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.

Paul Costanzo–Happily Bartending at age 60

Written on May 10, 2011 at 1:58 pm, by admin

A Stunning and Successful Career Change

Update–July 12, 2011. Two weeks ago Paul started his latest bartending job, at Seasons 52, the high end/restaurant/bar/wine bar just opened in Tysons Corner Mall.  Opening has been a huge success.  In a relatively short period Paul has progressed from student to bartender to “corporate bartender” which means he is getting corporate benefits on top of great tips.  You can read more about Paul on this article on bartenders in AARP Magazine

Unlike any previous endeavor, when Paul Costanzo started his new job  friends, relatives, old colleagues, and coworkers exploded with a chorus of comments including…
“I’ve always wanted to do that…”
“I wish I could do that…”
“I’d like to do that….”
and how did you do that??”

The “that” in this case is bartending and those comments are to be expected when you, like Paul, are over 60 and spent 38 years in one industry. Rising through the ranks in the private and public sector, he’s been stationed nationally and internationally, and ran a major planning office while being responsible for the productivity of 75 staffers.

So how did a lifelong white-collar professional with a strong track record and a glowing resume find himself slinging drinks and loving it? Enter the recession. Like many others, when the economy tanked Paul’s job opportunities dried up and he found himself out of work.

He quickly realized the recession severely limited opportunities in his chosen profession, and that geting even an entry level job in the industry was unlikely. Not one to lament the uncontrollable, Paul moved on. He focused on a skill he always liked…the above referenced “that”/bartending. (It appears many of his old friends have held similar thoughts.)  Paul researched the field of bartending and bartender training  and ended up calling our bartending school. He spoke with our admission staff as well as our full time placement director. For Paul the key was that we offer continued placement assistance long after graduation. With that knowledge in hand, he took the plunge and enrolled.

One very happy bartender

How is Bartending  BETTER

Its now 9 months after he first started and Paul loves being a bartender. He’s progressed from his first position as a daytime bartender and now works in a solid bar with strong bar revenues and great regular customers. When asked about comparing it to his old professional 9 to 5 (or6 or7 or 8PM grind) Paul said something like….

“I don’t go to bed worrying or thinking about my job, I don’t wake up worrying or thinking about my job. And I don’t put up with the complexities of corporate world nor do I have to be a boss.”

Paul regularly mediated on hot-button issues between powerful and opinionated people. He was in the middle of controversial topics all the time. It was financially and professionally rewarding. But a career like that has its price too.  It  wears on you and it had its impact on Paul.  Frankly, these days Paul enjoys bartending.

What was Bartending School Like

We provide a 40 hour program made up of 10 different 4 hour classes, each one primarily providing tremndous time and opportunity behind the bar in a hands-on environment.  Paul started class and quickly found he was the oldest student.  Not surprising.  But like any group environment he bonded with 3 other students.  Nine months later and he is still in touch with 2 of them.

Returning to school was unnerving.  Paul hadn’t spent extended time in a classroom in over 35 years:  however, bartending isn’t rocket science.  Like his fellow classmates, he proceeded through the entire program.  His hands-on efforts  included rotating behind the bar with his partners within the larger class:  sometimes he played the budding mixologist, other times the customer calling out requests for dirty martinis, sex on the beach and rum & cokes.  His main fear centered around making shooters.  Youk now those drinks with crazy names that 20′s and 30′s like to gulp down.  Needless to say, they were totally unfamiliar to Paul.    Nevertheless, Paul plowed thorugh the program, and like many students was nervous before the final exams.  Of course, he passed, albeit with more than one try than he would liked…but not unusual for our grads.

Well its been 9 months and Paul has only served two shooters. Neither of them were among the popular and well known shooters  we teach or describe. But Paul found that the overall instruction was priceless. Paul handled the drinks exactly how his instructor, Patrick, suggested.  By asking his guests questions it enabled Paul to make an appropriate drink. In both cases they were a big success.

After graduation Paul did one thing which was very clever and always available: he kept in touch with  his instructor, Patrick. Both he and Pat have enjoyed the process. It has helped Paul immeasurably as he worked his way through bartending experiences and Patrick was able to watch his guidance come to fruition.  Strangely very few students take advantage of our on-going support.  From Paul’s perspective in that except for a very few people bartending school is a necessity.

Finding that bartending job

Paul was not complacent. You probably gather that much by now. He quickly found a job on his own which included using guidance from our placement office about the specifics of a bartender job search.

His first bartending position was as a daytime bartender at a new suburban restaurant, Ford’s Fish Shack in Ashburn. In a very short time period this restaurant has become tremendously popular both for its food, service, and happy hour. But a day position like that is not the end of the road for most bartenders and certainly not for Paul. While it was a great way to get his feet wet in the industry, after a relatively quick 3.5 months Paul moved on. He quickly landed at a very solid restaurant/bar in Alexandria’s West End area in the Cameron Station neighborhood, Food Matters. Paul describes it as an organic specialty restaurant that serves as the Neighborhood Cheers. How is that for a unique description? Quickly Paul himself as their evening bartender going on for about 5 months. He is currently working in a bar and at a pace that reflects strong daily rings and consequently great tips. And that is all within the first 9 months. Fast work.

