Retired?

Retired (re·tired/riˈtīī(ə)rd) is defined by the dictionary as being an adjective that means having left one's job and ceased to work.

"Once a bartender, always a bartender." That's what a friend of mine had told me back in March when I broke the news to her and all of the rest of my friends that I had worked my last official shift as a bartender earlier this year. I told everyone that I had thrown in my bar towel for good this time. I had moved on to the corporate world as a licensed esthetician, working as a Beauty Advisor. No more working nights. No more working weekends. What's up steady paycheck? Hello health and dental insurance! How you doing 401K?

Her response? "Yeah right. You'll be back."

My schedule is now completely opposite of what it used to be for the past eight years. Instead of getting off work at 3 am, I'm now getting up at 3 am to get ready for work for the East Coast clients. Its extremely hard going from being a night owl to a morning person. Even though I have had my "new" schedule for the past nine months, I am still struggling to get used to the early mornings. I'm just not a morning person.

For the most part, I enjoy what I do. I learn something new everyday. I'm constantly challenged on the training and education I have received thus far in my industry. I am a closet nerd so I love researching the answers to questions clients ask me that I don't have a solid answer for. The gratis I receive working as a Beauty Advisor is a definite perk to the job. Plus, clients always manage to keep things interesting with their comments, questions, suggestions and/or vents. Even though I no longer sling drinks behind the bar, I'm still working in a customer service position. Just this time, it's mainly with sober people.

I recently came across a letter I wrote to myself on the night of my last official shift working as a bartender. Even though it's more than four months old, I thought it be appropriate to post here:

"Tonight is my last night of bartending. I'm finally retiring and getting out from behind the bar. Can I get a moment of silence?

No, seriously. I am finally leaving the world of bartending behind for good. I first started as a bartender over eight years ago as a way to pay the rent through college. I've had so many amazing (and not so amazing) experiences. I've met an incredible amount of people, both sober and not so sober, along the way. The time has finally come where I set down my bar key and take the bar rag out of my back pocket for the last time.

As many of you may know, I've been in the midst of switching over from the bar/restaurant industry into the beauty/skin care industry. I received my esthetician license last year and have been working full-time as a Beauty Advisor ever since while still managing to bartender a few nights a week. I'm tired. I'm cranky. My heart is no longer into crafting cocktails for a thirsty public well into the wee hours of the night, especially since now I have to get up at 4 am for my day job. Getting up early really takes the magic out of everything.

I leave the world of bartending with no regrets. I've worked behind the bar at a variety of places, each one teaching me a thing or two about myself and mankind in general. I cherish all of my stories, both good and bad. I loved the flexible schedule bartending gave me to pursue my dreams and hobbies. I appreciated always having cash in my hand. I enjoyed teaching people my craft during my stint as a bartending school instructor. Most importantly, I've loved sharing all of my stories, experiences and advice with my loyal blog readers.

In my true fashion of seeing things through the glass is half-full perspective, I have jotted down a few reasons why retiring from bartending is going to be so awesome:

1. More sleep means less wrinkles.
2. My manicures will last longer.
3. No more late night snacking. Something about bartending late night always made me hungry.
4. There will be more time for working out in the gym so I can work off all of those years of late night snacking.
5. My social life will start existing again.
6. There wont be so many old men trying to hit on me on a nightly basis.
7. I will have more time and energy to dive headfirst into my new career.

So join me in raising a shot glass to my eight, solid years of service working behind the bar."

I've tried this "retired" thing once before. You think I'll last? I guess time will tell.

New Frontier

I am about to start a new chapter in my bartending career. I officially started training to bartend at a gentleman's club this week. I am really excited for the opportunity. I have bartended in all sorts of bar: live music venues, restaurants, nightclubs, lounges, dive bars and even a few private parties, but never a gentleman's club.

I can't imagine working in a bar like this would be much more different than working behind any other bar. Customers and servers order drinks, you make the drinks. You accept payment, ring payment into the register and thank the customers. Show up on time, do your J-O-B and its easy-breezy.

