20 Golden Rules for Bartenders

20 Golden Rules for Bartenders

by | Aug 10, 2016 | Career

It is hard to come up with a single, specific and detailed list of instructions for bartenders that teaches each how to be a good bartender. However, here are 21 golden rules for bartenders that can help advance your career. Find out what a good bartender does and does not do by following these tips:

  • Do all that you can to make your bar patrons and guests happy within the specified boundaries of your employer. This will increase the likelihood of happier customers and better tips.
  • Be mindful of the fact that this is not your bar, your party, nor your booze. Respect that someone else is paying for the supplies you use and do not waste anything.
  • Dress like a pro, because you are repeatedly seen by virtually every customer who walks into the party or restaurant. Present yourself as a well-groomed professional.
  • Understand the types of alcohol that you serve. Study up on the various brands and their qualities, because your customers will have questions about it from time to time.
  • Practice the small details associated with cocktail making. These are the details that can separate the amateurs from the professionals.
  • Keep your money neat. This demonstrates to your customers and employers that you are well-organized and on top of their cash.

Study up on the various brands and their qualities, because your customers will have questions about it from time to time.

  • Sometimes, you will receive a small tip. This is the nature of the business. Don’t sweat it.
  • If you allow clientele to run your establishment, you will never regain control. Be in charge with a friendly, yet authoritative tone. Your customers will respect you for it.
  • Learn why and how to give out comps, because these can be real problem solvers when other things don’t work. Your customers will love you for them.
  • Anticipate what the customer wants before he or she asks. Refilling a glass, replacing a coaster or emptying a full ashtray are the types of small touches that the customer appreciates.
  • Control the bar environment. Is the music too loud? How is the temperature? Your customers’ comfort is proportional to how they will rate their experiences in your bar.
  • Branch out. It is important for a bartender to work continually to gain additional bartender skills because it helps keep customers interested.

If you allow clientele to run your establishment, you will never regain control.

  • Learn some jokes. Read the papers to learn some banter. People tip for your service. Be amiable, because these are valuable skills that will set you apart from other bartenders.
  • Keep your bar spotless. Face bottles forward. Keep the bar top clean, because this leaves a lasting impression that will impress the customers and show them your dedication to the job.
  • Use both hands as you work, because this will help you pick up speed as you mix drinks. Bartenders learn to become ambidextrous.
  • Mise en place is a French phrase describing how one arranges tools and ingredients. Do the same thing each time you set up because it will help you stay organized.
  • Always be seen washing your hands. Do not touch your face or hair. Be cool. Don’t be untidy, because these are the types of things that drive customers away.
  • Converse with customers. Greet them when they enter the bar area, and good-bye when they depart.  Find out how they are doing. This is exactly what customers expect from a bartender and will result in more loyalty from the customers and better tips.

Arranges tools and ingredients each time you set up because it will help you stay organized.

  • Refrain from offering advice, and resist the urge to dominate conversations, because you are here to serve your customers. Everything should be about your customers and not about yourself.
  • People expect a lot from their bartenders. Be careful about which aspects of yourself you choose to present at a given moment and select your conversational material carefully. No customer wants to know about that mole you just had removed from your ear lobe. Keep the conversation light, interesting and friendly.

Looking for bartender positions? Check out Sirvo for great opportunities! 

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How To Motivate Your Restaurant Employees

How To Motivate Your Restaurant Employees

by | Jul 29, 2016 | Business Toolkit, Management

A thriving restaurant is driven by happy, motivated employees. When your staff is motivated, it shows in their work and in your cash register. Keeping workers motivated may appear a daunting task at first, but it’s really quite simple. With a little creativity, there are countless ways to motivate your restaurant employees!

Hold Competitions

Humans are competitive creatures, no matter what job sector they’re in. Restaurant owners can tap into that drive as a way to improve sales and provide incentives for recommending specific menu items and offering top-notch customer service. It doesn’t require a lot of money, and yet it can be a very powerful tool.

Restaurant owners can tap into competition as a way to improve sales and provide incentives for recommending specific menu items.

