Professional Bartending School

Age to Bartend MD, DC, VA

Written on February 22, 2012 at 2:05 pm, by admin

Who knows more about the age to bartend in Maryland, DC, and Virginia than the bartending school that helps more graduates land bartending jobs in the DMV than all other sources combined. During 2010 our grads landed about 1200 bartending jobs. From May 2011 through January 2012 grads consistently landed about or more than 100 bartending jobs per month. The process continues. We work with graduates from all age.

Here is some hard information.

Age to Bartend in Virginia and Washington DC

In Virginia and Washington DC the minimum age to bartend is 21. The rules are specific. There is no ambiguity.

Age to Bartend in Maryland

Maryland is one of the very few states in the country that has mixed rules by local jurisdiction. Through most of the state one can bartend at age 18, but in some local jurisdictions you have to be 21. Even within some counties the rules are different with regard to type of establishment.

For instance while in most of the state you can bartend at age 18, throughout Baltimore County one has to be 21 or older to bartend. Howard County also presents different rules. One can bartend in restaurants at age 18 and above. In Howard County in class D taverns though, a bartender needs to be 21 or older. In Southern Maryland in Charles and St. Mary’s counties bartenders need to be 21. Closer and adjacent to Washington DC in both Montgomery and Prince Georges County it is legal to bartend at 18 and above. Frederick and Washington Counties are similar: It is legal to bartend at 18 and above.

Landing that bartending job

Our bartending school includes a full time job placement director. We direct contact thousands of bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels, country clubs, caterers and other bartender employers throughout the DMV and specifically within reach of the greater Washington DC metropolitan region. We have placed thousands of grads in bartending jobs and can provide leads and excellent advice and assistance in landing bartending jobs throughout the region and regardless of age. Contact us or visit the school to learn more how we can assist you.

Holiday Jobs DC Maryland Virginia

Written on October 30, 2011 at 10:39 am, by admin

Late November and all December we get requests for hundreds of bartenders. We have fulfilled these staffing requirements for decades. Its easily one of the best holiday jobs available.  Once  your bartending skills are down you have opportunities to work parties, special events, with caterers, through us, on your own or with a group all year long. Its an incredible skill.  Its fun and you can earn several thousand dollars every year.

The peak for party bartending occurs from the last week of November through the December Christmas season. For the past couple of decades every single year we get requests for bartenders to staff parties. During the first three weeks of December these requests run into the hundreds.

Its an astonishing opportunity for people who want to pick up a part time skill, have fun, meet people, make contacts, and of course make a lot of money. Nothing could be better.  Call our Bartending School at 703-841 9700 to take advantage of these opportunies.

We feed you endless opportunities to earn money

You earn all the money.  We aren’t an employment agency.  We don’t earn fees for getting you jobs.  When we hook you up for a party or a catering opportunity you earn every cent.  We are basically putting money in your pockets.  Its really simple.  If you are savvy and work well with us, you can set up a continuous stream of income.

We give you an outline on how to assist the hosts of private parties.  We train you in all the drinks that are popular in any kind of event.  We have helped bartenders craft special theme drinks for themed holiday parties.  We set you up to work and act like a pro…even if its your first time out.   Once you have mastered the skills behind the bar to make popular drinks its actually quite easy.  Again and again our graduates tell us the vast majority of these events are lots of fun.

We get a lot of feedback from hosts.  We’re happy to promote our grads and help them get additional bartending work.  In fact when getting testimonials we will promote our grads just as a sister bartending school in pittsburgh promoted this grad with the rave testimonial she received.  Hey it isn’t difficult to be great.  That was Jen’s FIRST PARTY!!!

A Party/Catering Bartender Star

Over many years Kerli personifies the kind of person who has a lot of fun with catering/party bartending, makes a lot of money, and meets a lot of people some of whom with which she is still in touch.   Additionally Kerli just plain enjoys the parties and bartending.  We interviewed Kerli about catering bartending.  Here is some background plus questions and answers:

Kerli took our class in the late 1990′s.  At the time she was in college and working two jobs.  She first learned about catering bartending opportunities from our instructor.  It opened up a lot of doors:

Question:  How did you get into party and event bartending?

Answer: I learned about party and event bartending from the instructor.  I jumped on that bandwagon and ran with it.  I love the variety of events…I have done parties of different cultures and tried different foods.

