Q: What Qualifies You as the Hiring Manager for Hiring Bartenders?
Have you worked as a bartender for multiple years in any busy bar where you’ve deposited $2,000 to $3,000 every night? Have you earned your establishment over a half a million dollars a year in alcohol sales building and selling drinks? Do you hire based on looks, on breasts, on shapely legs or some other crotch stimulating non job performance criteria which doesn’t affect the bottom line based on ability? Is this a Breastaurant or Brar hiring only bratenders – or is it a seriously run business looking for a good bartender, and with a good business marketing plan beyond “Sex Sells”?
- Those are the areas you as a Professional Bartender need to hit management with first when you sit down for an interview. Find out wheather they’re idiots with their brains below the waist, or smart business minded people looking to make the establishment a success. If they’re there to succeed and make something of the business then stick around for the rest of the interview.
Many young managers starting out have no clue, but if their attitude is clearly one of willing to learn, then if your gut instinct is good, tell them you’re willing to give them the benefit of your experience and show them your system if they’re willing to learn (and not screw up your system by putting hurdles in your way).
For the most part bartending today has been reduced to the level of professional respect given burger flipping. Here are some simple guidelines on how to turn that situation around again.
Many if not all of the once common and universally required professional tools of the bartending trade are missing or broken in bars today.
Hiring managers don’t bother asking interviewees how to make a Whiskey Sour, a Pina Colada, a Bloody Mary, a Manhattan, etc., and later after being hired when the managing authority is questioned about whether there’s a bar spoon or Hawthorne strainer anywhere in the house they’ll sometimes produce a blank stare and confess they don’t even know what those things are.
True Story
A woman with a small child comes into my bar, sits at a table and walks to the bar asking for a Margarita. I ask her if she wants that to be top shelf made with Patrón Tequila, Cointreau, freshly squeezed lime juice sweetened with blue agave syrup, and Himalayan sea salt on the rim.
Yes, she says, please have the waitress bring it over to my table. “Would you like that up or on the rocks, with ice?” I ask. “With Ice” she says. I make her a nice Margarita.
Two minutes later it comes back.
She wants the ice removed, but wants it in the same glass.
I remove it.
She sends it back.
The glass isn’t full.
I tell the waitress that I can serve it in its proper chilled “up” glass, but that that’s the drink. The 18 year old waitress RUNS into the kitchen and pulls some shit with her supervisor – who comes dashing out and tells me that Margaritas go in 16 oz pint beer glasses… “but ( I protest) she doesnt want any ice – it’s Patrón Ultra Premium Tequila, fresh squeezed lime juice…” and she snaps back angrily at me “Just do it! Make it happen!”
OK. So 13 ounces of pure chilled Patrón added. NOW it’s a 16oz Margarita. No fucking problem.
The lady drinks a few ounces and then takes out a large clear plastic to-go slurpie cup with ice in it (I kid you not!) and proceeds to pour the Margarita into it, pays the waitress, and leaves to drive off on the expressway with her clear plastic slurpie and all day drunk cup, and her poor little three year old son in tow. So yes, apparently you CAN fill (at least) a 16 oz glass with just 3 oz of liquor. At least according to one incompetent person put in charge of running someone’s restaurant and bar.
Social Media Peer Group Reaction
Knowing How To Choose The Right Bar For Your Talents
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” Matthew 7:6 Sermon on the Mount.
At that point (after being hired) after all of the i’s are dotted and all the t’s are crossed, when the horrendous signs of incompetence are evident, when the warning bells are clanging, when the alarm claxons are blaring, when fifty other things are suddenly discovered to be poorly designed for optimal performance, improperly/inefficiently laid out and set up, or equipment is missing or broken which is required for the bar to function at its most profitable level – it’s too late to rewind and return back to the interview process then to re-interview the hiring manager to see if they’re qualified to become your client – AKA person paying your bills, AKA your boss.
Why Client?
As a business owner myself I’ve made a living for many years working with clients without having what most people commonly refer to as a “job”. The fact that most of my clients are corporations enhances the position I’m taking here now that when I offer my bartending skills to a business, they are no different from any other client I offer any of my other professional services to, except that they’d like me to be there working a set of scheduled hours.
