Balancing bartending and school
Financial rewards can be huge, as can the academic pitfalls
Christine Barbacki, The Plant (Dawson College)
Photo by Scott Stephens.
MONTREAL (CUP) — It’s Saturday night, and you and your friends are ready to party hard as you head toward your bar or club of choice. You walk in, hang up your coat, and belly up to the bar.
As soon as you enter, you can hear the glees of delight as party-goers throw back shot after shot with the bartenders. You order your round of Russian Roulette shots, and the bartender dazzles you, dousing the bar with Sambuca and setting it aflame. He chats with you, asks you where you’re from, offers you another drink with a seductive grin. You cordially accept, tipping the stud generously.
On the other end of the bar, a bartender is flirting with the men who flock to her side. Showing some skin, she laughs, smiles and winks at her customers who cannot but sit at her bar and wish she were theirs. At the peak of the night, she performs a sexy dance on the bar, drawing yet more hungry men toward her.
The bartender has charm, charisma and style. He is the star of the night and creates the fun party atmosphere of the club or bar. He flirts with you, makes you feel special and supplies you with as much alcohol as he sees fit. The next morning, you usually wake up with an empty wallet and a hangover as the only memory of the night before. In that instant, you wonder, who’s getting the better end of the deal here?
The bartender parties all night, is loved by whomever he serves, and makes ridiculous amounts of money from drunken fools like yourself. You decide you want a piece of the action. So here you have it, your ultimate guide to the world of bartending, including its perks and downfalls, work ethics and conditions, and tips to get more tips.
What does it take to be a bartender?
Becoming a bartender isn’t as easy as it looks. You have to have a sense of humour, work well with others and be extremely friendly, polite and patient. Your job not only entails serving drinks; you are responsible for the good time of others. Appearance and behaviour are crucial when bartending. You should be clean, sexy and classy.
Paula Moldovan, a fourth-semester science student and a bartender at Club Vatican, said, “It’s not just about looking good. You really have to know how to make the atmosphere. You need a lot of energy, you have to talk a lot and smile a lot. If it’s not natural, it’s hard to fake it.” Bartenders should be friends with their customers, talk about the nightlife, but never about politics, religion or personal problems.
The pros of taking a bartending course are that you not only learn the endless drink recipes, but you also become familiar with the different glassware, garnishes, tools and alcohol you’ll be dealing with.
“For most places, bartending school is really good because that’s what will get you in,” said Shayne Patenaude, a second-year social science student and a bartender at Sir Winston Churchill Pub on Montreal’s notorious Crescent St.
The obvious drawback of taking the course is that it costs money. Also, some bars may choose to train their own bartenders, rendering the course pretty much useless. Some also say that the best way to learn is from experience.
“I think it’s easier to learn when you’re there in the club,” said Moldovan.
Juggling your academics
Obviously, bartending is a great source of income. You can make a hefty amount of money without working many shifts. “I made $600 last weekend,” said Moldovan.
Furthermore, the work atmosphere is a party in itself. Moldovan added, “That’s what I really like about this job. There’s nobody to tell you what to do. You’re on your own, you talk to your friends, you have fun at the same time; it’s like going out, dancing, whatever. It’s just that you’re making money at the same time.”
If you become a bartender while attending school, get ready to seriously mess with your biological clock. “I never study on the weekend. I get home at around six in the morning. Seriously, you don’t function well. I’m always tired on weekends,” said Moldovan. This job can strain your body, and your studies may suffer.
“I think being a bartender will physically wear you down in not too much time,” said Shayne Laverdière, a second-year cinema and communications student at Dawson College. You can also say goodbye to quiet Friday and Saturday movie nights with your friends. As a bartender, you party every weekend, whether you like it or not.
Location, location, location
At bars, the music isn’t usually too loud, so you won’t be slowly going deaf.
You may have to deal with drunkards — this can get dangerous, since supplying a drunken person with alcohol is illegal, and you could face serious repercussions. Finally, people party on Fridays and Saturdays, which means you will always be working when you would like to go out. Working in a bar means long hours, and no weekends for yourself. You will probably work weekday shifts when people are just drinking to escape their problems.
Clubs are expensive and busy, and people are just going to dance and have fun. This translates into huge tips at the end of the night. Young clubbers tend not to be uptight and are very friendly. You won’t have to deal with fussy customers and get your head bitten off if you make a mistake.
“If someone asks me for a drink that I’ve never heard of and they don’t know what’s in it they say ‘It’s ok, just give me something else.’ It’s fine with them. They don’t care! They just want to drink,” Moldovan said.
Unfortunately, like bars, clubs can become a hazard to your health. The music is extremely loud, something you will have to get used to. “Every night you are screwing up your hearing. You will lose many frequencies for sure,” said Laverdière.
People who go clubbing want to drink . . . a lot. Be prepared to have huge lineups of people waiting to be served.
“There are, like, so many people waiting! Sometimes, I just forget everything. I take so many orders at a time and I don’t remember any of the orders,” exclaimed Moldovan. If you can’t handle stress or multi-tasking, working in a club is definitely not for you. Like in a bar, you will have to accept that you will always be working on your weekend nights.
Hotels and restaurants won’t get as busy as clubs and bars, so stress is greatly reduced. The customers also tend to be older and wealthier, so your tips per drink will be greater. Restaurant and hotel customers drink socially, and don’t usually get drunk, therefore you won’t usually have to deal with drunkards or people trying to pick you up. For those who prefer not to get home in the early hours of the morning, working in a restaurant or hotel presents the advantage of more reasonable working hours.
Unlike your average club kid, wealthy people tend to be snooty and will give you a hard time if you make a mistake. Presentation is crucial in these areas, and you can’t afford to screw up. Also, although individual customers will be tipping you more, you won’t be making too many drinks in one night, considerably decreasing your total amount of tips. Finally, you won’t be having much fun, since business people will be talking about politics and such — not partying.
Getting home at night
To uphold the party atmosphere, bartenders are sometimes encouraged to present the image that they are also there to party by taking shots with customers. However, accepting all shots offered to you will impede your driving skills and may also render you a useless worker.
When you drive, you must either know your limit of drinking, or simply trick your customers into thinking you are drinking. Although the swig of beer following a shot displayed in Coyote Ugly is a clever idea, it is now all too well known and very obvious. Moldovan shared some of her devious tricks.
“I take the shot and sometimes I drop it [in the sink] when they don’t see and hold the shot glass [with my fingers around the glass]. Or sometimes I drink half and when I turn it [upside down on the bar], it goes on the bar. It’s less obvious.”
Making good tips
The word “tips” is an acronym for “to insure proper service.” Here are a few tips to improve your tips and make the bartending experience all the more enjoyable:
— When returning change, break bills into coins so that the customer won’t have to ask for change to tip.
— When returning change in the form of a bill and a two-dollar coin, place the bill on top of the toonie. The customer will take the bill, expose the toonie, be too embarrassed to take the toonie as well, and leave it as a tip.
— Make customers feel special. Every customer should feel like they are your favourite.
— Spice up your style with flair. Flipping bottles and glassware and setting the bar on fire attracts customers, impresses them and entertains them.
— An alluring personal appearance also rakes in the tips.
“Sex sells. The bartender who’s got the best look, the best style, is the one who will end up with the most money at the end of the night,” said Laverdière.