Question:  Why did you decide to get into bartending?

Answer: I was people watching at the bar one day…and noticed how much fun the bartender was having…and how much meny he was making…then a light bulb flashed above my head…since I loved partying so much…I should be behind the bar…

Fortunately for Kerli and us she found the Professional Bartending School

A star at work

Question:  Did you work with caterers, on your own, with other bartenders?

Answer: All of the above.  I get jobs from caterers, friends, clients obtained from facebook and craigslist, bartenders, DJ’s, and promoters

Kerli can’t tell us how many events she has worked in total…but when the opportunity arises …she is there.   We know that.  We have scheduled Kerli to work endless events over many years.  Here is why.  She is reliable and clients love her.  Never an issue/ we often get tremendous feedback from the hosts.

Kerli has held down a full time day job for years.  In all that time she has continued to bartend part-time including all of those events plus at several bars and clubs in DC and Maryland.

Question:  List some of the best parts of this job and work?

Answer: I love the party scene.  I love music and meeting new people…and the extra income is a major bonus.

Bartending has allowed me to earn extra money to afford the things I want and need.  When I first started bartending my goals were to pay off my car and purchase a townhouse.  Bartending allowed me to meet my goals a lot quicker.

Kerli continues to bartend.  She markets herself on Craigslist and facebook as Curly Que. We love her. If events come up she is always on our list to contact. Hosts are lucky if she works their event. They are getting a real pro!!

December Bartending–Tis the Season!!

Our manager Brett (the very happy dude in the middle ) is a graduate of the school and an experienced bartender.  Among other places he bartended at a significant hotel in Montgomery County and a major country club where he became the bar manager.  His experiences are similar to our placement director, Fatima, who before taking our class and becoming Placement Director, worked events for a major hotel chain for several years, first in Florida and more recently in DC.

Every year starting with the last week of November, events dominate all the time.  The hotels and private clubs host continuous parties.  Bartenders have the opportunity to work all the time and make bank….week after week.  Its  a gold mine.  As manager, Brett found that former bartenders at the club would call all the time, working to get on the November/December schedule.  It was golden.

We spoke with the Director and hiring manager for the staffing company that staffs for the largest caterer in DC, MD, and Va Ridgewells. They are extraordinarily busy right now. He described the difference between 2009 in the midst of the recession and 2011. In October this year in 2011 they had more “big events” during that month…then during the entire 2009. And they are still scheduling events. Its an absolutely great time for parties and events…and a great time to be a bartender.

Holiday Bartending–Its a great job for students

Geoffrey is a student at U Maryland College Park.  He took our bartending class this past spring, landed a bartending position at Manor Country Club through our placement program and has additionally landed a private party through our placement program.  He is an ideal candidate for holiday parties.  He is on our call list for events.  You could be also!!

Graduates Landed Over 430 bartender jobs from June to September!!

Written on September 20, 2011 at 5:34 pm, by admin

Professional Bartending School grads landed over 430 bartending jobs from June through September this year, a new record. No other source in Washington DC, Maryland, or Virginia helps as many people land bartender jobs as our school. We are going to get into just how we help so many graduates land jobs through our long running school, but first lets look at some details about where graduates landed work.  In fact, if you wish to see a list of every graduate who landed work these past few months arrange to visit us. You can review the entire list of 430 from June to September plus over 80 so far during October. Real Names, Real Places, Real Dates. Call us at (703) 841 9700 to arrange a visit.

Washington DC Bartending Jobs

During this 4 month period our grads were hired 135 times by bars, restaurants, clubs, and hotels in Washington DC.  Thirty of those hires could be found in the popular U Street and Adams Morgan areas, two of the hubs for nightlife in the entire DMV.   Tabaq, Sutra, and Timehri are bars that not only hired our grads this past summer season, but have been hiring our grads for years.

But 135 grads being hired means that our grads found bartending work all over the city and in all kinds of establishments.  The popular Langston’s in Northeast, Murphy’s, the long running Irish bar in Woodley Park, Kellari, the elegant seafood restaurant in downtown, and the new Kitty O’Shea’s on Upper Wisconsin all hired graduates this summer.   Lets never forget DC’s popular clubs such as K Street Lounge, Love, and Park at 14th, all hired grads this summer, just as they have hired our grads for years.

