Bartending School? They say don’t mention this on your application ! Why you may ask? Well, most of the establishment’s want Experience. And not someone who has no idea of what to do behind a bar except TO make drinks…This person Has no experience. With real life situations. I know every situation in life is different so I will try and start out with the first basic things that a bartender needs to do to keep his or her bar running smoothly!
There is so much that goes on in a bar you need to know some of the things that you will be facing , every day is completely different! Like I have said before Bartending is Not a boring job! You have a lot of responsibility! These are Tips that a Bartending School does not teach you.
Get Organized: You must be organized. You will be multi tasking all the time. Getting drinks, ringing them up, closing tabs out, running charge cards, giving change for games or pool tables. Ordering food for people. opening a wine bottle, getting ice or filling up a juice container that just ran out, And while you are doing all these different tasks people will be talking to you. So you will have to organize yourself to accomplish everything that you need to do. To multi Task you need to look around the bar and see who is in need first. If you have a new customer wait on them first so that they have a drink. when you ring up there drink, give change to the person who needed the change while your register is open , Then take care of the next person. Sometimes people are in a hurry all of a sudden. They are ready to go. Get them taken care of. Just look around the bar and you can see who you can let wait for a minute. Someone might say I am ready to pay my Tab but they have full drinks, so you can go ahead and get a drink for someone else. then take care of the tab. Multi task! Because you know it will take them a few minutes to finish there drinks. You will be moving at a fast pace so keep focused and don’t panic! Just say I will be will be with you in just a minute. So that person knows you have acknowledged them. Organization, talking to your customers is a must. Let them know you are taking care of them. People do not realize that they are not the only one who has asked you for something. So look around the bar all the time, and get organized!
The Register: Make sure you look at the bill the customer has handed to you. I always lay the bill across the drawer I then take out the change, then I put the bill in the right slot. This method will help you so that you will not be short in your register at the end of the night. If you have 100.00 bill do not put it under your 20.00 bills because you could give this out as a 20.00.I put my 100.00 bill in the slot to the far left , then next slot 20.00, then 10.00, then 5.00, then 1.00. Some people put there large bills under the drawer. But I do not want to forget them so I do not use this method. Always check your big bills with a bill checker to make sure that the bill is not forged. Just make a mark on the bill. If the bill is real the mark will look yellowish brown. If it is Fake it will be a black mark.
Give the right change. Even if it takes you extra second count the change back to yourself. Your register is the main event in the bar! You must pay attention to how you run your register. Don’t end up short or you will pay this shortage out of your money.
Giving change back : Give change back to the customer count it back to them. Especially Large bills, And make sure if that customer is not sitting at the bar when you return with the change you wait until they return then give them there change. The reason I say this is because you are responsible up to that point for there money. Once you have given them the change and counted it back to them If they choose to leave there money on the bar that is there responsibility!
I have had customers say I had 10.00 on the bar and now its not here.. Well.. I do not take anything that they haven’t given me. I am busy and I can not watch there money on the bar. I usually let the customer know that I can not watch his money, so they need to.
Where to put the customers change It sure doesn’t seem like a very big deal right? But it can get to be a big deal! Make sure that you put there money right in front of them , people are so close together when sitting a the bar. I have had disputes over whose money was whose?? Because the money was put in between two customers. Not right next to the customer the change belonged to.
Also, watch out! I have had customers take money that wasn’t theirs not meaning to.. but when they have had a few cocktails they forget. Also I have had them take money off the bar and they know it doesn’t belong to them. Usually that person is asked to not come back to the bar! If Someone else at the bar tells you that they saw a person take money, or it happens every time that same person is at the bar and money disappears!Then we watch that person closely! And if we have them on camera they will not be allowed back into the bar. So a lot can happen with just giving the change back to a customer. These are just a couple of things that can happen if you are bartending .We will talk about more situations that can happen, so your job will be a little easier!
