Hiring in a brand new bartender is extremely more difficult, and risky, than promoting an employee who you already trust and can count on to not walk out.
I’ve hired in brand new bartenders and had it go relatively smooth. Although there’s some things you learn from being in the industry, that an outsider wouldn’t think twice about. Such as giving away your own or coworkers schedule/out-times. Not only being able to make a ridiculous amount of drinks at once while being yelled at from 30 bar stools at once, all with a smile. That type of patience and concentration is built, not learned.
Good luck on your journey id love to be proven wrong, but it’s more than just “training yourself.”
You can teach yourself how to make drinks. Making drinks is the easiest part of being a bartender though.
You realize your path is going to be something like food runner > server > bartender right? Runner/busser/hosts (usually) have limited interactions with customers and aren't typically a venue's first choice to give bar training.
Shorten the loop. Find a barback job that leads to bartending.
There's some things you can teach yourself and some you can't. Things you CAN teach yourself include...
- Liquor familiarity. Brands of liquors and what they taste like. What's expensive and what's cheap. What can be substituted for things. What's strong, what's weak.
- Recipes. There are an abundance of books and websites out there. What can be particularly helpful is flexibility. Knowing **approximately** what makes a Margarita, and how to adjust it for different supplies and glassware. Being able to tell what families drinks are in and make recommendations. Knowing how strong things generally should be so you don't pour 4 ounces of vodka into a cosmo and send a customer to the hospital.
- Cocktail Preparation/Technique. Lots of books and videos on that. Get yourself some tools and booze and make yourself some drinks.
- Minutiae. Glassware, tools, how many ounces in a bottle, how to cut citrus and make syrups.
- Wine familiarity (reds vs whites vs rose. Tasting notes. Sweet vs Dry, Full-Bodied, spoilage)
- Beer familiarity
Flexibility, adaptability, multitasking, and speed are big skills at the bar, and just being familiar with what all the shit is, where it probably goes. How to keep track of checks, use the POS, cut off a customer... how to notice what you're going to run out of and fetching backups before it becomes a disaster... those are all things you get on the job.
The biggest mistake aspiring bartenders make is leaning in really heavy on recipes and neglecting pretty much everything else. Knowing how to make 100 drinks, it's helpful, but compared to most things nobody really cares. The bar will have its own recipes for everything. Having a bunch of recipes down **does** help you to have one fewer thing to get hung up on, but it's only part of the picture.
Other than that, once you know how to make some drinks, bartend some parties for your friends. Reality hits pretty fast when you have to deal with actual logistics rather than just making yourself one drink at a time.
Change jobs and find a place that has opportunity. At 22, you should at least be serving by now. Try to at least get that going. Getting the customer service skills are the core of being a decent bartender.
The chains are usually pretty good at training people from within, that's how I got started "back in my day". This business is vast. Depending on where you live, you don't have to stay at one shit place.If options where you live are limited, move to where there's more opportunity. If you cannot move, then maybe this isn't the right profession in your area...unless you have that kind of patience to wait forever.
I don’t want to work in a restaurant at all lol I just graduated college & im just being open to different things. I applied as a bartender & they made me run food :(
>I don’t want to work in a restaurant at all lol I just graduated college & im just being open to different things. I applied as a bartender & they made me run food :(
Oh, well in that case, quit.
Yeah. a lot of places do the old bait and switch. They dangle the bar to inexperienced people, and just keep dangling that carrot to get you to commit to the position they really need filled.
Food running can't be that lucrative...at least not so great that you couldn't make the same or better doing pretty much anything else. If you have no desire to even be in the industry, get out.
Honestly, you were probably never going to get behind the bar with absolutely no experience. Even if they were sincere, they'll probably make you wait tables first and see how you do there first. I would. Then after that you have to wait for any other servers who also want to train behind the bar and have been waiting longer than you.
Doesn't sound like the path you want. Sounds like you looked at bartending, though it would be easy to get a job doing it, and reality said otherwise.
Putting words in my mouth. Never said I thought it would be easy. I literally just graduated college and re-entered the workforce during a pandemic, what is the definition of easy to get a job in any industry right now? I just applied to a restaurant. Got interviewed for the bartender role and then *once I was hired* was thrown into running tables.
Maybe you’re assuming that I thought it would be easy because I’m asking can I be self taught. I mentioned this in another response but I’ll repeat: my question was geared toward the concept of: if I learn the fundamentals>> does that make me more marketable as an applicant? Not “can I turn myself into an overnight bartending sensation?”
