Hey, good friend of mine is bartending.. you start off by working in a resturant bar.. you know, you provide drinks for the table guests and you guys switch off serving the bar gets for $$ tips. But anyways start off working at a resturant bar and you'll be just helping out the bartenders.. After a while you should be able to step in a sub on weekdays.. weekends even if the bartender cant make it someone else would gladly take their spot.

Eventually (from what I've seen) most places throw you min-wage + tips. Friend of mine is averaging around $200 - $300 during the weekdays that he works.. and +$500 on busy days, holidays, or weekends. He works about 4-6hours depending on which date..

- Eric

 

i definitely recommend bartending school! i attended national bartenders school and do not regret it. while going to the school, i experimented on my own to perfect my drink mixing skills. after i finished i started doing friend's parties to practice in real life situations. trust me, i excelled a lot faster than the guy that started as a bar back. people knock bartending school, cuz they've never been. u learn everyhting from history of the alcohol, taste, colors, origin, mixers, etc.

i bartended at club ivar in hollywood for a year and a half and now i do private parties for friends or acquaintences. i only do it seasonally for holiday company parties or special occasions. after bartending at the club, my network of friends became aware of my new talent and started spreading word. each night i can make anywhere from $300 (a close friends party) to about $1200 (corporate parties). the money is definitely there and you get to meet alot of cool people.

good luck bro and feel free to message me if you have any questions. heck, even when i travel i exchange drink recipes with bartenders in different countries! talk about a great way to break the ice with strangers!

 

I would disagree. I haven't met anyone who attended bartending school who thought it was worth the money. They all did it to get their foot in the door someplace. I bartended almost 10 years and learned everything on the job. I started at a restaurant bar as Klumzyee recommended and went on to work at bars, clubs, and private parties. Money was fantastic and is the best gig around for those attending school.

 

+2 for dont go to bartending school. My friend went to one and all he could get was hired at a hole in the wall in a bad part of Cerritos, Ca. Any decent place wont hire bartenders that have only gone to a school because you have zero experience with customers and barely know the drinks after a couple of weeks.

I wokr for olive garden and they will not hire a bartender from a school, heck you have be a server first then a bartender

 

Hahahaa, damn, u always crack me up.

 

^ I in no way am a bartender lol so to the OP listen to the guys above.. I'm simply posting because I have a good friend of mine thats bartending in Irvine =). He's been working at the bar part time for a while just for extra money and started bartending full time since the begining of last year. He's not the best nor the highest paid bartender but he makes a good amount. Usually when you start off the Saturday Nights, Holidays, etc.. are scheduled for the experienced bartenders and they're there to stay especially if they're at a good bar. Again, he gets paid min wage + tips and they rotate doing tables and bar throughout the night.

He does however do private parties for companies and stuff and makes a pretty good deal off of it.. He does it for $150 for him to come in and set up a table and he brings another friend that'll carry drinks around for $10 per hour while he gets paid $15 per hour. No tip jars but he does pull in about another $100-200 to tips per party and the guy bring drinks pulls around $50 for the night.. he's there until the partys over and yeah..

You're suppose take like an alchole awareness test or something tho? k67p67 and keyguy82, maybe recommend him any license or certificate that he should get?


- Eric

 

see? there's alot of "my friend went to one, but it sucks ***," the only people that say that are the ones that haven't gone. it's what you make of it, and truthfully it depends how you learn on your own. personally, i learned alot and my teacher was this bad *** guy, so it made the classes alot fun. not to mention the addition of learning and "studying" at night with fellow classmates (which was actually us getting drunk at night while experimenting with other liquors) was a definite plus. hell if you dont believe me, you can ask one of my buddies from the school. some of you may know her from the import modeling scene. thuy li, that was one of my studying partners at bartending school. both of us moved on to do really well with the license that we got, so i guess it goes to show that the school actually pays off.

and as for that alcohol awareness program, they give it to you at the bartending school as well. they also offer a wine and champagne course for those that are interested in bartending or serving at higher end places.

 

in2win - i see you go to cal poly pomona. i used to be in a fraternity there called alpha sigma lambda. whenever we'd throw parties, i always bartended for the parties that we threw. trust me, the brothers certainly appreciated my services.

now there were also guys that tried to learn on their own at restaurants, due to the inexperience that they had, they didnt know any of the mixes at all, making them slow at pouring, not to mention, they couldnt handle orders that were bigger than 2 drinks at a time.

now can we all look at it in that way? after attending bartending school, you're expected to be the perfect bartender. but they do train you to pour for speed and precision. granted, bartending is more of a feel type thing, every customer is different, for the ladies i pour mixers for them to keep coming back. for the guys i'll pour pretty big for the first and bring it down the more they come back. i will never under pour, but i sure as hell wont get them blasted pouring them overloaded drinks.

if u have the extra cash, go ahead and take the school. you wont regret it