Steve Schneider kicks off the 2015 Bacardi Guest Bartending Series. Steve Schneider在中國啟動2015年百加得客座調酒系列活動。

Principal bartender at New York’s Employees only, star of documentary Hey Bartender! and cocktail-making speed king – Steve Schneider spells out how to tend bar like a champ. 紐約酒吧Employees only首席調酒師、紀錄片《你好!調酒師》的主人公和雞尾酒速調之王Steve Schneider告訴如何像冠軍一樣調酒。

1. 用眼神來交流。無論何時。

“頭保持抬起，與人做眼神交流蜒不管你是在擦吧臺、往杯中倒原料、還是在搖酒。讓客人知道你看見他們了，而且最好是他們一進門就看到了。如果你不忘記眼神交流，那即便他們要等，也知道不會被無視。一句‘先生，馬上就好’就能緩解焦急的等待，因為沒有比被人無視更氣人的事了。就好像去搭訕一個女生但她卻不理我，實在很有挫敗感。”

1. Use your eyes. All of the time. 

“Keep your head up and make eye contact with people – when you’re wiping the bar counter, when you’re pouring ingredients, when you’re shaking drinks. Let them know that you know they’re there, preferably as soon as they walk in through your door. Even if they have to wait, if you make eye contact, they know that you have seen them. ‘One second, sir’ – it goes a long way. You are making people feel comfortable, because there’s nothing more annoying than feeling like you’re being ignored. Like when I’m trying to talk to a young lady and she’s ignoring me. It’s frustrating.”

2. 學會快速調酒。

“不僅要用品嘗，還要用所有的感官去平衡雞尾酒。感受酒從瓶中離開時的流動，觀察酒在攪拌杯中的平衡，最后品嘗結果，相信自己。不要犯錯；要知道快速調酒并非易事，這也是為什么Employees Only是少數幾家還在堅持這么做的酒吧。把量杯裝滿后倒進調酒聽確實更方便，但從我十二年來的經驗來看，快速調酒技巧不但能增加互動，更重要的是能增加收入。作為一個團隊，我們去年制作了超過182000杯雞尾酒，還不包括高球、一口飲、啤酒和葡萄酒。兩個工作臺、三名調酒師、一年營業362天、每天十小時，這意味著酒吧營業時每四分鐘就調好一杯雞尾酒。可以說，通過扎實反復的訓練，你在半年到一年內就能很在行了。如果你在一年內把同一款雞尾酒調制15000次，那閉著眼也能完成。你的努力是值得的。”

2. Learn to speed pour. 

“Balance a cocktail not only by tasting, but by using all senses. You have to feel the flow of the liquid leaving the bottle. See the balance in the mixing glass. Taste your final product and believe in yourself. Make no mistake; this is no easy technique to master, which is why we at Employees Only are one of the only bars to use it. It’s a lot easier to just fill a measuring cup to the top and pour it in a tin. However, I’ve been making drinks like this for 12 years and this technique increases guest interaction and, most importantly, increases revenue. As a team, we made over 182,000 cocktails last year, not counting highballs, shots, beer, wine. With only two stations, three bartenders and being open 362 days a year, ten hours a day, that’s one cocktail every four minutes that we’re open. I’d say with steady practice and repetition, you can be good at it in six months to a year. If you make one of your cocktails over 15,000 times a year, you can make it with your eyes closed. The rewards are worth the hard work.”

3. 你和客人的關系不止于一次快速交易。

“我喜歡用積極的方式影響別人，無論對方是顧客還是調酒師。我最喜歡的一段插曲是曾經有對男女進了酒吧后對我說，他們倆在這個酒吧相遇，當時是我給他們調的酒，現在兩人結了婚，正在慶祝結婚紀念日。要成為他人生活中的一部分。即便只是很微小的一部分，也會讓你感覺很棒。這份工作是我對別人關愛的擴充，意義遠超過調酒本身。它會在你今后的人生中延續下去。試想我過了從事調酒師的年齡之后會發生什么？如果我經營一家酒吧，別人想為我工作是因為他們相信我、喜歡我。如果他們不喜歡你的話，又怎會愿意為你工作？”

