Interview Questions to Ask a Bartender You Are Hiring
Questions to ask a bartender in an interview, written for the manager or owner doing the hiring. They follow the order an interview usually takes: the candidate's background, drinks knowledge, service under pressure, cutting people off and checking ID, cash and the upkeep of the bar, then the team and the shifts. Each has a note on what a strong or a weak answer sounds like and what to ask next. Nobody needs all of them in one sitting, and the guide below covers how to choose. If you are the candidate working out what to ask the manager, you need a different list from this one.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Background
Where have you been working, and what kind of bar was it?
Why ask it
A hotel lounge, a cocktail bar, a stadium and a late-night pub all build different skills. Someone from a slow room may be careful and unhurried; someone from volume may be fast and rough. Neither is wrong, but it tells you what you will be training.
What do you like about bartending, and which part of the job wears on you?
Why ask it
The first half is easy, and most people name the guests or the pace. The second half is where you learn something. Late finishes, sore feet and drunk strangers are honest answers, and a candidate who says nothing wears on them is either new to the work or telling you what they think you want.
Why this bar, and have you ever sat at it as a guest?
Why ask it
Someone who has had a drink in your room can tell you what they noticed: the list, the crowd, how long they waited. Ask what they would change. One polite, specific criticism is a better sign than praise for a bar they have only seen on a job board.
What did the busiest night at your last bar look like?
Why ask it
Ask for numbers if they have them: covers, sales, how many deep the bar got. Then ask what gave out first, the ice, the glassware or the printer. A bartender who can name it was watching the whole bar and not only the drink in front of them.
Why did you leave your last bar, or why are you looking to?
Why ask it
Hours cut, a closure, a move across town and wanting a busier room are all ordinary reasons. Check the story against what the reference tells you, and be careful when every exit on the resume was somebody else's fault.
How did you learn the job: a bartending course, working up from barback, or thrown in on a Friday?
Why ask it
None of the three rules anyone out. A former barback usually knows stocking and cleaning cold, a course graduate may know recipes and never have seen a rush, and the self-taught can have gaps nobody has pointed out. Use the answer to decide what to test on the trial shift.
Who is the best bartender you have worked next to, and what did they do that you still copy?
Why ask it
It is the 'what makes a good bartender' question with a real person in it, which stops the answer turning into a list of adjectives. Notice what they admired first: speed, a clean station, or the way that person remembered names. People tend to hold themselves to the thing they praise in someone else.
If you have not tended bar before, what work have you done that was fast, on your feet and face to face with customers?
Why ask it
For the candidate coming from serving, a coffee counter or a busy shop floor. Handling cash, holding several orders in their head and staying civil at hour seven all carry over, and recipes can be taught. Ask about the shift they are proudest of.
Drinks
Talk me through a daiquiri, out loud, as if you were making it.
Why ask it
Pick any drink your bar sells. What you are checking is whether specs exist in their hands: ingredients in order, measures, shaken or stirred, the glass, the garnish. Hesitation over a three-ingredient classic tells you where to start with training.
When do you shake a drink, and when do you stir it?
Why ask it
The usual convention is to shake anything with citrus, juice, egg or cream and to stir a drink that is all spirit, and a trained bartender can say why: one wants air and a hard chill, the other should stay clear. If your house specs break the convention somewhere, mention it and see whether they argue or ask.
What is your favorite drink to make, and what do you order at someone else's bar?
Why ask it
Enthusiasm shows quickly here, and so does taste. The drink they enjoy making tells you where their pride sits. Their own order on a night off tells you whether they will be content pouring what your guests actually drink.
How much do you know about beer and wine, not just cocktails?
Why ask it
Plenty of bars sell more beer and wine than anything shaken. Ask them to describe two wines by the glass without using the word smooth, and to explain the difference between two beers on your list.
Have you changed a keg, and what do you check when a beer pours all foam?
Why ask it
Someone from a cocktail bar may never have done either, and it is a short lesson. Someone from a pub will run through the suspects quickly: a keg just tapped or nearly empty, beer that has got warm, the gas, a dirty glass. Skip this one if you sell only bottles and cans.
