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In 2008 I will celebrate working in the field of bartending for a decade. This field of work has taken me through several ups and downs over the years but overall has been a rewarding experience. I've done dive bars, nightclubs, sportsbars, catering, private clients, you name it. Those of you who have been on the forums for a while may remember an old thread series I did called "The Bartender Journals". It was quite popular and can still be found in the Forum Archives. I took those posts, made a blog, and was later approached by a publisher and in 2006 The Bartender Journals by Dave Lawrence was published and is still available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. I've since moved to San Francisco and am I love the line of work I'm in but it's come at a price. I have no formal education or reputable work history for anything outside of the service industry. The constant party lifestyle led to substance abuse, alcoholism, and eventually my incarceration. On the flip side I've come out of it with a ton of stories to tell. So ask me about the industry. Curious about how to get in? Want to know what the job is like on a day to day basis? Do you get to bang lots of chicks? Whatever. I've added hotlinks to the new stories I've posted throughout the thread My First Day Wedding Season The Stockbrokers Cometh The Yacht Club The Evan Williams Rant My Trip to Spain The poo poo Storm A New Beginning Update 2/26/09 Other Stuff THE BIG BARTENDER COCKTAIL CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA Girly Drink or Manly Drink? Tips on Barbacking From Tom Rakewell From nrr For those interested in getting a bartending job I've written The Bartending FAQ Also, DO NOT poo poo UP THIS THREAD WITH ARGUMENTS ABOUT TIPPING!! If you don't believe American bartenders deserve tips keep it to yourself. James Woods fucked around with this message at Feb 26, 2009 around 09:01 |
| # ? Nov 12, 2007 12:08 |
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| # ? Feb 09, 2010 19:57 |
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How does one become a bartender.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 12:46 |
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What is your favorite cocktail to make? What do you consider to be your best flair move? What is the biggest single tip you've been handed? Have you ever been offered an instruction position at a bar tending school? Has the publishing of the book opened up any new avenues of profit for you? What is the most amount of chicks you have banged in one week that have been employed at the same location as you?
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 12:53 |
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Out of the ten years, how many of them were you doing cocaine?
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 14:26 |
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Tell me some stories about 86ing people.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 18:12 |
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Aye-Aye posted:Tell me some stories about 86ing people. I would settle for some stories period at this stage.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 19:05 |
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If the OP doesn't mind, I'll weigh in as well. I don't have the volume of experience he has, but I've been doing it for a few years. I'll also post a story to keep the masses happy. I put this up in GBS a month or two ago, but here it is again: It's 2:15 AM, lights are up and we're kicking everybody out of the club. Most of the staff is drunk, all the patrons are drunk, and everybody is generally ready to roll into bed and crash. At this point, nobody does much thinking, which led to the following exchange.  [drunk customer]: Hey sweetie, can I take a picture? [bartender, not me]: Sure, go right ahead!: Thanks!At which point, proceeds to walk to the wall and pull a framed picture off the wall, and walk out the front door with it. I was in the back helping the barbacks and when I came out front, I noticed the picture missing. I asked the bartender why it was gone, if maybe the glass had broken and they took it down for safety. Nobody knew where it was.It was at that point that the cops who did security hauled in some idiot carrying the picture that had been on the wall 5 minutes earlier.  : We found this dumbass about a block down. How the hell'd he get out of here with a picture? [me]: I have no loving clue, I was in the back. Dude, what the gently caress, you thought you could just steal a picture and it'd be all good?: What? The bartender told me I could take it!: Bullshit, these bartenders wouldn't say that.: No, really, she did! *points at *: Uh, Jill? Did you tell this idiot he could take a picture off the wall?: I told him he could take a picture, but I didn't mean that. I thought he meant a picture of me, like with a camera!At this point, we all just look at , look down at the picture, back at , and just die laughing. The cops shuffled the guy out the front door and we all had a good laugh at Jill's expense.Names changed to protect the (relatively) innocent.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2007 20:42 |
