You're 86

Personal finance is something that many bartenders struggle with. It's a pretty terrifying subject that many of us, myself included, don't even want to think about. Most of us don't make a lot of money and we live in places where everything is expensive. Our financial struggles are further complicated by an unpredictable tip-based income that is often delivered to us in cash.  This all traps many of us in a seemingly inescapable paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

It's really difficult to save any money, and if we have some kind of emergency situation, we are forced to make difficult decisions. It's hard to even know where to begin saving and moving towards more financial stability.

My guest today is personal finance and credit expert Sarah Brady. Sarah worked as a server in San Francisco for many years. She now works to help people in our industry improve our financial wellness. Sarah writes for Credit Karma and Lending Tree, teaches workshops and offers one on one coaching to help build budgets, improve credit and buy affordable housing.

Check out our conversation in the player or wherever podcasts are found, and challenge yourself to try out one piece of advice that Sarah suggested. I guarantee you will thank yourself in the future.

Sarah will be sharing more tips on money management for industry folks on Wed December 4th. The event will be hosted by Jigger & Dash and sponsored by Woodford Reserve. Check out jiggeranddash.com for more info and be sure to check out our homepage for much, much more. Thanks so much for tuning in, I'll see you next time!

I may have enjoyed the depth of field more than the wine, but that's ok.

Another great month with some important advice for working bartenders. We discussed: The guest's perspective, kicking people out and some mental tools for a more peaceful mind. I wanted to do another quick recap of what we learned so far. After all,  repetition is the best way to remember something. But if you haven't listened to the past few episodes, make sure you do. We've had some amazing guests on the show.

In Episode 17, we learned from content creator and professional bar goer, Hannah Chamberlain, the importance of welcoming your guests and other things we might not have noticed from our side of the bar. In Episode 18, we learned about industry veteran Joanna Lioce's experience kicking people out of one of the oldest bars in San Francisco. And in Episodes 19 and 20, I shared some mental tools that help me stay even when dealing with challenging guest interactions, including compassion for others and remembering that this particular situation will pass.

Check out this recap in the player or wherever podcasts are found. There's a lot of great advice for working bartenders in there that you can use on a daily basis at your bar.  We have some great stuff coming up too, including an episode about personal finance, so be sure to hit subscribe and stay tuned for that.

 

That's all for this week, but be Sure to also visit our homepage for much, much more, and let me know what you think or if there's anything you want to hear more of. Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me a message through our contact page.  I'd love to hear from you! Also, be sure to sign up for our mailing list, I'm going to start doing more with that, sending great advice to your inbox about once a month.

Cheers!

Some mental tools to keep in your well.

Hey everyone! I thought I'd do another quick episode on some more mental tools that can help you get through your shift at the bar. Last week we talked about using compassion as a tool to help you handle situations with rude customers, but this can be a difficult tool to grab when customers are really behaving badly. It's hard to have compassion for someone when you are very triggered.

In these cases it's helpful for me to use another tool. Basically, I ask myself if I'm going to remember this situation a few days from now and then remember how I've forgotten all the other situations like this in the past. The idea is to just slow yourself down a little bit so that you don't have to be overcome with stressful feelings which will wear you down over time.

Outside circumstances will never be exactly what you want them to be. Even if they get close, ideal situations won't last forever. This is especially true in the ever changing hospitality industry. Check out my advice on my own experience with this in the player or wherever podcasts are found.

 

Be sure to hit subscribe and stay tuned for more, we have new episodes every week. Make sure to also check out our homepage, and please let me know how this or any of the other advice in this show has worked out for you. Leave a comment or shoot me a message on the contact page. Thanks so much for listening, I'll see you next time.

Maintaining a calm mind takes practice and the right mental tools.

Compassion is one of the best tools for a calmer mind. Our job behind the bar is not only hard on our bodies, it's hard on our minds. Humans are naturally reactionary creatures, we're wired for fight or flight and it's very hard to not react or get stressed out when a challenging situation arises, even if there isn't really any danger. All of that stress can build up and eventually burn out our mind the same way physical stress can burn out our bodies. While physical exercise can help maintain our bodies,  mental exercise, like breathing meditation can help maintain our minds.