A guest says, 'Something refreshing, not too sweet, you choose.' What do you ask before you make anything?
Why ask it
One or two quick questions is the right amount: which spirit they like, and whether they want it tall or short. A bartender who reaches straight for a personal favorite is guessing with your stock, and one who asks five questions is holding up the bar.
What do you make for a guest who is not drinking alcohol tonight?
Why ask it
Soda and lime is an answer, though a thin one. You are hoping for someone who treats the order as a real drink, in a proper glass and with some thought, and who never asks the guest why. Drivers, pregnant guests and people in recovery all sit at bars.
Someone orders a drink you have never heard of. What is your next move?
Why ask it
Asking the guest what goes in it takes ten seconds and is the correct answer. Bluffing produces a wrong drink and a remake. Being easy about not knowing a recipe is also a good sign in someone you are about to train.
Do you free pour or measure, and how do you know your pour is accurate?
Why ask it
Either can suit you, as long as it matches how your bar counts its stock. A free pourer should be able to say when they were last tested and how close they came. State your house rule now, because some experienced bartenders bristle at being handed a jigger.
A guest wants a cocktail with a different spirit, or we have run out of an ingredient. How do you handle the swap?
Why ask it
The guest should hear about it before anything is made, along with the nearest alternative and any change in price. Quietly reaching for another bottle is the answer to rule out, since the guest ordered one thing and is paying for another.
If I gave you one slot on our menu, what would you put on it?
Why ask it
Follow up with what it would cost to make and how long it takes at ten on a Saturday. Six components and a smoked garnish means they are designing for themselves. A drink built from bottles already on your back bar means they looked around before they sat down.
What have you learned about drinks in the past year, and where did you pick it up?
Why ask it
A spirit they had never worked with, a technique borrowed from a colleague, a brand training, a book they are halfway through: any of these shows the interest is still alive. In a high-volume pub it matters less than reliability, so weigh it against the room you run.
Service
Have you worked a busy bar with no barback, and what ran out first?
Why ask it
Bartenders who have worked without support know what disappears: ice, clean glassware, cut garnish, then patience. Their answer tells you what they will need from your setup, so be straight in return about whether you have a barback and on which nights.
Three people are waving at you at once. What happens?
Why ask it
A nod or a 'be right with you' to all three, then serving them in the order they arrived, is the whole method. Answers about working faster miss the point, because a guest who has been seen will usually wait and one who feels invisible will not.
A server rings in two draft beers, a glass of wine, a mojito and a neat whiskey. What order do you make them in?
Why ask it
Houses differ on the exact sequence, so listen for a reason and not a recited rule. Drinks that hold, like the wine and the neat pour, can go early, and whatever fades fastest goes last. A candidate with no system at all will send out rounds with one flat or watery drink in them.
How do you spend a dead night behind the bar?
Why ask it
A good bartender has a list: polishing, the deep cleaning that gets skipped, rotating stock, batching, learning the bottles they have never opened. Talking to the three guests who did come in belongs on that list too. Ask the reference whether it matches what they saw.
A guest says the drink is wrong. What do you do?
Why ask it
The order of events matters: ask what is off about it, remake or replace it, and only afterwards work out whether the spec or the pour was at fault. A bartender who describes explaining to the guest that the drink is correct is the one whose reviews you will be reading later.
A guest pushes the glass back and says, 'This is weak, make it stronger.' What do you say?
Why ask it
Offering a double at the price of a double is the clean answer, and it can be said with a smile. A free top-up gives away your stock and teaches the guest to ask again, and some places cap how much spirit can go into one serving. Tell the candidate where your house and your local rules draw that line.
Tell me about a guest who arrived in a bad mood and left happy.
Why ask it
A true story has detail in it: what the guest said, what the candidate did next, what it cost the bar. If the fix was a free drink every time, ask how they would manage in a house where they are not allowed to comp.
How do you deal with a guest who is sober and simply rude: clicking fingers, talking down to you?
Why ask it
Staying level and serving them properly is reasonable. Absorbing abuse all night is not something to ask of anyone, so say where your own line is and who they can call over. Candidates give a tamer answer than they would act on if they think you expect them to take it.
