Bartending Tips and Tricks

Like any skill based career, yes, bartending is a skill based career, practice makes perfect. However, knowing all the little tips and tricks that go along with your job can make a huge difference in how efficient and enjoyable your work is. The following tips and tricks are great practice for any up and coming bartender. The sooner you get these down, the easier time you’ll have getting a bartending position at an upscale establishment.

1. Become ambidextrous. This will come with practice. Always use two hands whenever you’re mixing a drink. If a drink only requires one hand then make two, practice wiping down the counter, or taking payment with your offhand.

2. Unless you’re making something really complex, you should always be making multiple drinks at a time. There is an easy and efficient way to do this. First, line up the glasses for each drink. Then, put ice in the drinks that require it, and finally, mix and pour each drink accordingly. Follow the line like a conveyor belt and you’ll have a much easier time serving multiple people at once.

3. Learn to free pour. Being able to properly free pour takes skill. A free pouring bartender can work faster and looks better at his or her job. Some bars will not hire a bartender that can’t free pour properly. Almost all bars will give prospective bartenders the pour test and many will give it periodically to currently employed bartenders.

4. The pour test is when you are asked to free pour, meaning you don’t use any measuring devices, one-fourth, one half, three-fourths, one, one and one-fourth, one and a half, one and three-fourths, and two shots. You have to pour the right amount into each respective glass without having to pour any liquid out of the glass, meaning you get one chance. Practice, practice, and practice some more if you’re serious about becoming a master bartender.

5. Bounce cutting a bottle is an essential skill every bartender must master. Bounce cutting is how a bartender is able to lay out multiple glasses and fill them all tipping the bottle only once. If you were to try to do so without bounce cutting you would quickly have a large mess on your hands as you wasted what would quickly amount to thousands of dollars of alcohol between each glass.

6. Bounce cutting is pretty simple to do. After you line up some glasses and have the bottle that is going to be used to fill each glass, you tip the bottle and begin to pour the first drink. Before you’ve finished pouring it, bounce the bottle downwards and then up. The downwards motion should finish filling the glass while the upwards motion should stop the flow of the liquid just long enough for you to place the nozzle over the next glass. Bounce cutting correctly takes practice with each different kind of nozzle you can get your hands on. Practice and master it at home before you start implementing it at the bar.

7. You also need to become well versed in the reverse grip. A reverse grip is when you hold the bottle you’re pouring from with your palm sticking out from your body. Doing this is meant more for show than anything else but remember, as a bartender you are just as much of a showman as you are a server. Implement the reverse grip with other tricks you learn in order to make the tricks wow your audience even more.

Keep in mind that these are simply a few of the tips and tricks you’re going to need to know. There are a plethora of nuances you’ll pick up along the way and you can always learn something new. Pay attention to your fellow bartenders to see if they know tricks you don’t. When you walk into another bar, whether it be as a guest or as a new bartender, watch the bartender that is working to see if he or she does anything you may wish to incorporate. Also, feel free to experiment. If you can master some sort of flip trick that gets a bottle out of the Wine Refrigerator in a fancy manner, then do it. It’s always best to find some to separate yourself from the rest.

About The Author: Muriel J. Denis has written this article.