Bartending Jobs in Maryland and Virginia

Just under 120 grads landed full and part time positions as bartenders in Virginia and Maryland these past 4 months.  Along with DC that means that every day over the past four months a bar, hotel, club, restaurant, bowling alley, pool hall, or lounge hired two of our grads.  Some of the hiring bars and hotels are repeat users of our placement service, and have been in contact with us for years. Others were totally new.

In Maryland, the popular 50 year old Rinaldi’s Bowling Alley in Riverdale hired Kisha, who is not only bartending on Wednesday’s Saturday’s and Sundays, but has been training other bartenders and upgrading the active bar.  Meanwhile, the upscale Peachez Cafe and Lounge in Upper Marlboro hired one of our grads as they have done in the past, as did Uncle Julio’s in Gaithersburg,  Patrick’s Irish Pub in Frederick, and WOW Wingery in Waldorf.

In Virginia, we saw Graduates hired this summer at Chics and Wings in Tysons, at Summers Sports Bar in Arlington, and the Hyatt Regency in Reston, the long running Thursday’s Sports Bar in Gainesville, and elsewhere.

Parties, Events Catering

Our graduates landed about 200 bartending jobs over these last few months working parties, events, concerts, catered affairs, sporting events, and every kind of opportunity you can think of.  Major event staffing this summer included about 25 graduates bartending at the US Open golf tournament.  Most of them worked up to one entire week during this national tournament, with our placement office connecting them with two different caterers staffing different aspects of this enormous event.

Our grads have staffed countless concerts held at both FedEx field in Maryland and RFK stadium in DC.  Additionally a lot of grads landed bartending gigs over the summer working Nats baseball games at RFK and Redskin football games at FedEx.  Historically, bartenders throughout the region have competed for some of the premier bartending spots at FexEx when the Redskins play.   Finally, covering major events, we have had several caterers use our grads continuously at a slew of events held at the Convention Center, again with a number of them lasting several days.

On top of the major catered events our Placement office regularly directly staffs bartenders for parties and events throughout the region.   We directly placed well over 80 grads to bartend at parties throughout the region staffing events from Baltimore in the North, Davidsonville in the East, in Waldorf in Southern Maryland, all over DC and in the close in Suburbs, and as far South as Richmond, in Virginia.  These included weddings, engagements, retirement parties and every kind of event imaginable.

We have been so successful in helping grads land event and bartending gigs, that some have reported earning an extra $1,000 per month or more, simply picking up extra events on a consistent basis

How do So Many People Get Bartending Jobs

There are no mysteries to the unmatched volume of bartender jobs our grads land.  We are the only bartending school in the region that invests in a full time placement director.  Every month for the last 4 months our Placement Director Fatima has sent and received over 1,000 emails and IM’s between employers and grads.  That is on top of speaking with employers and graduates, meeting individually and in groups with grads, reviewing bartending resumes, giving advice and encouragement to graduates, filtering grads for employers with special requests, and filling in on other positions with the school.  Fatima is busy.

But that isn’t all.  Our entire staff assists with placement.  Each of us are connected with certain employers and opportunities and provides them to Fatima or occasionally handles them directly.  Some of our contacts are essentially two decades old.  We have been providing staff to the largest Club operator in DC, Mark Barnes since at least the early 1990′s and continue to do so on a regular basis.

But that isn’t all!!  We have a huge contact base of old grads who consistently provide us with new leads.  These range from graduates that own bars, restaurants, and clubs, to managers at bars, to the staff themselves.  As the longest running and largest bartending school in the DC region, we have more graduates working in the industry within the DC area than all other sources combined.  Its a big reason why we have been able to consistently generate leads for years.

But that isn’t all!!   We are convenient to employers.  They come to our school to meet and screen graduates.  We are located one mile outside DC(Georgetown), with ample free parking and most importantly are right on Metro.  Employers find that we are both convenient and practical for finding graduates to cover the greater DC region.  Over the years, throughout this past summer, and into the fall employers have arranged to visit the school and meet and see graduates.  Its an opportunity no other source of bartenders can provide.

That still isn’t everything!!!     We keep contacting employers all the time.  Throughout the summer and for months we have been contacting employers.  Bars that have hired our grads in the past, and new employers.  A good number of the specific job leads that graduates saw this summer came from all new employers using our placement service for the first time.

