The Four Rules of Setting up a Bar

So you want to pen a bar? That's pretty cool but unless you have attended a bartending school or have previous experience in setting up and running a bar, you will need to learn the business basics as well as some inside tips for running a successful bar.

Location, location, location. The first and foremost thing is setting up a bar is to choose the best location. Many bartenders do not succeed not because of the poor quality of their bar, but because of the poor location of the bar. Location is the key to establishing a great business. A successful location for a bar is within the city entertainment area or in location that doesn't have any bars. It should be easily accessible too. In broad terms that's the secret, if you need to narrow your search for the best location, think what kind of a bar you will be opening. The specifics of your bar will give you the answer to the simple question "Where's the best spot for my bar?"

Furniture and equipment matters. After you have rented a space for our bar, start decorating it. If you don't have a lot of money make basic redecoration and buy the minimum equipment needed. Once you start making money you can think about changing the bar décor or even setting up a themed bar. Get only the equipment and inventories you need at first hand and do not overspend as you will need to have some money left after the bar opens.

Decide on the menu. The next important step in setting up a bar is the menu. Again - being on a tight budget means to offer the basic liquors and oft drinks. If you are going to offer cocktails make sure you know how to mix the ingredients professionally. Think carefully if you are going to offer food or only some kind of snacks. How to decide? Just look what the rest of the bars are doing and do the same. At this stage you do not need to break the business model but to start making a profit as fast as you can.

Make the world know about your bar. Location helps but not as much as a good advertising. Think about cheap but effective ways for marketing of your bar. You can set up a simple website, print posters and give away flyers. A low cost and high effective way of marketing is the so called guerilla marketing. All you need is to ask some of your friends to go to lively places such as bus stops, cinemas, malls etc and to start arguing which is the best bar to go. People around them will hear their conversation and might decide to visit your place.

Step 1:
Make sure you have a wide range and variety of glasses for different beverages. Highball glasses, martini glasses and cocktail glasses are a good start.

Step 2:
Sort your alcohol. Buy the staples: Whiskey, vodka, gin, bourbon, tequila, et al. And arrange them in a way where the most commonly used or coupled are near each other.

Step 3:
Buy bar gadgets. The minimum is a shaker and an ice bucket. If you make blended drinks, have a blender on hand, as well.

Step 4:
Stock the bar with a few bottles of wine and a case of beer. This is the go-to stash because someone, inevitably, will want a basic beer or glass of wine. Keep these handy.

By: Sam "Extreme Bartending"

There are many words used to describe this kind of bartending…flair, performance, cocktail, ultimate, Olympic, etc.
They pretty much all come down to the same thing ... performing. Extreme Bartending means to perform, and entertain your customers. Don't just serve a drink, SERVE IT WITH STYLE! Before we get to that, let's start with some important questions.

WHAT DO THEY WANT?
Your customers want to be treated with excellent service. Competition in the hospitality industry is fierce these days. No longer is the customer limited to the local tavern with one brand of scotch. Today, the market is virtually flooded with different options. The possibilities seem to be endless. Since there aren't enough customers to fill all of these places, the hospitality industry had become a highly competitive place.

WHY EXTREME BARTENDING™
Customers are the lifeblood of the hospitality industry. Extreme Bartenders do more than just flip bottles and do tricks. In order to be successful, you must combine style, entertainment value, a sense of humor and a willingness to provide Extreme Service. By implementing performance skills and Extreme Service into your daily bartending routine, your tips and regular customers will increase substantially. Why? Because you'll be more fun to be around and you'll be a better bartender. But add just a few moves and tricks and you will stand out from the crowd because many bartenders just don't care enough to make that extra effort.

WHAT ABOUT MY MANAGER?
That's a valid question. This is considered a "new" style of bartending and any good bar manager should consider it carefully before implementing it. So, convince your bar manager that you'll do three things:
Be professional in attitude, Create high sales revenue, Decrease costs
By having a professional attitude and being a better all-around bartender, you'll attract more customers as well as impress your regulars and increase your sales revenue. By not spilling or breaking anything and by staying within your limits, you will decrease costs. We've come a long way since the movie "Cocktail" with Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown.

