How to Become a Bartender: The Honest Guide

Want to know how to become a bartender? We break down the real path — from first shifts to head bartender — with advice from people who've done it.

Marcus Webb

Updated 2025-11-25 10 ranked bars

The short answer

Our editors' №1 is Attaboy — New York.

10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.

Best overallAttaboy — New York

Runner-upThe Dead Rabbit — New York

Third pickDante — New York

Learning how to become a bartender is a question that gets vague answers on most of the internet and almost none from people who have actually done it. We have spent time speaking with working bartenders across New York, London, and Chicago about how they got started, what they wish they had known, and which establishments genuinely invest in developing talent from scratch. Here is what they told us.

Where Bartenders Actually Learn Their Craft

The path into bartending is not linear, and no serious hiring manager at a top bar cares about your certificate from a three-day cocktail school as much as the school would like you to believe. What matters is floor time, mentorship, and the willingness to be wrong in front of people. These are the bars and programmes where the training is actually worth something.

Editor's №1

Attaboy — New York

The Dead Rabbit — New York

Dante — New York

The Connaught Bar — London

Lyaness — London

Nightjar — London

Black Rock — London

Death & Co — New York / Denver / Washington DC

Employees Only — New York

Sager + Wilde — London

How we picked

The fastest path to a bartending career is not a course — it is getting a floor job at a bar you respect and making yourself impossible to ignore. Start as a barback if you have to. Work brunch if that is what gets you in the room. The bars above have produced some of the best working bartenders in the world, and they all have one thing in common: they hired people with genuine curiosity and patience, then built skill on top of that.

Certificate programmes have their place — for someone with no hospitality background at all, a one-week intensive will teach you the basics of technique and give you something to show at interview. But no serious head bartender at the bars on this list will shortlist someone solely on the basis of a course completion. Spend your money on good spirits to practice with at home, and spend your time getting floor hours at the best bar that will take you.

James has been covering bar culture in New York and London since 2012. He has interviewed more than 200 working bartenders and has strong opinions about which ones are actually worth listening to.

Last reviewed 2025-11-25 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.