How to Screen Bartenders: 9 Questions and What to Listen For Screening Interview Template

What kind of bars have you worked (neighborhood bar, high-volume nightclub, casual restaurant bar, cocktail bar, hotel or resort, brewery or taproom, banquets), how many bartenders were on with you, and roughly how many drinks or how much in sales did you ring on your busiest shift?

What this assesses: A cocktail bartender building eight stirred drinks an hour and a nightclub bartender pouring four hundred and fifty tickets on a Saturday share a title and almost no muscle memory. Strong answers name the concept, give a real number for sales or drinks or covers, say how many people were behind the bar with them, and describe whether they were on the guest rail, the service well, or both. Be cautious with a candidate who only says they 'bartended for years,' cannot put a number on a busy night, or has worked only slow shifts at a quiet bar and is applying to a room that turns over three hundred guests between nine and midnight, since speed is the thing that cannot be taught in a week.

Build me three drinks from memory: an old fashioned, a margarita, and a Manhattan. Give the spirits, the modifiers, the ratios, the glass, and the garnish. Do you free pour or use a jigger, and which does your current bar require?

What this assesses: This is the cheapest technical check in hospitality and it separates people who have actually worked a bar from people who have watched one. Strong answers come back fast and specific, with real ratios, the right glassware, and the right build method for each, and they say plainly which spec they are working from since house specs vary. On pour, strong answers know both, name the house standard they were held to, and can say what a four-count actually measures. Be cautious with a candidate who confuses a Manhattan and an old fashioned, cannot name a modifier, gives ratios that would be undrinkable, or insists they free pour everything at a bar you know runs jiggered specs for cost control. Also read the length: a real bartender answers this in a few lines, while a candidate pasting an answer from somewhere else tends to write a paragraph of history about each drink.

It is a Friday at ten. The service well printer is running tickets for the dining room, the rail in front of you is three deep, a guest is trying to close out, and your barback just left for a keg. What do you do first, second, and third, and what do you say to the people you are making wait?

What this assesses: Triage under load is the actual job, and this question shows whether they have a system or just speed. Strong answers batch by station rather than by arrival, keep the service well moving because a stalled well backs up the entire dining room, take orders from the rail while pouring so nobody is standing there unacknowledged, close the tab out because it takes ten seconds and frees a seat, and say something to the people waiting rather than pretending not to see them. They also flag when they would call for help. Be cautious with an answer that works strictly first come first served, ignores the service well, or describes going faster as the whole strategy, since that is how a bar loses a dining room turn and a manager finds out about it from the servers.

A regular who tips well and knows the owner is past the point where you should keep serving. Walk me through exactly what you do, what you say to them, and what happens next.

What this assesses: This is the question with the largest dollar figure behind it, and the answer tells you whether the candidate has ever actually cut someone off or has only agreed in principle that they would. Strong answers describe noticing early and slowing service before the hard stop, cutting off calmly and without an audience, offering food and water and a ride, looping in the manager and the door, and making sure the person is not driving. They treat the regular status and the tip history as irrelevant, and they say they would document it or tell the closing manager. Be cautious with a candidate who says it has never come up, who would serve one more to avoid a scene, who frames it as the manager's decision rather than theirs, or who describes an escalating argument, since the goal is a guest who leaves safely and comes back next week, not a confrontation you have to break up.

What alcohol service certification do you currently hold and in what state (TIPS, ServSafe Alcohol, TABC, MAST, or a state equivalent), and how do you handle it when someone hands you an ID you do not believe is theirs, or a group orders where one person has no ID at all?

What this assesses: Certification requirements vary by state and some are mandatory to work at all, so verify the credential and its expiration rather than assuming it transfers across a state line. On the ID question, strong answers describe an actual method: checking the birthdate against the math, looking at the photo and the physical card rather than the number, asking a question the holder should be able to answer, and refusing service politely without a lecture. They know that a group where one person has no ID means nobody at that table gets served alcohol until the situation is resolved, because the second drink handed down the bar is the one that ends a liquor license. Be cautious with a candidate who has no certification and no plan to get one, who would serve a group and 'keep an eye on it,' or who treats ID checks as a formality on a slow night.

How did your last bar handle comps, buybacks, and voids, and what was your drawer supposed to look like at close? Tell me about a time your drawer came up short or long, and what you did.

What this assesses: Bar shrink is the quiet cost that shows up in a pour-cost report months after a bad hire started, and most interviews never raise it. Strong answers know the house rules cold, whether buybacks were allowed and at what frequency, who had to approve a comp or a void, and how their cash and card totals were reconciled. On the shortage, they name a real one, describe reporting it themselves the same night, and walk through what they changed afterward, usually ringing every drink before pouring it. Be cautious with a candidate who has never worked anywhere with a comp policy, who describes buying back rounds at their own discretion as a normal part of the job, or who says their drawer has never once been off, since that answer is either untrue or means somebody else was counting it.

Tell me about the worst guest situation you have handled at the bar: someone aggressive, two guests about to fight, or a guest harassing another guest or a server. What did you do?

What this assesses: The bartender has the best sightline in the room and is usually the first person who can stop something. Strong answers describe seeing it building before it broke, moving to separate rather than confront, using the door or a manager instead of handling it alone, staying behind the bar rather than coming around it, and staying with the guest who was targeted afterward. They also mention calling police when it crossed that line and writing down what happened. Be cautious with a candidate whose story ends in them physically removing someone, who describes matching a guest's tone, or who did not tell anyone until after their shift. Also listen for whether they take harassment of a server seriously or treat it as part of the business.

Walk me through your opening set-up and your close. What do you cut, prep, and stock before service, what are you responsible for at close, and how long does your close actually take once last call is over?

What this assesses: Bartenders who only know the middle of the shift make a bar expensive to run and make the closing manager stay late. Strong answers describe real work on both ends: juice and garnish prep, ice, restocking to par, checking kegs and CO2, breaking down and cleaning wells and mats, running the drains, counting inventory, and reconciling the drawer, with an honest number on how long the close runs. They know par levels are a thing and can say what they stocked to. Be cautious with a candidate who cannot describe prep beyond cutting limes, who has never changed a keg or reset a line, or who says their close took twenty minutes at a bar that runs the volume they described, since that usually means someone else was closing for them.

What nights and shifts can you actually work, including Fridays, Saturdays, holidays, and closes that end at two or three in the morning? How are you getting home at that hour, do you have another job we would be scheduling around, and what do you expect to make on a good night including tips and tip-out?

What this assesses: Availability and money are what decide whether this hire is still on the schedule in March, and asking them last on a call is why so many bartenders wash out in the first month. Strong answers commit to specific nights including at least some weekend closes, have a real plan for getting home at three in the morning rather than a transit route that stopped running, disclose a second job with its actual schedule, and give a nightly tip number in line with the volume you described plus an understanding of how the tip-out to barbacks and servers works at your bar. Be cautious with a candidate who wants day shifts only at a bar whose business is at night, who is vague about the ride home, or whose tip expectations came from a room doing three times your volume, since that gap turns into a resignation the first slow Tuesday. Ask every applicant these same questions and score them against the same [interview scorecard](/glossary/interview-scorecard) rather than on who came across warmest across a bar, which is what keeps [high-volume recruiting](/glossary/high-volume-recruiting) consistent when you are staffing several bars at once. Running this as a written first round instead of chasing people who are asleep until noon is the whole case for [asynchronous screening](/glossary/asynchronous-screening), and applying one [structured interview](/glossary/structured-interview) to every candidate is what makes the scores comparable.