How to Bartend for a Party
Bartending for a party can be fun. You have a chance to make some money while serving drinks to party guests. The job isn't difficult if you have the key ingredients and liquors and a basic understanding of how to pour a drink.
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Instructions
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Go to the party location and figure out where you will set up the bar. The party host may already have a location in mind. Try setting up off to the side of where the guests will be, but in a central location so people can easily access drinks. You need a table or bar to put all of your liquor and bartending equipment, as well as a cooler for the wine and beer. Have somewhere for ice to put in the drinks.
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Cut up fruit. Cut up limes and lemons into slices. Open a jar of maraschino cherries. Other fruits are optional, and depend on the theme of the party. For a Hawaiian style party, try using slices of pineapple to garnish drinks. Be creative with the fruit selection if it's in the budget.
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Have the appropriate bartending equipment. You need a blender if you're going to make frozen drinks or frozen daiquiris. A mixing tin and strainer are essential for mixing drinks and making shooters. Get the necessary glassware, such as wine glasses, shot glasses and glasses for mixed drinks. Have plenty of ice for making shooters and for making mixed drinks.
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Have the essential liquors, plus a few more. You need the standard vodka, gin, rum, bourbon, whiskey, tequila and triple sec. Then have a schnapps and a few liqueurs. Ask the host more about your guests so you know what they will probably want to drink. An older, more distinguished crowd may want manhattans, whereas a younger crowd may want a sex on the beach. Manhattans call for sweet vermouth and bourbon whiskey, and a sex on the beach has melon and raspberry liqueurs. Look through a bartender's manual to see what liquors you'll need to make other favorite drinks.
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Get mixers for the drinks. Have soda, such as coke, sprite, tonic and club soda. Fruit juices should include cranberry, pineapple and orange juice, as well as some sour mix. If you will be making daiquiris, get some daiquiri mix.
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Pick a few beers and wines. Serve at least one imported beer, a light beer, a dark beer, and a domestic beer. Wines could include a chardonnay, a blush or zinfandel, and a red wine.
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Understand the basics of how to make a drink. If you have bartended before, you're set. If not, get some tips from a friend who bartends, take a class online or read a bartender's guide (see Resources below). Many drinks are simple to make, like a jack and coke. Jot down popular drink recipes to have on hand, and bring along a bartender's recipe book so you can look up drinks you don't know how to make.
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Tips & Warnings
The more you know about the guests' drinking preferences, the more prepared you will be.
Know how to determine when someone is intoxicated so you know when to cut a person off. You don't want someone to get obliterated and ruin the party, or drive and injure themselves or someone else.
Resources
- Photo Credit Christi Bowers, 2007