Each bar has its own special lure to get customers through the door like specialty cocktails, live music, amazing food or topless ladies. In the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter what type of bar I work in because wherever I go, I always bring my hardworking, bubbly personality, tasty cocktail making and superb customer skills with me. For this particular experience, it doesn't look like the focus will be so much on my award winning cocktails as it will be on my charming personality and also perhaps the low cut shirt I am wearing during my shift. Hey, its a gentleman's club. You have to play the part.

Wish me luck!

Lifer

I remember when I first started bartending. I thought that this would only be a job to support me while I went to school to get my college degree. Little did I know, six years later,. that bartendng would actually be my chosen profession. So I guess that make me a "lifer"

The thing about "lifers" in any given profession is that we give a shit. This is our career. It isn't just a job to get us by. We take pride in what we do because we love doing it. The cool thing about bartending is if you stop loving the bar you are working at, there are many more bars to chose from. When it comes to bars, there are so many to chose from. So many different types. There is a little something for everyone.

I'm pretty happy that bartending found me by accident. I would have never guessed that I would grow up to be a bartender. I never thought in a million years that I would ever love bartending as much as I do. I take pride in making sure that all my customers are happy. I care about making sure that every one of the cocktails I make is made to the customer's satisfaction. I give a shit.

I'm a lifer and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Exciting News!

I can finally tell the world my good news. I have been asked to be the bar manager for a new restaurant/jazz club scheduled to open in the beginning of August here in San Francisco, located in the Mission. I am very excited for this opportunity. I have been a working bartender for six years and have never been a bar manager. I guess all of my hard work and enthusiasm for this industry is finally paying off. I was so honored that they chose me. Being a bar manager was my next logical step in my bartending career. Now I am one step closer to someday opening a place of my own.

Besides having a really cool job and working for super cool owners, this means that I will be going back to bartending nights again, four to five nights a week. I had to give notice to the bar I currently work at. I really love working there, but I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. I will only be teaching at the school now on Saturdays because that is all my schedule would allow. I am going to try and keep my Saturday class at the school, but I might have to let it go if my schedule gets to hectic at the new place.

I will still be writing as the Bartender Examiner on Examiner.com and of course updating my blog here on a regular basis. Now that I will be working nights again, I will have even more juicy stories to share with you. Stories can only get so juicy working behind the bar of a restaurant that closes at 11. It seems like all the really good stuff happens after midnight.

I am still pinching myself about my new job. Yay!

National Bartender Examiner=ME!

What's better than being the SF Bartender Examiner on Examiner.com? How about being the National Bartender Examiner!!!! Examiner.com asked me to be the National Bartender Examiner today and I happily accepted. I will be making a formal statement in my next Examiner article.

So what does this mean? I am still bartending. I still live in San Francisco. My topics are going to be more generalized in the bartending field and the bar industry (they kind of were already) and not so San Francisco focused. I will still throw in a few SF references here and there, but my main job is to build a community among all of the other Bars & Clubs Examiners, especially the bartenders.

If you have any ideas or suggestions on topics you would like to see covered in the near future, email me at: Kathleen@XploitedProductions.com

Hey, us writing bartenders have to stick together and educate the masses, one bar patron at a time.

Stay tuned because I still have even more good news coming your way. Until then, I have some celebrating to do and I am starting with happy hour today.

Still No Word

Still no word regarding the second interview I had last weekend at the strip club, for the bartending position. I was told to call on Tuesday night and check in on the status of my application. I have called twice now and still haven't heard either way.

I'm not giving up. I plan on continuing to call until I either hear a YES or a NO. It's not like I have anything to lose. I already have a solid work schedule. It just would be icing on the cake to be able to bartend in a strip club.

Okay, let's be honest. How cool would it be to look at boobies all night and make a bunch of money? Sounds like an awesome gig to me.

Call me and hire me!

Second Interview

Ask and you shall receive.

I had an interview on Thursday night with a local strip club, to bartend. The interview went rather well. I am scheduled for a second interview tonight.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I am beyond excited for the opportunity. I have always wanted to bartend in a strip club and now it looks like I will finally get my chance.

Setting a New Goal For Myself

I am setting a new goal for myself. I want to bartend in a strip club. I am giving myself six months to fulfill this goal.