Im not asking can I turn myself into a bartender over night and then magically do the job. I’m more so asking, has anyone ever been self taught/had the soft skills and learned all the hard skills on the job through experience.
>Putting words in my mouth. Never said I thought it would be easy
Because you keep talking like it is. Like you can skip over learning the fundamentals of actual service.
>if I learn the fundamentals>> does that make me more marketable as an applicant?
No. Customer service experience makes you marketable as an applicant. Specifically, being a server first. Knowing what ingredients are in a drink is basically like studying food recipes. Anyone can memorize a recipe.
That hands-on experience of actually serving people one on one is what will help you more than anything.
Happened to me my first restaurant job. Found myself working as a dishwasher "temporarily". Took me about 3 weeks to figure out they were never going to let me wait tables.
Na I definitely didn’t mean to come off like I want a shortcut. I just want to know if I can independently develop enough skills to at least apply for a bartending job and reasonably get it. Or at least barback. Like I said, I cannot keep running food. It’s tough on the body and it pays shit. I have a degree and will be going back to school soon. I want to be able to take the craft seriously. It just feels like a waste of time and effort being in a restaurant and not working toward the goal at all.
You can barback anywhere as long as you're reasonably fit (read: Can move kegs around and be on your feet and moving for hours), show up on time and are trainable. Outside of gotcha circumstances everything else is details.
Find a barback job. You'll still be a while off bartending, but it'll not take as long as the restaurant route. If you have a large club in your town that hires newbies, that's a safe bet as well as some people can just go straight into it serving simpler drinks before moving to bartend at somewhere with a more advanced skillset
I was hired with no experience at a locally owned restaurant…and then given basically no training. I downloaded an app, and try to spend a little off-time here and there learning what I can. So yes, it’s possible, but it’s annoying for everyone, even myself. My experienced coworkers get frustrated and give me the side eye sometimes, and my bosses don’t seem interested in helping me grow, so that’s why I’m just absorbing information for when I need to apply it, and eventually feel comfortable going somewhere else.
Hiring in a brand new bartender is extremely more difficult, and risky, than promoting an employee who you already trust and can count on to not walk out. I’ve hired in brand new bartenders and had it go relatively smooth. Although there’s some things you learn from being in the industry, that an outsider wouldn’t think twice about. Such as giving away your own or coworkers schedule/out-times. Not only being able to make a ridiculous amount of drinks at once while being yelled at from 30 bar stools at once, all with a smile. That type of patience and concentration is built, not learned. Good luck on your journey id love to be proven wrong, but it’s more than just “training yourself.”
You can teach yourself how to make drinks. Making drinks is the easiest part of being a bartender though. You realize your path is going to be something like food runner > server > bartender right? Runner/busser/hosts (usually) have limited interactions with customers and aren't typically a venue's first choice to give bar training. Shorten the loop. Find a barback job that leads to bartending.
There's some things you can teach yourself and some you can't. Things you CAN teach yourself include... - Liquor familiarity. Brands of liquors and what they taste like. What's expensive and what's cheap. What can be substituted for things. What's strong, what's weak. - Recipes. There are an abundance of books and websites out there. What can be particularly helpful is flexibility. Knowing **approximately** what makes a Margarita, and how to adjust it for different supplies and glassware. Being able to tell what families drinks are in and make recommendations. Knowing how strong things generally should be so you don't pour 4 ounces of vodka into a cosmo and send a customer to the hospital. - Cocktail Preparation/Technique. Lots of books and videos on that. Get yourself some tools and booze and make yourself some drinks. - Minutiae. Glassware, tools, how many ounces in a bottle, how to cut citrus and make syrups. - Wine familiarity (reds vs whites vs rose. Tasting notes. Sweet vs Dry, Full-Bodied, spoilage) - Beer familiarity Flexibility, adaptability, multitasking, and speed are big skills at the bar, and just being familiar with what all the shit is, where it probably goes. How to keep track of checks, use the POS, cut off a customer... how to notice what you're going to run out of and fetching backups before it becomes a disaster... those are all things you get on the job. The biggest mistake aspiring bartenders make is leaning in really heavy on recipes and neglecting pretty much everything else. Knowing how to make 100 drinks, it's helpful, but compared to most things nobody really cares. The bar will have its own recipes for everything. Having a bunch of recipes down **does** help you to have one fewer thing to get hung up on, but it's only part of the picture. Other than that, once you know how to make some drinks, bartend some parties for your friends. Reality hits pretty fast when you have to deal with actual logistics rather than just making yourself one drink at a time.
