26,000 hours

...and counting.

No, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte aren't making another film, this is in fact the absolute minimum number of hours I estimate I worked behind a bar between 2001 - 2010;

10 years x 52 weeks x 50 hours per week (on average) = 26,000 hours

The next figure is 10,400 hours. That is the absolute minimum number of hours I estimate I've spent reading related literature, attending trainings, practising my hobby and conversing with fellow industry colleagues in that same timeframe (2001-2010);

10 years x 52 weeks x 20 hours per week (on average) = 10,400 hours

Total figure = 36,400 hours which I have dedicated to my career choice between 2001 and 2010, primarily relating to cocktails but encapsulating all things Food & Beverage. I'm confident the actual figure far surpasses that but we'll stick with it for now.

"Why is this relevant?" you say. "What are you rambling about?"

I have a theory that (for the most part) there's no such thing as natural-born-talent, it's all about hard-work, dedication, a want to improve, and a desire to learn. Continue reading and all will be revealed.



I'm proud to call myself a bartender. No fancy filth-flarn-filth name here, I'm a bartender and I'm good at what I do. As you'll see from the hours above I've spent considerable time, "in the trenches," as they say. I've had the ice-machine pack in at 9pm on a Saturday night when the bar is four-deep, I've had girls show me their breasts (and more), and a guy show me his penis (Scots in kilts are a tricky bunch), I've had to be the court jester, I've been given phone numbers (from both sexes), I've had drinks bought for me, I've had drinks thrown at me, I've been offered jobs, and marriage proposals, I've made friends, I've lost friends, I've cut-off friends, I've cut-off family damn-it, I've held back hair as people have thrown-up, I've then had my hand down that same toilet to unblock it, I've worked 100+ hour weeks, I've been on the open on the 1st January, and the close on Christmas Eve, I've been the photographer, the party-planner, the magician, the shoulder to cry on, the mixologist, the plumber, the pacifier, the historian, the bouncer, the children's entertainer, the politician, I'm the guy who ends up in the kitchen at a party making fucking drinks. I'm the bartender. It's what I do. It's quite an enjoyable experience truth be told.

I learnt the basics on the front-line at TGI Fridays and worked my last bartending gig at Yatai where we were offering libations on par with (in my humble opinion) the best that London and Edinburgh have to offer. Yatai is in the middle of a sabbatical with new premises on the horizon but I can confidently say that the beverage program I was putting in place was unrivalled in this part of the World. If only the premises owners had the long-term vision...

Unsurprisingly, many of the spirits, drinks and drink's styles introduced to that wee 25-seater bar have since cropped up on other local bar menus. I would even go so far to say that the Yatai menus along with the menus I've written for Mim (which I'm updating and showcasing to the owner next week) have been imitated in other local venues, many drinks repeated again and again. Many bartenders telling porkies about where they learnt that drink. My old shaking style also mimicked, which then led to me later being told by the same bartender/s (who started long after me and who I trained) that they came up with it. Even though I adopted it from one of my peers who is rightly mentioned in most training sessions I host. That peer is Angus Winchester, whose time in the trenches is likely the same as above, but with another 'zero' on the end. He's getting old, but he's fucking good. The other day Craig Harper referred to Angus as the modern day Charles H. Baker and I couldn't have put it better myself.

Skip to 1:41 to see that shake. In fact, don't, just watch the whole vid;



Imitation. Flattery. You know how it goes. It's when you're not prepared to give credit that people will lose respect. I digress.

I'm also proud to say that my menus have been featured around the World, notably in homage nights at Clive's Classic Lounge in Victoria, headed by bartender Shawn Soole and this year nominated for World's Best Hotel Bar at the prestigious Tales of the Cocktail Awards in New Orleans. That's a pretty humbling experience for someone who is primarily self-taught and from a city whose cocktail culture is no older than a decade. When I started the Mojito was like an alien to people. Nowadays? It's the norm to find Aberdonians sipping Last Words, Flips and Brandy Crustas. All beverages I introduced to the local scene and are now mainstays of menus in the better cocktail bars.