How do you sell a guest a better pour without it sounding like a pitch?
Why ask it
Good upselling is a question asked at the right moment, such as naming two gins when someone orders a gin and tonic. Be wary of anyone whose method is pushing doubles. That raises the check and your risk in the same pour.
How do you make a first-time guest into a regular?
Why ask it
A name, the usual remembered on the second visit and a goodbye on the way out are the answers that cost you nothing. Ask how many regulars followed them from their last bar, and take the number with a grain of salt.
A guest asks whether a cocktail contains nuts, egg or dairy. How do you answer?
Why ask it
Almond syrups, egg white foams and cream liqueurs catch people out, so the reply to worry about is a confident guess. A careful bartender checks the bottle or the spec, reaches for clean tools and says so when they cannot be sure. If your area requires allergen information on request, show the candidate where your bar keeps it.
Safe service
How do you decide someone has had enough, and what do you actually say?
Why ask it
The words matter more than the policy. Strong candidates have a line they use, offer water or food, and involve a manager or door staff early. Anyone who says it has never come up has either not worked a late shift or was not the one noticing.
Have you ever refused service, and how did it end?
Why ask it
Listen to the ending. A quiet word, a manager brought over and a guest who left without a scene is the story to hope for. If the candidate tells it as an argument they won in front of the room, picture that on your busiest Saturday.
What alcohol service training do you hold, and when did you do it?
Why ask it
Requirements vary by country, state and city, and in some places the certificate is a condition of working behind a bar at all. Find out what applies to you before the interview, ask to see the document and its expiry date, and be clear about who pays if it needs renewing.
Who do you ask for ID, and what do you look at once it is in your hand?
Why ask it
The photo against the face, the date of birth, the expiry date and the feel of the card itself make a full answer. The age below which staff must ask, and which documents count, come from local law and house policy. Tell the candidate your rule and ask whether their last bar's was stricter.
Someone hands you an ID you do not believe, or says it is in the car. What then?
Why ask it
What the law does to a bar, and to the bartender, for serving someone underage depends on where you are. The answer to hope for does not: no ID they trust, no drink, said politely, and a manager called if the guest argues. If they hesitate, ask what their last bar expected of them.
You have cut someone off, and their friend comes up to order two drinks. How do you handle the friend?
Why ask it
Anyone who has worked late shifts has seen this move and will say so. The answer you want involves watching where the second glass goes and being willing to stop serving the whole group. Explain how your house handles it, because rules on serving through a third person vary by place.
A guest who has clearly had too much picks up their car keys. What happens next?
Why ask it
Offering to call a ride, bringing a friend into it and telling a manager are all sensible, and none of them involves wrestling over keys. What staff are expected or allowed to do differs by location and by house policy, so describe yours instead of marking their answer against a rule.
A guest wants to buy you a shot. What do you do?
Why ask it
Houses differ, and in some places the law bars staff from drinking while they serve, so say what your rule is. The skill you are checking is the refusal that does not sting: a thank you, a soda in a shot glass, or one saved for after the shift if you allow that. The way they describe drinking on shift at their last bar is worth hearing too.
Someone at your bar looks uneasy about the attention another guest is paying them. What do you do?
Why ask it
The skill is the quiet check-in: a question asked while setting down a glass of water, out of the other person's hearing. If your bar has a code phrase guests can use, mention it. 'Not my business' tells you how the people sitting at your bar would be looked after.
Two guests start shoving each other. Where are you, and what are you doing?
Why ask it
Staying behind the bar, calling for the manager or door staff and moving glass out of reach is the answer that keeps people in one piece. A candidate who describes jumping in to separate them is describing a way for someone to get hurt, and should hear what your house expects instead.
Cash and upkeep
How do you close out a drawer, and what did you do the time it came up short?
Why ask it
Asking about the time it happened, not whether it ever did, makes the truth easier to tell. The good version has them recounting, going back through the voids and telling a manager that night. A drawer that is a little short is ordinary; one that nobody was told about is the kind to worry over.
What was your last bar's rule on comps and voids, and how did you use it?
Why ask it
A bartender who knows the rule and stayed inside it is describing a bar with control. Someone who bought drinks freely to build a following may be popular and expensive, and you should decide in advance what your own limit will be.