And yes there is still more….but if you really want to find out how we help more graduates land bartending positions than any other source you should visit.  The classes are dynamic, the atmosphere is active and fun and you can see a precise list of every grad who lands work, where the job is, and when it occurred.  Real people, real places, real dates.

Become a Bartender in Maryland, DC, or Virginia

Written on June 14, 2011 at 9:36 pm, by admin

In the last 6 weeks our grads landed over 120 bartending jobs throughout Maryland, DC, and Virginia.  No other service or source has ever come close to matching this performance.  We have been helping Professional Bartending School grads hook up bartending positions in the DMV for over 40 years.  In fact, we’ve been helping grads land these bartender jobs long long before the region was popularly known as the DMV!!  It’s been an extraordinarily successful 6 week period during which people took our 40 hour program and quickly landed positions and started earning money.

Tahira at Qdoba Reagan Airport

As the Sports Newscasters Often Say……Lets go to the highlights!!!!

A number of our grads picked up bartending jobs at some of the regions best known bars, clubs and hotels including, busy J Pauls in Georgetown, popular LOVE Nightclub, the well known Hanger Club in Camp Springs, Sutra in Adams Morgan, Nicks, the popular Country Western bar in Alexandria, TGI Friday’s in Tysons,  the esteemed Park Hyatt Hotel in DC and the long term casual and popular Proud Mary’s in Fort Washington, MD.   Quite a number of those popular places have hired dozens of our grads over the years.

David at Uno's at Union Station DC

It’s also been party time throughout the region.  Graduation, Weddings and special events were abundant this spring and we are the recipients of tons of calls from hosts looking for bartenders to staff their parties and make their guests feel welcome.  Many of these calls were from pleased hosts who had used our services in the past.  During these past 6 weeks we arranged for our grads to bartend at parties in Maryland in Baltimore, Frederick, Potomac, Fort Washington, Germantown, Clinton, and Bethesda.  A number of our grads bartended special party events in DC.   In Virginia you could find our grads at events in Richmond, Woodbridge, Leesburg, Springfield, Mclean, Arlington, Great Falls, Ashburn, Alexandria, Haymarket, Manasses, and Annandale.  No matter where you are from in the greater and expanded DMV, we can probably help you find bartending work.

Lets not forget the large event venues.  They are extremely familiar with our bartending school and often call us with bartender staffing requirements.  Fed Ex field, the DC Convention Center and two different employers handling staffing for the US Open at Congressional Country Club all hired a lot of our grads in the past few weeks.

Allen at the Holiday Inn, Alexandria VA

A Couple of Nifty Accomplishments

Enough with pure facts, figures and statistics.  Here are a couple of neat little accomplishments from some of our grads.  Yadira, who has a job with the government took our Saturday program over a five week period.  Once finished she came to our Placement office after work on June 7th, got a lead directly from our full time Placement Director, Fatima, and landed that bartending job the very next day!!!   Whoa!!!  Now that is fast!!!!

Meanwhile we got this feedback from Cate a graduate from this past Winter.  Cate had a lot of food and beverage experience over the years and has a great personality.  After finishing the school she got leads from our Placement office, hooked up a bartending job or two, honed her skills, and then ran into a bar manager that she knew from before.  He hired her on the spot.  Now she is one of the lead bartenders at the very popular Auld Shebeen Irish Pub in Fairfax.  Cate works the regular Irish bar during the week and the very popular basement club on the weekends.  Reportedly she is making very BIG BUCKS and that is only after a few months of experience.  Congratulations Cate!!!

Tamika at the DC Convention Center

Mojito Season

Written on May 16, 2011 at 5:30 pm, by admin

Got Mint?

This time of year often means different things to different people. Tax day has come and gone. The cherry blossoms are waning. For some, the coming of summer means skinterns and rooftop bars, for others sundresses and espadrilles, and for an unlucky few months of shellacking yet another coat of antiperspirant mid-afternoon. However, for most bartenders in the area it means one thing: Mojito Season. Ask any bartender and they’ll tell you the mojito is the reigning champ of “Most Hated Drink to Make” — Time consuming, labor intensive, and, goddamnit, popular.

Mouth Watering Mojito

Customers Love them–Bartenders Dread them

There may be other drinks out there that register more disdain when ordered than a mojito, but few that elicit that audible groan from the man behind the stick. Few that will cause bartenders to lie to their guests at 11:30pm “Oh, I wish I could…I’m all out of mint” as the Tupperware overflows with vibrant, green, pre-picked leaves just out of sight. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of winter the mojito season is upon us once again.

