I’m often asked to name the “Best Bar Team in America.” The ask is always the same, “just give us a little bit about the bar team and why they’re so good.” But these lists often miss what makes a great bar team: Community.
Community starts with your bartenders. You don’t have to be a craft bar to provide excellent service, but you do need to craft your team. Just as a drink is only as good as the ingredients and care with which is it prepared, your bar’s culture is only as strong as your hiring, training, and team communication.
Developing your bar community sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ve got to invest in your team. It comes down to three simple things: hire smart, train skills, and listen often.
Photo by Rose Callahan
Hire Smart. I didn’t have the luxury of hiring a team of experienced bartenders when I opened The Rainbow Room in 1987 because at that time, no one in New York had any experience doing what we wanted to do. This was the era of pre-bottled sour mixes and artificial ingredients galore. I didn’t want to spend time arguing with NYC bartenders set in their ways. Instead, I looked for the most communicative, friendly and quick-learning folks who could embrace a new way of bartending and creating beverages.
It took us three months to hire our 36-person opening staff. These were people who embodied critical hospitality skills: well-developed powers of observation, a deep understanding of human nature, an innate need to help, and an ability to work together with a team of like-minded individuals. Hire these kinds of people regardless of their prior experience, and you’ve got a great foundation.
Train Skills. Yes, bartenders need to know your menu and how to make each cocktail; that comes with time. They also need to know how to navigate delicate situations that can happen around alcohol and how to nudge someone toward the door in a way that doesn’t disrupt everyone in the room. Training your team to solve problems by consistently communicating with one another is the second step to building your bar community, and it’s one of the most challenging tasks for management. It’s not enough to assume your staff can navigate tough situations, these skills must be discussed and taught.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do all of the training yourself. Earlier this year, I sat in on a Safe Bar Training Conversation facilitated by The SAFE Bar Network. The SAFE Bar Network team have developed a comprehensive format that addresses the soft skills bar teams need to have: noticing and recognizing uncomfortable body language, identifying common types of awkward situations with guests and coworkers, and how to use hospitality to de-escalate and steer those uncomfortable situations back into a more positive experience for everyone involved. Moreover, they provide this training free to bars and restaurants – anyplace where alcohol is served.
Every bar should make the SAFE Bar Network Safe Bar Training Conversation a part of your team’s annual routine. Conversation is how community grows.
Listen Often. Even with extensive training before opening The Rainbow Room, it was the regular staff meetings after we opened that knit our 36 staff members into a well-functioning team. Those meetings were where we worked things out – shared experiences, aired frustrations, and solved problems together.
Giving your staff the opportunity to solve problems together behind the scenes prevents frustrations from bleeding out over the bar, which can quickly destroy a bar’s community. Use the momentum from bringing your staff together for the SAFE Bar Network training to keep conversations going with regular check-ins.
So, there you have it, an easy three-ingredient recipe to craft your bar’s community from the ground up: hire well, train with care, and keep the conversation going. You don’t need to be on a “Best Bar Team” list to know that your bar team is outstanding. Cocktails matter, but it’s your team that makes people come back. That’s how you build a bar—and a legacy.
The post Like a Great Cocktail, A Bar’s Community is Crafted: Three Ingredients to Build Your Team According to Dale DeGroff appeared first on Chilled Magazine.
Source: Mixology News
