Here are excerpts
from some of the articles written about Tony Sylvester's bartending
schools, job training and employment placement services
from 1977 to the present.
Impress
your guests, or find
a new career, behind the bar By Jennifer Olvera
When
it comes to throwing a bash, it’s hard to deny that
libations play an integral role. In addition
to being the festivity’s fuel, thoughtful beverage
selection also can be a tasty way to show guests
you care. The problem is, many people don’t
know a mai tai from a Singapore sling --- and cocktails
more complex than, say, a rum-and-Coke can cause
anxiety.
No
excuses. The holidays are just around the
corner, and it’s time to get with the program.
Believe it or not, bartending courses can teach
you to sport a superb salty dog, hone your creativity
and become a better communicator.
“Both
professional bartenders and housewives looking to
throw parties are interested in learning to tend
bar,” said Myong Park, a Chicago resident and former
bartender who instructs at ABC Bartending Schools
on Belmont Avenue. “It’s a life skill.
It teaches you how to treat people well and make
them feel good.”
In
his free time, Park hosts parties for his nearest
and dearest at home. “Being a good bartender
means your guests don’t want to sit in front of
the TV,” he said. “And it means you can be
the life of the party. Who doesn’t want that?”
ABC’s
classes teach everything from etiquette -- women
still get served first -- to the difference between
a highball and rocks glass. “Bartending classes
go beyond the basics,” said Kelly Curtis, director
of ABC. “You do learn how to make and serve drinks
the right way, but you also learn what to -- and
not to -- talk about. A bartender, just like
any good host, is there to please his guests.”
While
most people don’t associate tending bar with
keeping the peace (that’s the bouncer’s job),
there is something
to be said for a bartender who helps visitors
get along.
ABC BARTENDING SCHOOLS: Offers 40-hour
courses that meet on five consecutive days as
well as weekend sessions, which last three weeks.
Beyond learning how to create traditional
drinks, bartenders-in-training begin fashioning
beverages on the fly: 1034 W Belmont Ave,
312-664-0074. The school also has a location
in MT. Prospect (1699 Wall St.; 847-228-0700
)
Instructor
Myong Park says that learning to help
people feel good is an important skill.
Thursday,
July 17, 2003
How
to be your own bartender
BY PAIGE WISER
Bars
are magical places, full of smoke, fried foods, happy
people with lowered standards ... and almost always alcohol.
But what happens when you entertain at home? Not
only are you expected to have a fully stocked bar, but
those baby pearl onions had better be at the ready, and
you may hear reports that the drapes are on fire.
Panicked, we sought guidance on the art of being your
own bartender.
Q.Should I watch "Cocktail"? A. "The Tom Cruise movie"?
Never hurts," muses Jack McKim, the director of ABC
Bartending Schools (847-228-0700). The air-borne,
spinning techniques are called "flair bartending"
- still very popular in places like Las Vegas and Disney
World. But Pace warn that there's a distinction
that Cruise missed. "The trick to flair bartending
is making a drink while performing the tricks," he
says. "Not so in 'Cocktail'."
Q.What are the biggest mistakes amateurs bartenders
make? A. Taking shortcuts. A cocktail
recipe may look convoluted, but every step has a purpose.
Chilling a glass, blending the ingredients for
the proper amount of time, twisting the lemon into a martini
rather than dropping it - a little extra time translates
into taste.
Q.What are some of the intangibles
about bartending - the stuff you can only learn through
experience? A. It's all about the customers (or,
in our case, guests). "They can have quirks on exactly
how they prefer to have the drink made," says McKim.
" 'Shaken, not stirred' comes to mind."
Q.What are the latest fabulous cocktails? A. New and trendy is so... last
summer. this year, the classics are back. "The
Cosmopolitan, Kamikaze, Sex on the Beach, Martinis, Long
Island Ice Tea, Woo Woo," Pace suggests. "I
bartend at night in Vancouver [British Columbia], and
the most popular drink was a Long Island Ice Tea.
"Just make sure the traditional drinks are prepared
properly, say McKim. "Martinis, Manhattans,
Rob Roys, Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sours. They have
been made since Prohibition, and still are popular today."
