What does a bartender do?
You serve drinks fast and accurately to people who are gradually getting less reasonable, and you are legally responsible for when to stop.
Also called: mixologist, bar staff, barkeeper.
A day looks like
- 1You set the bar up so that everything you reach for tonight is where your hand already goes.
- 2You serve in the order people arrived, which sounds obvious until four of them arrive at once.
- 3You watch the room as much as the bar — who is drinking fast, who is with whom, who has gone quiet.
- 4You refuse somebody a drink, early and politely, before it is a scene.
Hardest part
Cutting somebody off. It is a legal duty, it is nearly always unpopular, and the later you leave it the worse it goes — so the skill is doing it one drink earlier than feels necessary.
Best part
A packed bar where you have not lost the order once and everyone got served in the order they arrived.
How you actually become a bartender
- At schoolNothing formal, though you need to be old enough to serve alcohol where you live.
- TrainingOn the job, plus licensing law awareness; cocktail training comes from working good bars.
- How longWeeks to serve, a year or two to run a busy bar on your own.
- Your first jobBar back or bar staff — glasses, ice and learning the till.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a bartender legally allowed to refuse service?
- Not only allowed — required. In most licensing systems it is an offence to serve someone who is already drunk, and the liability often sits with the individual serving as well as the venue.
- What is a proxy sale?
- Selling alcohol to an adult who is buying it for someone underage. It is illegal, and it is why bars check everyone in a group who is drinking rather than just the person paying.
- Do you need qualifications?
- Generally not to start, beyond being old enough to serve alcohol. Licensing awareness training is standard, and cocktail skill comes from working in bars that take it seriously.
More from Hospitality & Tourism
Chef
You spend the afternoon getting ready for two hours of chaos, and how well you prepared decides whether those two hours are cooking or panic.
Barista
You make drinks that need to be right and fast at the same time, for a queue that can see exactly how long you are taking.
Hotel Housekeeper
You turn fourteen used rooms back into rooms that look like nobody has ever been in them, in an order that has to be exactly right.
Hotel Duty Manager
You are the most senior person in the building at three in the morning, and everything that nobody else can decide comes to you.
Head Housekeeper
You have a hundred rooms, eleven hours and nine people, and you decide in what order the building gets cleaned.
Catering Manager
You feed six hundred people in forty minutes, on a budget, and you are the person who has to know exactly what is in every dish.
Outdoor Instructor
You take other people's children up a hill or onto water, and the whole job is knowing when to turn round.
Cruise Hotel Officer
You run a hotel that cannot call anybody for help, is full of people who cannot leave, and is moving.
Baker
You turn flour and water into bread overnight, and almost everything you do is judged by hand rather than by a timer.
Pastry Chef
You work to the gram and to the degree, in the coldest corner of the kitchen, on the part of the meal people photograph.
Butcher
You break a carcass down into the cuts people recognise, following the animal's own seams rather than sawing through it.
Kitchen Porter
You keep the whole kitchen supplied with clean equipment — and if you stop, service stops about eleven minutes later.
Sommelier
You read a table, find the bottle that suits what they are eating and what they want to spend, and serve it in an order that has a reason behind every step.
Restaurant Manager
You run a room of strangers eating, a kitchen under pressure and a team who are all tired, and you keep all three of them working together.
Concierge
You know the city well enough to solve a stranger's problem in ten minutes, and you know which promises you can actually keep.
Front of House Supervisor
You run a section during service — who goes where, in what order, and which table gets the next thing that comes out of the kitchen.
Events Coordinator
You run a day that happens once, cannot be rehearsed and cannot be repeated, for people who will remember it for the rest of their lives.
Tour Guide
You take a group of strangers somewhere, keep all of them safe and interested at the same time, and tell them the truth about it.