It’s the second Monday in January and Cross Grain Brewhouse is relatively quiet. Quiet enough that bartender Walter Wolford can clock in a little early and grant one eager journo a quick chat.

I’m eager because it feels like this interview has been years in the making. Not that I had this specific bartender or bar or even airport in mind, only that I’ve been aching to discuss, on the record, what it’s like to work in a space that seems to defy all social constructs.

Fireball at 9 a.m.? Why not. Bonding over sob stories with a stranger you’ll never see again? On the bingo card. Sitting elbow-to-elbow with a celebrity and their tiny Chihuahua? Highly probable.

Wolford tells me he worked in high-volume chains like Cheesecake Factory and Buffalo Wild Wings before starting at Cross Grain eight months ago. “A friend over on the B side introduced me to the place and finally talked me into it,” he laughs. “I love it, it’s the best hours I’ve ever had working a bartending job.”

Richmond International is no Atlanta or O’Hare, but Wolford says during the busy season – March to July – the bar will see upwards of 1,800 passengers a day.

I ask the requisite, “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen, heard, or experienced at this bar?” knowing the answer already. “I still see some stuff that surprises me,” Wolford laughs. “But for the most part, it’s pretty chill.”

It’s not that I assume Wolford is keeping his cards close to his chest; I figured that Cross Grain is probably pretty chill most of the time.

The allure of an airport bar is that yes, it’s a little crazy, but not in a drunken, yelling, hijinks way. It’s completely unhinged in its easy camaraderie; in that way it levels the playing field unlike any other social space.

Passengers may be headed to a wedding just as easily as they may be bound for a funeral. It may be their first flight and they’re desperate for liquid courage, or it’s their 1,000th and stopping by the bar is a comforting ritual.

“I try to make it a good experience, that’s the main thing,” says Wolford. “I care about the people here. I get everybody’s name when they come in and I’ll know the names of everyone in these 24 seats.”

Wolford says he’s served celebs like Danny McBride – “I met his whole family, he’s a really nice guy” – and Thomas Gibson of “Criminal Minds” fame (spoiler: he’s the one with the Chihuahua). Also, he has regulars who travel for business once or twice a week who will swing by the bar on their way out of town and when they get back, “just to say hello,” says Wolford.

There are some unorthodox drink orders every now and then, he says, but most folks gravitate to a vodka-based cocktail. “I’ve got a vodka pineapple over here!” pipes up a man a few seats down. A woman to our right sipping an unidentified beverage –vodka something? – nods in assent.

Wolford isn’t just making an anecdotal assumption, either. According to Wolford’s boss, Delaware North Travel Hospitality Services GM Johanna Wheeler, Cross Brain served approximately 54,000 ounces of vodka in 2023. I’m a dirty martini gal myself.

I ask Wolford if he gets a little stir crazy seeing folks fly off to exotic, or otherwise enticing locales while he stands firmly behind a bar in Terminal A five days a week.

“I’ve never had a vacation,” he admits. “It’s not super-cheap, and it’s hard to take time off. But I’m hoping to soon, I might meet my friend in the Keys.”

He’ll get back from his vacation, if he can take it, right as the bustling spring season starts up. “I’m here 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. two days and 2 p.m. to close the other days, which depends on the last flight,” says Wolford. “We try to stay open as long as we can for everybody.”

Wolford will likely serve a horde of spring breakers on their way to Tampa, New Orleans and Miami. There will be wedding guests aplenty, en route to Denver and Boston and Dallas.

It’s easy to lose time in an airport bar, especially when you’re in a celebratory mood. I’ve had to be called over the intercom for a flight myself (mimosas, that time). Wolford understands.

“I always tell guests my first job is to take care of you, my second job is to make sure you can get on your plane,” he says. “That means sober enough to get you on your plane. I’ll be the first person to make you drink a glass of water.”

Now that’s ‘Grade A’ service in Terminal A.