I get calls for all types of bartenders from a large variety of clients. Most of my new clients are hiring for the first time. They have an infinite idea of what a bartender is supposed to be but yet have never selected one to come into their house, at their wedding or in their front lobby of their company.
On the same hand I have a hundred bartenders on my team who have never worked in someone’s private home or in a corporate office setting…. or at least when they did they were doing it for a patron from their own bar and knew very well what they were walking into. So bridging that gap is a large part of what I do.
When looking for a new bartender to join my staff I concentrate on one thing. I have bartenders who I’ve met throughout my days recruiting who never were behind a bar before or certainly weren’t doing that on a regular basis. So why would I take that person and make them a bartender for my company where I’m putting someone in a private house party by themselves? Many of our house party bartenders require people skills over exact pouring skills. So I need people people. You have all seen service industry staff that goes out of there way to please people and love doing so…. Those are my kind of people. I identify a special characteristic and or personality and it always seems to be the ideal one for my company. My staff will be working in a small and intimate setting. I need them to blend into the party and do so while still enhancing the event. These are the same people who you find yourself asking to sit in their section or returning to their bar just to see them. My bartending clients also become special to my staff. They ask to work the so and so event again if it ever comes up. They remember certain parties and quote it when talking to a new customer/guest at one of my events saying I worked this party and the client had an ____ and we served ____. Their eyes light up talking about the cool events we bartend…. as they would anyone.
I love having this job. My clients and staff are amazing and helping put them together in the same room just makes everything happy and fun. Someone once asked me how I like my job. I said, “every week we are at a wedding or a mitzvah, or a company party, everyone is having fun because this is their biggest event of the year, if I’m not redistributing the love I’m feeling, I’d be crazy!”
