This is just going to be a bunch of musings, something I haven’t been able to get out of my head for a while now. Inspired by my many text thread and in-person conversations with “old timers” and veterans like myself who have watched a real paradigm shift in the drinks trade lately. I’m well aware that hospitality evolves over time. Shit, when I first started, most bars didn’t even take credit cards – everything was cash only unless you were at the fanciest restaurant in town. I’m talking about the massive tidal wave of change that’s happened in the past decade, with the largest amount of change happening since Covid started.
I’m also going to preface this by saying that I absolutely abhor this sort of old-guy “the kids are doing it all wrong” bullshit that has been around since the beginning of time. I love being at this place in my career where I can sort of sit back a little bit, and watch and learn from people who are coming up in the business. It’s inspiring, and it’s fucking fun.
But one facet of this paradigm shift has been kind of eating at me lately, and I wanted to share some thoughts and hear some thoughts. And that’s this idea I have that knowledge has replaced skill as the cultural capital among bartenders over the past decade. And I’m not talking about the interaction between bartender and guest right now, just the thing that we trade in amongst ourselves. Let me explain:
When I was coming up in the business (and mind you, this was pre-internet era bartending) we (bartenders who started around the same time I did) used to go sit at bars to watch bartenders who were fucking amazing at the job. And we either subconsciously or consciously assigned ourselves to a place in the ecosystem based on how we stacked up to whoever we were watching and learning from. And I’m not even talking about cocktails – I’m just remembering going to a sports bar to watch Rick and Wendy because they were crushing massive volume night after night, and doing it all without breaking a sweat. I remember going to a sort of fun, divey, restaurant lounge to watch Cameron, who knew every single person in the place and had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand while he put on a show. And sure, we’d also go watch Ronnie and Brian and Albert because they were the first ones in town making drinks with fresh juice, but also they were throwing a rager of a party at the same time, making more money than just about anyone in town, and doing it while wearing a shirt and tie instead of a black t-shirt. So we would roll around town on our nights off to watch and learn. Because the cultural capital of bartending at the time was pure, unadulterated skill – and we wanted to get some of that for ourselves.
But something happened around a decade or so ago, and the main commodity between bartenders now feels like it’s information, instead of skill. What shape of clay pot still is being used at this distillery in Oaxaca. What the mashbill of this bourbon is. How many grams of Xantham gum need to be used to stabilize this syrup. You get what I mean.
I think it all started with the educational brand trip. The implication to bartenders that if you come to our distillery, if you sit in on this masterclass, if you spend a week in an immersive educational platform, when you get home you’re going to be a better bartender. And all of the unspoken promises that come with it: you’ll be better bartender because of this new knowledge. You’re gonna make more money. You’ll get a job in a bar that’s on this list or that list. You’ll eventually be famous. People will recognize and respect you. You just need to collect some more knowledge.
When I was actively managing bars I would see it all the time. Bartenders would come in with their resumé, proudly displaying their many accomplishments and sometimes absolutely shell-shocked that they weren’t hired on the spot. I could see it in their eyes, but sometimes I’d even hear it, too: how does that person get to work here and I don’t? They don’t have one percent of the education that I do!
As a result of this commoditization of knowledge among us, the industry has (I feel) turned in on itself – we’re much more interested in impressing our peers with this knowledge than we are with impressing our guests. I see it at many industry gatherings I go to, and I hear it from guests. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had this sort of conversation:
“I want a Margarita but can you make, like, a regular one?”
“Uh, yeah I think so. What exactly do you mean?”
“Well, do you have fresh lime juice? Last week I ordered one and the bartender told me how he makes his own lime juice from like chemicals or whatever. It was, like, clear? Also don’t want any egg whites or anything in it.”
Which begs the question, who is this for? I’m watching bars all over the world close their doors, often citing this idea that “people just don’t want to drink anymore” and I have to ask if this fetishization of knowledge, and need to impress our peers with tricks and trivia has something to do with it. Consumer confidence is feeling very low right now, and I wonder if this inward turn we’ve taken as an industry has to bear a small part of the responsibility.
And I know that this is rich coming from a guy who has been sharing information and techniques on the internet for 20+ years. But in real life and in my bars I have always taught my teams that these are simply tools we use to put a more delicious and craveable product on the bar-top. And the reason why we’re doing that is because we want them to crush a bunch more of our drinks, spend more money, and have a great time. And come back. I have always prioritized bartenders who don’t trade in the currency of information, but rather fun. And it’s gotten harder and harder to convince staff that fun is the way through, and not just collecting information which honestly I believe might be a dead-end eventually.
Anyway. That’s just where my head has been at lately.
