Yelp: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Ever since I first began my career as a bartender, I have always had one major goal in mind: to always make the customer happy. Working in the service industry, I am in the business of customer service, of pleasing the customer. Sometimes, customers are really easy to please. Other times, customers can be high maintenance and demanding. If a customer is well taken care of, then there is a greater chance that the customer will come back in the future and tell their friends about their experience.

Before 2004, most people would hear of new restaurants and bars based on word of mouth. If a customer had a great or terrible experience at a restaurant or bar, that customer would tell their friends. Yelp has since brought this “word of mouth” service online in the form of Yelp.com. Read More...

Bar Review: Rickhouse

When it comes to San Francisco’s bar and cocktail culture, there is a little something for everyone. You have the dive bars where ordering a shot and a beer is the standard. You have your fancy nightclubs selling bottles of spirits and bringing it directly to the table with ice, glass and mixers in the form of bottle service. You have live music venues that serve everything in a plastic cup. You have restaurants featuring specialty cocktails that pair nicely with the food entrees on the menu. And then there are places like one of San Francisco’s newest members to the bar scene, Rickhouse, located at 246 Kearny Street (at Sutter). If any of you in San Francisco remember the old Ginger’s Trois bar, this is the space.

From the company who brought to San Francisco, Bourbon & Branch now brings to the city, Rickhouse, minus the required password for entrance and the house rules. Rickhouse features an impeccable selection of spirits, local beers and California wines. There are three pages consisting of 96 different brands of American whiskey and rye whiskey alone! Read More...

The Virtual Spirit Brand Experience

So what if you are a new bartender who has a charming personality, but doesn’t know a whole lot about the different brands and the products that are carried behind the bar? What if you are an experienced bartender who is just looking for a little history on the different brands stocked behind the bar? Or what if you aren’t a bartender, but are looking for information about the many different liquor products out there? The Virtual Spirit Brand Experience is just for you.

The Virtual Spirit is a free online source, sponsored by Beam Global and is open to anyone over the age of 21 who seeks the knowledge. The Virtual Spirit website is organized into five parts: Spirits Certification Program, On-Site Kiosk Program, Download Library, MIXXIT and the Virtual Mixology Guide. Read More...

My FAVORITE Dive Bar In Seattle: Shorty's

Bar Review: Shorty's (Seattle, WA):

If you have coulrophobia, then stop reading this article right now. Coulrophobia is the rare extreme or irrational fear of clowns. If you are afraid of clowns, don’t go to Shorty’s because there are clowns everywhere. Shorty’s is totally worth braving your fear of clowns for though. As a huge fan of dive bars with a decent selection of beer, a full bar, pinball and arcade games, quirky or sometimes downright bizarre decor and a cool jukebox, I’d say Shorty’s has it all. Read More...

Bar Review: Boboquivari’s The Steak

The steak. The crab. These are just a couple of things Boboquivari’s (bo-bo-kwee-var-ee) are known for. Chances are if you live in San Francisco, you have probably driven by Bobo’s (this is what the people in the know call this place) a million times and never noticed the restaurant. Or maybe you did notice the black and red striped awning, always wondered what it was all about but never had a chance to check it out.

Word on the street is that Bobo’s has the best steak in San Francisco. Read More...

A Must Read For Bartenders

If you are a bartender, I highly suggest you read, "The Joy of Mixology" written by Gary Regan. The book was recommended to me by a fellow bartender. I started reading it last week and haven't been able to put it down. This book has everything one would ever need to know when it comes to bartending. This book discusses the history of cocktails and mixed drinks, what every bartender needs to have or be able to do, the theory of mixology, foundations of the bar (garnishes, mixers and supplemental ingredients), bartending tools, glassware, a very clear explanation and chart of cocktail and mixed-drink families and hundreds of recipes.

Do yourself a favor and don't just skip to the recipes chapter. Really read this book from start until finish. I have read a few different bar books and I feel like this book really gives it's reader the whole spectrum of how things work and function behind any bar. I have been bartending for a few years and thought I knew a lot about bartending and cocktails already. Now that I am reading this book, I am realizing that I still have a whole lot more to learn. I love books that expand my horizons!

The book itself is easy to read and hard to put down. It isn't super long either. I wish I had known about this book when I first started bartending.