2011}