Much love,
JM
As rent and other expenses are rising, I’m seeing knowledge concentrated in the bar manager and head bartender, and excellence in bartenders being judged by how well they can churn out drinks (all while being somewhat understaffed to save on labor) and discouraging connections with the guests.
The knowledge aspect is getting intense though as list cocktails require a hours of prep with Pectin-X, methylcellulose-laden foams, powdered acids, etc. that all look great for the Instagram and on paper but are usually just okay and too complicate to replicate to become a classic.
I definitely find myself aging into sitting at bars where the drinks are less impressive (or not impressive at all) but the staff knows how to make people feel appreciated for showing up. I can do all the cool cocktail stuff at home, but feeling seen and heard is still a skill set of an old school bartender that I can’t replicate no matter how many syrups I have in my kitchen fridge.
I think in a world where information is abundant, presence and awareness become the real currency of hospitality.
It’s no longer solely about the product we receive, but about the feeling surrounding the transaction. The atmosphere. The attention. The sense of being seen.
I sometimes feel the older generation had this more naturally embedded.
Not because they knew more, but because they were less distracted.
Hospitality used to be slower. More eye contact. More listening. More reading the room.
Today we have more information than ever, but maybe less undivided attention.
And perhaps the real opportunity for our generation isn’t to go backwards, but to consciously reclaim what once came intuitively:
presence, awareness, and genuine human connection.
So yes. I think you absolutely hit the nail on the head. The next frontier isn’t more information. It’s more awareness.
Very well said. Thank you.
I just took on a new job where the folks I manage have tons of knowledge, but I am helping them shape that knowledge in a way that is more simpatico to the guest currently in front of them. I find myself going back to my roots on theatre and education to teach the social skills that go with the knowledge to make a fine bartender, or presenter of knowledge to the ever changing public that is the folks coming through New Orleans. Listening skills and engaging the guest with true confidence and thoughtfulness are my goals for my new team. Connection and guest collaboration is what I want to create for my community.
You’re one of the best to ever do the job, Abigail! Thanks for contributing here.
I agree with the post so much. I remember when I started out the people who we looked up to the most were the ones who could just crush a packed service (nothing refunded or rang in wrong, not frantically running in the back for stuff). I see this in the brewery industry all the time, bartenders talking about hops and IBU’s but for the most part what people want is still just a crisp refreshing beer 8/10 times. To quote Dr. Malcol, feels like a lot of bars/restaurants/breweries were so focused on whether or not they could do something – they never thought about whether or not they should
I think something we forget sometimes is that all the knowledge we pick up as bartenders is supposed to serve us — to make us better at the job — not become the job itself.
Somewhere along the way, and I’m not even sure when it happened, a lot of bartenders started tending knowledge instead of tending the bar.
Don’t get me wrong — knowing things matters. Spirits, technique, history, all of that has real value. But that knowledge is only worth anything if it turns into better hospitality, better drinks, better flow, and better nights for the people sitting in front of us.
Lately it feels like the knowledge is the end goal, not the tool. It gets performed for other bartenders instead of quietly used to make guests feel comfortable and excited to order another round.
At the end of the day, I don’t think we’re here to educate the bar — I think we’re here to tend it. If the guest leaves feeling looked after, relaxed, and wanting another drink, then the knowledge did its job. If not, honestly, it doesn’t matter how much of it we’re carrying.
As someone who definitely is definitely not the youngest, not the oldest, and been making his way in this industry in a long time – the amount of times I’ve seen hospitality out the window because bartenders and guests are so wrapped up in the technical aspect and not caring about anything else, the frustration grows on each side. To your point, and I agree, trips and accolades and competition wins etc can read as someone chasing and relying on clout, yet there are those as well who still go out and work hard, have an amazing time/fun and bring guests with them, and do their best to shift the paradigm where the resume doesn’t need to read as an awards sheet, and getting everyone to see that it can all come together to make a great professional behind and in front of the bar. A fun subject indeed.
I feel so validated seeing this perspective from you. I’ve been behind bars for nearly 15 years now (woooof, that’s shocking to say) and the hospitality focus has most certainly been pushed to the wayside. I work with some “cocktail geniuses” that can’t hold a conversation with a guest to save their lives. Cocktails can definitely speak for themselves, but that’s not why folks continue coming back to the same bars week after week. Having knowledge is crucial in many regards, but has very little value when we forget why we’re behind the stick – for our guests. 1/10 folks are genuinely looking to nerd out, and usually they’re looking to prove their own knowledge rather than question the bartender’s. I thought for a long time that I just “didn’t quite get it” and then I realized that my strength is in creating that welcoming space and, these days especially, that seems to be what post quarantine patrons are looking for. Plus one balanced-nuanced-braggable-9 touch cocktail, with ingredients they can’t pronounce, and then they inevitably revert back to their Classic Manhattan after one $17 cocktail because really they just want a buzz and a nice place to socialize…
Thank you Jeffrey. Loved every line.
