Bartender HQ Podcast : Bar Culture, Cocktails and Flair Bartending for Everyone.

Cocktail turns 30 in 2 weeks time, and in this show we’ll be talking about its effect on the bar industry. Our 80s Month continues!

Cocktail Bartenders Commentary is Here

Industry News

BenRiach distillery has moved into fashion with the launch of a line that “celebrates the creative approaches to whisky distilling and clothing design”. Full article at The Spirits Business

Bowmore 1966 Samaroli sells for £51,611 at auction. Full article at The Spirits Business

The Catch Up – This week at BartenderHQ’s 80s Month

* Casa Agave Press Release

* Harvey Wallbanger Recipes

* Powerful Stuff Cocktail Soundtrack cocktail

* Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster Recipe

* Every Drink Mentioned in the Cocktail Movie

* Turquoise Blue Cocktail Recipe

The Main Course – Cocktail’s Cultural Impact

There are few movies that have had more impact on the bar industry than Cocktail. It was the first really mainstream exposure to flair bartending, and has inspired a generation or more of bartenders to get into the industry.

Our Cocktail Anniversary interview – JB Bandy will be on the show in 2 weeks!

We’re delighted to announce that JB Bandy, the man who trained Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown for the iconic movie will be on the July 29th podcast. Please spread the word and celebrate the film’s 30th Anniversary with BartenderHQ.

Should we as a community come together to help a bartender in need? One British Facebook group this week didn’t think so, and it caused some waves.

Industry News: Dead Rabbit to Re-Open after Fire

The Dead Rabbit in New York suffered a suspected kitchen fire on July 1st 2018. The venue has now announced they plan to re-open Thursday July 19th, admittedly with a cold menu until their main kitchen is backhttps://www.instagram.com/p/Bk2yePVgoT5

CO2 Crisis hits Mexico

Following shortages in the UK and Europe over the summer months hitting brewers and drinks producers at large, Mexico is now beginning to suffer shortages. Be aware you could see disruption of Mexican beers over the coming months.

This Week on BartenderHQ

New Drinks:

* Wild Again – Named for the Cocktail Soundtrack song of the same name, this is an agave Mai Tai style drink

* Bumblebee Cocktail– a Rum twist on the Bee’s Knees

* Boutique-y Blue Lagoon – a straight up gin version of the 80s disco drink classic

* Grape Jelly Flip – I love the flavour of Concord grapes, so this was part of my research into making it drinkable!

World Cup Drinks Pricing

Major news outlets in the UK were reporting this week on price gouging in a certain company’s pubs with 10-50p per drink added to prices during England’s World Cup games. I discussed my thoughts on this over on our YouTube Channel.

Bartender in Need, the community’s responsibility to help?

A major UK bartenders group on Facebook this week caused controversy when moderators took down an appeal for help for a fellow bartender in need in Asia. Not only this, but the way it was done caused outrage in a lot of the membership. We’ve shared the appeal on BartenderHQ’s Facebook page as well as the Worldwide Bartender Community on Facebook. If you can help, here’s the link to Help Tunny!Miami Viceroy Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Jon Taffer has launched his very own podcast this week with PodcastOne – No Excuses! Welcome to the community Jon, it’s great to have you here. Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer’s hit TV show is now in its 6th season with over 160 episodes aired.

PodcastOne on No Excuses by Jon Taffer

“Shut It Down and listen as Jon, the award-winning hospitality legend, best-selling author, and top-rated television personality of Bar Rescue, brings his straight talk and unapologetic approach to daily topics, current events, and celebrity guest interviews. Get ready for genuine opinions, in-your-face analysis, and unforgettable interviews. Your day isn’t complete until Jon tells you it is! NO EXCUSES!”

While Jon caused some controversy in the bar industry with his comments on Mezcal and Tequila (below) his knowledge as an operator and businessman can’t be denied.

“I’m not sure if there’s a definition of one gets you angry or not, but tequila is inherently made from mezcal, which mescaline, the hallucinogenic drug is made from. So tequila can have a hallucinogenic component, you might be talking to someone who’s not there. (Laughs)”

Full article on Vice from which this quote is taken.

A while ago we interviewed Mr Russell Davis, one of Jon Taffer’s experts on Bar Rescue, and you can find the full interview here.

GaryVee on Wine & Cereal Pairings: (Wine Library TV)

Gary Vaynerchuk most likely had a hand in the creation or at least inspiration behind Jon Taffer’s Podcast venture as Jon was a guest on the #AskGaryVee show. Gary started out in the wine business growing his father’s liquor store from 3 to 60million dollars in revenue over a short time. As a part of this process, Gary created Wine Library TV, which ran in the early days of YouTube for over 1000 episodes.

