Fight! Fight! Fight!

Of course I should know by now not to go out drinking with my co-workers. Though they are the most eclectic and entertaining group of people, they are all so disfunctional that my work life would probably fare better if I refrained from seeing them in their most drunken, beligerent states.
Even thought I know better, I did, in fact, go out to the bars with a couple guys from work the other night. What began as a carefree, shoot the shit kind of evening ended up one of the most publically humiliating experiences of recent months. Remembering how ashamed I was of us all when it was goin on, I can only imagine how stupid I would have felt if I were sober at the time. Fortunately, I had consumed no less than ten beers (I'm 5'3", 110 lb, but I'm tough).
After hours of drinking at one bar, having fun and being silly, I went along with Sal, this neanderthal of a man, who towers at 6'4" and always seems to be present during my most drunken memories. I think it's because I try to keep up with him, drink for drink. That's really stupid of me. Anyway, we went to another bar in town with Dave, who is another good on-and-off drinking buddy of mine from work. Dave is also Jane's "official" boyfriend, but the label obviously doesn't mean much, at least to Jane.
As Sal, Dave, and I were sitting at our table, throwing back brewdogs, a regular customer from the cafe came up to our table and wanted to shake our hands and thank us for making such good coffee and shit. This interaction was followed by a brief session of us gushing about how much we all love working at Cafe Nasty, how it's such a good business that we truly believe in, and we're so happy our co-workers are so cool that we want to hang with e/other all the time- you know, real sentimental crap that you only find yourself saying after eight beers.
Our mushy love session led into Dave talking about some of his random business ideas for improving the cafe's profits- just wacky thoughts he's had before that I don't think he ever put much energy into. Things like opening up a branch in the neighboring college town, or making an espresso cart that we can push around at big hippie festivals (Dave is really into big hippie festivals). Out of nowhere, Sal just erupted with rage and started yelling at Dave for not caring about the cafe. Dave got defensive and told Sal that every time he has an idea, that Sal always shoots him down or tries to make him look bad in front of the boss. Sal got even angrier at Dave for this and the whole thing escalated into a shouting match, fingers pointing at each other, lots of needless swearing. It was so pathetic.
I kept looking around and noticing how everyone in the bar I recognized as being a regular at Cafe Nasty. Even some of the bartenders are our customers. I felt sad and humiliated that these poor customers are seeing the worst sides possible to us. They were staring at our table like we wer the biggest morons to ever walk into a bar- and we probably were.
Believe me, I did try to interject and break up the fight. But they were completely absorbed by anger and the shouting only ended when Dave left the bar in a huff. I scolded Sal for being such an idiot, and told him that some of our best customers are now probably afraid of him. He felt bad then, and apologized, and he was so drunk that he couldn't remember what the fight was about. Dave returned not long after and they exchanged a hug. Dave couldn't remember how the fight started either.
So, where do we draw the line when it comes to our behaviouur outside of work? We live in a small town, but not that small. There are a lot of people around, but I guess the same kind of people that would go to our cafe would also be into the same bars that we like. So we can't avoid running into customers. But we also deserve to go out and get drunk and silly just like everyone else, right?
I guess I feel bad because it happens so often when I'm out with work friends that a customer will come up and say how great it is that we are all really friends. Yes, I agree, it is great, but we're also enemies a lot of the time. They don't want to see any of that though. I almost feel like they shouldn't have to see any of it. Maybe it is just our responsibility as employees of Cafe Nasty to uphold the facade of friendship. Nothing is more uncomfortable than serving a cappuccino to the guy who saw you threatening your friend at a bar the night before. It's just not cool.