When I graduated from high school, the movie “Cocktail” with Tom Cruise had made bartending super cool and sexy. My friend, Andy, and I decided it would be a good idea to become rock star bartenders, so we took a night course in mixology at George Brown College. Every Monday evening, we hopped in his mom’s K-car and drove from the suburbs to downtown.
We learned to make highballs and cocktails and all kinds of other mixology skills that have stayed in my brain to this day — 35 years later. Looking back, it might have been more productive to take a night class in auto repair or carpentry, but Tom Cruise made a movie about fixing drinks, not about fixing houses or cars. Because of that course, I would never scoop ice using a glass.
What if it breaks? Also, it taught me to be efficient. If you’re making four drinks, you don’t make each one to completion one at a time. You line up your glasses and build each drink together.
Ice ...
spice (if needed) ...
liquor ...
mix ...
garnish. Boom. Ready at the same time.
This skill applies widely — such as at a recent fundraiser golf tournament where the volunteer serving hot dogs could not be slower. She grabbed one bun, added a wiener, added condiments and passed it over. Then the next one.
Same process. There were four of us getting two dogs each. It was painful to watch.
She could have Tom Cruised it. Bun, bun, bun, bun, wiener, wiener, wiener, wiener. Bonus points for flipping the mustard container and splashing up condim.