Post #370308 by Registered Astronaut on Sun, Mar 30, 2008 6:28 PM

Just an update if anybody cares, my training began two days ago and it's been the best training I've ever had for any job. The bar manager is awesome, thorough, and patient. I heard he's gonna get tough on me later, but I'm ready to step it up. That said, I'm very blessed to have taught myself tropical drink mixology, and the study of mixology in general. To be clear, while I have worked in bars before, this was mostly a hobby for me up until now. But boy am I glad I have the knowledge I have. I can see how most bartenders are trained to see drinks as equations, to be solved in the fastest, most efficient way possible, with no regards to balance, or tradition. In my particular service bar we are CRUNCHED and i've only trained when it's slow, so I have empathy for bartenders who just learn to churn and burn and not give a second thought to the actual art itself. That said, some idiot bartender who thinks his way is the best and only way because he makes a thousand drinks per night has a feeble argument. Yes, he's skilled, but, are the thousand drinks he's making any good? To average joe, maybe- but he doesn't know the difference between triple sec and orange curacao, he just knows when they're called for and when they aren't. I'm making drinks I would never serve to my friends- not because they're bad- but because they're not what I believe in. But I don't care, because you don't put your feet on the hosts' couch. You let them tell you to take your shoes off at the door and use coasters on the coffee table. Because its their place, not yours.
P.S. I didn't know that the modern martini has no vermouth- vermouth is now a call. Atleast in L.A., a Martini is shaken vodka.