Now, I am not going to up and leave my current bar because that would be silly. I LOVE my current bar and have no desire to leave it anytime soon. Besides, I am only there two nights a week. Instead of twiddling my thumbs on my weekend nights and pissing my cash away, I thought it would make more sense to spend those hours making more cash. It might even help keep me out of trouble.

I am just looking for a couple extra shifts a week and would like them to be in a strip club. I have never bartended in a strip club before and think it would be a lot of fun. Could you imagine all of the stories?

I already got a live lead for a local club, so stay tuned.

Repetition

People ask me all the time how long it took me to learn all the drink recipes I know and to feel 100% comfortable working behind the bar. When I first started working behind a bar, I didn't have a clue as to what I was serving. I picked up all my knowledge on the job. The person training me told me that I wouldn't feel comfortable working behind the bar for at least six weeks. He was right.

If a customer ordered something, I would have to stop and ask the bartender I was working with for the recipe. Then I would write down the recipe in my own bartender bible so I would have it for future reference. Sometimes, I would even have to ask the customer how to make the drink they were ordering. Thankfully, I had customers that loved showing me the ropes. They got a kick out of teaching me how to make their cocktails the way they liked them. Hey, the customer can be right in some situations. ;)

Honestly, the only way I really learned all of the drink recipes over the years is thru repetition. Making those same drinks, over and over again. It's the same thing as when you start bartending at a new bar and need to learn the bar's specialty cocktails. After you make the same drink a few times, the recipe clicks in your head and becomes engraved up there.

Nowadays when I start working behind a new bar, I don't feel 100% comfortable for about a month or so. Every place has their own way of doing things and their own way of making things. Just because you learn something one way at one bar, doesn't mean it's going to work for the new bar. You always need to allow for time to adjust to those new ways at the new place.

Just when you think you know all there is to know about bartending, you start at a new bar and feel like the new kid all over again. At first I hated that aspect of bartending, but now I am learning to love it. It helps you grow into a better bartender.

Expand those horizons and get out of your comfort zone.

First Official Night At The New Place

Tonight marked my first official night behind the bar at the new place. Of course within an hour of clocking in and setting up the bar, I broke a wine glass in my ice. It wasn't that big of a deal. It was slow and I had plenty of time to burn (melt) and refill my well with new ice. I was just glad to get something like that out of the way early on in my shift.

On my first official night behind my other bar, I opened a bottle of champagne and it exploded all over the bar and the girl training me. At the time, I was mortified. I had opened a million bottles of champagne during my bartending career and never once had I ever sprayed a bar or another person. After pulling a stunt like that on my first night, one would have thought I had never bartended a night in my life. Even worse, I thought the bar would tell me "thanks, but no thanks" and un-hire me. Luckily for me, I got to keep the job. Now that I look back that night, I laugh and realize that the girl training me actually deserved to wear that bottle of champagne. She was such a bitch and unnecessarily rude to me. But that's a whole other story...

Overall my first night went rather smoothly. It's only going to get easier from here.

Bartender Training

Training in the bartending world is like no other in any other industry. When you train at a new bar, as a bartender, you get paid your hourly wage, but you don't receive any piece of the tipping pie. New bartenders can train anywhere from one shift, up to four. It's just the small price bartenders pay for receiving shifts at a new bar. It's an industry standard. Anyone who works in the industry knows how training as a new bartender works.

If you work at a restaurant, training shifts might entitle you to free employee meals. I say might. So ask first before you assume that you will be eating for free.

Once you know how to bartend, you know how to bartend. So what's up with the training shifts for bartenders? When a bartender trains a new hire, they have to take time away from their normally scheduled program of making drinks for their bar customers and servers. They have to show the new bartender how to set up the bar and close it down, how to properly make the drinks that are served (especially with specialty cocktails if there are any), paperwork/cash drawer closing procedures, show them where things are located behind the bar and in the storage room, how to use the POS system or cash drawer, etc. The new bartender is basically shadowing the old bartender until they get the hang of how things operate behind that bar.