It’s called gamification and it can help boost and even exceed goals. Try putting together menu bingo cards and hand them out to the servers. Encourage them to recommend the menu items listed on the cards. When they sell one of those items, they can mark off the spot on their card. The first one to get bingo wins a prize.

Managers should make it their duty to oversee these competitions and ensure the prizes are being fairly distributed. Also, make sure the staff isn’t being distracted from their jobs. Some games and drawings will work better for some employees than others, so feel free to experiment and figure out which ones motivate your team the best.

Ongoing Training

Some employers fail to see the value of continuing training beyond the onboarding stage. They think workers are either not interested or don’t need additional instruction.

Receiving ongoing training helps the staff to feel more valued as individuals and improves the overall morale.

On the contrary, receiving ongoing training helps the staff to feel more valued as individuals and improves the overall morale of the establishment. It also demonstrates an invested interest from management for employee success and advancement. If an ongoing training program is not in place, consider adding one.

Celebrate Your Staff

Employees like to feel like management cares about them as individuals rather than simply as workers. Anytime a staff member reaches a milestone, such as celebrating a birthday or completing a training course, make it a point to celebrate the occasion. It doesn’t have to be a big fancy party – providing drinks, a free meal, or a cake is sufficient.

It doesn’t have to be a big fancy party – providing drinks, a free meal, or a cake is sufficient.

Provide Bonuses

To encourage employees to stay with the restaurant, consider offering an annual bonus or a raise for every year a worker stays on. Regardless of hourly pay rates, employers can give regular bonuses based on how many years the employee has been working for the establishment. Even if there are few opportunities for growth, it can still serve as an incentive for your staff to stay on the team.

Close Early

Whenever holidays come around or a staff member celebrates a major life event, such as a wedding, it’s not a bad idea to close the restaurant early. This way the entire team can celebrate the occasion without some of them having to stay behind and work. Doing this will also allow for employees to better manage work with their personal lives without having to burn themselves out.

This way the entire team can celebrate the occasion.

Implementing even just one of these tactics will surely improve your team’s overall attitude towards their job. Your staff will not only become more motivated, but they will begin to enjoy their work and be much more pleasant to interact with.

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How To Make Your Menu More Healthful

How To Make Your Menu More Healthful

People want to eat healthfully. That’s not a ‘craze’ or a fad; it’s a part of the human condition. Any restaurant that accommodates that wish will reap the rewards. Here are a couple easy ways to revamp your menu so that it provides consumers with what they want.

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9 Ways Working in a Restaurant Prepares You for Life

9 Ways Working in a Restaurant Prepares You for Life

by | Jul 22, 2016 | IndiNews

Let’s face it – working in a restaurant isn’t always (or even ever) glamorous. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t build character and skills that will help you later on in your life. In fact, it’s our humble opinion that everyone should work in a restaurant at least once in their life. Here are 9 ways working in a restaurant prepares you for life. 

You learn how to deal with mean people

People aren’t always the nicest, and, unfortunately, when you work at a restaurant you get to see the worst in humanity. You also have to deal with them–there’s no option of looking the other way when you have a customer ranting to you because their steak is too well done. Working in a restaurant equips you with the grace and patience you need to deal with people who aren’t on their best behavior.

Mistakes happen and you get over them

You’re never going to get through a restaurant shift without making some type of mistake, whether it’s mixing up Coke with Diet Coke, dropping a stack of dishes or doing something else that, honestly, you’ve probably already forgotten about. Restaurants move fast, so you learn to fix your mistakes quickly and move on without stewing over it.

On top of the physical multitasking, you also get really good at mentally storing a lot of information.

Multitasking

Working in a restaurant gives you mad multitasking skills. Taking a phone order while checking out a customer while training the new cashier? Check, check and check. On top of the physical multitasking, you also get really good at mentally storing a lot of information.

In a matter of a few minutes, you could be refilling water, taking an order, directing someone to the bathroom, cleaning up a spilled soda and making sure to talk to the chef about a customer’s dietary restrictions. You’ll find yourself walking around with a running checklist in your head that will never fully go away.