My influences come from far and wide and not just in the drinks industry, everyday life influences everything I do, I hoard drinks menus from all over, I pester the game-changers, the face-melters, the trend-setters, the ones truly at the forefront of the modern renaissance of cocktail culture, I have a book collection my bank manager disapproves of, I scour and collect rare spirits so I can recreate drinks as they were meant to taste, I am a regular contributor to forums such as Barbore, e-Gullet and The Chanticleer Society, there is a wealth of great videos on Youtube with hardly any views and the views they do have have been from me on more than one occasion, I attend trainings and seminars all over Europe, I don't go for a drink I go for an education. You get the idea, I am immersed in this shit. It's my life and I love it. "I'm going to get a real-job now!" I hear people declare. Why the fuck would you do that? Real job. Real job? Why have a job when you can have a life.



In 2006, halfway through those 10 years as a bartender, I set-up my own bar consultancy, training and events business. Evo-lution is now in its seventh year of trading making it one of the longest running consultancies of its kind, not just in the UK, but around the World.

I've consulted for a number of venues including Mim Lounge, Yatai and Dusk. These bars have been some of the main drivers in the ever-growing cocktail culture in my hometown.

I've trained hundreds of bartenders in traditional pubs, cocktail bars, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels, many of which continue to pursue successful careers in the Food & Beverage Industry despite never planning to stay in it.

I've set-up and run hundreds of events from themed corporate parties to cocktail evenings, private whisky dinners to tutored tastings, cocktail masterclasses to corporate entertainment. These have ranged in numbers from as little as four people attending to the many hundreds. Where there's beverages and food to be served, I've served it. And it's been bloody great fun.

I've only ever had one client that I've never worked with again and that was down to them not paying the agreed contract. This was my first client and the one that triggered me into setting up Evo-lution. You learn from your mistakes. Since then, every client I've ever worked with has either returned to me for business or referred me on to someone who has used my services. Not many companies have that success rate.



Evo-lution has later encapsulated the ever-growing Dr. Adam Elmegirab's... which is now running into its third year and is very much at the forefront of my career. I'm a full-time producer, brand ambassador, marketer and PR company all rolled into one. Expansion is in the works though for now, this baby is mine and she's quickly growing into a beautiful girl.

What started as the most in-depth research into the history of the Boker's Bitters company (due to this very project, which is only one-tenth completed) and a picture of five bottles posted online, has now grown into a global brand portfolio with four bottlings now being distributed in no less than sixteen global markets. To date, all my bottlings have scored between 4 and 5 out of 5 in highly respected industry magazine CLASS.

As I understand it I'm in the top five cocktail bitters producers in the World; behind only Angostura, The Sazerac Company, The Bitter Truth and somewhat on par with Bittermens. I've never spent a penny, a nickle or a dime on advertising. And still people ask what it is I do for a living. Go figure.

I aim to revolutionise the bitters market and consolidate it as a category in its own right. Along with the good work being done by those aforementioned it's already happening somewhat. It is us, the producers, that are responsible for the perception of a category and it is us who are now charged with giving the end consumer the knowledge they're after.

I think I've easily spent five-figures (in hours) on the bitters category, that goes back at least five years. Go look on Webtender if you don't believe me. My username there is Adam Elmegirab. Even taking this all into account, I've had bartenders tell me I'm wrong when offering advice with regards their housemade bitters. Advice they asked for in the first place. I'll touch on this in another article soon. Back on topic...

I'm currently working on new bottlings for my own portfolio (not just in the bitters category) and I'm in ongoing discussions with companies (that I can't name here) who are looking to use my expertise. I've also been outsourced by a handful of the most revered bars and bartenders the World has to offer with regards producing bespoke products. These are people with five-figure numbers in excess of my 36,400 asking me for advice. This pleases me. this pleases me greatly. The hard-work is beginning to really pay-off. There's those words again, hard-work.

All in all I think I've done alright so far in my short career. I've worked damned hard, I've still lots to learn, and lots I aim to achieve, but it'd be fair to say I've exceeded anything I've set out to do thus far. And probably worked harder than I knew I could.



Okay, okay, I'm getting to that. A few weeks back I was speaking with a local-bartender, an eager young whipper-snapper whose number won't even be in the high hundreds yet. I think he'll do alright, though I did lose a little faith in him when he made a remark similar to the following;

"It's not fair that you're such a good bartender and that you get to go on all these trips and win comps and stuff, why don't I get to go? I know a lot and I think I'm as good as anyone here."

Later he remarked, and asked;

"Some are born with it, do you think I'm one of them? Or maybe you're just lucky?"