Tonight is my last offical training shift at my new place. Yay! I am so excited. I am a little nervous because the bar is so small and the way things are done behind the bar have to be done in a certain way or else there is NO flow. I have been making all the drinks myself up until this point and doing most of the opening and closing procedures. The only night I shadowed the current bartender was my first night of training.

Everyone gets nervous working at a new place. Even a bartending veteran like me, believe it or not. This Sunday will be my first real night on my own behind the bar. I am really looking forward to my share of the tipping pie. You can't live on a bartender's hourly wage alone here in San Francisco!!!

A Shitty Shift

I broke two glasses in my well. I shattered a martini glass with my hand and ripped open one of my fingers. I ran out of glassware. I ran out of change. And this was all within the first hour of clocking in for my shift on a Saturday night.

Sometimes it doesn't matter many years of experience you have behind the bar, shitty nights happen to everyone.

How Do You Remember All of Those Drinks?

People ask me all the time how I am able to remember the drink recipes for all of the drinks I make. At the bartender school, I teach my students over a hundred different drink recipes in two weeks. Those are just basic recipes. Then once a bartender gets out in the real bar world, they might have to work with a specialty cocktail menu that would require them to memorize even more drink recipes. And if that bar changes their drink menu with each season, then that's more drink recipes to memorize. A new bartender could easily become overwhelmed with all of those recipes.

Repetition is key. The more you do something over and over, the greater the chance you will have of remembering it. When I first started bartending, I got an address book that had a tab for each letter in the alphabet and wrote all of the drink recipes I learned on each of my shifts into my book. The address book proved to be an excellent resource whenever someone would order a drink and I couldn't remember the recipe. I would just look up the recipe in my book. If I stumbled upon a drink I had never made before, then I would ask the bartender I was working with how to make it. Sometimes I would even ask the customer.

Some new bartenders are too embarrassed to ask the customer how to make a drink they don't know the recipe for. Put yourself in the customer's shoes. If you ordered a drink that the bartender didn't know how to make, wouldn't you rather tell them how you would like your drink made rather than have the bartender just guess and make the drink all wrong? Why waste the time and alcohol?

I have found in my years behind the bar that customers love it when you ask them for their input on making drinks. Granted, if you are working a busy Saturday night in a nightclub and ask the customer what's in a Long Island Iced Tea, you probably wont get a very positive reaction. But if you are working a dinner shift and a customer orders something out of the ordinary, use the situation as a learning opportunity. With bartending, there is always something new to learn, no matter how long you have been working behind the bar.

What Kind of Bar Should I Work In?

As a bartender school instructor, the question my students ask me most is:

"What kind of bar should I work in?"

There are so many types of bars out there to work in: nightclubs, dive bars, sports bars, hotels or restaurants, just to name a few. Living here in the city by the bay, you could even bartend on a party boat if you wanted to. There are so many options out there for a bartender. Whenever my students ask me what type of bar they should work in, I always tell them that it really is up to them. What kind of bar would make them happy? What kind of environment do they want to work in? What time of the day do they want to work? What type of crowd do they want to be around? What kind of cocktails do they want to make?

Your first bartending job is rarely going to be your ideal place to work. I have been bartending for five plus years and I am STILL learning what my perfect bar to work in might be. I have a pretty good idea nowadays, but with each job, you are always learning what you like and what you absolutely wont tolerate.

In my younger days, I worked late nights in a busy nightclub. I worked in a busy college bar right by where I was going to school. I worked in a uber sexy lounge located smack in the middle of a highly populated tourist area, surrounded by stripclubs. I have worked in small lounges and I have worked in restaurants. I have even worked in a live music venue. I think it's safe to assume that I have a pretty good idea of all the different types of bars one can work in. What I have grown to love over my years of bartending might not work for the next person. But we all want to make money and have fun while doing it. So if you find yourself asking this question, look inside and ask yourself what kind of environment would make you happy and then seek out those type of places.

Bartending isn't rocket science. It's a little bit of who you know, being at the right place at the right time, having a good attitude, being flexible and always having fun no matter where you are. Just remember, your customers are there to have fun and so should you.

