Labyrinth said:
I'm curious as to the industry composition. Do you get many women working the cocktail bars and if so, do they cop more flack from male patrons than you do from female?
Anything that comes of as sexist or chauvinist in the answering of this question is purely coincidental, it is my opinion and I do not mean any offence by it.
I find that a lot more guys become cocktail bartenders and girls are generally speed bartenders. That being said, one of the best bartenders/friends from the industry that I have is a girl who used to do essentially the same job I'm doing right now (before she was head hunted by a new bar that opened up and was willing to pay more and give more hours). I'm not sure if there's any reason why there are more male cocktail bartenders, but from my personal experience the saying "you can't spell cocktail without cock" does seem to be true. Maybe it's because more guys get in to the hospitality industry because they don't want to work jobs that are traditionally considered to be more feminine (Receptionists, secretaries, cashiers) and hence there are just more men learning the craft, or because girls are less willing to give up their weekends so they can be yelled at and watch other people dance and have fun. It might even be because despite not being as physically taxing as, say, bricklaying, if you are not able to take a shitload of abuse, it really isn't the job for you. I don't want to imply that all girls are delicate little flowers that can't take on a couple of drunk retards, because I know a ton of girls who are hard as nails from working in bars, but its certainly a possible factor.
I wouldn't say the girls cop a lot of flack from guys, they would generally get it more from the girls in my experience. Of course there are the guys who just don't understand that female bartenders are not interested in picking up across the bar, and that any amount of flirting or cleavage on display is purely for the benefit of their end of the night take, and not to land a husband. I can't really speak for others, but my goal is generally just to get the customers what they want as quickly as possible, so if I ever come off as being short it is because the patron is being slow and I have a lot of people to serve. I wouldn't really say I cop flack, because anyone who does give me any shit has a security guard on top of them before I can say "security to bar, code green" in to my radio. I've certainly had my share of douchebags though - girls who threaten me with legal action because I called their friend a fuckhead for spitting in the ice well ("Um, I'm pretty sure it's in the legislation that you can't call people fuckheads" - As a law student I laughed so hard right in her face that I think I pooed a little), guys who reach across the bar to grab a glass and start filling it with coke from the soda guns, guys who think I'm their buddy and ask me to "make it a big shot of vodka in those drinks", people who change their order 15 times, people who tell me "I'm pretty sure I was next" (my response to that is "I'm pretty sure I'm the bartender and I decide who's next"), guys who slam shot glasses down on the bar and break glass over me, other patrons and in to the ice well - and each of them get dealt with by me, either by me verbally cutting sick on them or simply saying "leave". So to some extent, the only real flack I get is people getting angry at me because they realised they've just been stupid enough to get themselves kicked out.
supersplash said:
Hey gentleben, reading through the answers you've given in this thread i just wanna say that you sound like an awesome bartender and i'm sad that me and my 2 friends didn't go to "your" bar when we were in Brisbane.
Quick question. How do you feel about the trend that "gourmet" beers from micro-breweries has gotten the image as the new wine?
I haven't heard of this trend, as I drink wine and beer. My father has a massive wine cellar (he got air conditioning for it before he got it for the rest of the house, so you can sort of see where his priorities lie), so I've been encouraged to enjoy for the distinct flavours and aromas it has rather than as a method for dispensing alcohol. On the other hand, I love beer. It is amazing, and I find the entire process of fermentation and distillation to be a thing of strange beauty, as you can take the same ingredients, and apply to them the same processes so that they have identical chemical structure (my sister did a chemistry project on different wines, some good and some bad, to determine if there was a chemical structure for "good wine" and they were down the line on everything) and yet they can have such different tastes, to the point that if you had never heard of wine or beer before you could be given two examples at the opposite ends of the spectrum (a porter and a lager, or a reisling and a merlot) and not know that they were, in essence, the same drink.
I don't know that beer could ever replace wine, but there are certainly circumstances where a fine beer can compliment a dish just as well as a fine wine can. Craft beers are great because they keep the art of brewing alive. The more beers that are out there, the more choice you have, and with the recent influx of imported beers to Australia as well, anyone who says "I don't like beer" just hasn't tried hard enough to find the right one.
I guess I haven't really answered either of the questions that I was given, but oh well.