This year I was honored (and quite shocked, really) to be invited to speak at the P(our) Symposium in London. I spoke about my experience being behind the bar for the past 23 years, and in addition to the usual myth-busting and casual outrage, I decided to get very personal on this one. Also, I was nervous as hell so please excuse the awkwardness.
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These are the books and tools I use every single day to make drinks at home and behind the bar. Clicking on a product takes you to Amazon, which helps me keep this site running, so thank you in advance!
Hermano Cantinero,
I never tire of watching this talk, many truths for young colleagues to hear.
Thank you for everything you always share.
Goal hug
Thanks Jeff. I’m turning 51 this year, and even as a bar director now responsible for five bars I’m still pulling four (or more) bar shifts a week, mostly because I love it and I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way. At times, looking around it seems like I took a wrong turn somewhere, that I’m still bartending. Most of the time, however, I’m proud of it – of who I am and what I do. And yes, for anyone maybe listening, we’ll never really realize this “Golden Age” of bartending if you all tap out after five years.
Wow. Thank you for this. I followed your blog for years and through some unexpected changes in life, transitioned into bar/restaurant industry full time. I learned a lot from you and got inspired by you for giving a damn the way you do and seeing what you do as professional and a career. It’s been an adjustment growing into not doing what I went to school for and wanting to be taken seriously, especially by my family. This talk is so affirming that I’m bartending for a reason and that it’s something I love doing (even when I have off nights or am in the weeds all shift). Thank you again, Jeffrey, and keep doing what you’re doing.
Thank you for staying behind the bar and sharing that with those of us who get to sit across from you.
There are so many parallels to this in the coffee industry, and your experience mirrors mirrors mine as a barista in many ways. Thanks for being vulnerable and sharing this with us, it means a lot.