Anybody here taken a bartending course?
 

I'm thinking of signing up so I can learn how to mix drinks. It costs around $150-$200 and it's four days (monday and thursday for two weeks) in total. After that you take a test and get your "bartending license".

Looks like fun. Anybody have a license?

I used to have a webdesigner that was a bartender on weekends.. Does that count?

A "bartending liscense" is just a frilly way of saying you know how to do the job. It's not actually a requirement anywhere that I know of.

I guess it's a good way for people who don't really know much beforehand to get into it.

Myself? I never got one. Beverages have always kinda been my thing, and I was waiting in line at the restaurant I worked at to become a bartender when I hit 18 (think you might have to be 21 now in most places). Did the job for 7-8 years after that... even competed in International Bartending tournaments... spinning/flipping bottles, balancing/pour tricks... stuff like that... and, for those times I wasn't in a committed relationship, I had a different woman on the roster every other week. Some of the best times of my life, for sure.

Just gotta get used to sleeping during the day, and staying up all night, if you take it up as more than a hobby.

If you're just doing it for the educational value, it's a great skill to have... one that I still use all the time, in many different ways... but there's so much more to learn than I'm sure any 4-day course could set you up with... still, if you don't know a jigger from a shaker, it could probably do you a lot of good.

Don't do it. Waste of money.

Take your TAPS certification which is 1,000,000 times more valuable (and included in most) bartender courses.

The license doesn't get you anything

But if you want to take it to learn how to make drinks go ahead

You could easily just watch some videos online and learn it faster

Oh ok, thanks guys.

Tranza, if the drinks he made for you were to your liking, it counts hehe :)

D, yeah I bet the lifestyle of a bartender can be pretty fun if one wants to indulge lol

I took it when i was about 20 .. I was planning to bartend and wanted to have some experience before going out for weekend jobs. I ended up not bartending till a few years later when a friend asked if i could work with him because his other guy needed off. I had a fucking blast and did it every weekend for about a year. I didn't need the money but the extra $400 a weekend didn't hurt plus i was drinking for free and hanging out with friends. I looked at it as a loophole for marriage ... lol I was aloud to go out and party every weekend with my boys and got no shit from the wife ..lol I ended up stopping because i was drinking too much . I was drunk 3-4 days a week and before that i drank maybe once a month. it was getting unhealthy .