Bartending & Beverage Service

Bar layout, equipment, glass types and opening a bar from cold.

Covered

• Bar layout and the speed rail
• Glassware types and handling
• Ice: types, handling, and why it is an ingredient
• Tools: jigger, shaker, strainer, muddler, bar spoon
• Opening checklist
• Hygiene and glass washing

Practical: Open a bar from cold against the opening checklist, timed.

Accuracy, and why it is the single biggest lever on bar profit.

Covered

• The standard measure and house policy
• Jigger technique
• Free-pour counting
• Over-pour: the arithmetic
• Spillage, breakage and how they are recorded
• Why "a bit extra for a good customer" is theft

Practical: Pour test: 20 pours measured against a jigger. Then a timed service round using the jigger.

The volume categories: storing, serving and selling them properly.

Covered

• Beer styles and the Nigerian market
• Draught: lines, gas, head and cleaning
• Bottled beer service and temperature
• Wine: red, white, rosé, sparkling; serving temperature
• Opening and presenting a bottle
• Soft drinks, mixers and stock rotation

Practical: Serve six beers and two wines to standard under observation, including presenting and opening a bottle at a table.

The spirit categories and the cocktails every bartender is expected to know.

Covered

• Vodka, gin, rum, whisky, brandy, tequila
• Liqueurs and bitters
• Build, stir, shake, layer
• Ten classics: what goes in and why
• Balance: sweet, sour, strong, weak
• Garnishes that earn their place

Practical: Build all ten classics to spec, blind-tasted by an assessor.

Handling a crowded bar without losing accuracy or your temper.

Covered

• Reading a queue and serving in order
• Batching similar drinks
• The POS: ringing in before pouring
• Remembering orders and when to write them down
• Working with waiters
• Keeping the bar clean while busy

Practical: Simulated rush: 25 drinks across 10 orders in 20 minutes, with an assessor playing awkward customers.

The legal and human duty that comes with serving alcohol.

Covered

• Signs of intoxication
• Refusing service: the script and the follow-through
• Underage service and ID
• Drink spiking: prevention and response
• Guests who need help getting home
• Your own liability

Practical: Role-play refusals: a drunk regular, an aggressive stranger, and a group buying for someone underage.

Handling money so the till balances and you are never under suspicion.

Covered

• Counting the opening float
• Cash handling: the note stays out until change is given
• Card and transfer payments
• Voids, comps and refunds — and who may authorise them
• Closing: counting down and declaring
• Variance: what is normal and what is not

Practical: Run a full till: open with a float, take 30 mixed transactions, close and declare.

Ordering, receiving, counting and reconciling — the commercial core of bar work.

Covered

• Par levels and ordering
• Receiving a delivery and checking it against the invoice
• Counting: full bottles, part bottles, kegs
• Sales-to-stock reconciliation
• Where variance comes from
• Requisitions from the main store
• Recording waste, breakage and comps

Practical: Full bar stock count and reconciliation against a week of sales. Identify and explain every variance over 2%.

Product knowledge as a service and a sales skill.

Covered

• Learning the menu properly
• Tasting notes in plain language
• Reading what a guest actually wants
• Upselling: the honest kind
• Food pairing basics
• Handling "what do you recommend?"

Practical: Blind menu test, then a service round where every guest asks for a recommendation.

Keeping a bar safe for the people drinking in it and working in it.

Covered

• Glass washing and sanitising
• Ice hygiene
• Broken glass procedure
• Gas cylinders and cellar safety
• Slips, lifting and cuts
• Licensing duties and permitted hours
• Fire and evacuation from a busy bar

Practical: Hygiene audit of a working bar. Broken-glass drill. Supervised cellar and gas check.

The end of a shift, done so the next person starts from a known position.

Covered

• The closing checklist
• Counting stock at handover
• Declaring the till
• Recording waste and breakage
• Writing the handover: specific and factual
• Accepting a bar from someone else
• Disputing a handover properly

Practical: Close a bar completely and submit a full handover in the system, including stock count and till declaration.

Stepping up to running a shift, and the assessment that certifies you.

Covered

• Running a shift: staffing, prep, flow
• Training somebody new
• Managing a difficult night
• Reading your own numbers: variance, spend per head, waste
• Your record and what managers ask about
• Interviews and the hire-ready register

Practical: Run a full simulated shift as the bartender in charge, with a trainee to supervise.