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Sorry for the late reply, I've been in Napa all day and just got back. KrycekCrack posted:How does one become a bartender. The short answer is that its hard. Some people go to those bartending schools but in the industry they're looked down upon in place of real hands on experience. I got started in college bartending at parties. People would have me over and I'd serve their booze for tips. This gave me the basic experience I needed. When I got my first bar gig I went the simple route and lied my rear end off. I made up a fake resume and dropped some names of people at other bars and went door to door and eventually got my first gig. It was rough at first but I got the hang of it pretty quick. SERPUS posted:What is your favorite cocktail to make? It honestly depends on my mood at any given time. If I'm tired or hung over I just want to crack a beer. If I feel like doing flair I'll do something with more than one bottle and the shaker like a martini. SERPUS posted:What do you consider to be your best flair move? I'm really good with a church key and can do all kinds of crazy moves with it as well as open four beers in just over a second. SERPUS posted:What is the biggest single tip you've been handed? $100 from some mobster guido guy. He came to a really fancy wedding I was doing, walks up to the bar and says, "Hey buddy ow bout a fukin Amstel?". That day when I was deciding what beers to stock at the bar I decided against Amstel because nobody ever orders it. I inform him that I don't have it and he says "Well I guess its just a dry fuckin wedding aint it." I offer him something else and he just walks away. I have another one of my bartenders watch the bar and i go down to the storeroom and grab a sixer of amstel and put it in a bucket of ice water with some salt. When its cold I poor him one and take it to his table and tell him I had one of my guys go to the store and buy some. He gives me the tip/handshake and says "You take care of me I take care of you.". SERPUS posted:Have you ever been offered an instruction position at a bar tending school? I actually was last spring but turned it down because I would of had to teach on Saturdays and thats when I make the most money. SERPUS posted:Has the publishing of the book opened up any new avenues of profit for you? It's an interesting bullet point on my resume and occasionally someone has heard of me. As of yet it hasn't been responsible for getting me any work. SERPUS posted:What is the most amount of chicks you have banged in one week that have been employed at the same location as you? Two, at the same time. leica posted:Out of the ten years, how many of them were you doing cocaine? Seven or eight. As of now it's been since I was in Europe last spring. Aye-Aye posted:Tell me some stories about 86ing people. I'll think of something and type it up after I get back from dinner.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 03:55 |
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I've always seen the stereotype of the customers confiding personal issues to their bartender. Is there any truth to this at least in the places you've worked? How have you handled that if so?
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 04:35 |
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How many mixed drinks is a bartender expected to know off the top of their head? Do bartenders ever rely on cheat-sheets or anything like that if a customer orders some kind of obscure or specialty drink?
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 04:41 |
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McFrogs posted:I've always seen the stereotype of the customers confiding personal issues to their bartender. Is there any truth to this at least in the places you've worked? How have you handled that if so? When I worked in a more traditional bar setting it would happen from time to time. One big demographic of people who do this are business travelers. They'll plop into the stool and immediately start in with "Yea I just got in from Cleveland for the bathroom fixture convention..." and tell me their whole life story. Other times a guy will be in the bar who's obviously got something on his mind and you just kind of wait for him to talk to you and you mostly just sit there and listen because thats why they're there. In either situation I'm polite and give them as much of my attention as I can while still doing my job. Binowru posted:How many mixed drinks is a bartender expected to know off the top of their head? Do bartenders ever rely on cheat-sheets or anything like that if a customer orders some kind of obscure or specialty drink? I rarely get stumped but I've been doing this for a while. If I don't know it off the top of my head I'll just ask because the customer will know the recipe themselves. I used to keep a bar bible with me at work but don't anymore because I never really need it. I train all the bartenders at my work and I'll give you the list I make them memorize. Call Drinks (Vodka Soda, Rum and Coke, whatever) Cosmopolitan Lemon Drop Kamikaze Rickey Gimlet Margarita Tequila Sunrise Manhattan Tom Collins Sea Breeze Bay Breeze Cape Cod Screwdriver Martini (and all common variations) White Russian Irish Coffee Press I may have forgotten something but thats most of the basic stuff minus shots and cordials.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 06:40 |
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You mentioned being in Europe briefly, did you do any bartending while there? I'm planning a move from North America to Europe and have a couple years of bartending under my belt at a stage theatre here and I want to try using them to get my foot in the door overseas when I arrive.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 11:33 |
