It’s been three years since I’ve been behind a bar (in a professional capacity) and even longer since I waited tables, so I woke up remembering all the basic things that I would tell people when I was training them. Simple stuff. Memory is essential in fine dining, as people want personal, or impersonal and efficient, service. On a busy night you need to have a system in place to help you and it’s all about the numbers. Every table will have its own name and section number, which you will need to memorize before the first shift.

From there I recommend always taking orders in a clockwise direction starting with the person who is physically closest to the main entrance of the room you are working in. Get your orders in asap – don’t go to the next table. This is especially true in places that use computer networks with touch screens as the cooks come to rely on that machine for their timing and there is far less room for adjustment.

Write the specials on the back of your ordering pad, but memorize them as fast as you can – being sure to append sun dried or wasabi roasted where appropriate and make sure you have a favorite. Good recommendations can be key to boosting your tip. The specials are like catechism versus, but be careful not to cant them too fast as rote is less than appetizing and many of your older clients are reading your lips. Always beware the fish special, it’s often past its prime. If the price seems too low it probably is for a reason – this is true for all specials.

Is there some loss of pride putting my degrees on a shelf and going back to the service sector? Sure there is. That’s life, life is long, it’ll all work out, get over it. Nuff said?

Bartending is about ears and radar – also a memory game. Learn the names and drinks of your regulars from go. A person comes back to a bar where they feel known, as that is in part what they are looking for. As for the drinks themselves there are really only about thirty basic drinks and at least half of them tell you what they are – as in a gin and tonic or seven and seven or crown and coke – this is of course less true now in the cocktail renaissance, but in a certain sense martinis are replacing shots so you’re just shifting your knowledge base and doing a longer pour into a chilled glass. People will always order jager shots, tequila shots, sex on the beach, slippery nipples, kamikazes, dead nazis, etc. Recipes for some of these shots vary by region so make sure you know the local variation.

In fine dining bars you get to play the matching game. Make sure you use the right glass for the right drink. This is mostly a no-brainer as Collins drinks go in Collins glasses, as do tequila sunsets. Most drinks go in rocks glasses. Single malts have shifted to the snifter. If someone is having a single malt on the rocks, always save their ice, or at least ask. The Nuevo Riche may prefer fresh ice on principle in the same way that they prefer to live in soulless subdivisions of Wal-Mart style easy bake oven mansions. Best bet is to ask.

In any bar the first lesson of bartending is the pour. You must fully invert the stoppered bottle for a three second count to rapidly get the shot- shot and a half – into the glass. New bartenders are always afraid to invert the bottle. One of the best ways to conquer fear in any area of life is to be at the thing you are afraid of, moving towards it as directly and rapidly as possible. In the crucible of the drinking life, fear is Scylla and doubt is Charybdis. Confidence, even faking it till you make it, will get you through.