Yellowknife (Feb 19/03) - If you work in the service industry it's inevitable that you'll encounter some rabble rousers. You have to hone your skills to deal with the drunk, the cocky, the loud, the messy, the rude.

A dust-up is bad for business, especially when it involves a regular, so rather than throw them out or call a bouncer or cleaver wielding chef for backup, you have to talk them down. A certain tone of voice, and a few choice words will have to do--call it tongue-fu.

"First step, you always kill them with kindness," said Owen Smith, bartender at the Black Knight. "You just get way over the top, go in with a big smile and say 'what's the problem here sir, what can we help you with sir, can we do anything else for you sir?'"

"Usually that's enough," he said. "The other people at the table start getting embarrassed and the person gets the idea and calms down."

Smith said he's bartended in other cities and Yellowknife is a pretty friendly place.

"We get so many regulars in here we usually don't have a problem," he said.

Susan Hunt said she's seen it all. Hunt started waitressing part time at The Diner last week after leaving a corporate job to raise her kids. But for many years before she worked in an office she said she waitressed or bartended at just about every establishment in Yellowknife.

"You start off being nice," she said. "I usually use my height, look them straight in the eye, that usually works."

"You just don't take any nonsense, be straight with them."

But Hunt remembers one situation years ago in Toronto where her 5'10" inch stature didn't help solve the situation.

"A well-dressed couple came in and took the table in the corner," she said. "Before we knew it they were going at it."

By "going at it," Hunt doesn't mean "browsing the menu" or "eating something off a plate with a fork."

"People were leaving, we had to do something," she said. "I just brought a box of Kleenex over, plopped it on the table, and asked them to finish up and be on their way. They left."

Janna Nelson, a waitress at the Black Knight said dealing with jerks and drunks isn't all that bad.

"You just have some fun with it, as long as you can laugh it off it usually it works out all right," she said. "Most people are harmless."