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I've got a fairly decent home bar, what things are less than obvious that I should probably get? (I've got all the typical stuff, gin, vodka, vermouth, whiskeys, cointreau, etc., but what sorts of odds and ends really round out the bar?) Is it at all possible to find creme de noyeuax anywhere, it seems to be completely out of style or something.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 11:39 |
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catchphrases posted:You mentioned being in Europe briefly, did you do any bartending while there? I'm planning a move from North America to Europe and have a couple years of bartending under my belt at a stage theatre here and I want to try using them to get my foot in the door overseas when I arrive. UK Bartender here. Bar jobs in the UK are not hard to come by (and I imagine this is true for wider Europe as well) especially if you have the mixed drink knowledge that you're likely to have developed from working in an American bar. The downside is that you are paid a flat rate (about £5.05/hr here) and you are unlikely to make much in tips.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 12:08 |
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DoomCenturion posted:I've got a fairly decent home bar, what things are less than obvious that I should probably get? Where do you want to take your home bar? Classic, prohibition style ingredients? Or modern, club ingredients? Do you want to do a lot of fruity, Tiki style drinks, or do you want a lot of infusions? If I were you, I'd add a couple puckers because they're popular, kahlua, bailey's, rumpleminze, goldschlager, jager, drambuie, peach schnapps, etc. Then maybe expand your liquor selections a bit - add 1 or 2 more bourbons, a new vodka, etc. Also, what the hell are you trying to make that involves creme de noyaux? Hiram Walker makes a bad one, but that's the only one available to me.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 18:14 |
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I'm a bartender at a big name nightclub in Manhattan, however the OP has more experience than me and if there's a difference between our opinions I'd trust his.DoomCenturion posted:I've got a fairly decent home bar, what things are less than obvious that I should probably get? The thing is that anything that's less than obvious is something you don't need. If you don't have blackberry brandy you can usually substitute Chambord (or any Creme de Cassis) and no one will know. If you don't have Creme de Noyaux you just substitute three parts of amaretto and one part grenadine (Noyaux is almond and cherry flavored). Basic home bar: Vodka (doesn't matter), Gin (Tanqueray), Rum (Bacardi), Tequila (doesn't matter -- Don Julio reposado is the most unassailable choice but a tequila fag is a tequila fag and there's no pleasing those people), Whiskey (Jack). Amaretto, Peach Schnapps, Triple Sec (or Cointreau or Grand Marnier). Lime juice. Bunch of Coors Light. Boatload of mixers Basic plus home bar: Add Gery Goose, JW Black, Laprohaig, a red wine and a white wine, champagne, Hennessey, Malibu, another whiskey (Maker's Mark or Crown Royal, probably) a lemon flavored vodka (Stoli Citros) and a four or five more types of beer (the ones you should buy vary by region). Plenty of fresh fruit (limes, lemons and cherries especially). Watermelon Schnapps, Blue Curacao, Sloe Gin, Dry and Sweet Vermouth, Kahlua, Jager, Baileys, Chambord, small bottle of bitters. As far as mixers go, I guess you could say Orange, Cran, Coke for first tier. 7up, soda, tonic, pineapple, sour mix for second tier. Red Bull, Ginger Ale, Grapefruit and cream for third tier. If you have a basic home bar and are under 35 no one who comes to your house has any right to complain. If you're over 35 and hosting a big party and have a basic plus bar then no one has a right to complain. If anyone says something along the lines of "How can you have a party without Belvedere!!!! Only Grey Goose?! Are you gay?" then ignore them. They're assholes for one, and they don't know anything about their liquors for two. It's like going to a library and saying "There isn't nearly enough Pound in the poetry section!  " Seriously. You're in a library and you can't find one other book to read that'll make you happy?If you're in college buy two or three handles of plastic bottle vodka and five times the volume of vodka in premixed fruit juice that you can store under your bed until use. KrycekCrack posted:How does one become a bartender. 1) Have boobs and start as a cocktail server. 2) Start as a barback and hope to get lucky with an in house promotion at a local dive or Irish bar. (You'll never move from barback to bartender at a nightclub.) 3) Lie on your resume and get lucky enough to get hired at the bar at a place where your lack of bar skills won't show glaringly. 