In my time in southern California, I’ve run amongst crowds that could be considered famous. I made an Arnold Palmer for Arnold Palmer; I bore witness to Jean Claude God Damme being 86’d from three different bars (before he entered); I saw Keanu ask to be called by his Matrix name (Here’s your porterhouse… Neo) and I saw Andy Garcia get into a fistfight with a parking attendant. All true. But no celebrity have I crossed paths more than with Vince Vaughn.

Now, I’m not saying we’re friends, but… acquaintances perhaps? I thought maybe we had a ‘situationship’ until my girl explained to me that phrase held a sexual connotation. He’d be lucky to have a hunk of meat like me.

In 1999, I visited Los Angeles for the first time and like all young tourist hipsters, my friends and I visited the Sunset Strip. We made our way into Miyagi’s and explored the LA vibe represented in the movie, Swingers. The Midwestern boys that we were, I’m sure we stuck out like hayseeds but we still had a good time. As we exited to cross the street and visit Dublin’s, a huge Hummer pulled up the Strip and literally parked on the sidewalk in front of Dublin’s. Behind the wheel was a very side-burned up, Jon Favreau. Emerging from the passenger seat was a tall Vince Vaughn. We followed Vaughn into Dublin’s and he (he didn’t realize we were there) led us into the back bar (which will be remembered by former patrons of Dublin’s). He stopped and stood and stared at the ten females seated at the bar. He whistled loudly and pointed at two females. “You two. Let’s go,” he shrugged. The two females got up and left with him as he and Favreau roared into the LA night. I assumed he wasn’t talking to us so we stayed at Dublin’s, dumbfounded by what we had witnessed.

A few years later, as I bartended one busy Saturday night at Nick n’ Stef’s, Vince came in with a group of his buddies for dinner. Our manager, at the time, had a man-crush on Vince and brought out free dish after free dish. Hundreds of dollars of free food. One dish he brought out, was our famous Sweet Potato Fries served in a metal cone, resting on a plate. Upon the plate, rested a terrine of Maple syrup. In the manager’s haste to provide the free dish, he attempted to serve the awkward dish over the shoulder of Vince. As the cone slipped on the plate, the terrine of syrup dumped off of the plate and landed squarely onto Vince Vaughn’s head. A hunk of sticky maple syrup wrapped into the curly nonsense of his hair.

What followed was a four-alarm fire of panic, which anyone who’s ever worked in the hospitality industry knows is a nightmare. Three servers, a manager and a hostess swarmed into the maple syrup disaster and did little but make the situation worse. I just stood back and giggled. An hour later, I approached Vince as he smoked a cigarette on our patio.

“How was your night,” I asked with a wry smile.

“Not bad,” he said, “pretty sure I’m never coming back here but, you know.” He and I chuckled and that was that.

Until six months later, when Wedding Crashers came out. There is a famous scene where Vince goes on a tangent about maple syrup.

“I love maple syrup,” his character begins. “Sometimes I throw into my hair for fun.” And I can testify to that.

Many, many years later, my dad and I enjoyed dinner at Arthur J’s Steakhouse in Manhattan Beach and sat with our friend, Chef Dave, who is Owner/Operator of Arthur J’s. In walked my friend, Chris, with… Vince Vaughn. They joined us at our table, as we finished our dinner and Vince was very polite. I did not bring up the ‘Great Maple Syrup Disaster of ’06’ but I wish I had.

As we left, I asked my dad, if he knew who that was. My dad replied, “He played that Solo character in Star Wars.”

Sorry dad, that wasn’t Harrison Ford. But, I do have a story about him too. Another time.