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Posts with tag bartending

Your Second Career: Bartending?

Last week, I wrote a piece about David Herr, an engineer who followed the ultimate foodie dream and pursued a second career as a chef. Oddly enough, I subsequently discovered that the bartending industry is currently seeing a major spike in new employees and trainees. Over the last few months, bartending schools have seen a 20-25% growth in enrollment, as traditional jobs evaporate and the newly unemployed begin to explore their next career move. Given the fact that we're facing a long, cold winter with limited resources, it seems likely that a lot of people will be headed out to the bars.

In all likelihood, the next year or so will see a significant change in the bar environment. Instead of cold nightclubs and cocktail palaces with high-priced frothy drinks, there will probably be a spike in neighborhood joints where the beers are generous and the well whiskey is cheap. Still, although per-person bar expenditures will probably drop, the increase in new customers should make bartending a reasonable career choice for the foreseeable future.

At their best, bars are comforting places where one can take shelter from the cold, converse with one's community, strike up conversations with total strangers, and huddle for warmth. While it may be too soon to draw conclusions about where America's communities are headed, it seems reasonable to expect that cocktail-making skills will continue to be in vogue, at least for the next few years.

Raising The Bar: So You Want to Play Bartender - Part Two

Keith Waldbauer's wifeBefore we get started on the continuation of your goal of being a good bartender, I'd like to address publicly a great point brought up by one of our Slashfood readers.

Suzy pointed out in the comment field in the last post that as an alternative to becoming a barback, another way to get your foot in the door is as a cocktail waitress. Great point, and I'd elaborate that to include anybody in the restaurant business. If you're a server and your restaurant has a bar, try asking if you can step behind the bar and train. This is how I got into bartending. Now, ordinarily, this will mean you will be back there for free. Again, this is how I got in. I put in several volunteer hours until I was asked to cover a shift and until finally getting my own shifts. The point is, any way you can get yourself behind a bar and start learning, paid or not, do it.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say that starting as a server is probably the optimal way to go, though the process will take longer. As a barback, you'll get behind the bar quicker and your learning curve on how to work a bar will be shorter, but you'll be missing what I consider a key element of bartending, namely, service. Going through a server training program through a restaurant gives you an eye for the details of good service, an element I think is lacking in many bartenders today. A server in a restaurant would never skimp on the basics such as a) providing water for your guests, b) acknowledging new guests right away with menus and c) patiently explaining the product being offered if asked. I cannot tell you how many bars I go to that skip the bare minimums of good service, as if the bar were a rarefied plane of existence in which these standards don't apply. Good bartending means good service. Period.

Okay, stepping off my soap-box and moving right along . . .

Continue reading Raising The Bar: So You Want to Play Bartender - Part Two

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

Anita Crotty/ Married With DinnerMy 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.

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

If you're a bartender, you should know how to make these drinks

Aviation CocktailI don't know if I could ever be a bartender. I like the idea of being one, but it seems to me it's like the ultimate pop quiz in a very intense situation. People come in off the street and ask you for a Tequila Sunrise or a Negroni or A Slow Comfortable Screw Up Against The Wall, and you immediately have to know how to do them. Sure, you can stop and look in a book (I did that when I was a sorta-bartender at a restaurant), but a real bartender has to know how to make these drinks immediately, especially if it's a Friday or Saturday night. Though I guess it's like any other skill, you learn through practice.

Esquire has the four obscure drinks that every bartender should know how to make. I've heard of (but never had) The Aviation Cocktail, but I've never heard of the other three.

Second Annual Clément Rhum NYC Cocktail Challenge: Part Two- The Semi-Finals

This is part two of my journey in the Second Annual Clément Rhum NYC Cocktail Challenge, the semi-finals. As you may know I was invited to compete in the cocktail event by Clément Rhum which I wrote about in Part One of this series.. My entrant, The St. Clémentine Sour was part of several weeks of development playing around with various ingredients. Since I was coming from out of town to the event I didn't have a NYC bar to sponsor me. After much emailing and phone calls it was arranged that I would be at The Waterfront Ale House to make and show my cocktail for the semi-finals.

I spent several days before hand putting together a mixologist tool kit since it was required that I bring all my own tools and ingredients, except for the Clément Rhum products which would be provided. I bought a beautiful aluminum sided tool box from Home Depot for $20, with black painted sides and brushed aluminum edges. I filled it with cocktail shakers, juice squeezers and reamers, measuring spoons and cups, jigger measures, ice tongs, muddlers, bar knives and spoons, cutting boards, pouring spouts, strainers, and other utensils.

I was a little nervous since it has been quite a few years since I was last on the working side of a bar. By now it was the first week of May and clementines aren't really in season or available. I found a few cases at a local produce place but when I tried them I realized they were useless. They were overripe and getting nasty tasting.

Continue reading Second Annual Clément Rhum NYC Cocktail Challenge: Part Two- The Semi-Finals

No more free drinks: device keeps tabs on bartenders

Studies have shown that the size of the glass can influence the size of the drink a bartender pours, and many people will swear that certain outfits and/or leaving big tips can get you stronger drinks at a bar, too. The only ones who don't seem to like it when this happens are the bar and nightclub owners, who collectively lose $7 billion each year due to overpouring and undercharging.

A new technology, brought to our attention by the hard-working Engadget crew, called the Beverage Tracker, has been invented by a San Francisco company to alleviate the problem. The device is an RFID-enabled liquor spout that attaches to bottles and keeps track of how much is poured for each drink. The data includes "not only the unique identification number of its microchip, but also the brand and size of liquor bottle to which it is attached, as well as the amount of liquor poured" and it is transmitted directly to the bar/club's computer system. Data collected helps with inventory management, as well as identifying bartenders who chronically overpour/undercharge. The whole system can cost from $10,000-20,000, depending on the size of the bar, but the return on the investment can take as little as 6 weeks.

Currently, the system is being used at the bars at Las Vegas's Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, as well as at about 100 other bars/clubs.

Don't upset the bartender

The San Francisco Chronicle recently queried several SF bartenders about the drinks they hate to make. As you might imagine, it's the laborious, time consuming cocktails that can really get on your mixologist's nerves when he or she is slammed with thirsty customers. The sugar-rimmed lemon drop made the list, as did the Manhattan, because, according to one bartender, people are very picky about how they want their Manhattans made. The same goes for cosmopolitans, apparently. Muddling and shaking also put the mojito on the list of loathed drinks. Last on the list of pet peeves were concoctions specific to certain bars. I personally know of one bar where all the blenders magically seem to break once the night shift arrives...

[Via DrunkNewsBlog]

Help Uptown Kevin Find A Job

kevinIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I've been checking in one some New Orleans food blogs to see how the bloggers are doing. Kevin who blogs at Notes From A New Orleans Foodie has ended up in Chicago. He's safe and sound but since he can't get home anytime soon he's looking for a bartending job in Chicago. He's staying in Berwyn but wants to find a job downtown.  If you'd like a bartender with New Orleans flavor he can be contacted on his blog.

Tip of the Day

December may have peppermint bark, but have you thought to incorporate the taste of autumn into white chocolate with a rich pumpkin swirl?

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