4) Get a really bad bar job and parlay it into a better one later on. In all cases if you have no bar experience you won't get hired. How do bartenders exist then? Well, people get bleed over experience from working in the service industry usually -- the bartender lets them pour their own simple drinks while they're working as a server, things like that. Bartending school is not looked on as bar experience (rightly so) and will only get you a bar job at a place that has no other options for hiring. I got my first bar job by going to bartending school, making up service industry experience on my resume, and getting one of the slowest shittiest bar jobs on the planet in a smallish town in Montana. However, often times bartenders are simply people with no real job skills or often intelligence, so if you can get in at a bar and have some other redeeming value (honesty, intelligence, sense of marketing, breasts, whatever) you'll move up the chain quickly. SERPUS posted:What is your favorite cocktail to make? Long Island. I'm a volume bartender and they're expensive (good for my sales per hour figure) and fast to make. I do the "grab four bottles at once then garnish and gun" thing and can make a Long Island probably faster than I could make a glass of water (the water comes out of the gun fairly slowly -- not that I give water away all that often anyway). There's really not much flair bartending in Manhattan. I can flip a tin and catch it behind my back, that's about as fancy as it gets. The boss is too strict on breaking bottles so I don't even begin flipping or swinging those around. Most of the time I'm making a couple of orders of drinks while taking another order and closing a cooler door with my foot, though, and that makes flair a bit hard (though not impossible) to do. I've been handed hundred dollar bills two times. Once was a producer guy who wanted his private event at the club done right. The other time was a bar owner who happened to be in my club and was getting bothered by another bartender (he was new), so when I fixed the situation for him he gave me a hundred dollar bill and his business card. I've seen servers in my club get 2000 dollar tips for 1000 dollar tabs. I also have one semi-regular bar customer who rounds up his tabs to the next hundred dollars in tips most of the time, so sometimes he'll tip 300 or 400 bucks in an hour's time just buying a two or three black and sodas for himself and his buddies. No bartending school offers. I train our bartenders at the club (and the new hire managers as well on most of their managerial duties), something I'm paid to do, which is unusual in this business. quote:I've always seen the stereotype of the customers confiding personal issues to their bartender. Is there any truth to this at least in the places you've worked? How have you handled that if so? After a while most people have the same sets of personal issues. When I worked at my slower bar jobs I'd get poo poo like that a lot. It gets boring quick. The most common story is that "I'm a great guy and you're a great guy too that's why I can talk to you blah blah blah..." -- usually this story is from a guy who talks way too much, is a little obnoxious, and is low on friends. I'd smile and nod and pray I could get another slightly-gear-grinding customer at the bar to pawn this guy off on if it got too bad. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind talking to customers. But most of what people have to say when they're at a bar by themselves with no one to talk to is pretty predictable and usually less than interesting. When I start hearing the stories that end with "she divorced me" what I'm generally thinking about is how to change the subject to something more jovial ASAP. quote:UK Bartender here. Bar jobs in the UK are not hard to come by (and I imagine this is true for wider Europe as well) especially if you have the mixed drink knowledge that you're likely to have developed from working in an American bar. The downside is that you are paid a flat rate (about £5.05/hr here) and you are unlikely to make much in tips. I have to pipe in here and say that when British people show up in front of me at my club they get one chance to demonstrate to me that they know they have to tip on this side of the Atlantic before they get ignored entirely and/or the weakest drinks I can possibly make. Not only are Brits not tippers, they're also very picky and get snotty about "London has great customer service" way too often -- I can't imagine working a bar job in the UK without stabbing myself. We also make fun of our British customers in New York because they ask where the toilets are (they're inside the restroom) and for a vodka and lemonade (they mean vodka and Sprite), and like to let us know things like "these chips are stone cold!". Honestly, how can you do it, man? quote:How many mixed drinks is a bartender expected to know off the top of their head? Do bartenders ever rely on cheat-sheets or anything like that if a customer orders some kind of obscure or specialty drink? It's really not that many. 20 or so will do ya. As for weirdo drinks, often times you're clued in by the names ("black" means Jager, "bomb" means redbull, "beach" means cranberry juice is part of the drink, "hawaii" means pineapple juice is in there, etc) and can get the drink close enough that the customer doesn't see a need to complain. Most customers don't realize, however, that almost any drink with more than three things in it will have four hundred or so different "correct" ways to make it. Some of these customers get really upset and angry when you make their drink the supposedly wrong way. Needless to say, acting that way in a bar usually doesn't convince the bartender he's wrong, and is also usually unnecessary to get your drink changed. The safest thing to do with drinks like that is to ask the customer "what do you want in it?" or something like "do you want the red one or the blue one?" before you start making the drink. There are drinks you have to know, though, and James Woods pretty much already covered those. I'd add Sex on the Beach and Long Island to his list and in New York there's a subset of black guy drinks you should know, too, like a Red Devil or an Incredible Hulk, but that's about it. You should know a few shots, too, but those vary a lot by region and it's pointless to list them here. As far as cheat sheets, yeah, they're behind the bar sometimes but rarely get used. Also, because of the different receipies thing they rarely help. I had this jerk cocksucker in my bar one time (who happened to also be in a wheel chair) who ordered a Harvey Wallbanger and after I served it to him he started complaining about how there wasn't any grenadine in it. He'd gotten on my nerves enough (and I was still a fairly new bartender at the time) that after I added the grenadine I said "a Wallbanger doesn't have grenadine in it, just ask for it if you want it, ok?" to which he of course replied "IT ALWAYS HAS GRENADINE IN IT!". So I got him the little book from behind the bar and showed him the sans grenadine recipe. That's the most use I've ever honestly gotten out of a bar book. quote:Also, what the hell are you trying to make that involves creme de noyaux? Mai Tai and other tropicals sometimes have it listed in their "official" recipies. Sheep-Goats fucked around with this message at Nov 13, 2007 around 23:44 |
| # ? Nov 13, 2007 23:26 |
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What kind of physical shape are you in right now? Do you smoke, and if so, how much? With what frequency do you use alcohol and other drugs? I ask this, because I'm curious as to how living the "bar life" for 10 years has affected you.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2007 23:55 |
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DoomCenturion posted:I've got a fairly decent home bar, what things are less than obvious that I should probably get? Sheep-Goats summed it up very nicely. I can tell you what I have at my home bar but a lot of it is personal preference. Liquors: Evan Williams Single Barrel (Bourbon) Macallan 18yr (Scotch) Black Label (Scotch for guests) Seagrams 7 (Whiskey) Jameson (Whiskey) Gibleys (Gin) Citadelle (Gin) Svedka (Vodka) Stolichnaya (Vodka) Absolute Kurrant (Currant Vodka) Sauza Hornitos (Tequila) Bacardi (Rum) Bacardi 151 (Rum) Midori (Coconut Rum) Contreau (Triple Sec) Chambord (Creme de Casis) Cinzano (Sweet Vermouth) Cinzano (Dry Vermouth) Midori (Melon Liqueur) Baileys (Irish Creme) Jagermeister (Schnapps) Absinthe (King of Spirits) I sometimes buy other things for special drinks and dinner party themes like Sake or Apple Pucker. Mixers: Tonic Soda Coke Diet Coke 7up Ginger Ale Cranbery Orange Lime Lemon Grapefruit Pinapple I make my own Sweet & Sour and Simple Syrup. Wine: I have a pretty nice wine collection but it's a good idea to have a Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonay, Sav Blanc, and Sparkling White on hand. Beer: I keep Trumer Pilsner and PBR at home. I'm planning on making a kegerator soon. LedZergling posted:What kind of physical shape are you in right now? My job keeps me in very good physical shape with all of the running around and heavy lifting I do. I also walk a mile to the subway every day and simply living in San Francisco without a car keeps you pretty fit. I smoke a pack a day when I work and about half that on my days off because I roll my own at home. I drink what would make most people pretty drunk every day. I stick to one thing at a time i.e. beer, wine, bourbon. I use drugs maybe once a month. As for your last comment I'll probably look a little rough at 40.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 00:41 |
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What are the rules about drinking on the job?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 00:53 |
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James Woods posted:Liquors: Rip Van Winkle! Drunk Pledge Driver posted:What are the rules about drinking on the job? At my club you get fired or written up. We also get no shift drink (a drink you have after your shift) and have no buybacks (when the bartender gives you a drink and says "It's on the house."). This is typical for a nightclub but would be abhorrent for a little Irish pub.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:04 |
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Drunk Pledge Driver posted:What are the rules about drinking on the job? It really depends. When I first got started I used to drink all the time because a little buzz would help cut the edge on a big rush. Now that I'm the boss I have to have a zero tolerance policy on paper but I'll occasionally let my bartenders have a drink now and again. If they're in my office in the storeroom and want to help me with inventory at the end of the night they're welcome to all the cold beer they want. The other manager and I also keep a bottle of Jameson and a couple of shot glasses locked up at work for particularly stressful events.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:05 |