You’ll always leave good tips

Nothing makes you a better tipper when you dine out than having worked in a restaurant, even if you aren’t on the wait staff. You know first-hand how demanding the job is, and you don’t take it out on your waiter when your meal is a little overcooked, or it takes an extra five minutes for him to take your order. You get it, and you appreciate him.

You know how important it is to be on time for a job.

Punctuality gets ingrained

You know how important it is to be on time for a job because you’ve had enough experience as the one who gets stuck working an extra hour because the guy working the next shift slept in. This one is going to become a pet peeve, for the record.

Efficiency is everything

It is going to drive you CRAZY to see people walking to and from places empty handed. Is it really so hard to grab that empty glass from the coffee table since you’re going into the kitchen anyway?? You never walk around the restaurant empty-handed or without a specific purpose.

You know from working in a kitchen that nothing happens without a good team.

Teamwork makes the dream work

Cliche, yes, but you know from working in a kitchen that nothing happens without a good team. Whether you’re washing dishes, preparing food, waiting tables or greeting guests as a host or hostess, you are an important part of the whole dining experience for your guests. If one person falls out of line, doesn’t show up or messes up big time, everyone else has to pick up the slack.

The opposite is true too–when everyone’s working together and in a rhythm, it’s magical. You’ll try to recreate the team experience in every future job you have, and you’ll feel lost (and annoyed) when other people just don’t get it.

People skills

From the restaurant owner to the head chef to that annoying guy at table 9, you engage with a lot of different types of people every single day that you work at a restaurant. Working at a restaurant helps you quickly figure people out so you can engage with them in a meaningful way. This is going to come in handy with every single job you have after you leave the restaurant industry.

Working at a restaurant helps you quickly figure people out so you can engage with them in a meaningful way.

Organization

Everything has its place in a restaurant kitchen, and things don’t go well when anything is out of place. You’re going to be organized (possibly to a fault) after working in a restaurant, and you might freak out when your roommate keeps leaving pans on the stove instead of in the pantry, where they CLEARLY belong.

Working in a restaurant isn’t easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding. You’ll learn major life skills by working in a restaurant that can’t be taught anywhere else. These will help you when you decide to leave the industry, and they’ll definitely be a bonus if you decide to make a career out of working in a restaurant.

Find restaurant jobs on Sirvo now! →

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Creative Ways to Deliver the Restaurant Check

Creative Ways to Deliver the Restaurant Check

by | Jul 18, 2016 | IndiNews

Usually, one of the least enjoyable parts of going out to eat is paying the bill. With all of the creative ways you work to “wow” your customers, from signage to social media to redesigned spaces, what are you doing to impress guests at the close of their meal? The Restaurant Hospitality magazine talked to a few operators who are thinking outside of the traditional check presenter.

Geraldine’s, on the fourth floor of the Hotel Van Zandt, in Austin, TX, delivers its checks inside vintage books that highlight Texas history and Austin Music. Geraldine’s Director of Food & Beverage, Tobias Peach, says, “Guests love it and often comment on the books being a charming surprise at the end of their meal.”

The notebooks started as just a fun and easy presenter, but soon guests were writing mini reviews, notes to servers and chefs, and it just kind of took off.

At Honey Salt in Las Vegas, owner and founder Elizabeth Blau says that when Honey Salt first opened, they were looking for new ways to connect with friends and guests and chose notebooks as check presenters.

“The notebooks started as just a fun and easy presenter, but soon guests were writing mini reviews, notes to servers and chefs, and it just kind of took off,” says Blau. “We have a whole cabinet of them in the office, and sometimes it’s great to flip through and be able to relive the stories of the restaurant. I much prefer them to reading Yelp reviews.”

Digital bill folder made our table servers more efficient, and as a result, we’re able to turn tables more quickly.

Emory’s on Silver Lake in Everett, WA, uses a digital bill folder to cleverly disguise a high-tech RAIL payment terminal inside the otherwise normal looking check presenter. G.M. Robert Frost says the main reason they made the switch was for customer card security.

“We didn’t want to be the restaurant that had a customer’s card information breached,” he says. “The system has helped us from both a labor standpoint and from an efficiency standpoint. It’s made our table servers more efficient, and as a result, we’re able to turn tables more quickly.”