3. Your relationship with a guest doesn’t end with a transaction. 

“I love affecting people in a positive way, whether it be other bartenders or a guest. My favourite was when two people came into the bar, a man and a woman, and they said they met at the bar, and I was their bartender, and now they’re married and they’re celebrating their anniversary. Be a part of people’s lives. Even if it’s a tiny part, it feels good. My work is my extension of my love for people. And that goes beyond bartending. That carries over into life. What happens when I’m too old to bartend? If I own a bar, people will want to work for me if they believe in me and if they like me. If they don’t like me, why would they work for me?”

Four drinks, two minutes, 64 dollars / 四杯酒、兩分鐘、64美金

4. 酒是為客人調的，不是為你自己。

我自己調的酒每杯都嘗過，真的是每一杯，包括我做的渾濁馬提尼。 但無論你的調酒技巧有多出色，總會有人要把你的渾濁馬天尼退掉，因為你做的不符合他的口味。所以我總是反復確認他們想要的。調酒不是為了看上去酷，而是為了能讓客人享受。這就是我的原則。舉止要像個冠軍、像個贏家、像個好的調酒師，酷的感覺自然就顯現出來了。別總想著炫技。”

4. The drink is for the customer, not you. 

“I taste all my drinks, every single one, even Dirty Martinis. Because no matter how good you are at making drinks, somebody always sends back a Dirty Martini, because you didn’t make it right. So I always double-check how they want it. I don’t try to make drinks for people so I can look cool; I make drinks so guests can enjoy themselves. That’s my mentality. Just handle yourself like a champ, like a winner, like a good bartender, and the coolness will come, I think. Don’t try to show off.”

5. 總的來說，要享受過程。

“開始工作前，我們會給彼此一個擁抱，再用我們當中一位調酒師的母語彼此問道，‘我們今晚會帶女孩回家嗎？’ 然后大家再來上幾輪菲奈特一口飲。“

5. Above all, enjoy yourself. 

“Before starting our shift, we always give each other a hug. And then we always ask each other, in one of our bartenders’ native languages, ‘Are we going to fuck something tonight?’ And then we do shots of Fernet.”

6. 如果你太較真，服務就會打折。

“這個行業有時候會過于認真。比如在2008年到2010年的紐約，當時的調酒師對人們喝什么愛小題大做，他們會說‘不，這才是你該喝的。趙可我就要這個。趙不，你得喝那個。’或者告訴你，‘這才是正確的攪拌方式，那才是對的搖酒方式。’一旦每個人都對調酒有所認識后，就成了‘讓我們重新變得有趣起來吧！’好像得先設下標準，人們才敢放開手腳。差不多在2011年的時候有了改觀，也正是那時候我們贏得了世界最佳雞尾酒吧的稱號蜒一家充滿樂趣的酒吧終于贏了一個嚴肅的大獎。其實，每有一家太較真的酒吧，我就能舉出五家不較真的酒吧，而且是五家優秀的酒吧。我寧愿去一家酒不好但服務出色的酒吧。畢竟還有瓶裝啤酒可選。”

6. If you take the job too seriously, service will suffer. 

“The industry gets a bit too serious sometimes. That’s what happened in New York. There was a time back in 2008, 2009, even 2010, when bartenders were very serious about what people drank: ‘No, this is what you have to drink’. ‘But I want this’. ‘No, you drink that’. Or: ‘This is how you stir, this is how you shake’. But once everybody started to understand how to make drinks, it was: ‘Now let’s have some fun again’. There had to be a standard that was set before everybody could loosen up. People loosened up around 2011 and that’s when we won world’s best cocktail bar – the fun bar finally won the serious award. So for every bar that’s too serious, I’ll give you five now that aren’t. I’ll give you five that are great. I’ve been to bars where the drinks were great but the service was terrible. I’d rather go to a bar with bad drinks and great service. And there’s always bottled beer.”

