What a bartender should know
Sometimes it is very pleasant to sit in a bar, enjoying the subtle aroma of a served cocktail and watching the work of the king of the bar - the bartender. Watching how deftly he mixes cocktails and pours drinks, the question begins to arise: “how to become a bartender and make money if you don’t have any skills?”
In order to become a professional bartender, you need to have a genuine interest in this matter, because it is an entire art. The process of preparing cocktails and drinks and serving them should be enjoyable, and communication with clients should not be a burden, not forgetting that clients can be very different.
So, if there is a corresponding desire, then you need to start by passing, where the student will acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills to work as a bartender. For a professional bartender, the key goal should be satisfied customers and the profitability of the establishment. The bartender must monitor the quality of the cocktails and drinks served, decide on the purchase of equipment and supplies of drinks for the bar, and monitor compliance with hygiene and safety standards. Also, do not forget that the bartender has a very important and responsible task - control of cash transactions. The bartender must skillfully handle bar tools and accessories, have knowledge of all classic cocktail recipes, and also be able to create recipes independently.
Another important quality of a bartender is his refined manners. The bartender must be obliging, follow the necessary rules of etiquette and be able to listen to his guests, while respecting the chain of command.
So, the results of how to become a bartender, having a great desire to improve in this area. To do this you need:
- complete the necessary bartending courses;
- have a fairly attractive appearance;
- be friendly and sociable, because the bartender is a person with whom clients will begin to open up after drinking a few glasses, and the bartender is obliged to pay attention to them;
- be easy-going, because the profession of a bartender usually involves working at night;
- be fast and attentive. The bartender must have time to serve all customers without confusing who paid and who did not.
Do not forget that you must spend a minimum of time and effort on fulfilling the order, remember the tastes and preferences of the establishment’s regular guests, as well as be physically resilient, have an excellent memory and an eternally good mood.
How to become a bartender. An enthusiast's story.
How to become a successful bartender? Where to start and what skills to develop? A brief history of the emergence of the Odessa professional bar community. All this information in concentrated form is shared by a “simple” Odessa bartender, Alexander Zozulya.
Life before the bar
Life before the bar was like everyone else's. He graduated from school, or rather Shab school No. 1. Perhaps this influenced the attitude towards alcohol; we had a school subject - winemaking. And in almost every house they crushed grapes and made their own homemade wine. When alcohol is readily available (not forbidden fruit) and the presence of several sports schools. As a result, alcohol abuse among teenagers was fashionable among most of my peers. It was interesting to experiment not with the dose, but with the quality, mixing different grape varieties, aging in different containers, etc.
In 1998 he entered ONU named after. Mechnikov at the Faculty of History, Department of Archeology. Yes, I’m a bit of an archaeologist). During training, like any conscientious guy, he worked for small expenses as a loader at the port, a security guard at a disco, a cashier in a store, a waiter...
Professional bar - beginning
While working as a waiter, I constantly pestered all the bartenders with various questions. And I'm lucky! They knew how to tell stories and loved them. Especially Kostya Baikovsky, who at that time, having quite a lot of experience, successfully shared it with me. At that distant time, there was very little information on alcohol and cocktails and it was almost “top secret”.
In 2002, he began his career and creative path behind the bar. This is where it began: night shifts of 10-14 hours, “research” of this or that drink in quality and quantity. Over time, it became obvious that youthful enthusiasm was not enough to be a professional... It was a time of “tequila booms” and “burning sambukas”...
There was only one solution. You need knowledge about drinks and cocktails to become better, to make better cocktails, and to earn more. I was constantly looking through books, articles, and the Internet - then self-education helped a lot. Plus, participation in bartending competitions among professionals played a big role. There you get a “blended concentrate” of experience and knowledge.
Rule "Aquarium"
For the last eight years out of 14 years of experience, he devoted himself to club work. According to unspoken statistics from professional bartenders, clubs are much more interesting than restaurants and pubs. There is more active communication here, more opportunities to prove yourself as a mixologist, as a fleur bartender or barista, a coffee specialist, that is.
Working in a TOP club can turn into “Groundhog Night”. It is important to separate one from the other here. Otherwise, sooner or later problems will begin.
When visiting a club, bar or restaurant, guests are looking for the atmosphere and comfort zone they need. Relax, relax and perhaps forget about problems and quite often reprimand the bartender. The truth is not for everyone - here you need to be able to listen, people feel it. They pour out both positive and negative emotions, it happens that they give out a stream of important information and then really regret it. I recommend following the “Aquarium” rule. Everything that happens behind the counter stays there. Keep other people's secrets and be aware of all events in the city. This is practically a secret confession, take this advice into account in your work.
