Bartending School: Bartending and Bartenders and the publics perception.

Bartending, The Bartender And The Public Eye
Bartending On A Pedestal

The public has two very different perceptions of bartending. On one hand, the bartender has always held an almost iconic role in North American Pop culture. They have been the shoulder to cry on – the fatherly bartender pouring shots of whiskey for the love sick.

Another image is that of the key master. The bartender holds the keys to a night of wild abandonment and sinful rights of passage. Getting beer before the big game, buying a drink for that special someone.

Removed form this is the portrayal of bartending as the only viable source of income for starving artists, aspiring movie stars and hopeful musicians. These incarnations of bartending and bartenders all - even in the most perverted sense – strike a positive cord in our hearts and minds.

The Dark Side Of Bartending

The flip side to all this is, of course, the not so positive iconoclastic associations that we have with bartenders. Often these are a little more subtle and harder to pinpoint but their effect is just as potent. Bartenders are the purveyors of all things illicit. They are often fleeting but think through some of your favorite bar scenes in movies; its surprising the number of times the bartender knows someone who has or can get just about anything contraband. The act of bartending puts you in touch with all sorts of sordid characters. They are drug dealers, pimps, fences for stolen goods and party people.

Ying And Yang Of Bartending

Taking both these character sketches in hand, it is impossible, as a bartender not to see the truth in each. I have known bartenders have encapsulated both the good and the bad. It would be a ignorant to assume the popular culture is rooted entirely in fantasy; popular images do come from at least a grain of truth. Bartending is about balancing these to ideals. Becoming a bartender allows you to don both the good and bad aspects bartending. The bartending mystic is definitely a draw to becoming a bartender.

Personality Vs Bartending

What is important, however, is to understand the bartenders are people. Like everyone else they take their personalities to work with them every day. Its their personality and not their occupation that lend themselves to the creation of these two diametrically opposed images of bartending.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a bartender, click the link below.

Bartender And Bartending Training

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