By Naren Young, Beverage Director at Sweet Liberty in Miami. Follow Naren on Instagram at @forkandshaker
When people ask me what the secret is to creating a great bar, I’ve said this before many times and it really can’t be said enough: the devil is in the details. It’s the small things that 99% of people wouldn’t even consider (or consider not important enough to waste their time pursuing). Like, for instance, are the things out of a customer’s view a priority for you? Generally, they aren’t. The reason this is always on my mind is from a career built around working in, eating in, and therefore, being influenced and inspired by fine dining restaurants, where they have obsessively exacting standards.
And it is this level of excellence and respect for standards that I most admire and has set me on a similar path when developing bar programs, training bartenders and implementing a culture. To that end, I would recommend anyone starting out in this industry to seek out work in such rarified establishments (or in any decent restaurant really) or try to eat in them as often as you can afford. But more importantly when you’re in such a place, really take notice of what’s going on around you as it can be quite profound and even life-changing, in some cases.
“I encourage constant training and revision of whatever the most popular 50-100 cocktails are in your particular city and at all my bars over the years, this has been the very foundation for all other drinks. Without a grounding in the classics, you can’t, or shouldn’t, be attempting avant garde drinks that are poorly executed.”
One thing that such establishments manifest and actually practice better than anyone else is setting and maintaining an unwavering set of standards in everything they do that in time becomes intrinsic to their entire operation, in every job role, from the top to the bottom. Standards help ensure a certain level of professionalism, while it also promotes consistency and creates a culture of dedication, pride and responsibility that I find is lacking in just too many venues these days. Put simply, you just need to care. Sounds simple enough, right?
Standards can be anything from agreeing on how to serve a glass of water (yes, a glass of water) to how to reset a table in a timely and elegant manner to how to make a perfect Martini to how to clean down the bar properly at the end of the night. That’s why I’ve always promoted a philosophy of ‘5 star service, 1 star bar’, which is to reiterate that any bar in the world is capable of creating great experiences for their guests no matter the concept or location. You don’t need a big budget, any budget in fact, to be nice and care for people. But too often it’s the exception and not the rule.
One thing I should make clear about this overall message is that you don’t have to work in a 3 Michelin-starred restaurant to have these standards embedded in you. Sure, you have to learn them somewhere, but what I think is even more inspiring is when I see people practicing this level of excellence and attention to detail in a bar where you might not expect it, such as a neighborhood dive bar.
One of the keys is to focus on the basics. Do the little things well and don’t cut any corners. Once staff feel they can get away with taking an easier route and that there’s no accountability for continually doings incorrectly, then it threatens to affect the entire culture and morale of a venue. This culture should start on day one for any new employee when their job role and their expectations and the standards of the venue are made crystal clear.
I was always taught: “Do it right or do it again”. Oui chef!
One other area that every bar or restaurant should ensure it has a serious focus on and have well-documented and enforced standards is in the classics. I encourage constant training and revision of whatever the most popular 50-100 cocktails are in your particular city and at all my bars over the years, this has been the very foundation for all other drinks. Without a grounding in the classics, you can’t, or shouldn’t, be attempting avant garde drinks that are poorly executed.
At Sweet Liberty, like most bars I hope, we have a daily pre-shift ‘line up’ with all the staff where we make one signature drink from our menu as well as one classic drink every day, which is an easy way for the staff to learn about an iconic drink on a consistent basis and the knowledge and professionalism of the whole team has gone up exponentially since we started doing that and by extension, so have the standards.
On a basic human level, having standards and executing everything with excellence as a driving principle comes down to being mindful and actually thinking about every tiny thing you do at every opportunity over the course of your shift. Be thoughtful in all your movements, your body language and everything that you say (and how you say it). Look around, work with purpose and be aware of your environment and everyone in it. That, my friends, is hospitality and not just service. Two very different things.