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www.vifogop.com
50
| January/February 2008
www.vifogop.com
nce upon a time, ew bartenders were known outsidethe places where they labored. Te job had its perks,o course, especially i you had the better shits. But,in most cases it was unglamorous, consisting mainly o grunt work: stocking beer, cutting ruit, counting bottles, gun-ning sodas, pouring caraes o wine and mixing a ew cocktails.In the dark days until the mid-1990s, Martinis, Manhattansand Old-Fashioneds were the ew classics a potential hire need-ed to know how to make. Depending on the decade, Americandrinkers mostly ordered Scotch and sodas, Screwdrivers, SeaBreezes, wine coolers or rozen Margaritas—not exactly chal-lenging drinks, not exactly creative mixology. A bartender’s income largely depended on his or her charmand on the establishment’s seasonality. Te job paid little upront, oten involved split shits and long, smoke-lled nightsand little proessional advancement.Tat was then. oday, a young person entering the bartend-ing eld nds a myriad o possibilities, not the least becausenow there are bar stars.oday, the celebrity bartenders are everywhere. Tey’re ontelevision—obin Ellis on the Food Network’s “Trowdown with Bobby Flay”, or Francesco Laranconi on “Martha Stewart,”ony Abou-Ganim and Bridget Albert on “Iron Che.” Tey’recreating drinks or new spirit brands, such as Willy Shine and Aisha Sharp mixing or Depaz Rhum Agricole. Tey’re consult-ing with cruise lines and restaurant chains, such as in the caseso Robert Plotkin and Ryan Magarian. Tey’re quoted in news-paper and magazine articles—Audrey Saunders, Julie Reiner—and some, like Charlotte Voisey and Bobby “G” Gleason, are working as brand and supplier ambassadors. Tey’re also train-ing legions o bartenders across the country, as in the case o  Alpert, Armando Rosario and others.
Guided by the StarS
 With these and other bartenders routinely appearing in ma- jor media and at wine and ood events, the bartending celebrity suddenly is unavoidable, and is making the job o bartendingsuddenly very attractive.
 
Twinkle, Twinkle,Big Bar STar
The cocktailrevolution has broughtus the celebrity bartender.Do we cringe or cheer?
B Jk rbt
 
www.vifogop.com
51
January/February 2008
| 
Tis development is great news or an industry in which em-ployee recruitment and retention is a challenge. Yet, many ob-servers wonder about the true efect o the ascent o the bar staron the drinks business and, ultimately, on the consumer.It was one thing when bartenders experimented and usedhouse-made ingredients. But, increasingly, today’s cocktailenthusiasts are given pause when they hear o “cocktail geek”bars where were they to order a Cosmopolitan, they would belaughed back onto the street. Or o bartenders who deign tomake only drinks with personal recipes and extra secret ingredi-ents in lieu o serving up what a guest might actually desire.Is the bar star good or the bar business? Will the bartendercelebrities, like their che counterparts, disappear rom their ac-tual establishments and becoming “bartenders” in name only?Or, is the emergence o the man and the woman rom behindthe bar an unalloyed positive?“Tis is absolutely good or the business because it helps edu-cate more young bartenders to a renewed proession,” says DaleDeGrof, widely considered the best-known bartender in the U.S.DeGrof emerged as the pioneer bar star when he garnered ce-lebrity status while tending bar at hotspots including the amedRainbow Room in New York City during the 1980s and ‘90s.“Tis is such an exciting time to be doing what we’re do-ing,” adds young bar star Charlotte Voisey, who cut her teethin London’s bar scene and is now a brand ambassador orHendrick’s Gin in the U.S. “Tere’s no doubt that the opportu-nities are expanding every day.”Te main reason there are so many opportunities—consul-tant, brand representative, media personality—is because barand restaurant customers now are more sophisticated aboutspirits and cocktails. Te crat has been raised to satisy thedemands o an increasingly educated consumer, and now thereis a need or more diferentiation, more education. From thisinevitably comes a crop o celebrities.“I eel like I’ve been very lucky,” says ony Abou-Ganim, whoconsults or many spirit brands and appears at events such asthe South Beach Food and Wine Festival. “As with ches, back then, I started with little opportunity to be in control. I triedto be the very best bartender I could be, and that gave me morecontrol. It’s like I was the bartender in the right place and theright time with the right message and the right platorm.”Since meeting DeGrof almost 15 years ago and subsequently  working in New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas, Abou-Ganim has put his ocus on the crat o bartending. oday, heconsults with major hospitality companies, including Hilton, which is eaturing him in its latest drink promotion program,and created quite a buzz when he appeared on “Iron Che.”“I certainly didn’t have any glamorous aspirations when Istarted,” he says, “and had no idea that there’d be such a thingas an ‘Iron Che’ competition or bartenders.”
 Why StarS Shine So briGhtly 
Publicist Laura Baddish erried American bartenders toEurope or competitions or years while representing Bacardi.She says those leaps into international competition by bartend-ers like DeGrof and Abou-Ganim, where they mixed it up withcareer proessional bartenders, was a turning point in the evolu-tion o the American bartender rom amateur to pro.“Te mixologists who have risen to the top—the Dales andthe onys-have done so not only by re-establishing the reputa-tion o the cocktail, but by educating the uture o the busi-ness. Tey’re looked up to,” observes Baddish. Now that they and bartenders like them are showing up on television, she says,they’re upgrading the reputation o the entire spirits business.Gary Regan tended bar in New York City beore he began writing about the crat he knows and loves in the early 1990s,
JuliereinerryanMagarianTonyaBou-ganiMaudreySaunderSFranceScolaFranconiarMandoroSario
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