Bartender 101: The Bartender School Approach

So, you want to be a bartender? A career in bar tending can be lucrative and interesting. To see some of the possibilities just check out A Career as a Bartender: What to Expect from Wages to Advancement Opportunities.

I bar tended for years and branched into bar management. I followed the path as far as I wanted to take it. Now I want to share some of the knowledge I gained before I was a bartender.

Breaking into the Bar Business: The School Approach

I have to admit that I went to bartender school. It was fun but unnecessary. Bartender courses offer you a lot of what you can learn on you own plus a bartender certificate. Had I known then what I know now, I would have saved the $400 plus dollars I spent and taught myself. The following is what the bartender course was like.

Bartender schools are set up similar to a bar. All of the tools you need to learn the trade are supplied, from the glassware to the colored water filled liquor bottles. During bar tending school you will get the hands on feel of operating a bar with out the pressure of demanding customers.

A typical day (or evening) in school lasts for 4 hours and the course runs for about two weeks. There are longer courses available with variable times. Everything depends on your bartender school selection and how much you want to pay.

When classes begin you are assigned a station behind the bar. During the first class you familiarize yourself with the bartending implements set up before you. You also learn a few bar and call drinks, your extreme basics: Rum and Coke, Vodka Tonic, Bourbon and 7-up. At the end of class you are sent home with a recipe book and an assignment: memorize the first set drinks.

Through the rest of the course, until examine time, the instructor bellows out drinks and you make them. Each class orders are varied to accommodate the memorized recipes, you scurry to mix multiple drinks, and set them out as they should be served. The pace advances as the number of drinks learned increases.