How does Paul characterize bartending and what advice does he have for others?  “Its fun and relatively easy”.  “You need a slightly thick skin.”  Just let the bar comments roll off your back, don’t worry about them, and come back the next day to serve those customers.  Very professional advice from a seasoned pro.

So what does Paul think about bartending and bartending school?

How did it help with his Career Change?

He states that bartending school is a necessity for most people. In Paul’s case it certainly worked out. Bartending so far has been a blast. He is relieved from the day to day headaches of an office job. Even as he has bar managers, managers and owners, Paul spends most of his time as his own boss. Customer service is the number one quality every bartender must possess and continually refine.   At his current bar the management is keenly aware of keeping their regulars happy, and when you get a sense of that Cheers-like environment Paul appears to meet those needs very well.

He loved the bartending classes, and specifically Patrick’s lessons. In fact he stated that it wasn’t as much the specific drink recipes that have stuck with him, but rather the “behind the scenes” comments about bartending and the real world of the business that were priceless and right on target. Whether in Maryland, DC, or Virginia, the instructors at this school know the industry.

Go Visit Food Matters

One of the chic things about Food Matters is that besides changing their menu monthly to work with the deliveries of organic food from local producers, they create a monthly cocktail that has been a big hit with the customers. Take April’s selection as an example of a creative tasty cocktail: The Bit Mo’ Honey/: tequila, Barejager Honey Liqueur, Koslsch Style Beer,Lemon, Honey, and Salted Rim. How is that for a creative cocktail? During March, to connect with St Patrick’s Day, the staff including Paul, designed a drink that included Jameson’s, vanilla and citrus vodka, with muddled ginger and ginger beer. It was very popular!!!  The restaurant is airy and attractive, there is plenty of parking and the combination of an “Everybody Knows Your Name” comfortable environment, with a wide selection of beers and wines, classic and artisan cocktails makes this an attractive bar/restaurant to visit!!

Bartender Stories

Written on March 28, 2011 at 4:03 pm, by admin

At some point everybody wants to be a bartender. Its fun. Its social. You can earn a lot of money. Everyone is smiling, laughing, having a great time, and you are at the center of it. Our school has trained and placed 10′s of thousands of grads over the decades. Some are owners of bars, restaurants, clubs, and caterers. Some are managers. Thousands are bartending now throughout the DMV.

Bartending is the Coolest job

Our grad Dante above   is having a great time while bartending at Ping Pong Dim Sum in China Town. This great picture, by photographer Ben Droz, from the very cool local nightlife website Brightest Young Things captures just how cool and how much fun bartending can be.

We are going to publish a variety of stories about bartenders throughout the region. They are our grads. They work in cool clubs, chic restaurants, in neighborhood joints, and hotels everywhere. Ask them questions. Stop by and visit them. Learn why bartending is so cool….and how as a customer you can get very fast service.

Our Bartending School Grads Got Over 100 Bartender Jobs in Oct. 2010

Written on November 16, 2010 at 5:39 pm, by admin

October 2010 was a record breaking month for The Professional Bartending School; Virginia/Maryland/Washington DC.   Over 100 grads landed bartending jobs in the region.   Additionally, one of the bars that has hired a lot of our graduates to bartend, Penn Quarter Sports Tavern was voted 2010 Best Bar DC in a poll of thousands of readers.   Last year The Penn Quarter Sports Tavern was 2009 Sports Bar of the Year.   Congrats on making the jump to best bar in the region.   We’re pleased we can provide you with staff that makes the bar so popular.

It was truly a great month for our graduates as they were hired for full-time, part-time, and for catering bartending gigs throughout the region.   They landed bartender positions in a great variety of bars, clubs, hotels, and restaurants.

In October we had graduates land bartending spots at hugely popular clubs including Muse, Reserve, Lima, Spot and the newest hottest club to hit the scene, Museum.     Clubs throughout DC and Maryland have been hiring our grads since the 1980 ’s.   We have provided more bartenders for more hot clubs in DC than any other source and continue to do so.   On the other side of the bartending coin we saw graduates land bartending positions at hotels, and exquisite restaurants.   During October grads started bartending at the Quill Bar at the ultra sophisticated Jefferson Hotel and the Crowne Plaza in Crystal City.   One grad started bartending at the popular Chop House in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, over 50 graduates landed catering bartending positions.   Conventions, parties and meetings create a huge demand for bartenders.   In fact almost 40 grads worked one huge 3-day convention at the DC convention center.   Meanwhile, grads worked parties and catered events from Sterling, VA to Bowie Maryland.

Bartending is a Great Way to Make Money

Our bartending school not only provides fast, fun, hands-on training but it also puts enormous energy into helping graduates get jobs.   It works.   Assisting over 100 grads land jobs within a month is not only a record but it helps graduates earn virtually instant payback from our school.

The Professional Bartending School is and remains the only bartending school in the region that backs up its marketing about job placement assistance by actually describing who gets jobs, where and when.   It ’s been a phenomenal 15 months since we first started doing this.   We redeveloped an already active job placement assistance program and now regularly assist over 20 grads every week in landing bartending work.

If you want to see if this program can work for you, call us at 703 841 9700 and arrange to visit.   You can see the classes, ask questions of instructors and staff, speak with existing students, and see the enormous lists of grads that have recently landed bartending positions throughout the region near where you live or work.

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