On a good night, every bartender at my bar (including myself) will pour
200-300 drinks per hour when we're busy. I can't hire someone with no
experience and expect them to keep up - there would be too much "How do you
make this again?" going on.
Barbacks, cocktail waitresses, every position OTHER than bartender, I'm more
than happy to hire with no experience - I prefer it, then I can train them
into how we do things, as opposed to having to break bad habits.
I see where you're coming from on hiring policy, and for some bars, hiring
directly into the bar works. For high volume, I think you need at least SOME
bar experience, and for me personally, I can afford to hire someone I know
will work out, rather than having to train someone up who's only worked at a
slow TGI Fridays on how we do things.