7. 別把客人當學生。

“調酒師能接觸到很多信息，關于不同的酒品、不同的調酒方式。有時候信息太多，以至于他們會忘記顧客了解的并沒有他們多，就會對顧客有些不耐煩。所以你要退一步想，好的酒能把人吸引來，但只有賓至如歸的感覺才能招攬回頭客。”

7. Don’t act the teacher with your guests. 

“There’s so much information available for bartenders. They can read about so many different products, about how things are made. They can almost get too much information, and then they forget the guests don’t really know as much about it, so they can get a little impatient towards guests. But you have to take a step back and realise that great drinks can get people in the door, but how you make them feel, that’s what keeps them coming back.”

Steve Schneider: Heavyweight title-holder / 重量級調酒師

8. 也別裝出功成名就的樣子。就算你確實很有名。

“我只是個平凡人。我只是一名調酒師，和那些給我幫助的人一樣。我永遠不會覺得自己高人一等。那不是我做事的態度。走進門別人都樂于見到你確實令人開心。它是一種難以形容的感覺，可以說是謙卑感吧。但到最后，從晚上六點工作到早上四點的我回到家不是什么搖滾明星，而是那個準備下次為你服務的人。這是我的信條。我以前工作時喝的比較多，現在只有在輪班快結束時才會真正開始喝。因為當各地的客人慕名前來Employees Only時，他們想見到的是電影里的我，不是一個醉醺醺的我。”

8. Don’t act famous, either. Even when you’re famous. 

“I’m just a regular dude. I’m just a bartender, just like the people that are helping me. I don’t put myself above anybody, never ever. That’s not what I’m about. Yes, it’s been cool to see people genuinely happy when I walk into a room. That’s a feeling I can’t really describe. Humbling, to say the least. But at the end of the day, come 6pm to 4am, I’m back at home, I’m not a rock star, I’m ready to be at service for you. I back it up. I used to drink more at work, now I don’t really drink till later on. When people come from all over, and they want to go to Employees Only because they’ve seen me in the movie, I’ll be damned if I was all drunk when they got here.”

9. 別做自己不想做的事。

“當我因為頭部創傷在醫院里進行各種康復治療的時候，覺得自己可憐極了，非常郁悶。我腦袋里放了三塊鈦板，大腦受了輕微損傷。因為我不想呆在那兒，所以一切都顯得杳然無望。假如你身不由己，你就無法發揮能力。調酒、記住價格和配方、用雙手工作繕我覺得它幫助了我痊愈。我第一次做了自己熱愛的事，借此遠離了之前的種種問題。所以，我希望所有的調酒師都問問自己，‘我想從這份工作中獲得什么？我想為品牌工作，還是想擁有自己的酒吧？我現在調酒，是為了之后能做音樂人嗎？’現在不知道自己的職業規劃沒關系，但越早明白就越能更早設定目標。與此同時，你還得保持紀律性，享受自己正在做的事。做一個好員工。結識想為你工作的人。建立好與他人的關系，你就能走的很遠。”

9. Don’t put yourself where you don’t want to be. 

“When I had my head injury, I was in a hospital doing all sorts of rehabilitation. I was feeling sorry for myself, I was just depressed. I had three plates in my head. I was a bit damaged in the brain. Nothing was working because I didn’t want to be there. If you don’t want to be there, you’re not going to perform. But when I was making drinks, memorising prices and recipes, working with my hands, I think that it helped me heal. I was doing something that I loved for the first time. And it took me away from all the other problems I had. So I want bartenders to ask themselves, ‘What do I want out of my job? Do I want to work for a brand, do I want to own my own bar, do I want to be in music, and just in bartending for now?’ It’s OK if you don’t know yet what you want to do in this career, but the sooner you find out, then you can start setting goals for yourself. In the meantime, you’ve got to be disciplined, but you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing while you’re doing it. And be a good worker to people. Have people that want to work with you. If you have good bond with people, you can get really far in life.”