Raising The Bar: So you want to play bartender - part one

My wife wants to be a bartender.

Makes sense; we have a dream of opening our own cocktail lounge someday, so it'd be nice if she could step behind the bar with me and know what she's doing. Better yet if she could stand alone with her arsenal of cocktails and be known about town as a great bartender.

Seeing as how she is married to a one, I'm the obvious choice to begin her training. The question for me is, where to begin? How do you build a bartender from scratch? There is no real established training program or apprenticeship blueprint that I know of that doesn't either a) cost a bunch of money or b) get you physically involved behind a working bar, so I've decided to take a whack at coming up with my own.



This initial post outlines the first baby steps toward becoming a good bartender, coming from the "Walk Before You Run" school, which is another way of saying "Old School". This will take some time. Understand that chefs normally have years of apprenticing before they're allowed to put out food on their own. In the good old days, when bartending was considered a craft and the profession was taken more seriously, a prospective bartender wouldn't be allowed to make a drink for a paying customer without putting in at least a year or two of training. This may seem excessive to some, but as a paying customer myself, I know that I wish the training for most bartenders out there in the world involved more than simply teaching someone how to pour beer and the right measures for highballs.

Christine, here's your apprenticeship program, part one. And for all the nascent barkeeps out there who've emailed me over the past year, I hope this provides a few answers to your questions.

BARBACK
Forget the bartending schools with their guaranteed placement programs, this is where you start. You need to grunt it out, do the work no one wants to do, get a feel for the ebb and flow of a bar during service and observe how bartenders work, from behind the scenes. Mostly, you watch and you learn. What do you watch for? Everything from matching different beverages to appropriate glassware to noticing the right garnishes for each drink and how a bartender manages their time and speed. You're not going to get paid much, and the work is far from glamorous, but this is where it starts. If you're lucky, a good bartender will educate you along the way when you show interest, and may even step back and let you make a few on the slower nights.

In the meantime, you STUDY. This will mean cocktail books. Not only should you generally have well over a hundred drinks easily memorized, you'll also have to study technique. To be a great bartender you'll need to know the history of the craft and a knowledge of your product, as well. For my wife, I have a guided list of books she should read, in order, that will give her a strong foundation.

Straight Up or On The Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail, by William Grimes. This is the best historical study of the cocktail. My theory is that to truly understand anything, you need to know the history, where it has been and how it has evolved over time. After reading this, you'll never look at your mint julep the same way ever again.

The Craft of the Bartender: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Master Bartender, with 500 Recipes, by Dale DeGroff. This book is from where I and countless other bartenders can trace their genesis. There's a little bit of everything here, from history to proper technique to recipes to memorize. I consider this book to be mandatory for any beginning bartender.

The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, by Gary Regan. Here's another must-have, giving another perspective on some of the same drinks and history as DeGroff, but adding some crucial elements like his discourse on "families" of drinks.

The Complete Book of Spirits: A Guide to Their History, Production, and Enjoyment, by Anthony Dias Blue. The famous wine writer gives a great primer on the history of different spirits along with his own tasting notes, giving my wife a starting point for understanding the products she uses for mixing cocktails.

Give these first two steps the breathing room they need. With dedication, you can nail both in 3-6 months. By then, you'll be ready to give the thirsty people of your city the anecdote they're coming to you for.

Finally, a shout out to the wonderful Cameron and Anita, authors of the monumentally fantastic blog marriedwithdinner, for supplying the above photo of yours truly, one of several they took while sitting at the bar at Union, in Seattle. The best reward in this job of mine isn't the tips, the joy I take in making drinks and sharing their history, it's the people who come to eat and drink and enjoy themselves while YOU are tending bar. It's a joy I can't wait for my wife to experience.