Gordon Ramsay Bartending

This got a little shout out in the show so I thought I’d include it. Gordon Ramsey bartending is a delight to watch. Be aware, it gets a bit sweary, as you might expect. However, you’ll see how he really does respect the work of the bartenders here, and I think it’s very useful for chefs to see the work our bar teams do, and vice versa.

Join us over on Instagram at instagram.com/bartenderhqpics!

Miami Viceroy Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Its a bit of a philosphical episode this week about bartending. While we started with some updates, the real theme here is that bars need humans.

While cocktails may end up being easily available either pre-packaged, sold at retail or may even fall from fashion, the real key that draws customers out from their homes is not the drink, but the human interaction. As Bartenders, even as automation moves on and on, we offer a value that computers and robots won’t have for a long while. The art of conversation. Don’t lose our unique selling point.

Being a conversation maker

There are a few things of course that you’ll need to bear in mind while making conversation, as the last thing you want to do is upset your guests or get into an argument. That said, you are entitled to have an opinion, its just best not to shove it down an unwilling guest’s throat.

* Never tell a guest they’re wrong. Its great to discuss ideas, but present why you have the belief you do rather than belittling the views of others.

* You don’t have to change their mind. All you should do is open eyes to another possibility.

While I think everyone should be able to discuss their ideas, remember that you’re there first and foremost to keep your guests happy and make your bar money, so don’t compromise your priorities while having discussions with your guests, and certainly don’t neglect other guests either.

The British pub is an icon, known around the world, but they’re very different from a typical bar in the states. Let’s talk about that. Here are 5 big differences between British and American bars.

1: Our bartenders typically make no money.

While the bartenders in America are able to make huge amounts of tips from week to week given the culture, British bar staff will often make less than £5-10 in a shift.

That being said, the wages for a bartender in the UK are typically a little higher than in the US, around £8 (or $12) an hour. If you’re looking to make more cash in the UK hospitality industry, working as a server in a restaurant is almost always more lucrative.

2: If a cocktail isn’t explicitly on the menu, you probably can’t have it.

When we visited the US, one thing I was surprised to see was fairly short cocktail menus in most bars. It turned out that this was because American bars typically only list their specialities, as bartenders are generally expected to know the classics by default.

However in the UK, many bars will list their full repertoire of cocktails and the staff will only be trained to make what is on the menu. While drinks like Negronis are now starting to appear on some pub menus, unless you’re in a high end bar its probably best to stick to the list.

3: Food may be served for really weird hours.

If you’re at an independent pub or bar, you may well find that the kitchen is closed in the afternoons, defining a break between lunch and dinner service.

That being said, it was only in the late 80s that pubs were able to serve alcohol between 2:40pm and 6:30pm – repealing the World War One “Defence of the Realm” Act, designed to keep the workers at munitions factories from drunkenly blowing themselves up.

4: Our pubs look way cooler.

One of the benefits of having what we call “history” in the UK, is that many old pubs look like a set from Harry Potter. While you won’t be able to indulge in a butter beer in almost any of them, you will be able to rejoice in a combination of stained glass windows, uneven floors, ceiling beams and doorways so small as to hand out concussions like an American football college scholarship.

5: We love gin more than anything right now.

While the image of the Pub is often of the “warm” real ales that are pumped by hand from the cellar (so actually served around 11 degrees Celsius), you’re more likely to find Gin & Tonics the order of the day. Craft spirits in the UK have been lead by gin, not whiskey and many pubs now have long lists of gins available.

Oh, and don’t even mention tonic from a gun, we’ll have bottled tonic thank you very much!

Of course, we also have some of the best cocktail bars in the world here in the UK, and they’ll make you whatever you’d like, along with the thriving independent bar scene. If you’d like to hear more about these, or what I missed in this video, let me know in the comments!

Music: “Secret of Tiki Island” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sam went to Japan at the end of last year and into 2018, just before the opening of the Vanguard and while the builders did their thing. In this podcast we’re having a chat about a little of what he saw and experienced.

Once he’d established how the weather in Japan is, we moved onto actually talking about bars in a way you might care about, we promise.

A Few Hundred Pounds of Kobe Beef.

Sam ate stupidly expensive meat, and would do so again. He super enjoyed the experience itself and would take others next time to see their reactions.

