There’s a bar, and then there’s a bar. The bar at Hollywood red-sauce joint Dan Tana’s is that second kind. Mike Gotovac has been handling the drinks at Dan Tana’s for more than 50 years, and in that time, his bar has become hallowed grounds for West Coast drinkers, a place where both Clint Eastwood and a WeHo party boy can feel comfortable pulling up a stool and slaking their thirst with one of Gotovac’s notoriously strong one-ingredient martinis. We asked Gotovac how to drink, how to beat a hangover, and how to stay alive.

Welcome to Last Call , where we visit watering holes around the world to collect life advice from their trusty barkeepers, learning everything from how to get over a broken heart to what drink orders will get you laughed out of their bar.

I was a waiter for a while, but there was an older bartender who couldn’t handle the bar, so they asked me if I wanted to go behind the bar. I said, “I don’t speak English, I don’t know how to make drinks.” And they said, “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you!”

MUNCHIES: Hi, Mike. How did you first end up at Dan Tana’s? Mike Gotovac: I’ve been here exactly 50 years … I couldn’t find a job, I had no skills, didn’t speak the language. In Croatia, I went to school for forestry. A friend of a friend was managing this place, he told me to come by and he would give me a job. So, in 1968, I came here, and they said, “Take your jacket off and start working.”

Other than making the drinks and speaking the language, what do you think makes a great bartender instead of just a good bartender? First, it’s your personality, how you present yourself to the customers. You don’t judge people, how they look, who they are. Big stars or average persons, you treat everybody equally and you be nice to the people. Be patient. It’s all your personality. How you handle people. You can find in my bar, sitting, the richest man in the world talking to a homeless person and buying each other a drink. It’s unbelievable, this place.

So, they taught you both how to speak English and how to make drinks? A lot of people taught me: the manager, the employees, the customers. They were great. The customers would tell me the names of drinks and how to make them. I was a fast learner.

Over all those years, how have you seen your customers change? Everything changes: what people eat, what they drink, how they behave behind the bar. In my opinion, the older generation was more classy. They weren’t demanding, they weren’t in a hurry. They wanted to take their time, relax, and have a drink. But generation after generation, people are getting more pushy. More demanding.

People ask what I do for a living and I say I kill people. My nickname is Dr. Kevorkian Slow Death. I feed them alcohol, I feed them cigarettes, I feed them Viagra.

Do you think people were better at handling their alcohol before?

In the old days, people handled their alcohol much, much better. This new generation, I can say that they don’t know how to drink. They want to get drunk too fast.

"My policy, I tell everybody: It’s a bar, not a church. It’s OK to get a little bit over the line. If you want peace and quiet go to church or a library—don’t come to my bar."

What’s your advice for how to be a good drinker?

I tell every customer. If you have a drink, have a glass of water. If you just drink one drink after another, after three drinks you’re going to be on the floor. I tell every customer: “Slow down. I’d like to have your money, but I want you to come back. I want you to walk out of my place happy and healthy and come back again.” Some people listen to me, probably 75 percent of people; some don’t.