
A bartender is an individual who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed environment. They are responsible for making drinks for clients at the bar and servers waiting on customers dining in the restaurant.
When choosing a relaxation and rendezvous spot to cool off and unwind after a hard and long day at work, or finding a serene and comfortable spot to have informal discussions over a bottle of drinks, the choice place is in a bar. The focal point of contact on a visit to the bar, who is capable of making or marring such visits is the bartender.
The bartender is responsible for making such outings a sour or making them memorable and relishing for patrons or guests. This article highlights the bartender job description so as for aspiring bartenders will equip themselves for the tasks and what’s expected of them, and practicing ones will improve as they grow on the job.
Who Is A Bartender?
A bartender is a person saddled with the responsibility of mixing and serving drinks of alcoholic or non-alcoholic origin to guests or patrons in restaurants or bars according to the specifications of the company and global best practices. Other responsibilities of the bartender include welcoming guests, helping guests to menus and choosing what is on the menu, taking orders of guests, and creating a comfortable and ambient atmosphere during guests’ visits to the bar.
Managing a bar is a herculean task and requires a lot of hard work and many dedicated employees. Amongst these employees, the bartender and the role stand out and is the most important. A bar or any type of business strives on patronage and having the right person as a bartender makes everything click, and make such bars the choice bars and in the process guarantee profitability.
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Bartender Job Description Template
We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic, and proactive bartender who will provide an ambient and serene environment and help mix and serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to guests. Bartenders must be hardworking, cheerful and be charismatic, and have a wide knowledge of different drinks and their combinations.
Bartender Roles/Responsibilities
For one to be a successful bartender, he has to do more than just mix and serving of drinks to guests.
A bartender job description is helpful in understanding the nitty-gritty and demands of the bartender job. Bartenders are the engine room and driving force of the bar and the profitability or profit maximization of the bar is dependent on the. They may be mandated to go out of their basic functions once in a while and this entails them being flexible and innovative in discharging their duties.
Every bar has its peculiar and unique duties and what is demanded of them and these duties will increase over time. However, there are a few tasks that are expected of bartenders to carry out irrespective of the bar they work in, geographical location, and their menus.
The most common bartender duties:
1. Checking and identification cards Verification
This is one of the most important duties or roles of a bartender. The bartender is mandated by state and federal laws to check and verify the Identification cards of guests before in a bar serving alcohol. Failure to adhere or neglect to this check will have grave consequences especially when a minor is served alcohol and this will lead to grave consequences that might include the closure of the bar, revoking of operating licenses, and prosecution under state and federal laws.
Bartenders who wish to stay on the job for a long need to take this rule and duty seriously in other to avoid causing harm to the bar and facing heavy repercussions.
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2. Crafting of Menu
One of the primary responsibilities of bartenders involves crafting the menu to suit guests’ preferences and tastes. It is expected that a bartender will perform some tweaking and adjustments to the bar menu once in a while to reflect current trends.
This involves innovativeness to try hands at new things to come up with value-added products on the menu. The bartender is expected to delve into research to come up with drinks and recipes that are enticing and enjoyable. This research could be reading up recipe books, searching on the internet, and carrying out market analysis to determine what customers are desiring or looking forward to when they visit a bar.
3. Serving customers and processing payments
Taking orders and serving guests correctly and accurately is one of the most important tasks of a bartender. Guests have to have utility and their money’s worth and bartenders have the responsibility of ensuring that. Also, being proficient in processing payment methods is one thing required of bartenders.
Failure to take and process payments accurately may put the bar in acquiring losses and the bartender has to be up to the task to avoid shortchanging the bar. Having, and being proficient in new restaurants or bar tech payments options like the POS systems will always ensure that money is not lost.
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4. Upselling customers
It is expected that a good bartender should be able to build a good rapport with guests and help give them that extra cajole or push to buy exotic brands of drinks with a higher bar profit margin without coming off as overbearing, annoying, rude, or pushy. Developing and having a robust and healthy relationship and establishing a friendly atmosphere with guests is key to increasing sales and profitability.
There are always clients or guests that with a little nudge can go for the most exotic and expensive drinks which guarantee more profit.
5. Cleaning and keeping the bar clean
A clean and tidy bar will be more appealing and open to increasing patronage. A bartender has to clean and tidy the bar to attract more guests as people seem to be more relaxed and comfortable in a clean environment.