I laughed this off. Lucky? He's lucky I didn't slap him up side his head, the cheeky sod. It made me think of this famous quote;

"The harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get." - Gary Player

Fucking luck. 36,000 hours and this is luck apparently. Pfft. I'll show him. So, I've been thinking a lot about what he said. Thinking about my career, and the careers of those that I respect, those at the top of our game. Then awards season rolled into town with both the CLASS Awards and the Mixology Awards taking place in the same week, and I'm seeing the same bartenders complain that they're not nominated. Complain that they haven't won. Complain that they've not been recognised. Complain that they're not respected. Complain that it's the same guys winning the comps and awards. And it got me thinking, why is that? We live in a time where people demand recognition and respect and it is a real ugly side of the bar industry, though it's prevalent throughout society.

By the same token I see the same people congratulating the winners and nominees. The same ones buying drinks and bending elbows with the winners at the award shows. These people are the ones that didn't win. These people are those that will go away and come back next year. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. And they will likely win. Their time will come. And it got me thinking, why is that?

Then I thought back to the, "Some are born with it," comment and similar thoughts I've seen in recent times with both an increase in the use of social media and in sharing ideas and techniques. Coupled with my belief that there is no such thing as natural-born-talent I started to look at recurring trends within the winners and trend-setters I refer to above.

The same names kept popping into my head. The first of which you'll all know, Erik Lorincz.



For those that have been locked away in an Austrian cellar for the last few years, Erik was the winner of Diageo's World Class competition in 2010 (fending off 9000 bartenders from across the globe), UK finalist in Bacardi's La Legacia competition (won by Matthew Dakers, another reaping the rewards of hours of hard-work), one half of the crime-fighting duo Ago & Erik that tended bar at the quite phenomenal Connaught, and is now the head bartender at the Mecca of bartending, The American Bar at London's Savoy Hotel.

He's like the Cristiano Ronaldo of bartending, highly-skilled, highly-respected, revered, good-looking. It's almost as if the man's blessed. Anyone that's seen Erik work will straight away tell me that he isn't exactly proving my point. He's so fluid, so slick, so fucking cool, that you can't learn it. You're born with it. What he's got is God-Given.

Well, you're wrong. What Erik's got is an immeasurable desire to be the best that he can be. A desire to work as hard as required to get to the top. He wasn't born with a barspoon and jigger in his hands, he's looked at the best around and worked exceptionally hard to get himself to a similar level. He mastered the hard-shake by going to straight to the source in Japan, Kazuo Uyeda. His mastery behind the bar is practiced and learned by a combination of hard-work and exposing himself to work in a variety of different bars, travelling to expose himself to the best bars and bartenders you can find in Germany, France, USA, the United Kingdom and Japan to name but a few countries. He's worked alongside some highly-talented bartenders, exposing himself to their skills and knowledge and showing him what he needs to do to get to the top of his profession. Key-words here, exposure and hard-work.

Whenever Erik's come into conversation the same words are used regarding him; gentleman, humble, driven, passionate, hard-worker. Having met the man on a number of occasions I can testify for all of these things. You are hopefully seeing a recurring theme here. Here's a direct quote from the man himself;

"For me it's not a job. It's not work. It's a passion, and a lifestyle." - Erik Lorincz

I'm confident that Erik has a similar five-figure number. I know he's also worked his hours in the trenches. I'm confident he would put his success down to hard-work.

To further my thoughts on bartenders such as Erik, the other day the following video appeared in my Facebook feed and it cemented another of my suspicions regarding those at the top;



Exposure. From a young age Erik was already learning skills that would assist him in later life. It never surprises me how many great bartenders have been exposed to the industry in some way, shape or form from a young age. Whether it be the likes of Gary Regan whose dad Bernard owned a pub, or the likes of Erik who had a grandparent making their own liqueurs, the exposure to the skills that would later shape their careers can't be a coincidence. Study this quote about Tiger Woods from the excellent article, 'The Talent Myth';

"The most talented player of all time," was the assessment of one pundit. But now consider that Woods was given a golf club five days before his first birthday; that by the age of two he played his first round of golf; that by five he had accumulated more hours of practice than most of us achieve in a lifetime. Far from being a golfer zapped with special powers that enabled him to circumvent practice, Woods is someone who embodies the rigours of practice."

