The Art of Bartending

Bartending is probably one of the few jobs where fl seam and moves get you the high pay. dower drinks, tossing bottles in the air spell making a drink in your mixer, attending to the clientele and keeping the bar well organized pretty much makes up the conduct of a mixologist. JOB DESCRIPTION A bartender has four major functions in the bar. 1. Means of entertainment In some bars, the bartender becomes part of the entertainment, for compositors case in Coyote Ugly the bartender is the direct source of entertainment.Dave Acevedo, director of the Balti more than Bartender School LLC in Baltimore City, agrees, c completelying personality the most important ingredient. Its all about keeping people in your bar, he said. That means you curb to entertain them. Half of your job is premix drinks and the other half is entertaining the customers (Mosher 1) 2. Serving Drinks Of furrow, bartenders arent bartenders if they take upt know how to mix drinks. A bartender must know how to mix the drinks that customers request. Customers will look poorly at a bar with inexperienced bartenders.Take the time now to look at the second hand of your watch and allow 20 seconds to pass it seems like an eternity. However, while the bartender is stirring or oscillation, he or she also is putting on a show for the customers, and Ive seen many people become almost mesmerized when watch a good bartender prepare a drink properly. (Reagan 44) Being a bartender shouldnt be just about making and shaking drinks. It also has to have some entertainment value to it. Adding flair to the creation of your beverages could also mean bigger tips.This will also keep customers busy while your in the process of creating the drinks. 3. Payment and maintenance Of course, bartender cannot keep serving drinks without collecting payments, also at the end of the day the bartenders have to take an scroll of the liquor and the glassware. Order must be maintained when running a bar. Bars cannot afford to have a bartender breaking glassware or misplacing shakers because of lack of organization. In some bars, bartenders dont need to do these duties because there are people called bar backs who attend to it 4.Clientele service The bartenders main traffic is to reflect the image and atmosphere of the bar. In reality, bartenders are like the information network of a bar. He/she has to be l move ined in some field like sports or movies, sometimes even the profile and status of their patrons. REQUIREMENTS AND TRAINING *Completion of secondary groom level is required *Completion of a college course or any course pertaining to drinks mixing *Responsible Beverage service certificate maybe required by the employer These of course are just technicalities. You dont necessarily have to go to a bartending naturalize to be an excellent bartender.Great bartenders usually start out as barbacks (a bartenders assistant) and take it from there. but if you have a reasonably priced bartending school in the immediate area it is suggested that you take the course just to get the feel of pouring and mixing drinks. The last issue a bartender wants is to get screamed at by the manager for under or over pouring drinks. Another advantage of going to bartender school is you get an idea on how to mix hundreds of different drinks, which of course a bartender needs. Experience unfeignedly counts when you are hired. What makes Freeth such a cocktail whiz?Ive been mingled in the industry since I was knee-high, he explains. I grew up in a pub, first worked in Ibiza at 16, ran bars at university, then did seasons in Crete and elsewhere. He can add a degree in Leisure and Business Management and a Masters in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Moreover, he is still only 25 (Sims 46). As you can see from his experience, growing up in a pub and going to different bars really gave him an edge in the business. PHYSICAL DEMANDS One of the greatest physical demands that bartenders have to ov ercome is working the graveyard shift.Depending on the bars that you will work for a bartenders shift usually starts from just about nine or ten in the evening to around five in the morning. This varies of course because some bars hold earlier. This would throw your body clock into a fit especially if you are used to working the daylight shift. One other thing is you have to be able to know when a person is already intoxicated and know how to handle them Its important because the liability now is on the bars and bartenders. If somebody drinks as well as much, goes out and gets in an accident, they have the right to sue the bartender, Rich said.Training protects the server as well as protecting everybody else. (qtd. in Fenwick 1). More so, if that in the case of intoxication is a minor, a bartender could find himself in jail for serving alcoholic beverages to minors. The last thing a bar wants is a lawsuit on one of their bartenders. STATISTICS According to the U. S Labor Departm ent (Bureau of Labor statistics), 495,307 bartenders working in the country as of 2006, and the projected number of assiduous bartenders would reach 550, 952 by 2016. SALARY AND BENEFITS Average salary $22,890, plus tips AnnualDemand Good. Bartending remains a good job for those with top skills, as people have more disposable income for entertainment. Competition can be tight for top jobs with good tips. Qualifications Must be at least 21 and know local laws. Bartending school or on-the-job training experience, personality, and talent will mean better jobs and tips. (capital of Massachusetts Globe U. 15) The values shown above vary if youre on the level. If youre taken by a five star hotel or restaurant, you could expect the wage to be higher. A bartenders salary is around minimum wage.Ranging from around 10 to 12$ per hour gross. After taxes it would probably be around 7-8$ an hour. The real bulk of pay bartenders receive is the tip. A great bartender could earn twice his salary for remembering drinks or socializing with the establishments patrons. A little bit of show makes more dough, says Drobiarz with a smile (Lopez 1). This of course is an understatement when it comes to bartending. Some bars and restaurants give free meals during the shift of their bartenders. Most bartenders like most workers get paid holidays and vacations.In some cases, for bartenders that wok in hotels or restaurants like TGI Fridays, they get health damages and the sort. INTERVIEW An interview with a Bartender in Toronto named Renan Mendiola gave me an idea of what a bartenders life feels like. He said that the most important traits a bartender should have is attentiveness, flexibility and great memory. He says that a bartenders life isnt just mixing and pouring. Its more of socializing with your customers. He says that it doesnt only keep you from getting bored, sometimes it also keeps the tips high.Sometimes keeping an open ear and giving good advice could really help in term s of tips. Works Cited Alexandra Fenwick. Taking a shot Training may be required for bartenders. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News Washington Feb 4, 2007. pg. 1 Boston Globe. Hospitality and Food Service 1 Edition Boston, Mass. 15 October 2006. pg. U. 15 Lopez, Elias E. Bartending instructor Mark Drobiarz teaches ABCs of mixing drinks Bartending instructor Mark Drobiarz not only teaches his students the ABCs of mixing drinks, he also shows them how to add showmanship to their work Knight Ridder Tribune Business News.Washington25 December 2006. pg. 1 Mendiola, Renan. E-mail interview. 3-5 December 2007. Mosher, James. Bartending industry is always changing and evolving. The chance(a) Record. Baltimore, Md. 2 December 2005. pg. 1 Occupation Report. U. S Department of Labor. 15 December 2007 http//data. bls. gov/oep/nioem/empiohm. jsp Regan, Gary. Instructor finds he can learn a thing or two from his bartending students. Nations Restaurant News. New York 22 September 2003. Vol. 3 7, Iss. 38 pg. 44 Sims, Fiona. Shaken all Over. Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Sutton Jul 1-July 7, 2004. Vol. 193, Iss. 4330 pg. 46