Bartending school enrollment jumps

Hip-hop music plays in the background. A handful of people sit on bar stools. Some are making small talk while others wait for drinks to be made.  The mood feels relaxed and the lights are dimmed. This might seem just like any other bar on a Friday night. But this is a classroom.

Students learn their lessons behind a long, wooden bar table.  They practice mixing drinks with margarita and cocktail glasses and  pour from bottles that appear to be filled with the likes of whiskey and rum, but in reality are filled with colored water.  Some use flash cards to keep up with all the drinks they have to memorize, others ask fellow students to quiz them.

Students at the Professional Bartending School in Arlington, Va. are just like the thousands of other students across the country returning to the classroom in the bad economy.  They are trying to learn a new skill in hopes of improving their financial situation.

Bartending student Sherri Barmore is among them. “With my mortgage going up, taxes going up, not being able to find any relief through my mortgage company to modify my current loan, I pretty much don’t have any other choice but to [go to school,]” Barmore said.  Barmore added that she looks at bartending as "cushion money" to get her nails and hair done or go out to a restaurant.

Sherri Barmore is using flashcards to practice for her speed test. The test consists of making 12 drinks in 7 minutes. Photo by Claritza Jimenez, American Observer

Barmore said she has been considering bartending professionally for two to three years now. She enjoys the bar scene, calls herself a frequent drinker and is known to take on the bartending duties when she entertains friends at her house.

But her decision to become a “pro” at bartending was more of a financial one than indulging a hobby. Barmore said she hopes to make at least $200 a night in her first gig out of bartending school. “I’m told during the summertime is slower … people on vacation … so you may not make as much … in the wintertime it picks up because you have football season. But it’s more than what I have coming in now as far as cushion money. It’s something. Something is better than nothing right now,” Barmore said.

The manager of the Professional Bartending School, Crystal Guess, said she has seen a 20 percent increase in enrollment in the past year.  “I think the reason we are doing so well is because the restaurant industry thrives in whatever economic climate. When people are upset they go out, when people are sad they go out,” Guess said. 

Guess hears similar stories from many of her students: “It’s mostly just got laid off…a lot of the times the husband gets laid off and the woman who has been a full-time mom needs to find a job.”

But Guess said she’s recently noticed a change in why students are signing up to be bartenders at her school. “Right now I am mostly seeing the ‘I want to supplement my income’ crowd.” Guess described late 2007 and all of 2008 as “just brutal.”  Guess remembered “Almost everyday somebody was in my office … I lost my job … I am getting laid off. And recently, within the last 6 to 8 months it’s mostly been I have a job and I want to supplement the income. I am going to school and I want to supplement the income. So, I don’t know if what I am seeing is the economy getting better or what? I’m not too sure.”

Guess also teaches at the bartending school. The 40-hour program can be stretched over a two-week period. Tuition rates vary, but Guess said it is less than $1,000. Students learn how to make the industry standard drinks.  But Guess believes what bartending school teaches goes beyond knowing how to make a Cosmo.  According to Guess, students “are picking up a skill for life, a very portable skill, you can take the skill anywhere.”

Josh Cardin is about to find out if that’s true. Cardin is on his last day of bartending school. He is practicing for his speed test, which he needs to pass before graduating. The speed tests consists of making 12 drinks in seven minutes with only three mistakes allowed.

Cardin used to work at a grocery store and decided bartending would be a better way to make ends meet.  “The economy was actually a factor considering it’s hard to get a job at anything else being young and not really having a lot of experience,” Cardin said.

21-year-old Josh Cardin says the trick to making money as a bartender is having agile hands. Photo by Claritza Jimenez, American Observer

Cardin is confident he will line up a job as soon as he passes his speed test. “I know I am going to be good behind the bar. I know I am a people person. I can talk to anyone. The main thing is, yeah I will be [making more money] because going from grocery store to this … is like $80 a night to $200 a night, probably more.”

Despite his enthusiasm, Cardin might want to be more realistic about his earning potential. Bartending school manager and instructor, Crystal Guess, said how much a bartender makes on a given night can very greatly.  “On a slow night you could make $80 to $90. On a good night you could make $300. It just depends. A new bartender could get lucky at their first job and make anywhere from $150 to $300 a night. Maybe more, maybe less.”

Guess said the true test for her bartending students happens when they walk out the classroom.     

“We can paint the picture at the school, but the true skill comes out when they get a job.  Sometimes experience is the best instructor. We can only do so much,” Guess said.