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Drunk Pledge Driver posted:What are the rules about drinking on the job? Where I work, we are usually allowed one drink during our shift, and then we have a few when we get off of work. I do my best to not drink at all while I work. I have seen many good bartenders break a lot of glasses, just because they are drunk, being drunk can also throw off your count when pouring drinks. That is also I think the only way to properly pour a drink. You need to count. Everyone I know does it different, but those little spouts on the top of bottles control how much liquid comes out. It is more or less a 4 count is about what you want in your normal drink, like a rum and coke and such. I usually just count "1 Mississippi, 2 ..." until I get to four.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:35 |
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Who are you normally responsible for tipping out? How are clean up duties split up at your bar?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:41 |
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peniscurve posted:Where I work, we are usually allowed one drink during our shift, and then we have a few when we get off of work. The count varies from person. I use a three count and I'm said to have a heavy hand. I give my bartenders a pour spout and a one ounce shot glass and have them practice with water and an empty bottle at home till they can do it by feel.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:42 |
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Miss Fats posted:Who are you normally responsible for tipping out? When I was in bars I never had a barback so I didn't tip anyone out. My waitresses tipped me out 10%. I was responsible for cleaning the entire area behind the bar as well as doing my glassware along with whatever other bartenders my have been on that night. At my job now myself and the bartenders split everything we make evenly on an open bar. On a cash bar we give a cut (usually a third of what we make) to the cashiers/barbacks and bussers. Cleanup is divied out by me with the shittier duties like trash and mopping given to lazy/stupid employees. Cush jobs like inventory are given to bartenders who do an exceptionally good job.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:47 |
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Martinis--gin or vodka? Have you ever created a drink, a Flaming James Woods, if you will?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 01:55 |
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Miss Fats posted:Who are you normally responsible for tipping out? Barbacks get 15% of our tips (and most of us do slightly more than that on weekends). Food runners get 5% of food sales (most of their money comes from servers). We get 3% of sales from servers, which is a fairly high tipout, even given that they get 20% gratuity on everything they sell. Bartenders clean the walls and counter surfaces of their bars and stow and cover any bottles for bars that won't open with the rest of the club the next day. We also melt the ice. Barbacks get the rest of it. quote:That is also I think the only way to properly pour a drink. You need to count. I do it by feel now and think I'm accurate to 1/8th of an ounce (I check up on myself at home from time to time). A full pour is 1 1/2 ounces for highball drinks at my club, and that's a six count the way I count (1... 2... 3...). For expensive things like Blue Label I would pour the shot into an empty rocks glass first. I know exactly what 1.5 and 2oz looks like in one of them -- we don't carry normal shot glasses because they break too frequently and are hard to stack up in glass racks. We also have some very expensive cognacs at our club -- upwards of 500 a shot -- but of course those get poured into a snifter and I know very well where 2oz hits in our snifters.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:02 |
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Sheep-Goats posted:Mai Tai and other tropicals sometimes have it listed in their "official" recipies. Not the Mai Tai I know, which is aged Jamaican rum (Wrey and Nephew/Sons, if you want to be specific), orange curacao, orgeat syrup, and lime juice.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:03 |
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Why does bartending appear to be considered so important in the US? I've seen A/T threads talking about bussing tables and waiting to get your foot in the door, and to forget having a job in anywhere big or important. All this for a chance to serve drunks some more drink? This isn't a troll but an honest question from a former UK bartender. Over here, the bartender is the man who serves your drinks, nothing more.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:12 |
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What catering company in the Bay Area? (if you don't mind answering). What are some good, low key bars in San Francisco?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:22 |
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stubblyhead posted:Martinis--gin or vodka? Gin all the way. However most people who don't know how to drink order a Martini and want Vodka by default. I have made several, heres one of my more popular ons. Dr. Love 1oz. Tequila 1oz Coconut Rum 1oz Vodka 1oz Midori Fill with Pinapple and Orange Juice and add 1oz. Blue Curaco for a layered effect.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:24 |
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Char posted:This isn't a troll but an honest question from a former UK bartender. Over here, the bartender is the man who serves your drinks, nothing more. Different drinking cultures, nothing more.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:25 |
