DrinkedIn Trends

While contentedly tending bar one evening I received a curious offer. One of my guests was the new owner of a bar down the street. She wanted me to work for her.

“I don’t think you have a chance of pulling me away,” I told her. “I’m very happy here.”

It was not only the professional thing to say. It was true. After six months on the job, I was settling in. I was making good money, had an expanding group of fun regulars, liked my schedule and was given autonomy by the management.

“You should at least talk to my partner and I about it,” she replied.

So you’ve been hired – congrats! You’re all scheduled for your very first shift and excited to dig in. As with any new job, you want to show up looking polished and prepared for anything. So I thought I’d put together a quick list of all of the things I’d recommend you bring to your first shift.

Some of these items are more obvious than others, and you may realize you don’t need some of them after all. But it’s far better to be prepared than not! This list should give you a very good starting point for your first day.

What to Bring to your First Shift:

In the real world of running a beverage program, there are a lot of tools and pieces of equipment that are indispensable to creating great recipes and cocktails. Equipment like blenders, juicers, and ice machines are pretty common for most bars, and it’s not too difficult to convince  your manager / owner to invest in them. But why stop there?

Some of the world’s top cocktail bars have many more advanced (and often expensive) tools that help them spin, infuse and freeze an incredible craft cocktail program. Today I thought I’d feature a “wish list” of advanced mixology tools that I would have loved the opportunity to leverage with in my bar program – that is, if money were no object. (Wouldn’t that be nice?)

In the previous articles, we explored the concept of apprenticeship and the different forms it can take in bartending, including the tradition of the stagiaire and how the kitchen term applies to the bar. In this part of our apprenticeship series, we’ll examine the guest shift.

Guest Shifts: Apprenticeship for Fun, Profit, and More

An important distinction between a stage and a guest shift tending bar is that stages are mostly paid for in experience while guest shifts are generally more lucrative and a little less formal.

Special events can require an extra set of hands, and it’s often friends and colleagues of short-handed Bar Managers who respond when the Bat-Signal goes up. Sometimes an invitation to visit a friend in a different city can turn into a surprise shift behind a strange bar.

You have a lot to give. You can muddle, shake, stir, strain, infuse and improvise. You can pour classics and one-of-a-kinds, but not if no one orders them.

Maybe you’re at a humble dive where every drink ordered has an “and” in it, and I don’t mean Smith and Wesson or Dark and Stormy. If you have to pour another rum and coke or shot and a beer, you’re going to hide in the dishwasher.

How can you get your patrons to let you create something special?

You need to get the craft cocktail snowball rolling. Once people see interesting drinks on tables and trays, they’ll start asking: “What’s that?” They’ll get curious. Then they’ll get adventurous.

Then they’ll let you be you.

If you are looking to make the next step in your bartending career or you just love geeking out on new techniques for cocktail design, becoming a lead bartender could be a really good move for you.

The lead bartender role can be the perfect “Goldilocks” scenario for many bartenders. Depending on the arrangement you make with your bar, you could get a bump in pay, preferential shifts, creative freedom with the menu, and potentially reimbursement for further educational events like Tales of the cocktail or classes like our Mixology Certification.

I know all of this sounds great, but it is not all fun and games. There are also additional responsibilities that come with this role and new skills that you will need to develop.

Is “dive” a complimentary term for a bar? Or is it a wretched place that swims so far below decency you’d never admit to working at one?

Playboy defines “dive” with a touch of elegance:

A church for down-and-outers and those who romanticize them. A rare place where high and low rub elbows — bums and poets, thieves and slumming celebrities. It’s a place that wears its history proudly.

Dive bars come in two styles. Some are comfortable, anti-fancy, non-pretentious, come-as-you-are joints you can slip into like your favorite slippers. Others are dirty, dingy, uncared for, dilapidated holes that smell like, well, old footwear.

Even the saddest ones have regulars who love them. The best dives give you all of what you want and none of what you don’t: a relaxed atmosphere, cheap drinks, graffiti on the walls and a bartender who knows your name. Throw peanut shells on the floor. Show up with your dirty work shirt untucked and your hair rumpled. A dive bar doesn’t judge.