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BARTENDER
Tending bar is a fun, creative, lucrative, and longstanding traditional business. You can become a bartender for events by working for a restaurant or catering business or offering your services to several catering businesses. Staff in the restaurant world turns over frequently, so you could also become a floating bartender who fills in for barkeeps on vacation or for establishments that are between bartenders.
If you can’t tell chardonnay from cabernet and have never known what is in a Singapore Sling, don’t despair. Bartending schools exist all over the country. In a few short weeks, you not only will know the ingredients of all the crazy-named drinks off the top of your head, but you will be able to pour an exact shot without using a measuring tool.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
Bartending often happens at night, so if you are not a night owl, this business may not be for you. There are ways, however, to do it without being out most of the night. You could focus on being a wedding bartender, as the majority of weddings happen during the day and early evening, so you would often be home by 9 p.m.
If you want to make considerable money as a bartender, you will also want to tend bar New Year’s Eve and for holiday parties. Plan for the period between Thanksgiving and the new year to be very busy.
Also, depending on how you set up your business, you will want to be sure to check the liquor laws in the state in which you plan to operate. Liquor sales are carefully controlled in all states and you need to take this aspect of this business seriously.
HOW DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR DAY?
As a bartender, you can often spend your days lounging on the beach or sitting on the patio reading a book! There is not a lot of preparation involved. Unopened alcohol doesn’t tend to spoil quickly so ordering supplies can be done at your convenience.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
What you need for this business depends on the way in which you decide to operate. If you simply hire yourself out as a bartender to various restaurants, catering businesses, or even private parties, you will need little more than expertise. Bring along a good, up-to-date bartending recipe book or a smart phone that allows you internet access—people are always going to come up with that one drink you have never heard of. For private party work, you may need to provide not only the liquor but the wine, beer, and cocktail glasses. These can be rented or you can collect a supply of your own. And you will need a dishwasher to run them through after the event and before the next one.
MARKETING ANGLE
In this business, you will be marketing yourself. You need to be gregarious but not pushy. Part of marketing yourself will be to dress neatly and have excellent grooming. If you can concoct your own signature drink, so much the better. Anything that makes your potential client think “This person will make a great bartender and I no longer have to worry about this aspect of the party,” is a great marketing tool.
NICE TOUCH
Some of the fun of being a bartender is experimenting with drinks. You may think that every drink under the sun has already been created, but you’d be surprised. New products—interesting beverages or juices and exotic ingredients—are brought to market all the time, making them a potential focus ingredient for stylish new cocktail.
EXPANSION POSSIBILITIES
If you become extremely proficient and desirable, you may want to expand and hire staff. You can send employees to do the more mundane bartending gigs, so you can keep the best ones for yourself.
You could also expand into offering tastings; wine, cocktail, or singlemalt scotch, for example. You can either do this yourself and rent a venue—hold them regularly and create a kind of club—or you can team up with a restaurant to offer the tastings in conjunction with a dinner. Learn how to use alcohol in food recipes, and you will have yet another aspect added to your bartending career.
WORDS TO KNOW
Mixers:The sodas that are mixed with alcohol to make “mixed drinks.”
Top shelf: A term that refers to name-brand alcohol, as apposed to lower-quality, less expensive “house” brands.
RESOURCES
bartending.org: bartending schools, drink recipes, and online training.