When things get really stressful though, it's important to have the right mental tools to handle the situation. The same way we reach for a Hawthorne strainer when we need to strain a cocktail, we need to reach for the right mental tool when we are presented with a stressful situation. Listen to this episode in the player or wherever podcasts are found to find out how we can use compassion to maintain a calm and peaceful mind when things get tense with customers.

Listen to the episode in the player or wherever you get your podcasts and learn some new tools for a calmer mind. Be sure to visit our homepage for much, much more, and let me know how this worked out for you. You can leave a comment or send me a message through our contact page. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I'll see you next time.

Kicking people out of your bar isn't very fun. It's often a challenging and delicate situation that can sometimes even turn violent. It's important to not take the situation personally, and also not make it personal so that things don't escalate.

My guest today is Joanna Lioce, she's worked in the industry since 2001, and for the past 16 years she's worked at Vesuvio Cafe, one of the oldest bars in San Francisco. The bar is famous for 86ing the likes of Gregory Corso and Van Morrison, and Joanna has had to kick out plenty of other characters in her time behind the bar there.

Check out our conversation in the player or wherever podcasts are found to hear about some of Joanna's craziest experiences kicking people out of the bar, including the time she had to 86 a customer for sexually harassing her grandmother. Be sure to also check out our homepage for much, much more. And don't forget to hit subscribe and stay tuned. I'll see you next time!

So what do your customers really think? We've talked a lot about things like empathy with customers, customer interactions and customer experience, but so far I've just had a bunch of bartenders on the show. I thought it might be a good idea to talk to a real live customer who doesn't work behind the bar, and actually get their side of the story.

My guest today is Hannah Chamberlain. She runs Spirited LA, a bar and cocktail Instagram feed and blog that focuses on beautiful, creative and delicious cocktails, as well as cocktail culture and more. Hannah is essentially a professional bar customer. She visits tons of bars all over the world and it was really enlightening to hear about her experience on the other side of the stick.

Hannah gives especially excellent advice about being greeted. If there's one takeaway from this episode, it's to greet every customer that walks into your bar. Do this in whatever way makes sense for your establishment, but be consistent about it and your customers will have a much better experience.

Check out our conversation in the player, or wherever podcasts are found. Also, be sure to visit our homepage for much, much more and let me know what you think of the show or would like to hear more of. You can leave a comment or send me a message through the contact page. I'd love to hear from you!

Also, apologies for all the radio silence lately. I had to do some traveling and then my laptop died a horrible death. I'm finally getting all of the pieces back together, and we're now back to our regularly scheduled program! So stay tuned for more and don't forget to hit subscribe. Thanks so much for listening, I'll see you next time!

Cheers!

Don't go to Korea if you don't like spicy food and light beer.

Hello again! Another month, and some more quick and dirty tips for bartenders. This time I'm coming to you from Busan, South Korea, so apologies for the poor audio quality. I'm on vacation eating lots of spicy food and drinking lots of light beer, but I wanted to get this recap out to you. Definitely eat everything if you go to Korea, particularly the cold noodles if it's summer time. Oh, and you should take a vacation. You deserve it!

Anyway, we had a lot of great discussions this month about issues that we face almost daily at our bars. I talked to Simone Mims about awkward guest interactions, Maura Passanisi about the challenges women face in the wine industry, Chris Tunstall from A Bar Above about career movement, and I shared some of my own advice about handling dogs at your bar.  I wanted to hit some of the main points with this recap episode, so you can have a few new tools to help you at your bar or restaurant.

Check out this episode in the player or wherever podcasts are found for these quick and dirty tips for bartenders, and please hit subscribe in the player of your choice to stay up to date with our weekly conversations with bartenders about all kinds of different challenges. Subscribe to our mailing list too, I send a newsletter out about once a month, with even more great stuff. I'll see you next time!

This dog is providing a foot warming service.

What to do with service dogs? this seems to be one of the most contentious issues in our industry. I actually don't have a guest this week because everyone I talked to about this immediately got heated about the issue. I understand there are a lot of feelings around the issue. There are a lot of misunderstandings, fears about discrimination, fears about the health department, confusion about the laws, customer's not knowing the rules, people lying about their dog's status, entitlement. This all leads to bad service interactions and unhappy staff and customers.