RULE # 1
Spillage of Alcohol is Unacceptable!

RULE # 2
You Don't have to Slow Down to Make a Drink With Style.

RULE # 3
Never Practice at Work.

Here are just a few of the Easy, No Risk Moves to entertain your customers with.

GARNISHES
Great things about garnishes are:
Every bar has them
They're used in almost every drink
They are used at the end of a drink
You can't break them or anything else you hit with them
They're inexpensive to drop compared to Tequila
You have an opportunity to involve the customer in the show Example: "Would you like a lime with that sir?" If he says "Yes", you've got his attention. If he says "No", try throwing it away (over your shoulder) and say, "I don't blame you, I hate limes myself!" Either way, you'll get a reaction, usually a smile. Behind the Back Toss (with right hand, catch in drink in left hand) Throw it straight up, letting go at about shoulder blade height, and it will come straight down. Create a cushion (not an impact) on landing or you'll get wet. Don't forget to squeeze the lime and rim the glass.

STRAWS
Straws are great for the same reasons garnishes are. The key to straws is to always be smooth and to be there waiting for it when it lands. Straws are also a great way to involve your customer in the show. When you include people in your fun, they will appreciate it. For example, when you have two or more drinks, here's a tip, tell your customer, "I need your help, watch this, you do the trick!, Then, you hold his hand in approximately the right position and say, "OK, now you catch it." Try one or two throws, which he'll probably miss, then say, "OK, one more try", and launch a hand full. it's guaranteed for a laugh and a good experience for the customer.

LEFT HAND TO RIGHT HAND CATCH (in front)
Hold between your thumb and index and middle fingers, approximately 1/4 of the way from the top. Try one big arc with only one rotation.

DRINK STACKING
This is so simple and people just go nuts when you do this. Even a 2 glass stack raises eyebrows and gives you the opportunity to say, "Come back and next time we'll do 3 drinks!" The glasses are everything (except a flat, sturdy bar). Libbey products work the best. You'll have to experiment a bit and obviously, the higher you go, the more risk you take. If you stick to 2 or 3 oz Glass Stacks, you should never drop them. Just make sure that nobody takes the middle one or just takes one drink. Be careful when you're dismantling them too. Extreme Bartending™ can become your competitive advantage, so practice a few moves, impress your customers and have fun!

Classic cocktail means........

What, exactly, is a cocktail? There's much speculation about the origin of the term and the drink, but I'm not going to delve into that here (for a good discussion, see the book Straight Up or On the Rocks by William Grimes.) In the second section I will give a general description of what constitutes a cocktail and discuss the structure of various types, but that can wait.

Whatever the definition, though, the cocktail was for most of its history a uniquely American phenomenon. It survived Prohibition (which actually served to stimulate the creativity of the drinkers of the day in constructing new cocktails) and the counterculture of the 60's. Now, with the recent resurgence of interest in cocktails, both old and new, many people are being introduced to them for the first time.

It's not always a smooth introduction. The sheer number of drinks, the intriguing but not always descriptive names, and the variety of ingredients combine to make the world of cocktails mystifying and impenetrable to many.

But that needn't be the case. Yes, it's true that there are way too many cocktails out there to sample in one healthy liver's lifetime, but take it from me, you can ignore most of them. There is no reason to drink or even taste a Sex on the Beach or a Slippery Nipple (a good rule of thumb: if the name is something that a 21-year-old girl thinks is racy, chances are it's not a very good drink).

What follows will, I hope, give you a foundation to begin making your own cocktails and some information that will make ordering cocktails less confusing. I'll start with the major ingredients, then turn to some theory and recipes, with a section of the logistics of throwing a cocktail party added for good measure.