Strangely enough, for a drink that no bartender ever claims to love to make each and every one seems to have very strong opinions on how it should be made. Like chili or barbeque for Texans, telling a fellow bartender how they should make a mojito is akin to pissing in their grandma’s grapenuts. With that said, go find grandma…

Mojito mixology–details, details, details

Perhaps you have no idea what I’m talking about. Perhaps you don’t care about mojitos. Perhaps you don’t think you have an opinion or care about the drink at all…oh but you do. For example: what glass does it go in? Rocks? Collins? Pint? How much mint? How much lime? Can you use lime juice? Or must it be whole slices? What kind of sweetener is appropriate? Should you use granulated sugar or simple syrup? What kind of sugar? White? Brown? Splenda? Turbinado? Can you use a mint syrup and exclude the mint leaves all together? Is it muddled? Or can you just shake it all together and let the ice bruise the lime and mint? Then what kind of rum? Light? Dark? Gold? Spiced? What about a rhum agricole? Then do you top it with club soda or is lemon lime soda acceptable? Garnish? Chances are you went through that litany of questions picked out your methodology and thought “duh!” Any other option elicited a “What fucking idiot would do that!”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can answer that makes a good mojito, we should probably examine what a mojito is and is not. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done.

It’s generally agreed upon that a mojito is a combination of lime, mint, sweetener, r(h)um and sometimes but not always carbonation. However after that people can’t agree on much else.

The Muddled History of Mojitos

The mojito has its roots in Cuba (or at least the Caribbean). Originally called El Draque, it dates back to the 1500s. Maybe you could consider El Draque the great, great, granpappy of the mojito. A crude precursor of rum was combined with lime, sugar, and mint to mask the harsh flavors from poor alcohol production methods. It was served without ice or carbonation. Hardly a mojito by today’s standards but maybe the Cro-Magnon man to our Homo Sapien. From there it was refined and redefined as ice and carbonated beverages became accessible in the mid 1800s. Although, that’s all a little too linear for my tastes. It’s doubtful that someone woke up one morning with a eureka moment: “Aha! I shall call it a mojito.” I mean, similar drinks already existed. Some could argue that the mojito is the love child (or missing link) between a mint julep and a caipirinha. Or maybe it’s a rum smash with some citrus? Or a daiquiri with some mint? Shockingly, original mint julip recipes called for rum—it’s not a far leap to put a splash of lime in there as well. While the history of the mojito (and I can’t resist) is muddled, it’s safe to say wherever it comes from it’s been around for quite a while.

So why does it feel like it just arrived on the scene? A little more than a decade ago it was on nary a cocktail list (although, to be fair, a little more than a decade ago few bars had a cocktail list). Nevertheless, it’s now one of the holy triad of bar school drinks: cosmos, mojitos, lemondrops oh my! It’s hard to say exactly why. Call it the slow food (err…slow drink) movement; maybe it was the shift to fresh ingredients in drinks in the mid 90’s. The sheer amount of time it has been with us lends itself to evolution and re-definition which explains why there are so many interpretations as to what this drink really is—and, consequently, why it’s difficult to pin down it’s lineage. Regardless of where the mojito comes from or why it found its way back into the barroom, one thing is clear: the mojito is back and in a big way. So let’s roll up our sleeves, play nice, and figure out how to make the mojito work for us.

The Nitty Gritty for REAL bartenders!!

Before we begin, we’ve really got to get a couple things straight. In my book, these are deal breakers. But let me explain:

1) The mojito should be served in a tall glass. Collins, pint, take your pick, but far too many bars and bartenders have taken to serving this drink in a rocks glass. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why. Both bars and bartenders are under constant pressure from guests to “Make it strong” while trying to maintain a healthy profit margin. Answer? Put it in a smaller glass. Unfortunately, there is too much stuff/garbage (mint, lime, sugar, rum, ice, soda) in this drink for a rocks glass to handle. The other aspect to keep in mind is the point of the drink: it’s a summertime cooler. Period. Sure, some order it in the dead of winter just to remember what color, freshness, and life look like…but the drink’s real purpose is avoid that third application of deodorant when the thermostat tops 104°. Point being: make it tall or go home.

2) And I apologize, but the mojito is a muddled drink. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but at the end of the day this drink needs to be muddled.

