Modern restaurants have embraced staff training programs as an essential tool of the trade. Ongoing front-of-the-house training can improve sales, smooth service, and raise morale. But opinions vary on the effectiveness of including bar staff in mandatory trainings. Bar schedules pose logistical challenges, and few managers find the performance benefits to be as pronounced among bar staff.

Stiff resistance from bartenders has an influence as well, as trusted senior staff plead years of experience or long hours as rationales for skipping “basic training.” The truth is, they have a point. Training sessions designed for servers are not as effective for bartenders; however, that’s not a reason to let bartenders off the hook. Rather, it’s a solid reason for implementing bar-specific staff training.

Punching Up Performance
Bartender performance and customer service can improve dramatically with training tailored to the bar. Providing expert-level beverage knowledge raises morale and increases sales. Practicing hands-on skills boosts self-confidence and efficiency. Coaching on bar-specific service issues can eliminate common glitches and build a loyal clientele. Best of all, regular bar-staff training asserts management authority over that semiautonomous fiefdom that is the bar - without a doubt, the most important real estate in the front of the house. And if the bar is not working for you, it’s working againstyou. Success or failure depends on bar staff members as they greet guests, make drinks, take cash, and stock spirits. When bartenders are team players, every aspect of the operation benefits, from costs to customer service. But carelessness behind the bar can sap the lifeblood out of a restaurant, and renegade bartenders can even jeopardize the business—actively, by subverting systems for gain, or passively, by abusing their power. Dedicated bar training is most welcomed by bartenders who see their success as tied to yours, but it is scorned by those with baser motives.
Traditionally, bar management has emphasized scrutiny over leadership, monitoring spirits inventory and cash. In this new age, however, restaurants are learning to value “human resources” and to invest in the people who meet customers eye to eye every day. Systems and controls are essential but aren’t enough to maintain a well-run bar. Bar-staff training can provide needed tools for your most critically important employees. Next time you look around your restaurant, ask yourself whether your bartenders could benefit from an infusion of knowledge, skills, and team building. Then ask if you can afford not to give it to them.

Practical Training Tips

• Plan for sessions lasting no more than one hour. With fewer participants, groups move quickly.
• Schedule less frequent classes. Try once a month to start.
• Prep your space and have materials ready 15 minutes before beginning.
• Start promptly. Having to wait isn’t fair to those who arrive on time. Keep latecomers afterward, or have them make up the lesson.
• Take steps to avoid being interrupted. Specify work attire, have attendees silence their phones, and forbid them to bring in distracting outside food.
• Use trainings to obtain valuable feedback on what is and isn’t working behind the bar. Make note of reasonable suggestions for consideration.
• Treat sessions as “work time” to convey professionalism. Staff must be paid for time spent in training sessions, in accordance with the law.

Interactive Training

Many bartenders are quick to tune out during traditional lectures. Active approaches to learning will improve attention, participation, and retention.

• Role-play service scenarios. Act out recently witnessed “bad” bar service and role-play possible improvements, paying particular attention to body language and word choice. Make good service a matter of pride.
• Practice psychomotor skills. Use a digital kitchen scale to test free-pouring accuracy. Time a defined task such as muddling a perfect mojito, setting up a bar guest for dinner, or ringing a tab for a party of ten. Offer small rewards for the best scores.
• Recognize talent. Pick a frequent-call cocktail, and have each bartender make one. Set up an independent panel to choose the winning drink blind. Deem it the new house recipe and have its maker lead the group, demonstrating the technique to be followed by all.
• Turn classes and tests into games and puzzles. Party games such as “Who Am I?” and “20 Questions” can be easily adapted to wines and spirits. Alternatively, use free online educator tools to generate crossword and word-search puzzles around beverage terms and clues.

Marnie Old (marnieold.com) is assistant dean of wine studies at Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute. She is the coauthor of He Said Beer, She Said Wine.