The ones who go on Yelp are either angry or love it; in Saylii we see many happy or neutral customers.

Several restaurants in San Francisco are testing a new app called Saylii, which asks customers to share their experience via writing, voice recording or video at the time of check payment, according to Saylii CEO Esther Kuperman.

“We’re seeing that the restaurants are getting reviews from people who generally never post reviews,” says Kuperman. “Usually, the ones who go on Yelp are either angry or love it; here we see many happy or neutral customers.”

More check delivery ideas

  • Utilize branded wooden clipboards and attach postcards showcasing local artists or upcoming events at the restaurant.
  • Use an item that represents your brand, such as a miniature pizza paddle, a mason jar, or a coffee cup to deliver the check.
  • Attach the check to a personalized photo album that highlights the buildout—or history—of your restaurant.

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Hacks to Make your Novice Serving Life Easier

Hacks to Make your Novice Serving Life Easier

by | Jun 29, 2016 | Career

When entering the food and beverage service industry, you probably have some ideas on what the experience will be like. You know you’ll have to memorize the menu and plaster a smile on your face. You expect good days and bad days. However to ensure the highest amount of good days, you’re going to need some seasoned hacks. Here are some excellent ways to make your job easier!

Realize Serving is a Team Effort

Not every server practices reciprocity, but you should. Anyone can tell you that guests come first, so helping out your neighbor server is the right thing to do. If someone’s food needs to be run, run it. If they’re obviously in the weeds and being crushed under tasks, see if you can help in some way.

It takes a village to serve the front of house, so help each other out.

It’s not only for the guest, it benefits you too. Team players will be more likely to help you, if you help them or if they see you helping others. It takes a village to serve the front of house, so help each other out.

Adopt a Method to Remember Who is Who

When serving food to a table, the best way for quick distribution is to remember which person ordered what. Quicker distribution means you can get to another task faster, and your life is easier for it. It also makes you seem more professional, and can score you a higher tip! It’s a win, win situation!

Try taking orders left to right around the table and arrange your food that way when picking it up at the window. Usually, your meals will come up in the order it was taken, so it’s easy to put your food in the succession which you took the order.

The key is to find something that works for you.

Alternately, you could remember something about each person that correlates with what they ordered. The key is to find something that works for you. Any method is better than none!

Invest in Good Shoes

Most restaurants will give you the option to buy serving shoes through a hospitality catalog. Do it! Or at least, visit your local shoe store to find some comfortable, supportive shoes with good traction.

There’s nothing worse than trudging through a double-shift with an aching body.

At first, wearing regular tennis shoes may seem fine, but eventually, your feet, lower back, knees and hips will begin to ache all the time. There’s nothing worse than trudging through a double-shift with an aching body.

Tighten your Core

Many new servers instinctively tighten their legs and arms to keep from spilling over-full drinks. In reality, this is more likely to create jerking motions that will cause you to splash some of the beverage on yourself or on the floor.

Instead, tighten your abs and glutes.

It also makes you look like a robot. Instead, tighten your abs and glutes. This reduces motion transference from your legs to your arms and the glass.

Circle the Extras

When you’re running around like a crazy person, the last thing you want to do is make an extra trip to the kitchen, if it can be avoided. When you’re taking an order always ask about condiments and circle anything they want that wouldn’t ordinarily come with their order.

It’s easy to overlook details on your serving pad, especially if you’re busy.

It’s easy to overlook details on your serving pad, especially if you’re busy. By circling the extras, your attention will be drawn to those notations, and you’ll be less likely to forget those small details.

Don’t let a Nasty Customer get you Down

This cannot be said enough: don’t let a sour-puss customer rain on your sunshine. Remind yourself that you don’t know anything about them or what they are going through.

Do not let that negative energy transfer to you.

Also, if they’re just a rude person, that has nothing to do with you. Do not let that negative energy transfer to you. If you let it get you down, you’ll be distracted, your productivity will be lower and your tips will reflect that. Not to mention, the rest of your shift will suck.

Along the way, you’ll discover other ways to make your life easier, but these tips along with our other Server Hacks will get you started on the right foot!

Find Server jobs on Sirvo now! →

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