Classic cocktail recipes

42nd Street

40 ml Bourbon
10 ml Grand Marnier
10 ml Cointreau
10 ml dry vermouth

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Decorate with lemon peel and a maraschino cherry.

Alexander

4 cl (1 shot) gin
2 cl (1/2 shot) white CrËme de Cacao
4-6 cl light cream

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker.
Strain into a cocktail glass.

Decorate with a cherry if you are feeling a bit swanky...

Cosmopolitan

2 parts (lemon infused) vodka
1 part Cointreau
2-3 parts cranberry juice
(squeezed lemon or lime)

Stir or shake with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.
Garnish with a slice of lemon.

Dry Martini

50 ml dry gin
10 ml Noilly Prat (dry vermouth)

Stir with ice.
Strain into a chilled martini glass (otherwhise referred to as a cocktail glass throghout this site).
Decorate with a green olive.

Mai Tai

20 ml Cointreau or Triple Sec
20 ml dark rum
20 ml white rum
10 ml Amaretto
20 ml squeezed lemon
1 dash lime
1 dash grenadine
syrup
pineapple juice

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass. Fill with pineapple juice.
Decorate with a slice of pineapple.

Mojito

60 ml white rhum
1-2 tbsp syrup
1/2 lime
a handful of fresh mint sprigs
club soda

Muddle the mint leaves with limejuice and syrup in a rocks glass.
Add white rhum and crushed ice.
Add a splash of club soda on the top.

Margarita

40 ml tequila
20 ml Cointreau
40 ml lime juice
salt
sugar

Shake and strain into a champagne saucer or large cocktail glass rimmed with salt.

sam organize

Cocktails: Make them the night before, in a beverage jar. Cowie suggests one made with vodka, fresh ginger, fresh lemon grass, jalapeno, pineapple. It's placed in the beverage jar for 8-24 hours. Once infused, you add the mixture over ice in a shaker, shake, and pour into a martini glass.

Recipe:

2 gallons of vodka
3 jalepenos sliced
4-5 inch piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 sticks of lemon grass sliced
1 whole pineapple, 1/4 slices

Put all ingredients into a beverage server and allow to infuse 8-24 hours

Fill cocktail shaker with ice and add beverage, shake and pour into a martini glass.

Garnish with slice of lemon grass and a wheel of jalepeno.

Appetizers: They can include:

Samoosas: a delicious triangular pastry shell filled with either meat or veggies; take them straight from freezer and fry in a bit of vegetable oil. You can keep these in the freezer; there's no defrosting involved before you prepare them.

Spiced Nuts: If you're serving a potent drink or two, it's always a welcome touch -- not to mention prudent and polite -- to provide cocktail munchies. Instead of the standard chips, dips, and salsas, why not try something a little more intriguing, such as tasty toasted nuts?

And, for an added color accent, you might garnish them with some beautiful little dried red chili peppers:

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1⁄ 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound macadamia nuts
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1⁄ 4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
10 to 12 whole dried small red chili peppers, for garnish (optional)

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the coriander, cumin, and cayenne. Set aside.
2. Place the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the peanuts, and toast them, stirring continually, until they are lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Dust the peanuts with the spices and toast for another 2 to 3 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper and then spread out to cool on a bed of paper towel. Once cool, place in a bowl and serve with the whole chili peppers as garnish.

Then add a cheese board and crusty bread and Marconia almonds. Cheese essentials include a chevre, a creamy, a hard, and a pungent cheese. Lay out with crackers and marconia almonds, which are very flavorful. my contact id :- sam4ur.sameer@gmail.com

BARTENDING - ONLINE DRINK & COCKTAIL RECIPES

Bartending means also to understand how to mix any kind of drink. Certainly, the online drink databases will help to gather the drink recipes about of almost every drink on earth:

• The Virtual Bar (Detailed)

• Comprehensive database of drink recipes

BARTENDING - TIPS, TUTORIALS & LAWS

To be the perfect bartender means to understand the whole bartending business and its environment. Below are some excellent sites covering every bartending detail you want to know about:

• Bartending Tips (Techniques)

• So Youwanna Mix A Few Classic Drinks? ("..We have selected a variety of classic drinks..")