In order to become truly cool, it is important not only to have professional knowledge, but also to be a people's psychologist. The bartender is the face of the establishment who “feeds and disciplines” the staff and guests of the establishment. It determines how often guests will come to the club, what they will drink and eat. To do this, you need to win the trust of guests as a master of his craft, charismatic and cheerful, understanding, tireless, superhuman. Having gone through these stages of development, we are usually faced with the following question...
Perform and win competitions, travel to see the world and other bar cultures, become a bar manager, learn all the nuances of opening a bar from scratch, understand, become a successful owner of a restaurant or club. The list is not complete, but it will be enough to get you started.
It happened like this - in 2009, my friend and I rented a room in an abandoned factory without windows and doors, in the literal sense of the word. Having carried out the renovation on our own, we created the first specialized training room for flaring. A year later, I met the president of the All-Ukrainian Bartenders Association, Sergei Kodatsky, and the board director of the association in the Odessa region, Andrey Bugaenko.
Together with Andrey, they subsequently created and certified the Barboss training center in the All-Ukrainian Association of Bartenders. Which, after a certain creative period, was renamed the “Odessa Academy of Bartenders”. Where everyone who feels that bartending is his calling can learn this not simple, but such an interesting craft...
The job of a bartender is not as easy as it seems at first glance. The job of a bartender requires skill, personality, experience and the stamina to work almost until the morning, which is very difficult. Many people prefer to work as a bartender, but before you get a job, you need to learn the main bartending techniques and learn the famous drinks. And that's not it. There are many nuances that every bartender must know.
What does it take to become a bartender?
- Firstly, the bartender must look very good. Hands and face should be well-groomed. Speech, conversation and diction play a big role in such a profession.
- Secondly, the bartender must be sociable, but moderately human. Be able to find a common language with different and unfamiliar people.
- Thirdly, the age of the bartender matters. Priority to young individuals, mostly male. If you are a girl, you can try, but it is not easy work, and you are unlikely to survive.
- Fourthly, the bartender must be easy-going.
- Fifthly, it's speed. The worker must be attentive and fast, have time to serve all visitors, and also keep an eye on the dishes. With time comes skill.
What you need to know to become a bartender
The next important steps in this work are:
-Learn how to prepare drinks. It is very important that drinks and cocktails do not differ in taste and appearance from the work of an experienced specialist. They don't just need to be poured and mixed. To do this, you need to learn the most important cooking techniques:
1) Shaking. This is done using a shaker designed to mix and cool a cocktail or drink.
2) Straining. Shakers have a sieve through which the liquid is separated from the ice.
3) Shaking. You need to learn how to shake so as not to shake or spill the drink.
4) Extrusion. Squeeze out flavors from fresh ingredients using a special cocktail stirring stick.
5) Mixing. To do this, you need a blender to prepare a drink from several ingredients.
Know the most popular drinks by heart. Initially, you need to learn the types of alcohol and what they can be combined with.
The most famous are: Bloody Mary, Melon Ball, Mint Party, Sambuca, Martini, Pina Colada, Mojito, Daiquiri, Mimosa.
Monitor the work and actions of an experienced bartender. There are small rules on how to pour beer and mix different cocktails. Watch how the bartender handles orders.
Here are a few more important tips for quickly getting used to being a bartender.
- Learn drinks and their history.
- A bartender must be able to prepare not only those cocktails that are on the menu of the establishment where he works. If something happens, if a visitor comes to the bar and orders an individual drink, so that you can prepare it tasty and according to the rules. Therefore, you need to know all the taste characteristics of drinks and alcohol.
- Learn mixology. Mixology is based on organic chemistry and will give the product an unusual color and taste. There are 70 laws of mixing drinks and 500 types of cocktails.
- Use beautiful accessories in your work. The bartender's tools should attract attention to the actions while working.
- Know how to juggle. This is throwing bottles, while doing different tricks. You need to be very careful here.
- Prepare drinks at the bar counter. This will show your honesty. And you will have more confidence, because visitors will see how their drinks are prepared. And there is a chance to earn more from it.
How to become a bartender for a girl
Visitors often perceive female bartenders with surprise. This is due to the difficult physical and mental work. Not every girl can handle it, so they are very rare in this area.
There are some requirements for a female bartender, just like a male one:
- Attentiveness;
- Patience;
- Endurance;
- Competent and intelligible speech.
Basically, everything that is required from a male bartender is the same from a female bartender. All rules and nuances are taken into account regardless of gender, female or male.
The main thing and priority is observation of professionals
Knowledge and skill come only with experience. And it’s better to start your training by observing those who already have this knowledge and skill. Each profession has its own subtleties and tricks - notice them, seek advice, evaluate the pace of work, understand what is most important in it.
