Bartending Schools - LeNell It All

by LeNell Smothers, Posted Apr 21st 2010 @ 5:00PM

Photo: LeNell Smothers

At the tender age of 21 and fresh out of college, I flipped open the Yellow Pages to find a bartending school in hopes of supplementing my meager income. A lady high in sales pitch drew out diagrams and calculated numbers showing how much money it was possible to earn if I invested in the small registration fee.

Most programs like this put you through a total of 40 hours of training for around $500 to $600. You learn basic skills like free pouring and garnish cutting. You'll learn the basics of wine, beer and liquor. Several cocktail recipes must be memorized. There are written tests to check your learning, as well as drills in a mock bar setup to test your speed and efficiency using real liquor bottles often filled with colored water. After successful completion of the course, the program grants access to job listings the school has culled from newspapers, websites and friends in the business. I landed my first bar job as a cocktail waitress, not a bartender.

Learn more about bartending schools after the jump.

One of the more affordable training programs today is BarSmarts. BarSmarts' fee is $65 for a kit of bar tools, a DVD and a workbook for learning at home followed by a day of live training. This program is a toned-down version for folks who don't have the time or money to attend the more intense and more expensive Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR). A five day BAR session costs $3500. These programs involve much more intense spirits training than the typical bar school. Learning to balance flavors in drinks is more important here than just memorizing recipes.

One of the most famous Japanese bartenders also admits to attending a bartending school as his start; although, he requires his staff to apprentice for lengthy periods before actually bartending. Kazuo Uyeda, owner of Tokyo's Tender Bar, will be in New York in May teaching students about Japanese Cocktail Technique including his controversial "hard shake" in a two day instruction program priced at $675. I have a feeling the biggest lesson he will have for American bartenders is hospitality and humility.

Most of these programs don't teach the less glamorous aspects of life behind the bar, like inventory control, health department compliance and dealing with difficult customers. To learn a bit more about less sexy topics of bar operation, turn to the books or seminars by Robert Plotkin.

All these seminars and classes can be good for building your confidence and skill set; however, none of them guarantee job placement or that you can function behind a bar. Often the best way to become a bartender is to start as a respectful bar patron building relationships with bartenders and staff and letting them know of your interest. Your best bet is starting as a door host, waitress or staff member known as the barback who quietly supports the bar by cutting fruit and stocking glasses.

Think about it, just because you study to become a doctor, a refrigerator repair person or a truck driver, you really don't know what you are doing until you have done it for a while, learned the inside tricks of the trade from experience and hard knocks, and been embarrassed a few times by your lack of skill in a few situations. No one taught me in bar school how to change a keg of beer, much less how to deal with the guy who stuck his genitals in the popcorn bowl sitting on the bar.

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the proprietress of Casa Cóctel with partner Demián Camacho Santa Ana. She's owned her own whiskey label, called Red Hook Rye, and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

Filed Under: Drinks
Tags: bartending schools, lenell smothers

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-22-2010 @11:11AM ZenKimchi said... I did something similar. I enrolled in bartending school, a franchise of the now defunct International Bartending Institute (IBI) in Mobile, AL right when I turned 21. The cool thing was that my dad enrolled with me. It was an intensive two-week course that was heavy on understanding the properties of liquors, memorizing recipes, free pouring, and getting the speed down. There were also sections on the nitty gritty and dealing with problem customers.

The thing is, I really enjoyed the class. I still couldn't get a bar job afterwards, mostly because I moved to a college town to complete my degree, and the bars managers only hired frat brothers and busty ladies. But I still cherish going through that, and my knowledge has gotten me a few free drinks over the years at bars in Korea.

I did finally get to be a bartender during the dot-com crash. A job at a Chili's, where they taught me all those Startender flipping bottle flair tricks. And I loved it!

I'm not a big drinker, but I just love the feel of the bar and all the stuff you can do with bottles behind you.

Anyway, talking about bartending school just brought some fuzzy nolstagia. I do, in fact, recommend it--if not to expand your job prospects--but for pure enrichment and fun. And it was a great bonding experience with my dad.
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