My First Bartender Competition

On October 20th, I entered my very first bartender competition.

I know. It's been awhile since the competition and my last blog entry.

The competition was at Elixir here in San Francisco and was sponsored by Square One Vodka. We had to use the new Square One Cucumber vodka (which is quite tasty on it's own I must say). The competition itself was pretty cool. Five, city lady bartenders who all had to design their own concoction using the product. We had to not only come up with the drink, but batch it out for a crowd of 50 plus. It's hard enough coming up with a cocktail, but making it for 50 people to enjoy is something else. Lots of pressure. On top of that, this was the same day that I taught my very first bartender school class. October 20th was quite a big day for me.

My Winning Cocktail:

Some Like It Hot

Square One Cucumber Vodka
St Germain (elderflower liqueur)
Muddled basil, cucumber and serrano chili
Fresh lemon juice

Shaken and served chilled, up in a cocktail glass with a cucumber and serrano chili garnish

I didn't take first place, but my drink did win the "Best Hair of the Dog Cocktail" and I walked home with a super cool goodie bag. My drink also made the cocktail menu at work.

Boo Yah!

Doing vs. Teaching: A Big Difference

It's one thing to work behind a bar for five years. It's another thing entirely to get back on the other side and teach people how to do it. I spent a solid week shadowing multiple instructors at the bartending school. I feverishly took notes on the topics they covered, how they presented their ideas and questions students asked. But nothing really can prepare you for the real thing.

The night before I taught my first class, I thought I was going to throw up. I was scared shitless. Even though I know the material, it's still a bit scary doing anything for the first time. Just like working your first shift at any new bar is always a bit scary and stressful.

Now I am coming up on my second week of teaching. I have to admit with each class I teach, it gets less scary. I still have the school's director leaning over my shoulder critiquing me. But I hear that he doesn't critique me as much as he has some instructors in the past. So maybe I am doing something right? I spent the last two nights researching material and putting together my lessons plans for class. I have one more class to teach tomorrow.

Whoever thought I would become a bartender school instructor? Not me, but I am glad that I have. It's sad, but I am making more money now as an instructor than I am bartending. Either I work in a really slow spot or the economy really sucks. At least people are still signing up for the bartending school.

Nervous!

I just completed a whole week of training to be a bartender school instructor. When I say training, I mean shadowing the current instructors during their classes. I have been following both the morning and afternoon instructors because I wanted to observe the different teaching styles. I have been taking notes like crazy.

I am nervous!!

They want me to start teaching next Monday morning. Oh my goodness. I am excited and scared all at the same time. I am sure I will be fine. I know the material. I know the flow of the classes. It's just I am nervous doing anything for the first time. Why would getting in front of a crowd and teaching them something be any different?

I have always wanted to be a teacher of some sort. Well, here is my chance.

Bartender Instructor

I am in the process of training to be a bartender instructor at a local school with a really good reputation.

How cool is that? They want to pay me to share my bar stories and spread the bartender knowledge to you folks. I am beyond excited. It's really fun so far.

Stay tuned for stories. I am certain that I will have plenty of stories to share here in regards to the classes I teach.

How I Became A Bartender

A customer asked me the other night if I went to bartending school. I told her that I didn't, but people do go to bartending school to learn the industry. I didn't have time to break down the pros and cons for her. I only had time to tell her what I did. My training was all on the job. That's usually how most people start in the industry.

I was very fortunate in that I had an "in" from the get-go. I had a friend who owned a few places and was willing to take me under his wing. This is the best way to get into the bar industry, in my opinion. You not only become well versed on the technical sides of things, but having an "in" like that also sets you up for future networking opportunities abound. Sometimes, it really only comes down to who you know, not exactly what you know. Sad, but very true.

I got my start in bartending over six or seven years ago. At the time, I was going to college full-time and really wasn't digging my job. It just didn't make me feel happy or very good about myself. I called up my friend one day out of the blue (who owned a few bars in the city I lived in) and told him that I wanted to learn how to bartend. The next week he had me on the schedule at one of his bars. To this day, I still can't thank him enough for helping me like that.