Knowledge is power
A good bartender must know the tastes and characteristics of the drinks he works with. This allows him to understand what is best to advise a client who has not yet made his final choice. And, of course, it helps to make truly delicious cocktails, because you need to know what to mix. A cocktail made up of any kind of drinks, of course, can also be sold, especially if you have the gift of persuasion. But it’s unlikely that after such a vague drink the client will want to contact you again.
Creativity is a special skill
A good bartender is a well-read bartender who knows and remembers many cocktail recipes: the more, the better. However, if you are creative enough to create your own recipes, you take it to a whole new level of skill. Customers will appreciate the way you come up with completely new cocktails based on their taste preferences. An individual approach is important here: a high-class bartender can determine in a few seconds the client’s mood, some character traits and understand what combination he will like. Even if the client gave a vague phrase as an order: “Well, something like that... like...”
Once again about creativity - this time in the names of drinks
Knowing how to give your new cocktails fancy names is an added bonus. Such drinks are especially popular on the bar menu. After all, it is interesting to try such cocktails as, for example, “Linkin Park”, “Khrushchev”, “Hudson Hawk”, “Guns and Roses”, “Roquefort’s Dream”, “Cousteau in Delight”. For the bartender, this curiosity brings profit, recognition, and fame. Moreover, if these cocktail experiments really turned out to be successful.
Flairing is not the most important thing
Spectacular tossing of dishes is, of course, beautiful. But it's not always appropriate. Similar mini-performances are for special institutions and special events. Of course, it is also possible to entertain a few bored visitors with juggling in a calm atmosphere. But if at the peak of visiting the establishment there are impatient people crowding around the bar counter, you should focus on orders, and not on the show. It’s better to surprise your customers with new tastes or fast service - they will appreciate it more.
Speed is one of the most important qualities
Moreover, both the speed of movement and the speed of consideration. At the bar counter, everything happens quickly - this is how it differs from the tables in a cafe. And if the establishment is popular, then the bar is always crowded with people, excited to dance, who do not want to wait long for their order. You even have to improvise at high speed: in a few seconds you need to understand the taste preferences of the visitor and come up with the optimal combination of drinks for him. Moreover, the cocktail should also be delicious!
The bartender is also a psychologist
It is important to be able to notice the mood of the client sitting at the bar counter. If he is sad, it is best to fulfill his order and leave him with a drink for 15-20 minutes so that he has time to relax. After this, you can start a conversation: after all, if a person sits down at the bar, most likely he needs a listener or interlocutor. Or both listener and interlocutor rolled into one.
Never talk about politics.
You need to talk to clients in their language
Young people most often need an approach with humor, while older visitors need attention. Some people love good sarcasm, others can be very expressive... All this can be supported and answered in the same spirit. This way, you will be able to come to an agreement faster, and very soon you will win over a client who will feel free to communicate with you and will be grateful for it. As mentioned above, it is likely that this is what he came for - to relax and talk freely. What will benefit both of you: the visitor will be satisfied with the evening spent, will return to your establishment again and trust your taste. You will be rewarded with positive emotions from communication, good tips and another regular customer.
Be honest with clients
If the client becomes a regular, he willingly listens to the opinion of the bartender (see the previous paragraph). And this, of course, is a good opportunity to convince the visitor to buy a more expensive drink. But if you see that the client has clearly had enough to drink and “demands that the banquet be continued,” it’s better to try to reason with him. After all, the bartender, as we remember, is also a psychologist - remain one in any situation. It’s better to recommend some non-alcoholic cocktail to a client who has had too much alcohol - and the banquet will continue, and the visitor will not lose his human appearance, and the bar will make a profit. Most likely, at first the visitor will begin to be indignant at the refusal of alcohol, but if you can convince him that you are right, after a while he will be grateful to you.
Do not attach much importance to the appearance of visitors
It is unreasonable to assume that a smartly dressed person will leave a rich tip, while a customer in a simple T-shirt or sweater will place the cheapest order. It is even more unwise to behave appropriately with a client. Firstly, this is not professional - you should be equally friendly with all clients, and secondly, appearance is deceptive: a nondescript type can turn out to be generous with both orders and tips.
Be prepared for a change in daily routine
Bartender - most often work at night. Many clubs, bars and cafes only open in the evening and stay open until night. Or even all night. And you will have to spend all this time on your feet, showing maximum attention, intelligence and speed. You will have to sleep during the day, and your body will not be happy with this, especially at first. So judge your stamina wisely. In principle, a person is a flexible creature and gets used to everything. In addition, a lot depends on the operating hours: after all, each establishment has its own - perhaps you can choose a more or less gentle schedule for yourself.
Don't forget
The constant presence of alcohol on hand, the temptations of nightlife, the easy carefreeness of youth - all this at first seems exciting, tempting and brings a lot of pleasure. However, we should not forget that excessive consumption of alcohol - even as part of mind-blowing cocktails - does not bring any good. It is important to be able to stop in time and control yourself. And then you can stay in the profession for many years, continuing to do what you love and constantly improving your skills.
