Lately, I have been reading a few articles and one in particular caught my eye, a bartender from Kenya who retired at the age of 87. Instantly, I had to ask myself how can this be possible in the 21ST century in a world where life expectancy is around 72 years.
How is this possible when being a bartender is not as easy as it seems and sometimes being part of this industry can be pretty challenging. Don’t believe me? Then I suggest to put your seatbelt on because this is going to be one bumpy ride. The industry can be pretty challenging, being a bartender is not as easy as it looks. Therefore, the question seems to be, can you really perform that long in bartending?
Firstly, I suggest we look at what is making an impression when you see for the very first time this brilliant trade. Without doubt, you see those striking dressed bartenders being in the center of attention, flirting with the ladies and making plenty cash. Suddenly, it becomes quite interesting and you want to jump into the spotlight. If they can do it, why can’t you? You then start learning the basics and rapidly understand that it is more than it looks. Definitely, you are captured by this brilliant world and want to make a career out of it. I would certainly recommend to do so but will you be able to stretch it out that long?
Just by looking at London’s bartending scene you can see quite a few examples where people have been literally for decades behind the bar. There is Victor Gower who has some outstanding 63 years in the industry with 41 of them performing in ‘The American Bar’ at Savoy. Peter Doreli, Salvatore Calabrese have had a wonderful career also. What is their secret?
Frankly, there is no secret. Following some basic rules and being consistent will keep you on the run. Things have changed and here are a few key points when considering a long bartender career.
* You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to notice that 90% of our time spent as bartenders is standing on our feet. Those long hours can be pretty exhausting for our body, especially for our back and feet. You know the sensation when you get home and have to put your feet in water just because they are pretty swollen?
Well this happens for a couple of reasons. Mainly because you are wearing the unappropriated shoes. When purchasing working shoes you need to consider this:
The sole of the shoe must be a bit thicker than at your regular shoes and the heel has to be a bit higher so that the pressure on the back would be less accentuated. Think of women’s platform shoes. It is the same principle.
In addition, the material of the shoes has to be a superior quality and the most important thing is that the shoe itself must be extremely comfortable. If your feet are comfortable, you are comfortable. If you are comfortable, you have a good time and chance are that you would be more focused on your guests than on your feet.
Many people that are working in this field don’t realize their shoes are also an investment. You don’t have any problems in spending a lot of pounds for barware sets but when it comes to “working shoes” you pay 10 pounds at a cheaper retailer.
Think on the long term. You still want to do this for the rest of your life, don’t you?
I must say that during my whole bartending career I have tried lots of different types of shoes: elegant, oxford, sneakers, crocs, you name it, I wore it all. None of these shoes have suited me until one day when I came across these shoes which I still have today. To be honest, I haven't tryed these babies but I seriously doubt that they can do their job on the long term.
I know what are you thinking: These are some bloody ugly shoes, but who cares? As long as they do their job *perfectly*. Moreover, since you are behind the bar, chances are that no one will see your shoes except for your colleagues, but that is alright. Remember, age before beauty!
Even though you have the proper shoes, this would not guarantee that you will be out of the “danger zone” yet. Since you are always standing, best is not to stand still just in one place, but to move a bit, so that your body can warm up a bit. If you have no choice but to stand still, best recommended is to have a bit of a flex stance, with the weight being distributed on your thighs, not on your knees. (You will thank me someday). Think of boxers or other full contact sportsmen. That is the correct stance that I fully recommend to anyone who wants to be in this industry for a long time.
Since we got this covered, our attention should be focused on the other daunting aspects of the trade: smoking, noise, fatigue and other shenanigans.
* As for smoking, even though this is not a problem within the UK, it still remains one though topic since not all the countries have adopted the law of prohibiting smoking in public area. As we all know, passive smoking is far more dangerous that active smoking and the only thing that you can do about it is to pray to the *non-smoking* Gods and hope that law will come active very soon. Until then what can you do is to go more often into the nature and start cleansing your lungs. Spend as much time as you can hiking or climbing on the mountains. Who knows? You might enjoy it!
* In regards with the noise, the first thing that comes into my mind is the movie: It’s all gone Pete Tong. Remember that crazy DJ who was partying so loud that eventually in the end he lost his hearing? In that movie, he had a strange theory (after he had gone deaf) in which if he would surround himself in absolute silence, his hearing will be back. It was too late for him, since his ears were irreversible damaged but this can be done at some extent. After one crazy loud night, your body needs to recover and the best way is in tranquility. Try to detach yourself of your surroundings and have a moment of absolute quiet, just for yourself.
It is *almost* the same principle with singers. If they encounter some problems with their vocal cords, first thing they enter into a vocal pause.
If you had an exhausting day and all that you want is just to have a good sleep try to use some music or special effects. When I find myself in such situation, I choose from YouTube various music samples: sometimes I listen to mantras, sometimes rainforest effects, rain helps me a lot etc. The key is that the level of music should be enough to hear it but not to disturb you, in order to have a nice and rewarding sleep. Don’t forget that our brain is pretty active when we sleep and all the information that our body gets it (unconsciously) will be transmitted to the brain, so why not happy thoughts?