Q.How can a party host stock a home bar without going
bankrupt? A. The basic liquors should do the job:
vodka, gin, rum, tequila, scotch and whiskey. A
popular brand name of each will run you about $10-$20
each. "You should also have things like dry
and sweet vermouth, triple-sec, lime juice and grenadine
for mixing cocktails." Pace says. If
you're inviting more than 30 people, consider professional
help, McKim suggests. His school can help stock
the bar and juggle drink orders while you mingle.
Q.What about barware - is it necessary
to invest in grappa glasses? A. You should be alright with rock glasses,
highball glasses, martini glasses and margarita glasses.
Or you could simplify things with high - end plastic glasses.
"A cordial glass can be used for grappa."
recommends McKim.
The adventures
of on bleary-eyed Texan at the Harvard of bartending schools.
By Adam Pitluk
Jeff
Hoferer moseyed on down to Fort Lauderdale's ABC Bartending
School from Dallas, Texas, to learn how to make a mean
cocktail
A drunk, horny guy hits a drunk,
horny town -- to learn how to make people drunk and horny.
American Airlines flight
2042 from Dallas, Texas, has just arrived at Fort Lauderdale
/ Hollywood International Airport. Pale, pasty South
westerners file out like a flock of happy sheep, wide-eyed
and excited.
Ever since he graduated
with a marketing and international-business degree from
Kansas State University in 1999 -- the 24 - year - old
Hoferer has worked as a bar and concert promoter in the
Dallas / Fort Worth area.
A few weeks back, though,
he had an epiphany. Staring down the barrel of a
shot glass he had just drained of Jägermeister, Hoferer
saw his future: He'd move to Los Angeles and make
it big as an actor - model, but not before jetting to
South Florida to earn his license to kill... Brain
cells, that is.
Yes, Jeff Hoferer is here
to attend Fort Lauderdale's ABC Bartending School,
the Harvard of mixology. Sure, there are other
bartending schools, but this is the big one.
He does pick up some rules
of thumb to take into his first day of school: The more drinks
you serve, the more tips you earn; a guy on a date is a bartender's
best friend; and no real man ever orders a Tom Collins in public.
ABC has been schooling
the supply side since before Hoferer learned to read.
The largest chain of bar schools in the country, ABC boasts
13 schools nationwide (and five more on the way).
It's a multimillion - dollar venture, granting 7000 degrees
a year in cities coast to coast -- and Broward County
is where it all began.
When Tony Sylvester opened
his first bartending school in Broward County in 1977
on the corner of State Road 7 and Coconut Creek Parkway,
he knew there was no guarantee. "It was a gamble,"
Sylvester says from behind his desk, His desk sits front
and center of the establishment, flanked by framed thank-you
notes from various bars around the country. "But
just like the American Dream, a little hard work still
pays off in this country," he adds.
This Bill Gates with
a twist of lemon grew up in an orphanage. He
has no more than a ninth-grade education, but despite
his accomplishments he keeps his ego mostly in check:
He doesn't want to forget his Passaic, New Jersey,
roots. He keeps his reminders close at hand:
His GED, crusty and faded, dated December 19, 1975, stands
on a filing cabinet behind his desk, while a picture of
him in the orphanage graces his desk at home. He
still works ten hours a day, seven days a week.
But larger than life is
a framed poster of the world's greatest celebrity bartender
-- none other than Brian Flanagan (as played by Tom Cruise)
leaning over a bar, baby blues glistening in the pink
neon light of the sign that hangs above him: Cocktail.
So if your looking to learn
how to bartend just call us.
Business Monday
ABC Bartending
School director Kim Chiacchiaretti and owner Tony Sylvester
with his newest bartending school at 5036 Katella Avenue
in Los Alamitos. ABC has schools nationwide and now
has its first location in California. Founder Tony
Sylvester is a third generation bartender, who opened his
first bartending school and started teaching his craft in
1977. He plans to open three or four more schools
in Los Angeles County soon. The 40-hour program can
be done in 1, 2 or 3 weeks.
Marilynn Young/Press-Telegram
Bartending
- Ain't for Dummies
What does
it take to break into the world's second oldest profession?
