Straight shooter

Lately, though, he can be found more and more behind the lens, cultivating a passion for photography that took root as a hobby back in 2008, soon after the first iPhone was launched.

“I would take pics of my buddies when the gang would go fishing,” Mr. McGuire, 44, described while methodically readying the bar at Aurelia, where he has worked for the past five years.

“They all had flip phones, and my iPhone would take better pictures.”

It was while bartending at the former Grove Hill restaurant in the Chagrin Falls Shopping Plaza at the time that Mr. McGuire would be exposed to a Cleveland photographer who would bring her “cool equipment” to the restaurant, photographing the food it offered and the drinks he served.

“At Grove Hill, she would bring her lights in and take pictures of the food and drinks, and I thought it would be cool to do the same,” he recalled.

Mr. McGuire decided to venture into the outdoors, which he loved, and capture shots, still on his phone, of nature and wildlife.

It was in 2019 that Mr. McGuire would grow his hobby further, switching from the iPhone to capture his latest subject to a Nikon D7500, and eventually purchasing a long lens.

“Things just grew from there,” he said, while the pictures became more and more captivating and the hobby more and more enjoyable.

From eagles and owls to hawks and more, colorful birds in beautiful settings were captured, which Mr. McGuire shows with great pride, scrolling through his phone.

From there, he dabbled in portrait photography, especially during the COVID shut down, where Mr. McGuire, a resident of Mayfield Heights, would take Hollywood style portraits of his wife, Shawna, who is a fan of the Oscars.

“We had nothing to do and couldn’t go anywhere, so we started going to parks and setting up scenes at home,” he said. His wife, who also works in the service industry, is a hair and makeup artist.

Mr. McGuire was poised to do his first show highlighting his bird photos in 2020, but COVID halted the event, with it eventually taking place last fall at Studio 2 on Bell Street.

At that time, he sold over 35 framed prints and Michael McGuire Photography, an official photography page on social media, was born.

“The camera has elevated my work a ton,” he said.

Mr. McGuire, who began bartending in the village at the age of 28 at the former Blake’s, then Jekyll’s, said he sees his photography as a way to express yet another creative side, as well as get him outdoors to study birds, animals and the landscape.

“I like the technical aspect of a manual digital camera,” he said.

His latest works are of cityscapes, including Chagrin Falls, where nearly everyone knows the nearly 6-foot-4 inch bearded bartender.

While setting up for happy hour last week, Mr. McGuire described the origins of his latest village shots, which exploded on social media.

“Two weeks ago, it rained all day,” Mr. McGuire said, “and nobody was in town.

“I got off work, and everything was wet and the pavement was shining with lights,” he continued.

He wanted to get a cool shot of Chucks and the Popcorn Shop — and did just that.

“I love doing it,” he said of photography, and delves into the passion during his days off each week, taking recently a variety of senior photos in unique settings, including the outdoors, for Chagrin Falls High School students.

“The photography is great and a creative outlet,” Mr. McGuire said. “It’s not only taking the photo and setting up where you are going to be and paying attention to the light, but also the editing process is fun for me.”

“I have full control of the creativity behind it.”

Behind the bar, he does the same, crafting signature cocktails like the classic prohibition-era bees knees, which he puts his own spin on, or serving up his famous Manhattan.

“For me, the bar is a social outlet,” Mr. McGuire said, “and I like that there is creativity involved with the drinks.”

Some on the Aurelia menu are his own making, complete with ingredients like black walnut bitters, maple syrup or creme de violette, while others he pulls from well-known bartenders around the country.

The South Euclid native, who began as a bartender with the Hyde Park Group in 2006, said he has always been behind the bar at whatever establishments he has worked at.

And he’s always had the beard, he said with a laugh, since he was 24 years old.

Moving forward, Mr. McGuire has aspirations for more equipment as a means to grow the hobby into something more.

“In the future, I would like to do it more like a business than a hobby,” he said. “It is just really fun.”