As a veteran bartender / mixologist / bar manager with two decades of experience tending and managing bars (mostly in Manhattan) I’d like to think I know a thing or two about bartending that you’ll find find valuable. As a seasoned bartender, mixologist, and bar manager with decades of high volume experience (primarily in Manhattan) I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the field of bartending. I am confident that the insights I offer will be of significant value to those interested in the craft.
Background & Learning The Ropes
The Staaten
So, in late 1979, I invested in my future within the hospitality industry by securing a student loan to fund a comprehensive 310-hour, three-month course at the American Bartenders School’s original Manhattan location.
This program, taught by four veteran bartenders, covered Advanced Bartending and Bar Management, focusing on both scientific and speed bartending techniques. Alongside approximately 15 to 20 peers, I honed my skills behind a fully equipped wet bar, meeting rigorous speed requirements—including the preparation of seven different category of drinks, including cream-based and fruit juice-based cocktails, within two minutes by the time of graduation.
Additionally, the program included an enriching wine course led by Sandy Goodfriend, a renowned wine professional based in New York City.
The curriculum of the course extended beyond merely learning to prepare over 200 different drinks; it emphasized the science of bartending and the techniques essential for efficiency, enabling each participant to perform the work of two bartenders. I am profoundly grateful for having taken this course, as it has significantly enhanced my professional capabilities.
Throughout my early career, I consistently doubled the cash and credit card transactions as compared to my peers, a testament to the skills I acquired. This was particularly evident when working in bars staffed by three bartenders, where my deposits matched the combined deposits of the other two.
I owe a great deal of gratitude to Mr. Raymond Crosby, the lead instructor at the time, and Ms. Sandy Goodfriend, who deepened my understanding of wines.
On this platform, my articles aim to share valuable insights on optimizing performance, minimizing drink preparation time, increasing tip earnings, and adopting “Tuxedo Style” bartending. These strategies are designed to help you enhance your professionalism and presence behind the bar, ultimately transforming you into a “class act” in the industry.
1979 marked the final offering of the full-length course at the American Bartenders School which began when the original school first opened in 1933 at the end of Prohibition, started and run by Pre-Prohibition, last ones standing, original craft Bartenders who wanted to educate new generations of bartenders in the trade.
But, as with all serious culinary type training, it was expensive, so there weren’t many of our caliber graduating, and many dropped out because they couldn’t pass the twice weekly tests.
The reason 1979 saw the demise of full trade bartending schools was due to changes in the types of courses eligible for medium-sized student loans, and this change was caused by the fledgling organization M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and their successfully lobbying of Congress so that ALL trade school student loans having to do with bartending came to an abrupt halt.
While schools now across America continue to offer their one and two-week “intro” type courses, the more comprehensive programs are no longer available.
With foresight, I took meticulous notes throughout the duration of my training, notes and tests which I still possess. The knowledge captured in these notes, and further training, research, reading, and decades of skilled work (and bar management) experience, including extensive experience in high-volume bartending, basic to advanced mixology (including molecular) techniques, and some wine background, are what I draw from now to add posts and pages here on this site.
For the most part the recipe pages are very basic and focus primarily on ratios for the most ordered popular today drinks requested in every non-craft bar throughout America Some ingredients are generic in nature because different bars will have different quality standards. You’ll have to adjust the recipes to match what syrups, juices, etc. you have on hand, and adjust to your house pours.
The types of bars I managed and/or tended
The first was Canlon’s Esquire Club on Staten Island, a place which was actually the very first bar opened and owned by my stepfather perhaps 30 years before. I didn’t know that at the time. It was a short term job for me because the owners’ son and daughter had both wanted to be the bartender there – and although the guests were very happy with me and my service I only lasted a few weeks. Go figure.The second place I tended bar belonged to the famous Riese Brothers in Manhattan (owners of 75 NYC restaurant chains including TGIF’s) where they put me on at a BOSS restaurant and bar at 38th & Madison.
I was assistant manager and fill in bartender days & weekends. It was a beautiful place, salad bars, chandeliers, two floors and on weekends it turned into a dance club packed with private party goers.
The second was at the New York Hilton Hotel on 6th Ave & 54th Street where I started as a service and banquet bartender and eventually got a shot at the front bar, and finally became the senior head front bartender.
For 14 years I worked there, and their dance club where up to 480 people packed the bar and tables. It was great. With just two bartenders and five waiters who had their own dedicated service bartender and cashier, I competed against my own record sales, and against all the waiters and their cashier in total nightly deposits. Most of the time I won, especially when it was really busy because I could make drink sales directly, on the spot, to guests, with no middle-man or lengthy supply chain involved.
After the Hilton, the third was an Korean restaurant on 54th Street between Park Ave and Lexington that the new owner had renovated for over $2,110,000. He wanted an experienced American bar manager to stock and run the bar, and to put together a nice wine list.
My first wine list was reviewed by the New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, Published: July 21, 1995 as “Wine list: The wine list is well chosen”, which pleased me no end, though she did say it was “inexpensive” (just a 300% markup – true, cheap for NYC, and then she said that Korean Soju was better (Soju is a distilled beverage containing ethanol and water. It is usually consumed neat. Considered “Korea’s most popular alcoholic beverage” in 2014 Jinro soju was the largest selling alcohol in the world with sales of 71 million cases worldwide.) because it went better with spicy foods. In fact my wine list included a very nice German Gewürztraminer (Gewürz = spice/seasoning) that goes particularly well with spicy food (and that’s my rebuttal – There Ruth Reichl! Take that!).
The next position I held was as bartender at Archimbaldo’s restaurant directly to the left of Spark’s Steak House in NYC. Archimbaldo’s was a very upscale restaurant, lit entirely by candles with live opera singers as entertainment, and a faux opera set of the Italian countryside painted and sculpted by David Barrett.
When I worked there, then NYC Mayor Giuliani used to come in for lunch. Three large black SUVs would pull up outside, two would dismount armed security teams to sweep the restaurant for potential threats, and then Mayor Giuliani would disembark to a curtained off booth for his meal while his armed body guards (one a blond woman) took their strategic posts.
Sparks Steak House Restaurant eventually bought Archimbaldo’s.
After opening a new bar for a friend in Queens on the famous Bell Boulevard – a street lined with over 20 bars on both sides, each serving mixed drinks and each touting a minimum of 100 imported beers I hired the staff, purchased the kitchen equipment at auctions, set up the walk in beer box for the kegs, got all the taps set up, and contacted dozens of small import companies to put together a world class beer list before opening…
After that, I moved south, to Florida, and then Georgia, and then back to Florida again – where I continue to work in high end craft bartending.
So now that you know a little about who I am, I’ll try in my blog to give you some good tips from experience on how to tend bar, and if you’re a manager, maybe how to manage a few small details better.
At this point, you can go back to the home page to read my posts and learn more.
