The shape of a real night
New bartenders study cocktails because cocktails are the interesting part. Then they work a Friday and discover that four hours of it was beer, shots, and vodka sodas.
The exact mix depends entirely on the venue — a cocktail bar and a sports bar are different jobs wearing the same title — but almost everywhere, the volume sits in this order:
- Beer. Draft and bottle. No technique beyond a clean pour and knowing your taps.
- Wine. By the glass, usually a house red, house white, something sparkling, and a handful of named bottles.
- Shots. Straight pours and three or four mixed shots.
- Highballs. Spirit plus a mixer over ice. Vodka soda, gin and tonic, whiskey and Coke, rum and Coke, tequila soda, screwdriver.
- The classics. Margarita, Old Fashioned, Martini, Manhattan, Negroni, Espresso Martini, whatever the house is known for.
- Everything else. Frozen drinks, tiki, the thing someone had on holiday.