Don't go to extremes
Even when working in an elite establishment, you shouldn’t turn up your nose and look down on customers - you won’t become a good bartender that way. By putting on pathos, you won’t win people’s favor, and it won’t improve the quality of your work. But also insincere servanthood in the spirit of “What do you want?” no need either. To the extent of humor, to the extent of attentiveness - without intrusiveness. And remain yourself - friendly and cheerful. After all, if you like to see the smiles of your clients, if you love your job, then you will be in a great mood behind the bar. This means that clients will be happy to contact you. That's why you decided to become a bartender, isn't it?
Details
A lot of attention is paid to how to become a waiter, thousands of tips are given, but much less is said about how to become a bartender from scratch. And even more so when the question is even more acute - how can a girl become a bartender?
However, guys also have difficulties on the initial path. How to get a job as a bartender and how to become one if you don’t yet have experience in this field? Let's try to figure it out.
If you look into the etymology of the word “bartender”, you can find out that it combines words from two languages - Russian and English - giving the name of the profession to the person who is behind the bar.
How to become a bartender?
How to become such an impeccably dressed person who is discouraging with his smile? To become a bartender, you need to objectively evaluate your own skills and understand whether they correspond to this profession. Because a bartender is not only a smile, but many components, in particular:
- This is everyday work, and most often at night;
- it is a constant noise;
- these are the people around, from whom there is nowhere to hide.
To become a bartender, you need to meet the requirements. What requirements can be put forward to the profession of a bartender?
- The person behind the bar must be a real magician in order to tirelessly mix cocktails, prepare and serve drinks to guests. This means that the presence of certain knowledge is mandatory.
- The work of a bartender means being willing to stand on your feet for several hours at a time, which means physical endurance comes into play.
- The desire and ability to communicate with people, because without this, a bartender will not succeed as a specialist.
The question of how to become a bartender remained unclear, although the answer could have been predicted. To become a bartender you need water training from educational institutions, namely:
- on course;
- in technical schools or colleges;
- in vocational school.
Training to become a bartender will provide knowledge of a specific subject, as well as knowledge of psychology, guide the student through various trainings and master classes, in a word, prepare for future activities.
How can a girl become a bartender?
Anyone can become a bartender, regardless of age and education, including girls. But for some reason, the girl bartender behind the bar evokes surprised glances from guests, because this profession is not easy, it is associated with stress, moral and physical. A girl who has crossed the threshold of a bar for the first time as a bartender needs to stock up on some professional traits that will help her assert herself. To become a bartender, a girl will need the following qualities:
- She needs to have a developed sense of attention, the ability to concentrate on her main activity.
- Patience will also help her, because among the visitors, there will probably be some annoying ones.
- Work on the feet. Night shifts require a certain stamina, and therefore the fragile creature has nothing to do behind the bar counter.
- A visitor is attracted to a bartender not only by his appearance, but also by his speech. Colorful, flowing speech attracts visitors to the bar counter, who come up and talk.
Otherwise, everything is the same as with the male bartender. The same instructions for action, the same principle of operation. So, to the question of how a girl can become a bartender, the beginning of the answer has been found.
How to become a bartender from scratch?
The path to becoming a bartender lies through completing training courses. These are available in all major cities of Russia, because the restaurant business sector is one of the most progressive today. This means that the solution to the question of how to become a bartender from scratch can be found there – in bartender courses. It is during the courses that skills and knowledge are imparted so that none of the visitors can doubt the professional suitability of the specialist.
We should not forget that a “bartender from scratch” must be able to do a lot, namely:
- prepare cocktails according to various recipes;
- carry out settlement transactions with the client through the cash register;
- be able to handle all the tools available in the bar.
Accordingly, a short answer to the question of how to become a bartender from scratch prescribes the following points:
- education;
- desire to improve one's professional skills.
How to get a job as a bartender?
The training has been completed, the skills have been acquired, the most difficult part begins - finding the answer to the question, where, and most importantly, how to get a job as a bartender? The solution to the problem is very simple, but it requires a great desire:
- you can advertise in newspapers;
- you can call on the Internet to help and post your resume on “Looking for a Job” sites (it goes without saying that the bartender candidate knows how to do this).
- work on your appearance, even if you are a young man;
- pay attention to your speech;
- evaluate yourself from the point of view of sociability, since the bartender constantly communicates with people;
- develop a daily routine, possibly similar to the night work of a bar;
- force yourself to instantly complete any household chores, which will undoubtedly be useful in the workplace.
Did you call back? Have you been invited to an interview? Great. It seems that the answer to the question of how to become a bartender has been found. Now all that remains is to dress carefully, take the relevant documents and go to the specified address.
