Bartending lessons in NYC

Bartending

Due to Covid-19 and Social Distancing safety precautions, ABC Training Center is not currently offering the Bartending program.

Please click here for a list of available programs

Welcome to the ABC Training Center Bartending School

Home of one of the most established and well-respected bartending schools in New York City, we are proud to have trained countless bartenders who have gone on to work all over New York and beyond. Our graduates work in bars, restaurants, clubs, pubs, lounges, hotels – anywhere alcohol is served. The point is: our grads work! ABC Training Center will arm you with all of the skills that you’ll need to make the most of this in-demand career. Don’t waste money trying to get a “bartending license” from a fly-by-night NYC school at an exorbitant cost. We’re the real thing, and we’re here to help you become one of the best bartenders in NYC.

Want to know what a day in the life of a bartender looks like? Find out here.

Weekday Schedule (2 weeks)

Day Morning OR Evening
Monday through Friday 10 am – 2 pm OR 6 pm – 10 pm

Weekday FullTime Schedule ( 1 week)

Day Full Time
Monday through Friday 10 am – 6 pm

Weekend Schedule (3 weekends)

 Day                                 Time                   
 Saturday & Sunday  10 am – 5 pm

Weekday Evening Spanish Schedule (2 weeks) 

Day Evening
Monday through Friday 6pm – 10 pm

Hours


Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Often an important part of their local community, Bartenders create drinks and serve as entertainers at their city’s local bars and clubs. Often serving as an open ear for patrons while their hands are busy, Bartenders have excellent people skills in addition to memorizing a wide array of alcoholic drinks. If you are a person that enjoys the nightlife and meeting different people, bartending training classes may be an entryway to a rewarding career. They may also explore a creative side, experimenting and innovating new drink recipes for their clientele to enjoy. The following are some common FAQ’s to help determine if bartending is right for you.

Why take your bartending classes at ABC Training Center?

Easy. Our formula for success is simple, you can check out our entire article regarding bartending courses but to summarize we offer:

  • Complete 40 hours hands-on bartending classes
  • Brand-new, modern facilities and equipment
  • Flexibility – day, night, and weekend schedules
  • Real training at real bars
  • Friendly, professional instructors with many years of experience
  • Modern and practical curriculum

All at a location that is minutes from Manhattan!

How do I become a Bartender with no experience?

While every bar is different in what they expect from new employees, there are many skills that can be learned to increase your chance of starting a bartending career. These include becoming certified, memorizing classic cocktails, understanding bar culture and your local scene, working back of the house at your local haunt, and overall being pleasant to customers.

Can it be hard to be a Bartender?

Bartending is an involved career that requires customer interaction, memorizing drinks, and heavy multitasking skills. While it can certainly be challenging, it is often a rewarding career where you can meet many people from all walks of life.

What are five drinks every Bartender should know?

Before a Bartender steps behind any bar, he or she will need to know how to make certain classic cocktails, such as the Martini, the Black Russian, the Old Fashioned, the Margarita, and the Whiskey Sour.  We will teach you these and more than 50 others that are considered essential no matter what type of establishment you work in (restaurant, club, pub, hotel, etc), and with dozens of variations.  In addition to these, 5 others that remain popular today are the Mojito, the Long Island Iced Tea, the Cosmo, the Caipirinha, & the Incredible Hulk.  You will learn to prepare these, and hundreds of others, at ABC!

What hours do Bartenders typically work?

Most Bartenders work night shifts of around 10-12 hours, including setup and closing. The days of the week that an individual may work is variable, entirely dependent on the bar and manager they work under.

While experience in the service or restaurant industries may be preferred before your first night behind the counter, bartending is an excellent choice of career for people that like to please and learn about people. Bartending can prove to be a fast paced, creative, involved, and often surprising career that can evolve into management or corporate positions in certain chains.


Our Approach

Simple, practical, and effective. At our bartending school in the Bronx you’ll be guided by some of the top mixology professionals in the business. Bartending training classes at ABC Training Center in NYC include everything you need to know about becoming a bartender, including bar set-up and breakdown, equipment/tools/supplies, speed bartending and multiple drink preparation, pouring and measuring accuracy, cash register and money handling, on-site practice, customer service, job search seminar, and so much more. Don’t worry. By the time you finish with us, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve learned. You’ll be ready. You’ll be a bartender. Check out our Job Outlook profile for Bartenders!

Go Ahead and Compare

We are proud to say that no other authentic bartending school in NYC can offer the value that ABC Training Center can. And that’s because we provide excellent mixology training for the lowest tuition for bartending courses in NYC – only $199. Just compare that to other schools such as:

Authentic Bartending School:         $595

New York Bartending School:         $695

American Bartending School:         $895

“Other” ABC Bartending School:     $395 (National chain/Not affiliated with us)

ABC TRAINING CENTER                 $199

So shop around and see for yourself the value that we offer. Then call us. We’ll have your spot ready and waiting for you.

  • Total of 40 classroom hours •

ABC Training Center is licensed by the New York State Department of Education.

You must be at least 18 years of age to serve alcohol in New York State.

Metro
David Herwitz

Instructor David Herwitz on how to make a living as a bartender.

David Herwitz is one of the most popular, experienced and knowledgeable bartending instructors in New York City.  For more than 20 years, he earned a living exclusively behind the bar, everywhere from local pubs to two-star restaurants. Today, he is the director of a bartender training program at ABC Training Center in the Bronx.

Why is bartending a great skill to have?

“Bartending is a job that’s always readily available, even in an economy like this one. Bartenders are transient — a lot of actors, singers and writers. So the jobs turn over constantly; the need is great, and a good bartender can work as much as he or she wants. And the money’s good. For me, I made more than I did in the white-collar sector.”

How do you know if this is right for you?

“Having an excellent short term memory is helpful. You want to have a certain amount of coordination with your feet and hands. But, remember, what a lot of people think is speed is actually good pre-shift preparation–the bartender got there early, made sure everything was just where he would need it.  It’s preparation and repetition. But if you have a confident personality, the technical part can be learned. I see schools where students are taught to race through an arbitrary number of drink preparations in a specific time period with a stopwatch, which is ridiculous.  You can’t teach a bartender to be fast by doing that.  The right way to teach speed is to teach the correct procedures, and have the student do them the right way–over and over and over again.”

What should a student look for in a bartenders training program?

“A lot of schools will posture and kind of insinuate that they’re selling you a license. In New York State there’s no such thing as a license to be a bartender. Bars are licensed, not bartenders. A lot of the schools are locked into a pre-approved, Department of Education curriculum. I mean, according to that, you’ve got to teach how to make a Grasshopper. Nobody orders that these days.  There are schools out there that teach a bizarre, “bartender school” style of bartending that is instantly recognizable to people that hire bartenders, and generally disdained by them.  My school is licensed by the Education Department too–but I wrote a MODERN, PRACTICAL curriculum and got it approved.  It’s very detailed and thorough.   So you should make sure you’re going to get experience in specific situations, not just recipes.  You don’t want a school where the teacher simply recites out-dated drink recipes,the students write them down, and that’s it.  There’s a LOT more to the job than that!  The program should prepare students to be flexible  and confident in every situation.  I make sure to get students behind a real bar, serving real alcohol, for real money, to real customers.”

Classes can be booked for large groups or companies with your own separate classroom. Contact us for more information.

Fast, low-cost job training is as easy as ABC!

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