Questions to Ask Bartender Interview
Questions for the manager or owner interviewing a bartender, covering speed and specs, how they handle a guest who has had enough, cash and comps, opening and closing routines, and the shifts they actually want.
The questions
Open any question for the note
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 did your busiest night there look like?
Why ask it
Ask for numbers if they have them: covers, takings, how many deep the bar got. The useful part is what broke first under pressure, because it shows they were paying attention rather than just surviving the shift.
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.
How many drinks an hour can you put out with a barback, and without one?
Why ask it
The gap between the two numbers is the honest answer. Bartenders who have worked without support know what disappears first, usually ice, clean glassware and garnish prep, and they will tell you what they need from your setup.
Three people are waving at you at once. What happens?
Why ask it
You want a described method: acknowledging everyone quickly, taking them in order, and telling the third person you have seen them. Answers about working faster miss the point, because the complaint is almost always about being ignored rather than waiting.
A guest says the drink is wrong. What do you do?
Why ask it
Look for remaking it without argument, then asking what they would prefer instead. A bartender who describes explaining that the drink is correct is the one whose reviews you will be reading later.
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
You are listening for whether they de-escalated or enjoyed it. A story with a calm ending and a manager involved is what you want; a story where they won an argument in front of the room is a liability on a Saturday night.
What alcohol service training do you hold, and when did you do it?
Why ask it
Requirements vary by state and city, and in many places the certificate is a condition of working rather than a preference. Ask for the document and check the expiry, and be clear about who pays if it needs renewing.
Someone hands you an ID you do not believe, or says it is in the car. What then?
Why ask it
This is the answer with legal consequences for your licence, so it should be unhesitating: no ID, no service, and a manager called if the guest argues. Any flexibility in the answer is a reason to keep looking.
How do you close out a drawer, and what did you do the time it came up short?
Why ask it
Asking about a specific shortage, rather than whether one ever happened, gets a much more honest answer. What you want is someone who reported it immediately, because concealment is the pattern that costs bars real money.
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.
How much do you know about beer and wine, not just cocktails?
Why ask it
Most bars make more from beer and wine than from 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.
What do you do in the first thirty minutes of a shift, before anyone arrives?
Why ask it
Setup discipline is the difference between a smooth night and a frantic one. Look for a routine: checking ice, cutting garnish, stocking, tasting anything that has been open, and reading the reservations or the event sheet.
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 means someone else has been closing behind them.
How do you get on with servers when the tickets are coming faster than you can pour?
Why ask it
This is the most common source of daily friction in a bar. A candidate who describes calling out what they are working on, and holding a place in the queue for food orders, has learned to work with a floor rather than 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 feel about tip pooling, and about sharing with the kitchen?
Why ask it
Ask before you hire rather than on the first payday, since strong feelings here are common and legitimate. Explain your arrangement plainly and see whether they can live with it, because resentment about tips leaks into service.
Which shifts do you want, and which can you not do?
Why ask it
Ask early because it can end the conversation kindly. Weekend and closing cover is what most bars are short of, and a candidate who needs weeknights only is applying for a different job than the one you are filling.
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.
Interviewing behind the bar
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Put them behind the bar
Pay for a trial shift, and pick a real one
A Tuesday afternoon proves nothing. 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.
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
Free pouring that is consistently heavy costs more over a year than a wage difference. Ask them to pour a measure and check it, 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.
- Ask about the gaps in the work history plainly rather than assuming a reason.
- Confirm any required alcohol service certification directly, including the expiry date.
- Confirm right-to-work documentation before the first paid shift, not after.
- 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. Candidates who accept the job with the truth in front of them stay longer.
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. Vagueness about earnings is the most common reason a new bartender leaves within a month.
Set out the schedule and how it is made
How far ahead the rota is published, how swaps are handled, and how holiday is requested. In hospitality this determines quality of life more than almost anything else.
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 feel accusatory and they are the ones that protect the business. Asked as ordinary process questions, most candidates answer straightforwardly.
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
Your licence depends on how a bartender handles an ID and an intoxicated guest. Cover both in the interview and again in training, and say who they should call for support.