• Bar Equipment ("..some examples of equipment that you should have in a complete home bar. However, the function of many of these items can be duplicated with standard kitchen equipment...")

• Comparison and Contrast of Bartending Web Sites ("..Bartending web sites are arguably the most informative technical documents on the Internet. In addition to having drink recipes, many web sites about bartending include how-to's and advice for beginning bartenders, descriptions of different types of spirits, and information about the styles of glassware that are used in the bartending trade.." - Review of two bartending sites)

• 'ACE' of taste - Bartending instructor turns out masters of mixed drinks ("..Penn State students drink smart. Cubby Bair, teacher of the ACE Bartending classes, shows them how..." - Article)

• Several excellent bartending sites

• Bartending schools throughout the nation & online courses

• Bartending Inside-Out - The Guide To Profession, Profit & Fun [$]

• State Alcohol Law ("..Under the 21st Amendment of the United States, the individual states have primary authority to regulate the distribution and use of alcoholic beverages. Each state has enacted statutes that govern the distribution, taxation, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages within that state, as well as provisions regarding criminal and civil liability for harms resulting from the consumption of alcohol. The state law materials listed here provide the actual texts of alcohol bills enacted in 1998, 1999, and 2000 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia..." - Detailed)

• General Alcohol FAQ's (Canada)

Tips and Quips From Mixologists

Even at the height of their popularity, members of the Rat Pack didn't drink Dom Perignon every night. But visitors to The Corner, a bar at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Mich., can-it's one of the few places in the world where you can order Dom by the glass.

Bartender Jody Haddad believes in giving his clients a little something out of the ordinary.

"Being a bartender means doing something different that people will remember," said Haddad, 25.

Doing something different helped Haddad win "the war of the pour" in a local bartending contest. Arriving in boxing gear, with the theme from Rocky playing in the background, Haddad went the distance by showing off some of the drinks he's created: the Split Decision, served in a double glass with a single stem, the TKO and a tropical drink called the South Paw-cific.

"My role is to make people happy," Haddad said. "If people aren't feeling entertained, they won't come back."

Haddad knows the recipes for 150 to 200 drinks, although most of his clients at The Corner prefer flavored martinis, mojitos and coffee drinks. For Haddad, however, being a bartender requires just as much personality as it does expertise.

"Part of the job is just being me," Haddad said with a laugh. "I can't help other people have fun if I'm not having fun. And I'm not doing my job if people aren't having fun."

Andy Cumpsty

Westin Dublin o Dublin, Ireland

Part chef, part mad scientist and all showman, Andy Cumpsty has kept customers at The Mint Bar at the Westin Dublin on the edge of their seats for the last 2 1/2 years. In a city better known for Guinness and Irish whiskey, who but Cumpsty could have convinced patrons to sample a martini featuring a smoked baby octopus at the bottom of the glass?

"I should have been a chef," said Cumpsty, 28. "I'm always trying to bring in new garnishes,
whether it's Bombay Sapphire with fresh rosemary and lime or mango spiced rum with mint. I want to show people the tastes they're missing."

Cumpsty honed his skills at theme restaurants like T.G.I. Friday's and The Fashion Café before
making a splash at Sound Republic, a London-based bar that served as the backdrop for Britain's
"Pepsi Chart Show." Since moving to Ireland, he has trained bartenders throughout the country,
including the Jameson Irish Whiskey staff, and has hosted a biweekly slot on "Ireland A.M."

Though he's already created 30 to 40 of his own cocktails, Cumpsty continues to travel the world searching for new flavors, new combinations and new drink-mixing techniques. He is constantly competing in bartending contests and says he plans to settle for nothing less than being recognized as the greatest bartender in the world.