The Mythos of bartending

I thought it apt that the first of my posts be something that was part of my life for 5 years.  Its often glamourised by media, and sounds like the coolest proffession to some people.  Yup, I was a barman.

Contrary to popular belief, bartending is not the same as being a barman.  Let me break down the words for you so that you can better understand the difference:

• Bar - tending: The process of tending to the bar and its customers
• Bar - man: The occupation or manning of a bar

Basically; Bartending is the care of all your customer, trying your utmost to make them feel at home and comfortable.  Listening to the custome is as much a part of the job as what pouring drinks are.  Barmaning on the other hand, is about servicing (not helping, as that includes some of the above aspects) as many customer as possible.

Some may wonder why I chose to be a barman and not a bartender (as it is a choice, and I've known a few bartenders, as rare as they are).  To be frank, I didn't know there was a differnce in the beginning.  It took a manga called Bartender to make me see the difference (not that it changed anything).  As a student, one of your main concerns will always be money.  This meant I needed to help as many people as fast as possible in order to make maximum tips.  Naturally  service suffers when you do speed. 

Another reason would be the location.  It's alot easier to be a bartender when you have few customers, when the place is higher class, and people actually want a bartender and not a barman.  Hatfield.  Many exciting and laughable stories started with "and we went to hatfield". People in hatfield are there for one reason only: to drink as much as possible in as short a time as possible.

So ask yourself; would you be able to be a bartender when everyone around you is drunk, when they think you are only there to give them drinks as fast as possible, when people think that because you are in the service industry they can do what they want and speak to you how they want?  Or would you; like me, be a barman.