Twenty -
two year old Richard Logsdon recently completed ABC bartending
School and is now at Southern Nights - a position he acquired
with a combination of timing and luck. "I'm
glad that I went through the school." says
Logsdon "I'm much more comfortable with the club
because of the things I learned".
Stan Jirsa, owner
of Orlando's Cactus Club says that he insists his bartenders
attend a school.
21
co-workers sign up for bartending school after
losing high-tech jobs.
By
Tiffini Theisen
SENTINEL
STAFF WRITER
Two Tuesdays
after he lost his job, James Gordon sat at a bar along Mills
Avenue. Gordon and the dozen others lined up at the
bar at Orlando's ABC Bartending School.
A few minutes
later, Noel Shaw entered the room. Shaw, the school's
teacher and director graded their tests. Gordon did
well: another 100% score. He was mastering the
drinks taught in the week long course, remembering little
things, such as what crème de cassis tastes like "currants"
which drinks get a sugared rim "side car".
Their classroom
boasts all the comforts of a hometown tavern: neon signs,
a radio tuned to soft rock and an ice maker. In fact,
you wouldn't know it was a real bar till you took your first
sip: All the drinks here are made with colored water.
Other students
in a recent session in the class included a laid-off dot-com
work, a former marketing executive, and a car sales-woman
and an air-traffic controller both seeking part-time jobs.
Those who were
laid off in early April made about $8 to $16 an hour plus
overtime and bonuses. Bartenders in the Orlando area
can make $12 to $40 an hour with tips.
Others who
signed up were at first skeptical about bartending.
"It seemed like one of those surfer jobs", said
Christy LeDuc, 33, a former process analyst.
But the idea
soon spread among the clannish clean-room crew. Suddenly,
ABC Bartending School was a hit with newly out-of-work microchip
makers.
Many of the
new mixologists aren't thinking of bartending as a new career,
but a temporary gig while they go to school. "Look
at it this way: If we go into a recession, people
are still going to drink," said Bonnie Oster, ABC Bartending
Schools' placement director.
Our
students are shown Flair Bartending
(bottle
flipping) at no additional cost.
Passing
the Bar
December
2000
School
teaches the ABC's of drink mixing
By
Michael Tomberlin
Job
in demand
With
hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, caterers and
others needed bartenders, trained pros are always in demand.
Nardone
said some Birmingham employers already have approached the school
looking for bartenders. Some employers pay the tuition to
put their own bartenders through the course.
Vi
Noblin is one of the first students to enroll in the Birmingham
school. She's 35 and single and has cut hair for 18 years.
She sees bartending as a way to work a few nights a week and supplement
her income.
"I'm
a people person," she said. "Being a hairdresser,
I've had people tell me I was like their bartender."
Ms.
Noblin said she expects the class will include much instruction
on how to mix drinks, but beyond that she concedes she is
not sure what to anticipate. "I have no idea,"
she said. "I want to have fun and meet people
and bartending interests me."
If
they prove themselves to be trustworthy and hard working, they
can make bartending a full-time career, Nardone said. Part
of the attraction, he added is a versatile lifestyle where four
nights of work can earn a bartender as much as a 60-hour-a-week
job, much of it in tips.
Moreover,
Nardone said, this is on job that always survives economic downturns.
"In
a recession, people drink to forget their problems; when the economy
is good, people drink to celebrate," he said. "Whether
the economy is good or bad, people are always drinking."
Classes
range in size between four and fourteen students ages eighteen
and older. Though Alabama bartenders must be 21, some states
allow them to be 18. ABC Bartending, owned by Florida's
Tony Sylvester, has schools across the nation and helps place
students in jobs coast to coast. (ABC can be reached via phone; its internet address is www.abcbartending.com.)
When
it comes to throwing a bash, it’s hard to deny that
libations play an integral role. In addition
to being the festivity’s fuel, thoughtful beverage
selection also can be a tasty way to show guests
you care. The problem is, many people don’t
know a mai tai from a Singapore sling --- and cocktails
more complex than, say, a rum-and-Coke can cause
anxiety.