Your friends come in on a Friday and expect to be looked after. What do they get?
Why ask it
Quick service and a warm hello cost you nothing, and that is the answer from someone who has thought about it. Free rounds are a different matter unless your comp rule allows them and they are rung in as comps. A candidate who laughs and says their friends know better has probably had that conversation already.
Which point-of-sale systems have you used, and do you ring a drink in before or after you make it?
Why ask it
The brand matters little, since a new system can be learned on the job. The habit is what counts. Ringing first keeps every drink on a check, and 'I catch up when it calms down' is how drinks go missing without anybody meaning to steal.
You notice another bartender handing friends drinks that never get rung in. Who do you tell?
Why ask it
It is an uncomfortable question and candidates know why you are asking. Telling a manager is what you need to hear, and wanting a quiet word with the colleague first is understandable. If the answer is that it is none of their concern, your stock is unguarded whenever you leave the building.
How do you keep track of open tabs when the bar is full, and what happened the last time someone walked out on one?
Why ask it
A card taken at the first round, a name and a seat on every tab, and a glance at the screen when a group reaches for their coats are the habits to listen for. Then set out your own policy on walkouts. Whether staff can be asked to cover one is a legal matter that depends on where you are, so check before you write the rule.
What do you do in the first thirty minutes of a shift, before anyone arrives?
Why ask it
A bartender with a routine can recite it: ice, garnish cut, wells stocked, juices and anything else already open tasted, the reservations or event sheet read. Ask what they do when the person who closed the night before left the bar short, since that shift comes round sooner or later.
What does a properly closed bar look like at the end of the night?
Why ask it
The answer reveals who trained them. Wells wiped, taps and pour spouts cleaned, drains flushed, stock written down, nothing left in a shaker overnight. Vagueness here often means someone else has been closing behind them.
A glass breaks over the ice well in the middle of a rush. What is the first thing you do?
Why ask it
There is one right answer, and experienced bartenders give it without thinking: stop using the well, melt the ice out, clean it and refill. Picking out the pieces you can see is the wrong answer however deep the bar is.
Have you counted stock or placed orders, and what does pour cost mean to you?
Why ask it
For most bartending jobs this is a bonus, and it marks out the person who could one day run a shift for you. Someone who understands what a spilled or given-away pour does to the numbers tends to handle the bottles differently.
Team and shifts
How do you get on with servers when the tickets are coming faster than you can pour?
Why ask it
Bar and floor rub against each other most when the service well backs up. A candidate who describes calling out what they are working on, and telling a server honestly how long a round will take, has learned to work with the floor and not against it.
Tell me about a manager you worked well with, and one you did not.
Why ask it
Listen for how they describe the second one. Specific complaints about scheduling or being left without support are fair; sweeping contempt for management usually arrives with you in the role soon enough.
How do you handle another bartender on your shift who is not pulling their weight?
Why ask it
Saying something to the colleague directly, once, before going to a manager is the grown-up sequence. Silent resentment and sniping across the well both end up in front of guests. Ask whether it has happened to them and what came of it.
You are going to be an hour late for a Saturday shift. What do I hear from you, and when?
Why ask it
A phone call the moment they know, not a text ten minutes after start time, and some attempt to find cover. Everybody is late eventually. What you are hiring is the warning.
How do you feel about tip pooling, and about sharing with the kitchen?
Why ask it
Ask before you hire and not on the first payday, since strong feelings here are common and fair. Describe your arrangement plainly and see whether they can live with it. Who may share in a tip pool is regulated in many places, so confirm that yours is allowed before you present it as settled.
Which shifts do you want, and which can you not do?
Why ask it
Ask early, because it can end the conversation kindly. If the opening is weekends and closes, say so in the same breath. A candidate who can only do weeknights is applying for a different job from the one you are filling.
What would your last manager say you still need to work on?
Why ask it
It is the weakness question with a witness attached, and the answer comes out more carefully because you might call that manager. Speed, tidiness, patience with slow guests and paperwork are all common and fixable. Compare it with what the reference says.
Where do you want to be in two years?
