| Many people who want to become bartenders | | | | drinks such as the Harvey Wallbanger, the |
| need to consider whether they want to learn by | | | | Grasshopper, and the Pink Squirrel are seldom |
| buying a bartending course or going to a | | | | ordered by customers nowadays, yet they are |
| bartending school. But, a school is a potentially | | | | still found in the training manuals of bartending |
| dangerous choice! For the aspiring bartender, | | | | schools. This means that the bartender who has |
| attending a bartending school can do more harm | | | | just "graduated" from a bartending school does |
| than good, giving a new bartender a false sense | | | | not really know what drinks a typical customer |
| of security about his bartending skills that, in the | | | | base is likely to order, and in fact, he or she may |
| long run, can hurt his chances of earning a good | | | | not even know what the current popular drinks |
| living. | | | | are! So a customer coming to order a drink from |
| People often think that in order to become a | | | | a bartender who has just come from bartending |
| working, professional bartender, you must be | | | | school may be disappointed when he orders his |
| trained and certified. For the most part, this is not | | | | favorite drink. |
| the case. While there are a few states in the U.S. | | | | The inexperienced bartender will have to either |
| that require certification, this usually amounts to | | | | admit to the customer that he doesn't know how |
| taking a short course in alcohol safety and paying | | | | to make the drink, or he will have to look up the |
| a fee of between twenty and forty dollars. It is | | | | drink in a recipe book, or-worst case scenario-he |
| not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars or be | | | | will have to ask another bartender working at the |
| extensively trained, as bartending school | | | | bar how to make the drink. In any case, this poor |
| representatives often want you to believe. | | | | bartender will be revealing his inexperience, and |
| Bartending schools teach outdated drink recipes to | | | | the extra hassle involved as the customer waits |
| students as though they were still current. Old | | | | for his drink may cost him his tip. |