When I provide a corporation with a contract bid and consult with that company while explaining technical details I’m also sizing them up to see if they’ll be right to work with me because my company has a certain level of technical expertise which the client must understand if we are to work together at my level and they can benefit from what I have to teach them. I have to see if they’ll be good candidates so they can obtain the benefits that will occur from the results of my services as promised by me and desired by them.
If I see they are in the stone age and can’t be influenced then I don’t have any more desire to pursue or close the contract, even if that means I wont be taking the thousands of dollars in fees I would normally charge them upon signing.
Bars As Clients
Few bartenders are capable of thinking of management as agents of the owners (the owners are the bartenders’ actual clients, not the managers). Bar owners and bar franchise corporations are the actual clients who need to be kept in mind. Managers are proxies – persons authorized to act on behalf of another. They therefore must be spoken to frankly and matter of factly, as if speaking to a client when you’ve got something to say which is in their best interest.
We as bartenders need to properly vet management (to evaluate for possible approval or acceptance “vet the managerial candidates for a position” – in this case the position of managing your bar where they must meet a certain minimum standard level of professional understanding in order for you to work with them and help them grow) to see if they’re able to be worked with, or if they’re just not qualified to manage you at your level of expertise and professionalism.
Turn The Interview Process Around
What is This? What is it Used For?
Ask the questions of the hiring manager that you would expect the best bar manager would be asking a new bartender. How do you make Bloody Mary mix? What is Frothee? How do you set a par? What’s the difference between Kahlua and Tia Maria? …between oloroso, amontillado, cream and fino sherries? What grapes are used in Cabernet Sauvignon? What grapes sre used in red Bordeaux? …in red Burgundy? How would you distinguish the difference between a Bordeaux and a Burgundy if there were no labels on either of the bottles? What’s the difference between ale and lager? Also bring in a few bar tools or photos and ask what they are. These are supposed to be people above your own level if they’re truly well qualified management, and particularly if they’re going to be supervising (telling you what’s what). You need to test them harder than they would test the average entry level bartender. Remember, they’ve SEEN your resume – and you’re at a disadvantage because you don’t have theirs. As them where they got their management experience. What style of management do they use? Is it top down or do they prefer team management which is bottom up? Find out what schools they’ve attended, which authors have most influenced their management style, and why they chose to take the management path – was it money, power, an important sounding title, or something else? If the process goes well and your questions are answered properly you can move on to accepting the position if you’re the chosen bidder for the job.
If your questions aren’t answered and you’re sure you’re dealing with an underqualified manager then you’ll have to also interview the manager above them – and if that doesn’t prove very promising perhaps the fish stinks all the way to the head and you’ll need to deal directly with the corporation owners, but at that level you’ll need to have a proposal written up explaining your services and what’s to be expected as a result of them hiring you, and the benefits of the training you’ll offer at the staff and management levels, along with a separate job title and salary requirements.
Simply tending bar without qualified bar management will not work. While it may be possible that over time you’ll be able to teach enough to influence company culture and improve overall beverage operations, it’s not likely. You can’t take on the company as a client. It will lead to nothing but endless frustration, and when you leave there won’t be any lasting improvement.
Bar Towel on Clip Photo contributed by Matt Davis
In spite of the BS description on the site (link below) they’re for drying your hands off quickly so you don’t have to keep looking for a clean rag just for your hands.
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/metal-bar-towel-clip/792129.html
Looking to buy Bar Towel Clips?
(I’m not selling anything – yet!)
Finally, it occurs to me that BUSY is what every bartender needs the bar they work at to be. Busy as in lots of customers, not lots of extra busy-work involving brooms and bathrooms. So ask next: “Does this bar have barbacks?” If not then it’s not busy no matter what the manager or other bartenders tell you. When i say busy I mean busy making drinks and making money, not busy hauling trash bags, getting ice, changing kegs, washing glassware and bussing plates from the top of your bar. Remember! You’re there to make a buck – for you! When that happens you’ll be making plenty for the business if you know how to tend bar right.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of bartending and bar management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown clubs and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa in Exclusive Platinum Service Awards Clubs, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.