Rituals of bartenders last shift

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Every Bar is different whilst some bars you leave with kisses hugs & handshakes, others have more elaborate cultural rituals.

These rituals develop over time depending on the make up of the bar team, they can make some owners & food & beverage managers cringe whilst also being great for team spirit. In a way teaching the valued staff in your bar that they do not want to leave ha ha.

It is important when reading this article to understand that in the wrong bar the last night staff trashing can be a negative.

So now for a few stories!

At a famous bar in Sydney named the Marble Bar at the Hilton Sydney it was my last night, I was leaving to go on an adventure around Europe the bar staff had invited my sisters, my dad & friends along. It all started pretty tame with the band inviting me on stage to sing a couple of song.

It all finished with me being gaffer taped to the bar floor whilst the team pour countless horrible substances over me, I can still remember my drunk Father yelling out do you want me to defend you son. Well it was all in good fun, although the blue stain on my legs lasted several weeks.

The next story is when I left the Livingroom Islington in London, I was moving to the Livingroom Birmingham & was the first person of the Islington Livingrooms opening team to leave. The fact that I lived with most of the bar staff meant I knew I was going to cop it, in fact several members of the household had told me with big smiley faces. So about 2 hours into my shift I decided to at least stir the pot & systematically started getting each member of bar team with things like the old chocolate sauce down the back & juice in the pocket. I can tell you that not one patron left the bar, as the war that continued over the course of the evening was watch & enjoyed by ever patron.

Unfortunately in a team consisting of mainly English bartenders at one point all the patrons started singing kill the convict. It was pretty funny we even had a company director drive down from Liverpool when he heard about the wild scenes & loved it. Finally the night ended with me being totally trashed & coated in a layer of cream, mango & strawberry puree.

The down side was the bar took a long time to clean that night.

The moral of this article is that a bar is unlike any other culture & to have the best staff moral sometimes you have to look outside the square.

It is important to note that both these stories are from very high speed bars with a big emphasis on fun placed by the management, they would not work in a Boutique upmarket cocktail bar where the trend tends to be to go for a few drinks at the completion of the shift.

Also if trashing staff always use goods that are to be tossed out at the end of the shift, remember if the boss can’t pay the bills you may not have a job for long.