Message 19502 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> And in my opinion, knowing your stuff like that is part of what makes 
> you "incredible behind the bar."  Not just how fast you can whip out 
> bourbon and cokes or your flair.  But thats just my view on it.

Believe me, I'm with you on this one, but I don't tend to look at this as 
homework.  When I started, I was reading tons of things from several different 
sources (all out of simple curiosity).  Most people would never do what I did, 
but I certainly wouldn't begrudge them on that.  While I agree that the 
knowledge is important, I think some of this just simply can be learned when 
you hop behind the bar.  For example, if somebody walks up and asks for 
Bookers, as long as you know you don't have it, it's ok to not know what it is 
the first time somebody asks for it.  Part of why I say this is because I can 
picture the list of expectations placed on newbie bartenders to quickly reach 
encyclopedic size.  I agree with you that the knowledge is important 
(obviously I couldn't argue against the Mojito if I didn't know what it was), 
but if I had a newbie bartender working with/for me, I would want them to be 
learning how to operate the bar they are behind rather than learning about the 
things that they can't offer to their customers.  I'd like to fine-tune where 
your opinion is at, if you were to run into any random bartender and show them 
the list, would you be expecting them to simply recognize the name and have a 
general idea of what the drink is (at least the spirits in the drinks), or 
would you actually expect them to be able to quote back the recipe?

> If I don't reply back to ya, I'm not blowing you off... I have a 
> flight in the morning...

Lol, no worries man, I was surprised you responded to the last one :)  Have a 
good time!

-- 
Cody