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Char posted:Why does bartending appear to be considered so important in the US? I've seen A/T threads talking about bussing tables and waiting to get your foot in the door, and to forget having a job in anywhere big or important. All this for a chance to serve drunks some more drink? Bartenders in the States can make *VERY* good money at the right places. I'm not going to get into the actual numbers, but suffice to say that bartending is a blue collar job, isn't difficult, isn't particularly dangerous, isn't particularly uncomfortable, and can be very very lucrative.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:25 |
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agentq posted:What catering company in the Bay Area? (if you don't mind answering). Edit: On second thought if you want juicy stories I think I'll omit that. Hemlock Tavern, Killowatt, Edinburgh Castle, Li Po, Zeitgeist, Gestalt, Blur, HA RA, to name a few. James Woods fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2007 around 02:33 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:28 |
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Shooting Blanks posted:Bartenders in the States can make *VERY* good money at the right places. I'm not going to get into the actual numbers, but suffice to say that bartending is a blue collar job, isn't difficult, isn't particularly dangerous, isn't particularly uncomfortable, and can be very very lucrative. Not to mention its one of the only service industry jobs where you can tell a person to gently caress off if you don't want to serve them.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:29 |
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quote:2) Start as a barback and hope to get lucky with an in house promotion at a local dive or Irish bar. (You'll never move from barback to bartender at a nightclub.) If you're looking to get employed somewhere in the primary bar/club/drunken antic strip in your city, you may need to aim lower than BA'ing. I started in the kitchen during the summer, and moved out front to start bussing with some barback work when our bussers moved out of town for school this past fall. James Woods posted:Not to mention its one of the only service industry jobs where you can tell a person to gently caress off if you don't want to serve them. If I couldn't be a complete rear end in a top hat to customers, I probably wouldn't be working in this industry any more. Being able to say "Hey drunky, move your fat rear end" and shoving my way through herds of people allows me to stay sane at 1:30am on a Sunday unman zuu fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2007 around 02:36 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:32 |
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Sheep-Goats posted:
Some poster in another thread was arguing with me saying that bartenders never pour weaker drinks to people they don't like. I've seen it happen myself. Can any of you other bartenders confirm/deny that service gets worse for jerks? It seems obvious to me but the other guy was saying it never happens and that I had no idea what I was talking about.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:49 |
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stubblyhead posted:Martinis--gin or vodka? It is all gin, but people who do not know what they are doing order it with vodka. I love dirty martinis. The olive brine can really overpower the taste of bad gin. I have made a lot of my own drinks. They are not hard, and most of the time I just randomly throw things together, and forget what I made by the next night. A few that I have toyed with are: Chocolate Covered Cherry Equal parts, Kahlua, Amaretto, Creme De Cacao Then a splah of grenadine Shake it all up and pour it into a shot glass. Bloody Pirate Nuts 1oz Spiced Rum 1oz Amaretto 1oz Peach Schnapps Fill with cranberry juice. Serve in a pint glass and two cherries. It doesn't sound to strong, but it is very tasty, and will get you messed up after too many.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 02:51 |
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John Q Russia posted:Some poster in another thread was arguing with me saying that bartenders never pour weaker drinks to people they don't like. I've seen it happen myself. Can any of you other bartenders confirm/deny that service gets worse for jerks? It seems obvious to me but the other guy was saying it never happens and that I had no idea what I was talking about. I never short pour a person because they're a jerk because they'll just complain more. I will short pur a person on the verge of getting cut off. If a person is a cock I just cut them off and there's nothing they can do about it if I say I think they've had too much.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 03:00 |
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Your stories back then were incredible (second only to that one guy who claimed to be a real ninja). I kept up with your tales for months. I really liked how you used the actual make up of drinks as a theme tie in Glad to hear all is going well with you, now. I recall a lot of deep rooted pain and hard hard HARD drinking. I hope that is all a thing of the past.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2007 04:42 |
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