The stir attraction
Is there an art more noble than bartending? When it involves the dispensing of good cheer, the polite enquiry, the sympathetic ear, there is a lot more to it than simply pouring drinks.
From the early evening shot-glass on its triangle of folded napkin to the discreet small-hours advice given to a slumped Sinatra wannabe, the great bartender knows what you want, how you take it, and when you've had enough.
It's a reassuring image. But there is another, even more powerful, icon to reckon with these days: Tom Cruise. His pyrotechnical performance in Cocktail, at one level a low-budget star vehicle that nobody was expected to take seriously, established bartending as a glamourous, charismatic profession involving a full-blown cabaret act.
Making money
But for the real-life practitioner, there is a far more compelling reason to become proficient at it than winning applause. TGI Friday's, one of the more conspicuously successful restaurant divisions of Whitbread, uses the Tom Cruise role model as a motivational technique.
Each member of staff keys his or her orders into a touch-screen terminal linked to the payroll system, so that the branch is able to track the volumes each individual has shifted each session. Staff are then rewarded proportionately. With tips thrown in, this would explain the jaw-dropping figure of £35,000 that one bartender is said to have made last year.
Even if we accept that as a one-off, is it really the case that the better the routine, the higher the take? "Definitely," says Steve Carpenter, head bartender of the Kingston branch of Friday's. "Because people aren't just focusing on drinking, they're enjoying the whole atmosphere."
There is no in-house training. Bartenders are encouraged to develop their own repertoires so as to avoid the dead hand of corporate standardisation.
Shaun Wheeler of the human resources management team at Friday's emphasises the importance of guest focus. A good bartender must be able to "read the guest's needs to establish what type of experience they want". For example, a group of girls on a jolly may be treated to some ice-juggling, whereas less riotous patrons may be offered matchstick brain-teasers.
To attain Carpenter's level of proficiency probably takes a "good year" in the job, he reckons, during which time trainees will be observed incognito as they graduate to busier and more hectic shifts.
And just in case anybody thinks this all sounds like another golden opportunity for attention-seeking boys to show off, 40% of bar staff employed by Friday's are women.
Not all bar training is about manual dexterity, of course. The UK Bartenders Guild was established in the wake of the cocktail era between the wars and, among other things, has attempted to codify the theory and practice of the bartending arts. It publishes the International Guide to Drinks (£9.95 retail price) and it runs a number of training courses and seminars for those learning their trade. Aspects such as social skills accompany tuition in drinks knowledge, glassware and hygiene. Courses cost from £90 (plus VAT) for a one-day seminar.
Mark of experience
No matter what position you may rise to in the hospitality industry, it seems running the bar is never considered too menial a task to turn your hand to. Gabriel Quinn, general manager of the Mercia Park Hotel in Coventry and a past president of the Bartenders Guild, once appeared on the BBC's Generation Game mixing cocktails created for Princess Anne's wedding, and he still enjoys plying the trade. He can tell a bartender's experience from the way he picks up a glass.
Quinn has mixed feelings about the showman bartenders. "Everybody wants to be a Tom Cruise now," he sighs. The prospect of bottles breaking - in spite of the rubber mats that cover the floors of most bars - has inspired a session on safety and accident risk in the guild's two-day seminars (courses cost £150, plus VAT). Quinn also feels that two seconds spent throwing a glass in the air is two seconds not spent serving the customer.
Would-be cocktail jugglers may balk at the restrained attitude of the UK Bartenders Guild, but it is worth remembering that its course is the only one recognised internationally - it was itself a founder member of the International Bartenders Association. The qualification will give as good a grounding for the Cruise routine as for the cruise ship bar.
The two bars of the Mayfair Hotel, just off Piccadilly, operate under the able tutelage of Peter Burbage, a veteran of almost 35 years. His definition of what makes a good bartender is one that Carpenter at Friday's would readily subscribe to. "The ability to maintain a conversation with a solo customer while keeping a look-out on the tables is important, as is a good memory," says Burbage. "People appreciate it if you remember their names and drinking habits."
For Burbage, conscientious grooming is one of the essentials. He recalls seeing a recent recipient of the Bartender of the Year award who answered to the name of Spike - "he had his hair spiked up, you see". His tone suggests that sort of thing wouldn't go down too well at the Mayfair.
As to the Tom Cruise phenomenon, he says he has "absolutely nothing against it". He does, however, feel that men tend to make better bartenders, partly because there is a fair amount of manual work involved, and also because solo drinkers who want to talk tend to be men.
Clearly, what works at Friday's would not be suitable for the bar of a five-star hotel. But there is a common ground that is concerned with responding, in all sorts of unexpectedly personal ways, to the customer who buys your wares.
The skills of a good bartender lie not just in learning by rote the methods for hundreds of cocktails. They are also to do with enhancing that feeling of relaxation that makes drinking such a pleasure.
There is, incidentally, a way of flicking the wrist that can make a brimming glass of cream cocktail turn through 360º in mid-air without spilling a drop. Do try this at home.
UK Bartenders Guild, 74 Enfield Road, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 2RB, tel: 01253 26266.