This is one of those issues, however,  that has a very simple solution. When someone comes into your bar with a dog, you have to have the right intention of good service. The dog may indeed be a service animal that is necessary for a medical condition, or the customer simply may not know or understand the laws. It's our job to explain and clarify things in the same welcoming manner that we explain our wine list or today's happy hour specials. Listen to this episode in the player or wherever podcasts are found to hear what I do when someone comes into my bar with a dog, and read on after the break for more information about the laws involved.

We are not allowed to have live animals in our bars and restaurants for health and safety reasons. In California, the Health and Safety Code lays out the various rules and exceptions around having animals in a food facility. Most other states and countries have their own sets of rules, but they are generally the same: Animals are not allowed in food facilities unless they are trained service dogs. The Americans With Disabilities Act protects people who have service dogs for medical reasons, and dictates what we bartenders are allowed to say and do when a customer brings a service dog into our bars.

When someone comes into your bar with a dog, a conversation has to happen to determine whether or not the dog is legally allowed in your bar. This does not have to be complicated, you can have the same simple discussion every time this happens, and you won't have an awkward or bad interaction. The helpful flow chart below walks you through how the conversation should be:

If the customer tells you it's a trained service animal, you have to let them have the dog in your bar. However, the dog must be leashed and under control, and with the customer at all times. Dogs are typically not allowed on the furniture, and if the dog becomes a legitimate nuisance and is bothering other guests, we are within our rights to ask the customer to take the dog elsewhere. Generally, real trained service dogs won't be an issue and the people who have real trained service dogs know these rules as well.

If the customer does not have a trained service dog, you can politely and courteously ask them to take the dog elsewhere. This includes "emotional support animals." There's a lot of confusion around emotional support dogs because they are legally allowed in certain places like office buildings and transportation, but they are not allowed in food facilities in most places. Again, you don't need to bring any anger or negativity into this situation, it's not worth having a bad interaction and there's no reason this has to go badly if you follow these steps.

I hope that clarifies things. This is the conversation I have every time someone comes in my bar with a dog, and it always goes well. Be sure to visit our home page for much, much more and don’t forget to hit subscribe and share us with your friends in the industry. We have new conversations every week, I’ll see you next time.

Cheers!

Sometimes we may feel like we can work behind the bar forever. I mean, what an amazing job? We get to bring the party and make people happy every night. It's great! But chances are even if you could physically work behind the bar forever, likely you won't want to. Whether you're burnt out mentally, your industry schedule doesn't work well with the family you are trying to start or you're just inspired to try something different, stepping out from behind the bar and doing something new can be incredibly challenging. There aren't many good resources about career movement for bartenders either.

My guest today is Chris Tunstall. In 2003, like many of us, he started out as a bar back at a restaurant.  Many years later, after a lot of challenging but rewarding work, Chris and his wife Julia now run a successful business of their own. They are the hosts of The Mixology Talk Podcast, they run A Bar Above, an educational resource for working bartenders, and have their own line of bar tools designed specifically to meet the rigors of the modern bar. I got to sit down with Chris and learn about all of the challenges he faced, what drove him to start a business and how he's stayed connected to the industry we all love so much .

Check out our conversation in the player to learn about career movement for bartenders, and don't forget to hit subscribe and check out our homepage for more. We have new conversations every week, so stay tuned. I'll see you next time!

As in many different careers, women face a unique set of challenges on all sides of the wine industry. Whether it's harassment from clients and coworkers or simply the fact that there isn't a sanitary bin in the employee bathroom because the men who designed it didn't think about installing one. This is an incredibly challenging and nuanced issue. More recently, the industry seems to be moving towards a place of equality and understanding, but there is still a long way to go.

My guest today is Maura Passanisi. She's  a Certified Specialist of Wine and a WSET Advanced sommelier. She has worked in just about every aspect of the industry, from service to production, and she is the co-founder of the Della Donna Women Winemaker Festival. The festival is happening this Sunday, July 21st in Oakland, Calif. Click the link here for tickets and more info. Maura has had a ton of experience handling many of the toughest parts of the wine business and had some great advice about navigating those challenges day to day.

Check out our conversation about the challenges women face in the wine industry in the above player or wherever podcasts are found. Visit our home page for much, much more and don't forget to hit subscribe and share us with your friends in the industry. We have new conversations every week, I'll see you next time.

Cheers!