Bartender Best Practices

A friendly bartender showed me this beautiful old book - Bartender’s Guide by Trader Vic — which they keep for reference (4/5 of the book is recipes), but the first section is comprised of salty best practices.

https://i.imgur.com/Gez9xRo.jpg

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I was just looking up used prices for that book this afternoon; out of my range. I would like to find a PDF of it until I'm rich enough to buy one.

https://bookos-z1.org/book/5308150/5dd96d

I don't know if this link will work for you, but hey ho!

Also here, but this is revised version from ‘72. Original was published in ‘46 iirc. From what I can tell it looks like the recipes were “updated” but the short essays in the front are the same. The writing is dated in a humorous way … “ Later on, we had a guy who could mix drinks like hallelujah holy toledo. This fellow was hot and a good friend of mine before I went into the saloon business. His name was Frank Pult.”

https://www.scribd.com/document/467774673/1972-TRADER-VICS-BARTENDERS-GUIDE-REVISED-US-pdf

Nice, thanks!

When a customer orders a subsequent drink, take care to place it in the exact spot where their last was

A lot of my customers carefully get a cocktail napkin ready while I'm working on their drink and slide it forward for me to finish the operation.

Bar pros

i went to a bar by myself yesterday, first time in forever. i was killing an hour and a half waiting for my car to be inspected down the street. i went to an irish sportsbar, and was definitely the most awkward weirdo in the room. my instincts are horrible. in this giant sportsbar, there were about 8 customers. 4 were sitting at the bar, and the remaining 4 were sitting at a pair of tables a few feet away. but this room was huge, and i had a headache, so i thought i'd just go sit at a table by myself about 100 feet away. but i had to order a drink first. 3 of the 4 people sitting at the bar were old guys, and they were all staring at me. i made eye contact with one of them and he immediately looked away, and then the bartender asked me what i wanted. she called me honey and then turned away and her jean shorts exposed like half of her ass-cheek, and then i made eye contact with another old guy and he immediately looked away. i realized i didn't know what kind of draft beers they had, so i marched around to the other side of the horseshoe-shaped bar to take a look at the little knobs. i ordered a shocktop and was immediately disappointed with what i had done, and then i asked if it was ok to sit in the other, completely empty, part of the room. it looked like it might be closed off due to no customers entering it for the past 5 years. she said you got it to my beer request and of course to my question about sitting alone. i walked back around to the other side of the bar, waiting for my beer, and then realized i needed to sit down at the bar instead of walking 100 feet away. so i sat down. it got worse from there, i assume when i left they were like wtf

i’m sure it was fine, if there are just old dudes at a bar mid-day they’re either locked in to their own thing or desperate for conversation. probably with their own kind, but you sit three seats away and they start making small comments at the tv or grunting noises to try to lure you in

Also don't smoke pot just before you go to an Irish bar. Just sayin'.

Karl Malone cruisin’ old guys at a dive.

they will talk about this day for months to come

If the bar is loud and a customer has a bill of $50 or less, express the total with your fingers. Round 6 up to the next ten.

End every description of a drink with “it’s very distinctive”

When pouring a pitcher, let the brew fall on the lip to break its fall, thereby preventing half a pitcher of foam

Buy back calculation: customer must have ordered at least two rounds and have tipped half the price of their drinks

I prefer sellbacks, where I drink as much of the beer I want, and give the rest back for a prorated refund

This is all very intimidating and confusing to me.

Are you a bartender?

When there are customers in hearing range, and the bar is quiet, and the customer tells you that they should be at work, don’t ask about the details of their employment

i mean