Also, ensuring a clean bar environment is paramount so as to avoid falling foul of regulatory agencies laws and other legal problems that may arise from keeping and unclean bar environment. This involves ensuring all wares, surfaces, and personal hygiene standards are held in the highest regard so as to deal with every sanitary and health concern as meets global best practices.
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6. Taking alcohol inventory
One of the most important duties on a bartender job description is mastering how to take a comprehensive inventory. This can be achieved by using statistical tools like spreadsheets for easy tracking and stocktaking. This helps the bartender know what to order, what to stop ordering, and can even help to check nefarious activities of theft by people or other employees.
There are currently a few systems like a perpetual inventory system or a wine tracker that are valuable in streamlining the inventory and stocktaking. One of such is BinWise Pro, an automated bar inventory system capable of saving the bartender hundreds of hours a month on inventory counting. It is also capable of automatically adjusting bartenders’ inventory levels in real-time and gives access to a running stream of historical data.
Additionally, it comes with a free wine cellar app and inventory scanning app so that stocking a bar can be made easier, calculate variance, and more.
Bartender Skills and Qualifications
A bartender is a proactive and enthusiastic person saddled with the responsibility of providing an excellent guest drinking experience. In achieving this, bartenders are expected to be able to come up with classic and innovative drinks exceeding customers’ needs and expectations.
This job entails having some unique skills and qualifications to be able to discharge effectively and efficiently the job. Examples of skills and qualifications for a successful Bartender candidate include:
- Bartenders must have the requisite knowledge of applicable laws and regulations that have been put in place by government or regulatory agencies.
- Bartenders must have knowledge of different mixes for traditional and creative cocktails gathered from extensive research.
- They must have an understanding of peculiar and complementary flavor pairings and how they can be combined to result in great customer pleasure.
- Bartenders must have impeccable and nonnegotiable customer service.
- The ability to accurately evaluate customer satisfaction and responsiveness.
- Bartenders must have the ability to effectively enforce company policies regarding the consumption of alcohol.
- They must have accountability in maintaining inventory and processing payments and take responsibility for any shortfalls.
- Bartenders must have the physical ability to stand and walk for long periods.
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Salary and Job Outlook Of A Bartender
A Bartender job is quite lucrative and rewarding financially. On average, the bartender is capable of making $9- $12 dollars per hour not including tips from generous guests. Rates of Payment may depend on the level of experience of the bartender, level of education, size of the bar, and the geographical location where the pay is located in.
The bartender job opportunities are limitless as bars can be seen in every nook and cranny. The saturation of the bars makes the bartender’s job very competitive and demanding. Bar owners or managers will not hesitate to replace a bartender that fails to perform optimally because mediocre performance will need to loss of guests which in turn impacts the profitability of the bar. It is expected that the bartender is innovative and adventurous so as to try new things so that every day at the job brings improvements and evolution.
Frequently Asked Questions On Bartender Job Description
Good bartenders must have a good demeanor, carry a positive attitude and body language, and be highly skilled at multitasking so that they can simultaneously carry out tasks as need be, take orders from customers at the counter, interact with wait staff, and pour drinks without errors.
Bartender and cocktail both work together in the hotel, pubs, or bars to make sure that guests have a memorable drinking experience. In a sophisticated bar, While the job of a bartender is specifically mixing drinks, the cocktail server is responsible for taking orders, serving drinks, etc.
A Bartender starts their day by checking their inventory and taking stock of what liquors, beers, wines, and garnishes are out of stock. They proceed to clean the utensils, the bar, and all the equipment.
Bartenders report directly to the managers. The establishment depends on the time of the organization and structure. They also work closely with servers, hosts, and cocktail servers with the sole aim of providing excellent customer service and utility to the customer.
No, to be a successful bartender does not rely on acquiring a degree. A bartender job allows one to learn on the job, the longer one has stayed on the job, the better they become.
Conclusion
The bartender job description template tries to shed light on the skills, qualifications, and salient questions on the mind of intending new entrants into this niche. It serves to equip old or new bartenders with the prerequisite knowledge and everything required of them to be successful.
The bartender job is an important job That requires high demand skills of accountability, knowledgeability about laws involving the sale of alcohol and public health concerns, physical strength, etc. for one to be successful as a bartender, one must be dedicated and intentional about innovation and be open to learning new things so as to excel at the job.
References
- qwick.com – Bartender Job Description Template
- indeed.com – Bartender Job Description: Top Duties and Qualifications
- home.binwise.com – Bartender Job Description: Role and Responsibilities
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