bartending
On the rocks, shaken, stirred. These terms are heard commonly to the average bartender. What does one think of when they envision an image of the common bartender? One might envision just an ordinary person, but with the almighty power to assist you in achieving your desired state of drunkenness. Others might think back to the traditional old time bartenders, giving advice to the drunken male who is lovesick. Even others might think of the more recent bartender, the flair bartender, flipping the glasses high above his head like Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktail. When we, ourselves, are the clientele, the provider of the service we seek, in this case the bartender providing drinks, our short encounters with them may lead us to believe all that is required of this person’s occupation is providing drinks. But in actuality, beyond the stereotypes, there is much more to the occupation of the everyday, run of the mill bartender than one would usually think of.
My purpose of this paper is to explore the fine art of bartending and to prove that the duties and responsibilities held to the bartender’s occupation are far more complex then just serving drinks. Some aspects that I looked to determine are all of the duties and responsibilities expected of a bartender, the different roles the bartender must play, and the downsides of being employed in this occupation.
I have been a waitress for as long as the law has let me serve. If you are just looking for fast cash within a restaurant business, through my experience it is obvious that bartending is where the real money is within a restaurant. I would be interested in being a bartender myself someday because I find both the fast pace of the restaurant service business and the immediate cash in your pocket appealing aspects to a job. Also, by myself being a bar regular in the town of Blacksburg, especially since my I.D.’s date says I am legal of drinking age now, (not like it ever stopped me before) I have been quite curious about the God-like position of the ever-serving bartender. I am by no means an alcoholic, but consider myself a bar-regular, and have come to know very well many of this fine town’s premium bartenders through my frequent visitation to the bars. Consequently, I looked to gain from their knowledge and expertise. Therefore, from this paper I hoped to achieve a more knowledgeable outlook at the occupation of the bartender and hopefully learn some tips and tricks along the way.
The official definition of a bartender found in a dictionary is stated as “an employee who mixes and serves alcoholic drinks at a bar.” From my recent finding and interviews, I discovered that a bartender does much more than just mixes and serves drinks. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the foodservice job description of the bartender [next page]