I fell in love with bartending immediately. I had never been a real big drinker. In fact, I knew next to nothing about all of the spirits. I was a fresh, clean slate and eager to learn. The first bar I worked behind was on the restaurant side of a restaurant/nightclub venue. I worked there for a year learning all about the bar and restaurant industry, building up my repertoire of regulars and developing my specialty cocktails and shots. Once my friend felt that I was ready, he moved me on to one of his more busier bars.

I worked at the busier bar (which had a large college crowd and lots of late, crazy nights) for almost two years. This is where I continued my education on beers (we had several beers on tap) and spirits (we had a healthy selection of everything). We even made blended drinks! This is also the bar I really started to focus on my speed and taking numerous orders at once.

Once I graduated from college, I headed to the big city. Here, I had hit my bartender prime by scoring a bartending gig in a very busy, two-leveled nightclub, three nights a week. In addition to pouring the standard cocktails, shots and bottled beers, I also became well-versed with working with cocktail waitresses and taking care of the bottle service at the bar.

I had a lot of fun in those earlier bartending years, not only discovering a new profession in a new industry, but discovering myself as well. After five years, I decided that I couldn't bartend for the rest of my life. I had reached a form of bartending burnout. Now that I had my college degree, I fely like I had to grow up and get a day job that required me to work 40 hours a week, behind a desk, in an office downtown.

The job was fine, but I had never been more miserable in my life. I gave it a go for two years until I took the time to do some serious soul searching and realized that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. I opted to come back to bartending so that I could have my days free to do the things I really wanted to be working on.

Now, I am happy to be focused on what's important to me and to be working behind a bar again. I was fortunate enough to have another friend who recommended me to the current bar I am working at. See, sometimes it really is all about who you know. This time around bartending, I am expanding my horizons even further with working in a restaurant/lounge that encourages me to learn, in detail, about all the the different spirits and liquors we carry and to try the extensive wine list while pairing it with the foods we serve from the kitchen. I am even encouraged to develop my own drink recipes for our specialty cocktail menu. And here I thought I had learned all that I could about bartending. I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface!!

To the customer who asked me about bartending school the other night-I honestly have no idea. Some people in the industry are strongly against people going to bartending schools and others don't seem to mind at all. I am neither for or against the schools simply because I have never gone myself. How could I possibly recommend something I have never even tried personally?

What I tell anyone who is thinking about becoming a bartender is that 10% of the job is knowing the drinks and 90% of the job is your personality. It takes a strong personality to conduct a bar and entertain patrons. Just keep that in mind.

Stepping Outside of the Box

Stepping outside the box. That's exactly what I feel like I have been doing since I went back to bartending back in June. Maybe not stepping outside of the box in the traditional sense, but just me getting out of my own comfort zone. Trust me, being in my comfort zone is where I usually like to be. Don't most people? There is no room for growth inside a comfort zone. In the past, I have been used to the type of bartending that doesn't require much thought or creative capacity. Basically, being a bartender at these places means being a beer and cocktail factory and cashier. I have worked at bars where you serve the same drinks over and over again. There are no specialty cocktail menus and rarely are there any fresh ingredients, except for the standard lemon and lime wedges, cherries and olives. One place I worked at even stocked mint which surprised me when I first started working there. Nothing wrong with that.

Now, I work in a full restaurant/lounge type of place that has a specialty cocktail menu, uses a number of fresh fruit ingredients, has an extensive wine list and where I am encouraged to come up with new cocktail recipes and discover all the different spirits we carry. It's a great learning environment. After being behind the bar here for almost two months now, I am really starting to appreciate the fact that I work at a place that forces me out of my comfort zone and encourages me to learn new things. I feel like I have had a whole new aspect of bartending added to my repertoire. Hello fine dining!

I can honestly say, I am no longer a lazy bartender. My barback doesn't set up and tear down my bar for me. I run and fetch the items I need in a pinch. I stock my own bar. I can even sell you food off the menu and pair it with a really nice glass of wine or refreshing cocktail.

And here I didn't think I could quite possibly expand my horizons as a bartender. Boy I was wrong. No wonder why people are bartenders for a living.