Bar activities
Pouring
I see nowadays a lot of different styles of pouring and I have asked myself why there is so much variation when pouring should be resumed to some basics principles:
* Always pour the correct amount (even it is jigger or free pourer)
* Always present your bottles with the label facing the guests
* Always take care of your wrists.
What I mean by “take care of your wrists” is literally to take care of those poor bastards. We do a lot of pouring and most of times the bottles tend to be pretty heavy, acting directly on our wrists.
If you are a standard free pourer (hammer grip on the bottle, 180 rotation) you might consider lifting your elbow a bit up so that the weight of the bottle to is distributed on your shoulder which can support more weight than your wrist. Aaah, about the wrist: keep it always straight! No bending or other monkey business!
If you want to go further the “hand ergonomics”, here is an excerpt taken from Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s last book in which he explains his pouring technique:
“Start by holding your dominant hand with the palm open and facing up toward the ceiling. Or, if you’re bartending in the great wide open, the sky. Whatever. Now slip the neck of the bottle between the middle and ring finger, and use your thumb to pinch the seal of the pour spout where it meets the bottle neck.
Lifting the bottle slowly, and curling your index finger around the neck as you do so, begin to turn your wrist inward to pour.
Soon, the ring finger will naturally be supporting most of the bottle’s weight while the index and middle fingers continue to curl around the neck and the thumb presses downward, supporting the turn.
Once you complete the pour, curl your middle finger back in toward the palm; your thumb and forefinger are left pinching the bottle neck, which is ready to be placed back in its place. It may seem awkward at first, but with some practice it becomes a gentler, more natural way to hold a bottle.”
Morgenthaler, Jeffrey (2014-06-03). Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique (pp. 190-192)
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Shaking
We all know that the first thing when we learn the bartending basics we learn how to shake. I won't go too much into details about shaking but instead I want to talk about one particular topic that Jamie Boudreau opened it at his seminar from Rome, last year.
Basically the matter was about shaking multiple drinks. I know that we live in the century of speed and everything has to be done yesterday. I see more often the "Americanized" way of shaking with two shakers in different hands. It looks nice, it is faster and gets the job done. What about long term? Myself, I prefer the
classic movement with both of my hands on the shaker. In this way the pressure is even distributed among both shoulders and I don’t waste more energy that I would normally do on a double hands shaking.
Warming up
* If you ever went to a gym you will see in most of cases that everyone is warming up before they start to lift weights. This never happens in bartending. I don’t understand why because from my point of view you are doing pretty much the same. Lifting weights (in our case bottles, jugs, pitcher, cases etc) all night long. Doing this for such a long time will eventually wear out your body so to ensure a proper functionality of the body I highly recommend not to skip this step.
Practice
* Another way to accustom your body with the bar movements is to replicate them as often you can in a non-bar related environment. That means to practice all the movements when you are at home, so that the body can build a reflex and to be accustomed with all the mechanics. It is the same like walking to the gym. If you quit for one month, then all the progress will be diminished because the body needs time to get used with the moves again.
Extra
When you get up in the morning, before jumping straight to coffee, take a few moments and do some stretching. It improves flexibility for your body, prepares muscles for work before activity, and believe it or not calms the mind!
The spiritual side
When talking about the body weariness it is not just the physical part that implies but we have to see it from the psychological point of view.
We all know that enemy nr.1 of our job is stress. After a few years behind the stick we can be pretty stressed out. Lucky for us, there are several ways to take care of this problem:
Meditation
A lot of our problems can be solved very easily through meditation. This practice is used for many, many years and has a lot of benefits. It builds up your focus (very big deal), it develops your creativity, it filters out all the negative thoughts from your agenda, improves self-control etc. It just requires a small amount of your time. That is all. Everyone can do it and so should YOU!
If I remember right there is a subject on this matter in one of Gary Regan’s books, called “Mindful
Bartending”. Be sure to check it out as it there a lot of things to discuss about this matter.
Furthermore if you want to go deep I recommend the work of world renowned Dushan Zaric from E.O and Aisha Sharpe.
Yoga
Yoga is well known from centuries to help people improve their mind and body. Make sure you attend at least one time a yoga session. You don’t have time to go? No problem. Grab yourself a matrice and start doing it at home. Just simply look on YouTube for lessons. Besides the physical aspect, yoga boosts memory and improves concentration, reduces the effects of traumatic experiences, improves your conscious breathing (very big deal) and increases experience of relaxation. Not that shabby, huh?
Final thoughts
Getting out of the Matrix
As crazy at it seems bartending should NOT be the most important thing for you. The time when everything that you do is bar related has to come to an end. Try to do other stuff as well. Spend more time with other activities that suites you. Play some football with your mates. Go on a non-bar vacation. Hang out some more with your soul mate. Keep in contact with family. Visit a massage parlour. Clear your head up and unplug yourself from the bar world. At least once in a while. Can you feel the difference?
Furthermore, try to appreciate what you have, enjoy life and remember not to take anything for granted!
Cheers,
Mihai Fetcu
(mihai.fetcu@bardome.ro)