Why ask it
Bar work is often a step towards something else, which is fine when it is said out loud. Someone aiming at a bar management role or their own place will invest more, provided you can describe a route that does not require them to leave.
What do you want to know about this job before you would say yes?
Why ask it
Questions about tips, the schedule and who closes are the sensible ones, and a candidate who asks them is weighing the job the way a person who plans to stay does. Having nothing to ask about money or hours is odd in someone who needs both.
How to interview a bartender
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Choosing from a long list
Pick ten or twelve, not all of them
A half-hour interview has room for about that many once follow-ups are counted. Take about two from each group and keep the rest for a second conversation or for the trial shift, where several of them answer themselves.
Weight the groups to your room
A cocktail bar should spend longest on drinks and on how a candidate reads a guest. A volume pub or a venue bar should spend it on speed, safe service and cash. A hotel or restaurant bar needs the questions about servers and tickets more than either.
Ask every candidate the same core
Choose five or six questions that every applicant gets in the same words, and write the answers down. Comparing three people on Thursday is far easier when they were all asked how they cut someone off, and it keeps the decision from resting on who was most likeable.
Keep the safe service questions in, whatever else goes
Cutting a guest off, checking ID and what happens when a drawer is short are where a wrong hire can hurt a bar most. If time runs out, drop the menu and career questions first.
Stay on the job
Availability, experience and how someone works are fair ground. Questions about age, family plans, health, religion or where someone is from are restricted in many places, so check what your local employment rules allow before the interview and not after it. Where there is a minimum age for serving alcohol, ask only whether the candidate meets it.
Put them behind the bar
Pay for a trial shift, and pick a real one
A quiet afternoon shows you very little. Put them on during a proper service with a senior bartender alongside, pay them for the hours, and tell the team in advance what is happening. Rules on trial shifts differ from place to place, so check yours before you offer one.
Watch the hands and the eyes
Speed comes from economy of movement and from looking up. Notice whether they acknowledge a new guest while finishing a drink, whether they measure, and whether they wipe as they go or leave the well to pile up.
Give them one awkward moment
A returned drink, a guest who wants something not on the list, a ticket printed wrong. How they handle a small problem in front of people is the closest preview you will get of a busy Saturday.
Check waste and pour
A pour that runs heavy all night adds up across a year of shifts. Ask them to pour what they believe is a single, tip it into a jigger to check, and watch what goes down the drain during the shift.
Check what can be checked
- Call the last bar, not only the one before it, and ask whether they would have them back. If the candidate still works there, agree with them first when you will call.
- Ask about the gaps in the work history plainly and do not assume a reason.
- Confirm any required alcohol service certification directly, including the expiry date.
- Find out what your local law requires you to check about eligibility to work, and do it before the first paid shift.
- Ask what nights they were scheduled at their last job, then check that against the availability they gave you.
Say what the job really is
Describe your worst night, not your best
Tell them what the room is like at closing, how deep the bar gets, whether there is a barback, and who does the deep clean. A candidate who says yes after hearing that has fewer surprises waiting in the second week.
Be specific about money
Hourly rate, how tips are distributed, when they are paid out, and what a typical week comes to across a slow and a busy month. A new bartender who learns on the first payday that the interview numbers were rosier than the real ones has a reason to start looking again.
Set out the schedule and how it is made
How far ahead the schedule is posted, how swaps are handled, and how time off is requested. For someone working nights and weekends, those details decide what the rest of their week looks like.
Hiring mistakes to avoid
Hiring on charm alone
The bartender who interviews brilliantly is not always the one who closes properly or counts a drawer honestly. Weigh the trial shift and the reference call above the conversation.
Skipping the cash and comps questions
They can feel accusatory, and they are the ones that protect the business. Ask them in the same tone as the questions about the schedule and they land as process, which is what they are.
Assuming cocktail skill covers everything
Someone who makes beautiful drinks slowly may not suit a volume bar, and a fast pub bartender may struggle with a cocktail list. Hire for the room you actually run.
Leaving refusal of service undiscussed
How a bartender handles an ID and an intoxicated guest can put your license at risk, and the rules behind that are local. Cover both in the interview and again in training, and say who they should call for support.