Right now I am ass deep in the midst of training for my first bartending job. The last couple of days have been solely focused on learning the food, rules, ect. without even a word on the actual bartending aspect of it. So now, we open up the doors to this place in 5 days, and starting tomorrow we’ll be having invited guest come in an order food and drinks so we can sort of “practice” on them. The food is free but they have to pay for drinks and tip, so I’m praying to make some money. More so though, I am praying to not be a colossal fuck up.
This is a lot more difficult than I’d imagined, there are 24 specialty drinks all of which have a minimum of three ingredients each, not to mention a full list of shots, and every single pseudo-traditional cocktail imaginable that I’m desperately trying to learn. Then there are all the techniques for creating certain drinks; building, floating…. is there a difference between the two? I’m lost. Even the more basic drinks are going to be a little more difficult than I’d imagined, we don’t use jiggers to measure so it’s all free-pour. This sounds better/ easier but it’s a one second count for every .25 ounces. So take our Chambord Rita for instance; it’s 1.25 oz. Sauza, .75 oz. Chambord, and 3.5 oz. sweet and sour mix, this means the count ” and one and two and three and four and five” for just the tequila, but if you count a little too fast or too slow than the pour will be off, the flavor won’t be right, and I’ll be in trouble. Suck.
Right now I’m trying to study before my semi-official first shift tomorrow, but yesterday our air conditioner broke and they can’t get a new unit in till Monday. Double suck. So it’s now a balmy 83 degrees in my house with no sign of relief right now. Needless to say, it’s a little hard to concentrate, hence the blogging I suppose. But I’m just kind of freaking out, this was supposed to be fun and now all I’m feeling is stress and unbridled anxiety.
it will come in time. let me know when you start dreaming that you are making drinks. that was one of the perils of getting my latest job. all i could see was a computer screen in my dreams, but I couldn’t open any windows or info, and the cardholder was yelling at me about how incompetent I was. it was scary. jolted me awake more than once.
you could also use a trick that a bartending friend of mine told me: if the person is watching you make the drink, pour in less than you should, give them a wink, then pour in the rest. this will cause them to think that you are giving them more liquor than other people, and maybe cause them to tip better.
good luck Friend!
That’s kind of genius, I love it!
seriously.. don’t fret. If you have the recipes on a card, it will take 2 seconds to look at them and figure out what you are making. I remember when I first started bartending I was terrified of not knowing how to make things. But, the truth is, people in general don’t really care if they have to wait a little longer, or if you don’t know what they want you to make. You’ll be just fine! Promise!