Whether you’re a brand new establishment or you’ve been around for a while, you may be wondering how to staff your bar as efficiently as possible. You know you need bartenders and servers, but what about a barback?
Barbacks are the unsung heroes of your operations. Even though it’s a back-of-house role, they’re often on the front lines, cleaning up and restocking, so your bartenders can focus on mixing and pouring the best drinks.
But how does a barback improve restaurant operations, and how can you tell if you need one?
What Exactly Is a Barback and What Do They Do?
A barback, sometimes spelled “bar back,” is a busser for the bar. Their main duties are to free up the bartender for bartending tasks and keep the bar running smoothly and efficiently. While a barback keeps the bar stocked, other typical barback duties include:
- Cleaning and polishing glassware
- Filling and refilling the ice bins
- Prepping and supplying garnishes
- Restocking supplies (like napkins, toothpicks, and coasters)
- Taking out the trash and recycling
- Clearing dirty glasses
- Wiping down the bar
- Cleaning spills or broken glasses
- Ensuring the bar area is clean and organized
- Accepting deliveries
- Assisting with inventory management
How Is a Barback Different From a Bartender?
Think of a bartender as the front of house and the barback as the back of house for the bar area.
The bartender takes drink orders, mixes and serves the drinks, and engages with customers. They are the “face” of your bar or restaurant brand. Barbacks support and assist bartenders, ensuring they have everything they need to do their job well.
While a barback may help out behind the bar, they generally don’t mix drinks or serve alcohol. Depending on state and local laws and regulations, a barback can open a beer bottle, pour a draft beer, or tap a keg. The same rules and regulations may also dictate if your barbacks must be 18 or 21 years old.
How to Tell if Your Restaurant Needs a Barback
Not every bar or restaurant has or needs a barback, but there are some tell-tale signs that indicate you need one.
- Your bartenders can’t keep up with the work. They say they struggle to keep up with drink orders because they’re always being pulled away by other tasks, like preparing garnishes, cleaning spills, or taking out the trash.
- Drink orders are slow. On a related note, your servers or customers are noticing and complaining that drinks take forever to arrive. A good rule of thumb is longer than 10 minutes.
- The bar is messy. The bar is sticky, and there are always empty glasses and coasters on it despite your bartenders’ best efforts.
- Drinks are in the wrong glasses. Maybe your bartender is trying a new twist on a classic drink presentation, but when drinks are consistently served in the wrong glasses, it’s more likely that the bar is running out of clean glasses.
- The bar runs out of supplies. Maybe the bar doesn’t run out of everything, but they always seem to run out of coasters, napkins, or garnishes before the end of the shift. Or, worse, the bar runs out of your most popular wine, beer, or liquor.
- You’re busy. A busy bar indicates that things are going well, and you want to ensure you’re serving customers as quickly and efficiently as possible.
How to Hire a Barback
The signs are clear: you need to hire a barback. Fantastic! Here’s how to find and hire a good barback that helps your bar or restaurant shine.
Write a Great Barback Job Description
The right barback job description describes the barback responsibilities, the skills you’re looking for, and what your new hire can expect in your bar environment. While the specifics will depend on your restaurant’s concept (you’re a wine bar or a whisky bar), here are some typical barback duties to include in the job description:
- Checking liquor bottles and mixers for low levels and restocking accordingly
- Preparing garnishes
- Juicing citrus
- Labeling and dating all fresh items
- Refilling ice
- Swapping out beer kegs
- Restocking supplies, like napkins, straws, toothpicks, peanuts
- Dusting, mopping, and sweeping
- Cleaning up spills and wiping down the bar during and after service
- Polishing, cleaning, and restocking the glasses
- Assisting bartenders to ensure the bar operates smoothly
As you can see, the work is very physical but also requires the ability to multitask. Also consider including the following skills:
- Strength. Barbacks may need to lift as much as 40 or 50 pounds, so specify how much a potential barback needs to be able to lift and how often they can expect to do that.
- Proactive. A good barback knows which tasks are urgent and won’t wait for the bartender or bar manager to point them out.
- Multitasker. Barbacks may have to handle several things at once: taking out the trash while refilling the coasters and wiping up a spill. While they can’t do them at the same time, understanding that you can wipe down a spill then refill the coasters in close succession is crucial.
- Prioritization. Like multitasking, prioritizing tasks is also critical. Using the above example, it makes the most sense to refill the coasters, wipe down the spill, and then take out the trash, so you only need to wash your hands once. That said, if the trash is overflowing and becoming a tripping hazard, that may be the task to do first.
Training Your New Barback
While some barbacks may have some previous experience as a barback, busser, or even bartending, most new barbacks have zero experience. Here’s how to train a barback to help them support bartenders the right way.
Pair Them Up
Even an experienced barback won’t be experienced in how your bar or restaurant runs things. For the first few shifts, pair your new barback with an experienced barback or bartender to show them around and teach them how your business does things.
Ideally, you start them out during a few slow shifts until they get the hang of things, then add them to busier ones as their skills and confidence grow.
Teach the Menu
To keep the bar service running smoothly, teach your barback the drinks menu, so they learn what your regular offerings are, along with any rotating specials or seasonal offerings. This will help them ensure you have a well-stocked bar so your bartenders can provide efficient service and your bar staff never runs out of anything.
Remember the Customers
Even though most of a barback’s responsibilities are a back-of-house function, they are essential to bar operations and play a significant role in customer satisfaction.
Make sure you train your barback on how to treat customers. Emphasize that even though they aren’t making drinks, they play a crucial role in creating an excellent experience that turns customers into repeat diners.
How to Tell Your Barback Is Ready to Be a Bartender
Some bars and restaurants require anyone who wants to be a bartender to work as a barback first — even an experienced bartender. However, in most cases, a barback has no bartending experience or very little experience but wants to become a bartender.
While a bartender ultimately has to comply with state and local requirements, here’s how to tell if your barback is ready to become a bartender.
They Understand the Recipes
Even though a barback doesn’t mix drinks, they know what goes into an Old Fashioned versus a Manhattan versus a Dirty Shirley. They even know your house specialties and signature drinks and how to mix them.
They may also have an in-depth knowledge of your beer offerings, what the seasonal drink specials are, and know which wines to pair with which foods.
They Can Pour
A great way to test if your barback is ready to become a bartender is to ask them to pour some drinks. When it’s slow, ask them to fill drink orders like soda and iced tea or even beer and wine. See how well they do, offer pointers on how to improve, and then see what they do.
Barbacks Can Improve the Bottom Line
Hiring a barback can free up your bartenders to focus on pouring, mixing, and serving drinks, improving your clientele’s experience and boosting your bottom line. While you may not need a barback for every shift, hiring one for busy periods can streamline operations and improve how quickly drinks get to customers.
If you’re considering hiring a barback or wondering how to improve operations in your bar, brewpub, or restaurant, Kezner Consulting Group can help. Contact us today and schedule a consultation.