Most notably was Omotenashi, which is the Japanese concept of hospitality that really moved me because you’re working in an environment where there is no tipping and you’re doing hospitality just out of your love for it and because it’s the right thing to do. I learned so much living and working in Japan and it was a tough challenge at times, but it really changed my outlook on what bartending is supposed to be about. I love being a bartender and operating in the Japanese food and beverage world because I feel like it’s my responsibility to be a careful ambassador of the culture. What is your favorite thing about being a bartender involved in Japanese culinary? I taught myself how to read Hiragana and Katakana before I went because I thought that would be helpful and it turned out to be very helpful. That was my first time in Asia, I never even visited Japan before and I had very little idea as to what I was getting myself into. We started in early 2014 and we finally finished at the end of 2014, around December. It took almost a year to finish the visa process. Little did we know how difficult it was actually going to be. I thought, “OK, why not, I’ll throw my name in the hat and see what happens.” Sure enough the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo contacted me and offered me the opportunity. My good friend posted a Facebook post in 2014 saying that he had an opportunity for somebody to potentially go to Japan to do a cultural bartending exchange at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo to teach about how we do things in New York and also learn how they do things in Japan. I wound up bartending in Japan through Facebook of all things. I decided to stop focusing on wine and switched entirely to bartending. I realized that they were doing what I read about in this book about a half decade ago. This was the very first year that they opened, so there weren’t many people doing this at the time. After my shift I would go these bars and see what they were doing. I realized then that all these things I learned in my book weren’t the real way that people were doing it.Īround 2006 I moved to NYC and started working as a wine director at a restaurant which was between Death and Company and PDT. I was confused that the bartender didn’t use powdered sugar or fresh lemon juice to make it. My first time going to an actual bar, I was 21 years old and I asked for a Tom Collins. There were no cocktail bars on the West Coast at that point, there were only a couple in New York. My girlfriend at the time helped build a bar in my basement and I spent a year learning how to make all these classic drinks, this was around 2001. I was vintage shopping one day and I came across a copy of William Boothby’s “Mixed Drinks”, an early 1910’s edition and I had set out to make all the drinks in the book. I got into bartending a long time ago, I was 21 years old and lived in rural Southwestern Washington State where there’s not a whole lot to do. Yet, there is something missing - the intuition, tasting and expertise of a good cocktail creator, and frankly, the drinks themselves lacked substance or class in both taste and appearance.įor a quick drink and a novel experience, however, these next-generation robots provide entertainment and flexibility, but it is not the same as fancy glasses, clever garnishes and perfectionism.How did you first get into bartending? (including going to Japan to work as a bartender)? While not as much fun as watching an experienced cocktail maker flip glasses and turn drink pouring into a performance, the robot's movements were quirky and fun to watch - and acquiring your drink took less time than a traditional, lengthy cocktail creation complete with elbows in your ribs and a fight to get to the front. The bar was calm, there was no need for a five-deep crush around the bartenders and the robots were a novelty. The first few days were difficult, the attendant said, but a common crowd began to form and eventually, "everyone teaches everyone how to use the machines," which lessens the burden on the single attendant to teach customers. The attendant, twenty-something years of age, said not only did they no longer have to park themselves behind the bar all night, but instead they were able to spend time with guests. I asked whether the attendant enjoyed working in such a novelty bar, and the answer was enthusiastic. The attendant in question walks the floor and supervises, making sure no programming errors or breakdowns occur - calling in the developer cavalry in these cases - and occasionally clambers across the serving station to pick up fallen plastic containers or helps customers in submitting their drink orders. While labor costs might be cut down by switching to robotics, the bar does need an attendant or two.
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