Muddle, muddle, muddle

I’m not saying that the recently released Bacardi Mojito Mixer, or mint and lime that’s been macerated in rum, or even shaking the rum, limes, mint, and ice together hoping the ice will bruise it sufficiently doesn’t have its place (usually on keg buses, at large house parties, and when the bartender is just plain lazy/ doesn’t like you). Nevertheless, muddling this drink brings a sort of je ne no sais quoi to the equation. Muddling not only extracts the juice of the lime but also the essential oils stored in the skin (when we think of the flavor of citrus fruits 95% is concentrated in the peel). Muddling breaks the cellular walls in the mint releasing all that minty goodness. Moreover,

when this drink is muddled it’s as if the consumer can actually taste the bartender’s love (okay, that sounds gross…passion?…even worse…effort?…better but not by much). It’s as if the pain, sweat, tears, and hatred of making this drink is translated into the final product. So once again, I apologize, but it’s got to be muddled. Suck it up.

Drum Roll—the Best Mojito!!

With those basic tenants in place we headed to our bartending school test kitchen (READ: my kitchen) and experimented with countless recipes and variations (no, really, we even tried a Rose’s Lime Juice, Crème de Menthe and rum concoction that one bartender swore worked—not surprisingly it didn’t) and put the most successful outcomes out to be judged by a panel (READ: fellow alcoholics) in a blind taste test.

By popular vote, the winner is:

Approximately 8 mint leaves (mint leaf sizes vary but we found that a three finger pinch usually provided us with around 8 leaves. So it’s not like you have to count them out or anything. But make sure it’s just the leaf…the stalks of mint are bitter and if they make it in the glass you’ll have a bitter drink. The general idea is you want the drink minty but you don’t want your guests chewing the drink)

About a half a lime quartered (once again, lime sizes and their level of citrus vary from lime to lime, but a half of a lime quartered and hopefully at room temp)

1 Teaspoon of superfine turbinado sugar (turbinado sugar AKA “sugar in the raw” does not come in superfine so put the sugar in a food processer (a coffee grinder works well or even a plastic bag and a hammer would work) because you’ll need smaller “grains”. Sugar does not readily dissolve in cold liquids and the bulkier grains of turbinado sugar ultimately makes for a pretty gritty drink. Spend some prep-time to pre-grind the sugar so the final product doesn’t come out a crunchy mess.)

Muddle (now, there are lots of ways to muddle, but basically push down and twist and repeat and repeat. You’ll want to muddle this until the skin of the lime starts to rip off the meat a bit. Try not to shred the mint. Putting the lime and sugar on top of the mint should help prevent that.

Add ice and Rum (as for the rum it’s a personal taste issue; however, the vegetal notes of a rhum agricole work nicely. We used a 4 year Barbancourt from Haiti.)

DC’s Best Non-Mojito Mojito!!

This was the Mojito people seemed to like the most. Full Disclosure: no one could explain “why” they liked this one the best, they just did. My best guess is the combination of the rhum and the turbinado sugar (while slightly affecting the color) gives the drink a certain deliciousness that people can’t necessarily verbalize but all the same find appealing.

Admittedly, this is a pretty classical approach to a mojito with maybe a twist or two (the sugar thing worked out great, but I’ll cop to the lemon-lime soda being a bit douchy). However, in our research and experimentation (READ: boozing) we were exposed to some interesting and inventive variations. While I tend to be a bit of a purest when it comes to drinks, by far the best non-mojito mojito was found at Cedar in Chinatown (822 E ST, NW, Washington DC). Christened the “Dirty Mojito” by bar manager Matt Perkins; it’s similar to a mojito but instead it combines lemon, mint, honey, and Irish Whiskey. Anyone who thinks “whiskey tastes nasty” will be turned out by this badass mash-up. Next time you’re in Chinatown check it out. Trust me.

What I like about Matt’s “Dirty Mojito” and the mojito in general is that it’s a sneaky drink for both the customer and the bartender. For as trite as it may be at this point, the mojito acts like a gateway drink into the world of classic cocktails. This drink requires the bartender to employ some advanced techniques, equipment, and fresh ingredients. As for the customers, it gets them away from the standard vodka & tonic (if only for a round or two), and it gets them to try something perhaps outside of their comfort zone. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Now I need a drink.

« Older Entries