Same here. Started to changed things since a while to break this ugly habbits.
Bartending is fun. Love guest. Not Liquor.
Whatever culinary-bar technique is involved should only be applied to the back end, in my opinion. The whole point of bartending is giving people what they want, and if you can suggest them into the super cool thing you’re doing—awesome! If they want a dirty Tito’s vodka martini, fuck yeah, you got it dude, make it real good, make the guest happy. don’t make em feel weird that they didn’t try your sick clarified version of a classic or try the house Gibson onions. If they come back a few times you might be able to talk them into something new. Nothing wrong with just crushing out what the guest wants, and doing it well, as long as you get paid what do you have to complain about?
It’s getting harder and harder to find joy coming from the people behind the bar. When we went down the path of information then people came in who wanted to be thought of as cool because they make their own yak bitters or whatever but were only happy when they were talking about their yak bitters.
The ones that have joy are the ones people are still lining up to get a drink from.
Yeah I guess I never really wanted to talk about the thing I was doing, but then again I got that out of me by writing about it. When I show up for work I just want to be the host of a party. Talking about the thing I’m doing while doing it all night is exhausting.
you mentioned “reading the bar” above, and i’m curious about that. meaning, if the bar doesn’t have a specific type of xyz, don’t order that?
Knowing how to order based on the many visual cues is becoming something of a lost art I fear. Setting your own expectations based on things like selection, decor, service style, etc is so important to the act of enjoying a space as it was intended. The inability of guests to read the room is unfortunately forcing bars into one of two categories: cocktail bar or dive bar. And there’s a whole middle there that is so so so much fun to occupy when you can learn to appreciate it.
Hey Jeffrey.
Very solid points and interesting especially from the supplier side. I have my Amaretto sour in front of me.. so how is the swimming coming along? What music are you listening to ? How about when you swim? Top 3 movies on your must see list. Cheers
How was that ?
Honestly some of your better chat 😂
Maybe along the same lines, now when ordering a martini, I often have to explain what I want. Gin, with vermouth and olives, no not a dirty martini, just olives, yes I want vermouth, not Gin up. And please use a martini glass with stem, not a nick and nora and not stemless. Its almost harder than ordering something else and its simple, or at least it used to be.
Not saying that it definitely is, but this might be a condition of where you’re choosing to order your Martinis. I’ve found that another casualty of the so-called craft cocktail movement is the average guest’s ability to read a bar before deciding what to order.
I think you definitely hit on something, but it also comes from the customers. I’m not a bartender, but I love to sit at the bar anywhere (from fancy restaurants to the local dive) and watch and learn. I’ve noticed that so many customers come in with expectations (their own favorite drink and preparation on a card?) and knowledge. They love to tell everyone how this IPA is hopped, or that whiskey isn’t really a bourbon, etc. It can make for an exhausting experience for other customers, and I bet many bartenders hate it, too.
I’m always stunned by the number of people (almost always men) that think I want to talk about every aspect of the job I do, while I’m on my feet doing it. Can we talk about literally anything else? Music? Movies? Literally anything.
As a relative newbie [6 yrs) thank you. I got into this after being back of house because it looked like fun and been finding myself getting sucked into competitions and brand stuff and I just want to make people happy and have a good time. Any advice for someone who still wnats to have a good career without all the competitive knowledge stuff? The local community here is real catty around it.
I think that’s part of what turned me off to a lot of this stuff initially: I watched a lot of bartenders sort of gatekeep information while simultaneously lording it over others – myself included. And as someone who has worked his ass off to make everything I know very accessible and freely available, that really stung.
Best I can offer is to keep doing what you do, keep doing it well, don’t worry about the other guy, and keep having fun with it. It does pay off.
I appreciate your perspective on this and have felt similarly the past couple years.
Since I’m still fairly new to bartending, my early assumption was that I just didn’t “get it” and once I read more books and went on more trips that the information-focused mindset would make more sense to me.
But after some time has passed I still feel more called to working at, and going to the bars that are hospitality focused.
Sometimes I got to a really science-y / award winning bar and think “This isn’t really fun to me, but I suppose it is impressive.”
But aren’t bars supposed to be fun?
I ramble, but I appreciate this article. Thank you.
Thanks man. Yeah the separation between the top-end and the bottom is growing and we’re losing a lot of those places that shoot right down the middle. Which is probably another post, and maybe an allegory for the middle class. But I digress.
No smoke. I’m not being delulu when I say Jeff is the mog with the rizz.
(grin)
This is spot on, I’ve felt a bit like this for a long time. I also don’t like to do the old guy snark. Times is just different.
Thanks man. Yeah here’s to not being lame grumpy old guys. Those ones can kick rocks.