Steve Schneider kicks off the 2015 Bacardi Guest Bartending Series. Steve Schneider在中国启动2015年百加得客座调酒系列活动。

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. 纽约酒吧Employees only首席调酒师、纪录片《你好!调酒师》的主人公和鸡尾酒速调之王Steve Schneider告诉如何像冠军一样调酒。

1. 用眼神来交流。无论何时。

“头保持抬起，与人做眼神交流蜒不管你是在擦吧台、往杯中倒原料、还是在摇酒。让客人知道你看见他们了，而且最好是他们一进门就看到了。如果你不忘记眼神交流，那即便他们要等，也知道不会被无视。一句‘先生，马上就好’就能缓解焦急的等待，因为没有比被人无视更气人的事了。就好像去搭讪一个女生但她却不理我，实在很有挫败感。”

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. 学会快速调酒。

“不仅要用品尝，还要用所有的感官去平衡鸡尾酒。感受酒从瓶中离开时的流动，观察酒在搅拌杯中的平衡，最后品尝结果，相信自己。不要犯错；要知道快速调酒并非易事，这也是为什么Employees Only是少数几家还在坚持这么做的酒吧。把量杯装满后倒进调酒听确实更方便，但从我十二年来的经验来看，快速调酒技巧不但能增加互动，更重要的是能增加收入。作为一个团队，我们去年制作了超过182000杯鸡尾酒，还不包括高球、一口饮、啤酒和葡萄酒。两个工作台、三名调酒师、一年营业362天、每天十小时，这意味着酒吧营业时每四分钟就调好一杯鸡尾酒。可以说，通过扎实反复的训练，你在半年到一年内就能很在行了。如果你在一年内把同一款鸡尾酒调制15000次，那闭着眼也能完成。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. 你和客人的关系不止于一次快速交易。

“我喜欢用积极的方式影响别人，无论对方是顾客还是调酒师。我最喜欢的一段插曲是曾经有对男女进了酒吧后对我说，他们俩在这个酒吧相遇，当时是我给他们调的酒，现在两人结了婚，正在庆祝结婚纪念日。要成为他人生活中的一部分。即便只是很微小的一部分，也会让你感觉很棒。这份工作是我对别人关爱的扩充，意义远超过调酒本身。它会在你今后的人生中延续下去。试想我过了从事调酒师的年龄之后会发生什么？如果我经营一家酒吧，别人想为我工作是因为他们相信我、喜欢我。如果他们不喜欢你的话，又怎会愿意为你工作？”

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、两分钟、64美金

4. 酒是为客人调的，不是为你自己。

我自己调的酒每杯都尝过，真的是每一杯，包括我做的浑浊马提尼。 但无论你的调酒技巧有多出色，总会有人要把你的浑浊马天尼退掉，因为你做的不符合他的口味。所以我总是反复确认他们想要的。调酒不是为了看上去酷，而是为了能让客人享受。这就是我的原则。举止要像个冠军、像个赢家、像个好的调酒师，酷的感觉自然就显现出来了。别总想着炫技。”

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. 总的来说，要享受过程。

“开始工作前，我们会给彼此一个拥抱，再用我们当中一位调酒师的母语彼此问道，‘我们今晚会带女孩回家吗？’ 然后大家再来上几轮菲奈特一口饮。“

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. 如果你太较真，服务就会打折。

“这个行业有时候会过于认真。比如在2008年到2010年的纽约，当时的调酒师对人们喝什么爱小题大做，他们会说‘不，这才是你该喝的。赵可我就要这个。赵不，你得喝那个。’或者告诉你，‘这才是正确的搅拌方式，那才是对的摇酒方式。’一旦每个人都对调酒有所认识后，就成了‘让我们重新变得有趣起来吧！’好像得先设下标准，人们才敢放开手脚。差不多在2011年的时候有了改观，也正是那时候我们赢得了世界最佳鸡尾酒吧的称号蜒一家充满乐趣的酒吧终于赢了一个严肃的大奖。其实，每有一家太较真的酒吧，我就能举出五家不较真的酒吧，而且是五家优秀的酒吧。我宁愿去一家酒不好但服务出色的酒吧。毕竟还有瓶装啤酒可选。”

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. 别把客人当学生。

“调酒师能接触到很多信息，关于不同的酒品、不同的调酒方式。有时候信息太多，以至于他们会忘记顾客了解的并没有他们多，就会对顾客有些不耐烦。所以你要退一步想，好的酒能把人吸引来，但只有宾至如归的感觉才能招揽回头客。”

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 / 重量级调酒师

8. 也别装出功成名就的样子。就算你确实很有名。

“我只是个平凡人。我只是一名调酒师，和那些给我帮助的人一样。我永远不会觉得自己高人一等。那不是我做事的态度。走进门别人都乐于见到你确实令人开心。它是一种难以形容的感觉，可以说是谦卑感吧。但到最后，从晚上六点工作到早上四点的我回到家不是什么摇滚明星，而是那个准备下次为你服务的人。这是我的信条。我以前工作时喝的比较多，现在只有在轮班快结束时才会真正开始喝。因为当各地的客人慕名前来Employees Only时，他们想见到的是电影里的我，不是一个醉醺醺的我。”

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. 别做自己不想做的事。

“当我因为头部创伤在医院里进行各种康复治疗的时候，觉得自己可怜极了，非常郁闷。我脑袋里放了三块钛板，大脑受了轻微损伤。因为我不想呆在那儿，所以一切都显得杳然无望。假如你身不由己，你就无法发挥能力。调酒、记住价格和配方、用双手工作缮我觉得它帮助了我痊愈。我第一次做了自己热爱的事，借此远离了之前的种种问题。所以，我希望所有的调酒师都问问自己，‘我想从这份工作中获得什么？我想为品牌工作，还是想拥有自己的酒吧？我现在调酒，是为了之后能做音乐人吗？’现在不知道自己的职业规划没关系，但越早明白就越能更早设定目标。与此同时，你还得保持纪律性，享受自己正在做的事。做一个好员工。结识想为你工作的人。建立好与他人的关系，你就能走的很远。”

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.”