|
July 31, 2008
Bartending 101: Yearn to learn and earn
A blog for DailysCocktails.com by Joe Bruno
Let’s set the scene…
You’re at a popular neighborhood lounge, the juke box is blasting, it’s four deep at the bar and you are lucky to be sitting.
You’re three drinks in and feeling good until you think about ordering another round.
That bill sitting on the back rail quickly morphs from bar tab to reality check.
The economy, gas prices, rent hikes, and the general cost of living is spiraling into the stratosphere as of late.
How crazy am I to be in here dropping $12 bucks a pop on booze?
Just then, like a ton of bricks, the thought hits you….
”I should bartend!”
It’s the best of both worlds.
It will be like having cake and eating it too.
What’s better? A bottle in front of me, or the eventual frontal lobotomy?
I’d rather be behind the bar on the weekend than in front of it!
Whatever way you choose to rationalize the idea, will bartending be the answer to everyone’s financial woes?
In short…no.
Is there a special type of person that is best suited to do the ultimate customer service job?
Yes… and it’s all about P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L-I-T-Y.
That’s the secret.
Consider it divulged.
I have been lucky enough to be the senior administrator of a nationally recognized bartending school and during my tenure, I have developed the curriculum and honed the skills of many “grasshopper” bartenders (pun intended),
I was shocked to realize that the capability of being successful within this industry is only fractionally dependent on your drink mixing skills.
I’ve seen all walks of life stroll into the school, get evaluated, sign on for a stretch to learn the trade and rub elbows with the big boys, and walk out comfortable, capable, confident and ready.
We teach you how to up sell the highest price point items, we teach you how to expedite and mix multiple drinks at one time using common ingredients as a theme, we teach you how to free pour with perfect precision, we teach you what all of the liquor products are made from and what they taste like, we teach you cash handling and provide register training, we educate you in successful procedures to prevent intoxication liability, we train you to memorize two hundred of the most popular cocktail recipes…..but there is one thing that is impossible to teach.
Like I had said earlier, the biggest contributing factor that a bartender can offer any owner/manager is common sense along with the right attitude and personality.
They don’t want servers, they want earners.
They want people who know how to make drinks…but most importantly, know how to make and keep friends.
You really couldn’t get a more diverse group of people in the same classroom together for any other trade.
College students at various stages of academic pursuit, actors, models and musicians, strippers, stock brokers, taxi drivers and housewives,
construction workers, police officers, accountants and teachers.
I’ve even had a few celebrities, porn stars and a catholic priest in my classes.
Why do they all want to get involved in bartending?
Is it for the glamour factor and power involved in being a VIP at a popular watering hole?
Is it for the piles of cash that bartenders are notorious for earning nightly and bragging about?
Is it for the purpose of being a “friend with benefits” to all the hot girls/guys?
Could I be wrong in assuming that in certain circumstances, the effort to become a mixologist is nobler?
Do some folks get off on playing the role as “advice giver” or “psychologist” famed in song and story?
Usually the pursuit of a bartending career is just to be able to have a comfortable job that pays the bills while going to school in the day, or raising kids, or for the purpose of creating a secondary income when your primary job is not providing the desired overall earning that you would expect to live well.
Alas, practicality and sensibility has superceded the old reasons why most people used to get involved in beverage service.
In my opinion, today’s generation is more in tune with financial responsibility and is less dependent on their parents for every nickel and dime.
The older folks are also more in touch with the fact that retirement comes later and later than the generations before them and that raising a family comfortably sometimes goes beyond a pension and social security check at the age of sixty five.
I can honestly say that I am happy to be able to contribute to the financial well being of hundreds of graduates of the school every year and to have planted a seed that keeps them on the sunnier side of the bar.
It’s cool to run into a former student every once in a while and be told that my expertise has helped in some way…or that they still remember a certain drink recipe based on a hint that I created to help envision the ingredients, or that a job lead that they were given panned into a great part time career.
But best of all, the biggest benefit of having trained thousands of bartenders over the past twelve years is that no matter where you go out for a drink you can pretty much guarantee you will run into a former pupil who with a fast hand and a quick wink will pay tribute to you with “one on the house”.
Blessed are the bartenders…and the teachers.
|
