26 Degrees in the Shade . . .

Teach Me to Prepare a Great Gin and Tonic?

Start With a Sparklingly Clean Glass

First you must use a clean class. Personally when I am served a drink in a dirty glass, I usually ask for a clean glass, drink my gin and tonic and then never patronize that bar or restaurant again. When you go out to drink you expect to be served in a totally professional manner.

Pouring out a drink in a bar is an art which has to be learned.

Important!

Always pour the drink out in front of the customer. If the customer is at the bar, then place a clean glass in front of them, so that they can see exactly what you are giving them.

Place the ice bucket next to the glass and using tongs, with accomplished movements at arms length, drop three or four ice cubes, one at a time into the glass in quick succession. (You have to practice loading the ice cubes and pouring out a drink to develop this stylish technique. Just go into an expensive wine bar or hotel and watch how a professional waiter or bartender does it and you can learn that way.)
Anyone can do it but you do have to practice first. When you’ve had a bit of practice you’ll be able to drop the ice cubes into the glass from a bit of a height and clients just love to see you do that.

Once you’ve done the ice, the next step is to take a plate, which has slices of lemon bathed in water neatly arranged on it and using the tongs, drop two pieces of lemon into the glass.

Now take the bottle of gin, which must be a good brand, (never give customers a cheap gin. If you do they won’t come back.) Hold the bottle close to the customer, so that they can easily see the label.

(Your hand should grip the bottle around the middle of its body and neither your fingers or your thumb should obscure the make of the product you are serving). When you start to pour the bottle neck should be an inch or two above the top of the glass and during pouring with practice you will be able to lift the bottle up to 12 inches above the glass creating a stylish and spectacular effect.

You finish the pouring at this height, twisting the bottle and tilting it upwards, with a movement of your wrist to make sure that the drips from the bottle land in the glass and not on the bar.

The measure in an English bar in Spain is about 6cms, when there is ice in the glass.

Lastly place the bottle of tonic, which must be cold next to the customers glass. You may tip just a touch of tonic into the glass if you wish. You will get to know the individual likes and dislikes of your regular clients as you go

Some important don’ts:

Never touch the glass anywhere near it’s neck for simple reasons of hygiene and if you’ve overdone the measure, just leave it, never go back and mess around with the customers drink once it has been served.

Good Luck!

Bar Restaurant Party An Intimate Affair

Following my last post which offered advice about how to put on a good Christmas party for your regular clients; I would now like to talk briefly about how you could build your party into a more intimate occasion, with a clubby feel about it, involving some of your most stalwart regulars,

After a full year of trading you will have developed quite strong bonds with some of your regular clients and you’ll find that some of them will be really keen to get involved in helping organise your party. These regulars will want the party to be pretty much exclusive and they’ll want to help you create that all important “clubby” atmosphere.

One way they’ll want to contribute is by bringing in Christmas decorations, prior to the party and helping to put them up.

The second way in which they’ll want to get involved is by making their favourite dishes to bring along to the party. You should really encourage clients to do this, as they will surprise you with their expertise in this area.

Whatever regional speciality a client can cook and bring along will really add to your party’s success, whilst allowing your client to feel a sense of both pride in their creation and also to really feel part of the inner sanctum of your bar and restaurant business. In the photo, you can see Seared Jumbo Scallops, wrapped in Pancetta, which was brought in by our regular customer, Dori.

People love to feel that they belong to their regular favourite drinking place.

Lastly! Don’t expect any help with the clearing up. You should have paid workers ready to do that, but I will admit that at our bar, we do have wonderful people who do muck-in and help with a lot of the clearing up, whilst both the waitresses and I do most of the washing up.