Tiger Woods, the man oft-referred to as the most naturally-talented golfer of all time was in fact exposed to the game at a young age and put through an abundance of practice hours. In recent years his aura of invincibility has slipped somewhat, his rivals have had to put in the practice to match Tiger and eventually they caught him. Tiger's roar is more of a whimper now. The bar was raised but others have reached it. If Woods wants to return to the top, he will have to revisit his game and improve.

This is the same throughout the World and everyday life, music, sport and in this instance, bartending. Childhood prodigies are a myth. They more often than not have pushy-parents, opportunity, and the two things I've been referring to over and over in this article, exposure and hard-work. You want recognition and respect? You put the hours in. Simple really. If at this point you find that you're still not getting the respect and recognition it's because others are putting in more hours so you have to up your game yet again. The same faces at the competitions and award shows are there for a reason. Hard-work.



Still not having it? I refer you back to Matthew Syed, author of 'Bounce' and the article I linked to earlier;

"If you are still unconvinced by the power of practice, consider again my journey in table tennis. To many enthusiasts my skills seemed nothing less than a miracle. But was it?

When I hit the top of the England rankings, most of the other top players in the nation were not merely from the same town as me, but the very same street: Silverdale Road in Reading. Had some ping-pong virus spread through the area without touching the surrounding roads and villages? Of course not: the success was about the coming together of factors of a similar kind to those that have, from time to time, elevated other tiny places into the sporting ascendancy (Spartak, an impoverished Moscow tennis club, created more top 20 women players between 2005-2007 than the whole of the US).

In particular we all had access to a top coach (who happened to be a teacher at the local primary school) and to the only 24-hour-a-day club in the county. We started out as ordinary table tennis players but through a peculiar set of circumstances we were transformed into extraordinary players. The evidence is overwhelming: excellence in sport is not explained by talent, but by hard work, will and opportunity."

In an industry that is currently booming, to stay at the top and to stay relevant you've really got to work damned hard, but I really think the warning signs need to be put out. This article will upset some and those are the people it's aimed at. I can guarantee that those who have done their time will be nodding in approval. Don't get me wrong, this is not a tirade of old-school versus new, I'm merely pointing out the undeniable facts regarding those who are rightly held in regard in this wonderful industry. I've heard it argued that information is so widely available that less time is needed to move on and be successful. I disagree, as most information out there isn't worth considering and you're going to have done all the right things to be well-informed. Even then part of life is learning from mistakes, you learn more when things go wrong than you do when it's right all the time.

When we have bartenders hanging up their bar-blades and bar-spoons after less than a year's bartending to call themselves consultants that's problematic. That does nothing to help the industry and only ends up with bars not living to their true potential. It's damaging for what is a credible career. In nearly every other business that calls on consultants the minimum requirement is 10,000 hours, or five years full-time work. Think about the most common timeframe covering a university course and a year's placement. 5 years.

5 years x 52 weeks x 40 hours = 10,400 hours

The best consultants around have this as a minimum. In fact, they often surpass it. Tristan Stephenson, 2011 CLASS Bartender of the Year, I salute you.

When there are brand ambassadors who know less about their product than those they're supposed to be nurturing things aren't right. Brands need to address this, and bars and bartenders shouldn't accept it. The best bartenders around are dedicating a lot of time and money to learn about products and categories, so if you're a brand then your ambassador better know more by putting in the hours of hard-work. The best ambassadors around do this, they know who they are. They're time-served and more often than not got their position due to respect and recognition. Julien Lafond, 2011 CLASS Brand Ambassador of the Year, I salute you.

When there are those more interested in their fifteen minutes of fame than satisfying their guests needs it ruins the good image that bartending is currently gaining. We're bartenders, so stop trying to rename yourself to create a relevance. You are relevant, but not by calling yourself a Cocktologist, a Bar-Ninja, or a Mixtender, but by putting in the hours and the practice. Create menus specific to your bar and not to seek approval from your peers. They are where they are because they understand the business and will know straight away whether your menu is fit for purpose. They aren't interested in a fifteen minutes, they're filming a blockbuster and it's fucking hard work. Mal Spence, 2011 CLASS Best Bar Menu, I salute you.

And to the endless list of game-changers and face-melters I haven't mentioned and could've mentioned, keep up the hard work.

Related reading;

Matthew Syed - 'Bounce'

Matthew Syed - 'The Talent Myth'

Malcolm Gladwell - 'The Talent Myth'

Sláinte!

-----


Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters