Editorial
Learning how to become a bartender is a question that gets vague answers on most of the internet and almost none from people who have actually done it. We have spent time speaking with working bartenders across New York, London, and Chicago about how they got started, what they wish they had known, and which establishments genuinely invest in developing talent from scratch. Here is what they told us.
The path into bartending is not linear, and no serious hiring manager at a top bar cares about your certificate from a three-day cocktail school as much as the school would like you to believe. What matters is floor time, mentorship, and the willingness to be wrong in front of people. These are the bars and programmes where the training is actually worth something.
London operates differently from New York. The pub tradition means there are more entry-level floor positions available, and the path from pub work to cocktail bar is well-worn. These are the London establishments with genuine track records for developing bartending talent.
Most guides about how to become a bartender focus on learning cocktail recipes and bottle knowledge. That matters, but it is not what separates the people who last in this industry from those who burn out in two years. The best bartenders develop a different set of skills — speed, memory management, emotional regulation under pressure, and the ability to read a room instantly.
The fastest path to a bartending career is not a course — it is getting a floor job at a bar you respect and making yourself impossible to ignore. Start as a barback if you have to. Work brunch if that is what gets you in the room. The bars above have produced some of the best working bartenders in the world, and they all have one thing in common: they hired people with genuine curiosity and patience, then built skill on top of that.
Certificate programmes have their place — for someone with no hospitality background at all, a one-week intensive will teach you the basics of technique and give you something to show at interview. But no serious head bartender at the bars on this list will shortlist someone solely on the basis of a course completion. Spend your money on good spirits to practice with at home, and spend your time getting floor hours at the best bar that will take you.
James has been covering bar culture in New York and London since 2012. He has interviewed more than 200 working bartenders and has strong opinions about which ones are actually worth listening to.