The Job of a Bartender

Being a cocktail bartender is not just about mixing and serving drinks. It's about creating a memorable drinking experience for your guests. The job of a bartender requires a certain level of creativity, skills and knowledge. But is that all? What’s the real job of a bartender? Let's take a closer look at some tasks & responsibilities of a bartender.

Service and drink-making

As a cocktail bartender, your main responsibility, is to create and serve drinks. You should be knowledgeable about the different types of ingredients you’re using in cocktails. You should also know some classic cocktail recipes, seeing that many classic cocktails are used as a base for new creations. Basic knowledge on mixology is also a must, when it comes to creating amazing new cocktail recipes and interesting flavor combinations.

Customer Service:

Another significant part of a cocktail bartender's job is customer service. You need to be friendly and likeable. It’s your job to make your guests feel welcomed and comfortable. Talking to guests, cracking some jokes from time to time, but also being a listening ear and resolving complaints in a suiting manner are important parts of the job of a bartender.

Bar hygiene:

As a cocktail bartender it is your responsibility for maintaining a clean and safe work environment. Keep your work station clean and organized, clean your tools often, make sure your personal hygiene is on point and ensure that all products are always stored & placed correctly. It is not only you, your colleagues and management can see you working nice, neat & clean...your guests do so too. A clean environment attracts more guests to your bar.

Responsible Service:

Often, we bartenders don’t realize to what length we’re responsible for the well-being of our guests. As servers of mainly alcoholic drinks, we must realize that guests sometimes don’t make the best decisions when having a certain number of units of alcohol in their body. In other words; judgement is often cloudy when in an intoxicating state.

Being aware of your guests, knowing how many drinks they had and cutting them off when needed is part of a bartender’s job. This also applies to yourself as a bartender. Consuming vast quantities of alcohol on the job is something all bartenders should avoid. Responsible service is a really important part of the job of a bartender!

These are just some of the many different tasks that come with the job of a bartender. If you’re interested in finding out the finer details of the job, check out our bartender courses at the Bols Cocktail Academy.