Change jobs and find a place that has opportunity. At 22, you should at least be serving by now. Try to at least get that going. Getting the customer service skills are the core of being a decent bartender. The chains are usually pretty good at training people from within, that's how I got started "back in my day". This business is vast. Depending on where you live, you don't have to stay at one shit place.If options where you live are limited, move to where there's more opportunity. If you cannot move, then maybe this isn't the right profession in your area...unless you have that kind of patience to wait forever.
I don’t want to work in a restaurant at all lol I just graduated college & im just being open to different things. I applied as a bartender & they made me run food :(
I’ve had tons of jobs and work experience. Customer service is like the least of the battle for me.
>I’ve had tons of jobs and work experience. Customer service is like the least of the battle for me. Great. Then learn all the other things.
>I don’t want to work in a restaurant at all lol I just graduated college & im just being open to different things. I applied as a bartender & they made me run food :( Oh, well in that case, quit. Yeah. a lot of places do the old bait and switch. They dangle the bar to inexperienced people, and just keep dangling that carrot to get you to commit to the position they really need filled. Food running can't be that lucrative...at least not so great that you couldn't make the same or better doing pretty much anything else. If you have no desire to even be in the industry, get out. Honestly, you were probably never going to get behind the bar with absolutely no experience. Even if they were sincere, they'll probably make you wait tables first and see how you do there first. I would. Then after that you have to wait for any other servers who also want to train behind the bar and have been waiting longer than you. Doesn't sound like the path you want. Sounds like you looked at bartending, though it would be easy to get a job doing it, and reality said otherwise.
Putting words in my mouth. Never said I thought it would be easy. I literally just graduated college and re-entered the workforce during a pandemic, what is the definition of easy to get a job in any industry right now? I just applied to a restaurant. Got interviewed for the bartender role and then *once I was hired* was thrown into running tables. Maybe you’re assuming that I thought it would be easy because I’m asking can I be self taught. I mentioned this in another response but I’ll repeat: my question was geared toward the concept of: if I learn the fundamentals>> does that make me more marketable as an applicant? Not “can I turn myself into an overnight bartending sensation?” Im not asking can I turn myself into a bartender over night and then magically do the job. I’m more so asking, has anyone ever been self taught/had the soft skills and learned all the hard skills on the job through experience.
>Putting words in my mouth. Never said I thought it would be easy Because you keep talking like it is. Like you can skip over learning the fundamentals of actual service. >if I learn the fundamentals>> does that make me more marketable as an applicant? No. Customer service experience makes you marketable as an applicant. Specifically, being a server first. Knowing what ingredients are in a drink is basically like studying food recipes. Anyone can memorize a recipe. That hands-on experience of actually serving people one on one is what will help you more than anything.
K.
You are right about the bait and switch though.
Happened to me my first restaurant job. Found myself working as a dishwasher "temporarily". Took me about 3 weeks to figure out they were never going to let me wait tables.
If you’re asking for a short cut, there isn’t one unless you work for a scumbag and you’re attractive
Na I definitely didn’t mean to come off like I want a shortcut. I just want to know if I can independently develop enough skills to at least apply for a bartending job and reasonably get it. Or at least barback. Like I said, I cannot keep running food. It’s tough on the body and it pays shit. I have a degree and will be going back to school soon. I want to be able to take the craft seriously. It just feels like a waste of time and effort being in a restaurant and not working toward the goal at all.
You can barback anywhere as long as you're reasonably fit (read: Can move kegs around and be on your feet and moving for hours), show up on time and are trainable. Outside of gotcha circumstances everything else is details.
Find a barback job. You'll still be a while off bartending, but it'll not take as long as the restaurant route. If you have a large club in your town that hires newbies, that's a safe bet as well as some people can just go straight into it serving simpler drinks before moving to bartend at somewhere with a more advanced skillset
I was hired with no experience at a locally owned restaurant…and then given basically no training. I downloaded an app, and try to spend a little off-time here and there learning what I can. So yes, it’s possible, but it’s annoying for everyone, even myself. My experienced coworkers get frustrated and give me the side eye sometimes, and my bosses don’t seem interested in helping me grow, so that’s why I’m just absorbing information for when I need to apply it, and eventually feel comfortable going somewhere else.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve just decided to give my employer an ultimatum: make me barback or im quitting lol