Message 8415 of 22774 in Behind the Bar

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What's the expression?  Never trust a skinny chef?  

I don't think it's a dealbreaker, I have encountered non-drinking bartenders, 
but if I was hiring I wouldn't be enthusiastic about adding you to the 
barstaff.  A lot of it depends upon the sort of place you work.  If you're 
going to be a cocktail drone, just follow recipes and bang out drinks all 
night, it probably doesn't matter.  But if you have any oppotunity to discuss 
cocktails/beer/wine with guests and to make suggestions and recommendations, 
then it's a handicap.  I also think it limits how good you can develop your 
drinks if you don't have a thorough understanding of base spirits, liqueurs 
and mixers.  So much of my development as a bartender has been by developing 
my palate, applying it towards making a better Margarita or Gimlet or 
Manhattan.  I've played and tinkered with these drinks to get them just so, 
and I can do that because I'm familiar with the ingredients.  

I put more sweet vermouth into a Jim Beam Manhattan than a Maker's Mark one.  
Why?  Because the Maker's bourbon is smoother and doesn't need as much 
vermouth to mellow it out.  That's not the sort of fine tuning one can do if 
it's all academic.  Of course that's probably more calibrating than most 
bartenders would bother with, so I don't think it would keep you from getting 
a job.  But I would find it to be a pity to be served a cocktail by a 
bartender who had little to no experience with what they're serving first 
hand.  Chances are you can make as good of a 7&7 as I can, but you'll always 
fall behind on the more advanced stuff.  

Still, there are paradoxes such as yourself out there working so don't let me 
discourage you from taking a shot at getting behind the bar.  Sipping could 
help, but I still think it's a lot of material to learn - the flavors and 
combinations out there - if you don't have several years of drinking under 
your belt already.  Perhaps I'm biased because I feel that my college drinking 
taught me a lot about mixed drinks before I ever got behind the bar.  It's 
hard to know how good something is when you don't know what it's supposed to 
taste like.