Akashi Tai Sake Brewery, Japan

A visit to the Akashi Tai’s Sake brewery in Japan revealed not only non-alcoholic Sake but also that Sake in Japan just means alcohol – if you’re after the rice wine we’d expect, order Nihonshu. That said, if you’re from overseas and ask for sake, they’ll be pretty sure what you’re looking for is Nihonshu.

It turns out the grades of Sake are produced by different levels of milling and polishing of the rice that provides the starch and sugars for fermentation. Sam mentions how nuanced the whole category is so its something he’s really pushing to learn more about in the coming months.

Warming Sake Has Become a Thing.

Apparently the warmed Sake that we’re all familiar with was introduced as a way to hide poor quality exported products. Since then however, the producers have begun to produce Sake that is good quality and works chilled or warmed, so they’ve had to react to the market.

The Weird Stuff Is Here. The 3D Latte featuring Pokemon.

It had to happen – Sam’s Chai Lattes featuring Pikachu and Snorlax.

 

BartenderHQ Podcast 2.0

Coming Soon: BartenderHQ Masters Series

Sam Boulton is currently working on our Masters Series podcasts where he’ll deep dive into lesser known drinks, the nitty gritty of service and more. They’ll air every other week around the main BartenderHQ podcast you know and love so much.

Coming Soon: David tries to flair like Tom Dyer

Friend of the show Tom Dyer put out the video below recently with some awesome working flair moves using the shakers and ice scoops – I’ll be attempting to replicate these moves. Don’t hold your breath!

I’ve always loved this style of flair, and we mentioned it on our Craft Flair episode.

Anchor FM

Soon to be our new podcast host assuming we can work some bugs out, Anchor is a really simple platform for podcasting that anyone can use from a phone. That also means we can easily have bartenders call into the shows and get involved, so let us know what you want to hear!

Memorising Cocktails eBook

We’re no longer selling our eBook direct, but you can find it at the link below, the Netflix of bar training. And there’s a free trial!

The Dead Shift and Cheapest Shot

Our favourite new bar podcast is on Anchor, so make this your excuse to check the platform out, and tell them we sent you! https://anchor.fm/the-dead-shift

Save Roadhouse

One of the world’s great flair institutions is under threat as the landlords want to bring in another chain. Help raise awareness and sign the petition to save The Roadhouse in Covent Garden and I’ll be eternally grateful! https://www.change.org/p/support-the-roadhouse-which-faces-eviction-by-property-developers

 

Live from the Vanguard, David & Sam are talking about Koppert Cress – Cocktail Microherbs from Holland. The guys from Koppert Cress were kind enough to host us in Holland last year at their facility in Rotterdam, and then we spent an extra night exploring Amsterdam’s culture.

Koppert Cress Microherbs Samples

On the show:

* Dushi Buttons

* BlinQ Blossom

* Bean Blossom

* Tahoon Cress

* Kikuna Leaves

* Majii Leaves

* Sechuan Buttons

You can find full details on all of the above at https://www.koppertcress.com with separate images and all the information you could need, including where to buy. Thanks again to Koppert Cress for hosting us.

There are incredible things that can be done with Microherbs and we’re just scratching the surface. In so many instances chefs have been way ahead of the bar industry, and perhaps here we can regain some ground. We’d love to see what you do with Microherbs so make sure you tag @BartenderHQ in any posts inspired by the show!

 

Welcome back to the BartenderHQ Podcast and Sam is back, because finally The Vanguard is Open!

Sam’s been working on the project since the middle of last year and finally, the builders are finished and the guests are in. Positioned in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter above 1000 Trades, The Vanguard offers modern cocktails and mead.

The Vanguard at 1000 Trades

We touch on some of the popular drinks on the menu, as well as Sam’s philosophy about the structure of the menu and service in the venue.

Have any questions for Sam about the bar? Hit up @VanguardBar on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also vote for Sam’s Fernet Branca coin here: fernet-branca.co.uk/coin/

 

I’m so delighted to welcome to the podcast Scott Young from Restaurant, Bar & Nightclub Training. Scott Young’s Extreme Bartending was the series of videos that I learned the majority of my flair from in the early years around 2000-2002, and I probably wouldn’t still be in the industry without it.

Scott Young’s Restaurant, Bar and Nightclub Training

Scott’s latest project combines the experience of around 50 educators from the industry in a single “Netflix for Bar Training” type model, where a small monthly subscription gets you unlimited access to the full library.

There’s training for all jobs in the industry, from bar-back to bar manager, kitchen porter to head chef and bouncer to GM.

You can even get a no-risk, no credit card free trial, so give it a go. There’s no such thing as too much knowledge!

https://digital.nbrtraining.com/library?e=nightclubbarrestauranttraining