Elizabeth Trendowski laughingly admits she may not be the best person to go out with for dinner and drinks. The new area manager for Robson Forensic in Glastonbury is a dram shop — Colonial name for a saloon — liquor liability expert who is retained by legal counsel to help them in cases where people get hurt by someone served too much alcohol or in cases where alcohol is served to a minor.
“Nobody likes to go out with me to a restaurant or bar because of my critical eye. That’s a little difficult for me. I end up having a lot of parties at my home,” said Trendowski, who’s eagle eye perspective comes from owning a bartenders’ school with 13 locations and an alcohol training program called SMART, or Servers Managers Alcohol Responsibility Training.
Liquor establishments used the program for insurance discounts. Trendowski sold both businesses last year.
Her career path was determined by her time in college – not as a biology and education manager. She was a bartender in college and stayed involved in the industry as a manager and bartender after college. She later owned a wine and spirits wholesale operation.
After selling her businesses, Trendowski, 51, was called by an attorney seeking her advice on a dram-shop case. She then started receiving calls from other attorneys seeking her counsel for their clients. Her new career as a consultant was burgeoning.
Then Trendowski was talking with her attorney husband who had deposed a Robson Forensic expert. He advised her to send a resume into the firm. She was quickly hired and her new career blossomed. “There are only a couple of us in the whole country,” Trendowski said, adding her work takes her around the country.
Lendowksi has more in her life than the dram shop act; she’s a dachshund rescuer. She fell into the hobby after somebody approached her seeking a home for her dachshund. She now has 10 dogs, eight of which are dachshunds. “We take the ones who are difficult to place,” Trendowski said. The dogs have become such a major part of her life that she even throws an annual bash called, fittingly enough, “The Weiner Roast.”
