To perfect one’s early bar skills, reading is fundamental in the practice of technique, recipes, and history. You ask them for advice, you lean on them for support, and sometimes you take them out for cocktails. They are the ones who can help guide you along. If you’ve been able to find a mentor, keep them close. This is a person you can count on, a person you can trust and follow in the footsteps of, a person who is willing to share ideas and life lessons with you. The importance of mentorship now became crystal clear to me.Ī mentor comes in all shapes and sizes – it could be a family member, a fellow bartender, a teacher, spouse. It was gaz who trained me during his Cocktails in the Country courses on proper bar technique, bar tools, classic cocktails, and creating and maintaining a relationship with the customer sitting on the other side of the stick. When I first started, I was introduced to an ex-pat Brit named Gary "gaz" Regan. For those who dedicate themselves to gaining knowledge and experience, there are a great deal of rewards in a job that offers a huge amount of creative growth. It’s easy to be trained at any old bartending school, but for those with the bartending "force", there is a recommended path to follow. Lyan (Tales of the Cocktails’ Spirited Awards 2015 Bartender of the Year) says that "Bartending has become much more of a job choice for people who are looking for a creative, social, and fulfilling career."īartending tends to attract those who may have an artful eye, a creative mind, a flair for performing. It was Dale’s smart business sense and creative mind that gave us the flexibility and opportunity to spread our wings and become career bartenders. Dale DeGroff, a mentor to many of us, brought us out of the dark ages of the cocktail and into our modern cocktail resurgence. Bartending was never a modern-day career option for anyone up until the turn of this century.
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