A heady mix of jobs and peddling brands

Arina Suchde sits up front and pays close attention.

“All Tequilas are Mezcals, but all Mezcals are not Tequilas,” the instructor says, detailing how such Mexican spirits are distilled from agave plants.

The students furiously take notes. On their tables are cocktail shakers, strainers, stirrers and other tools of the trade. The counter in the background, with various liquors lined up, wine goblets, champagne flutes, martini glasses sorted upside down overhead, all give away the double life led by this place in suburban Mumbai.

By night, it is a bar known as The Club. By day, it is the Johnnie Walker Academy.

Tonight, as revellers flock to restaurants, bars, discos and parties to welcome 2008, many of the people serving their drinks stand testament to changing times, too. Aspiring bartenders and their employers suddenly have several training schools to choose from, a sign of the demand for the profession—and recognition from liquor companies that bartenders can be the best peddlers of brands to new drinkers. In between mixing drinks and small talk, they just might explain Bombay Sapphire’s global appeal, creating a customer who might start asking for it the next time they want a gin and tonic.

More than 30 bartending courses are offered across India, including by domestic units of established companies such as Diageo Plc., the maker of Johnnie Walker Scotch.

Already, Diageo India Pvt. Ltd is looking to set up more academies across major metros. Spurred by a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing women in New Delhi to work as bartenders, the company plans to offer a course in the Capital by the first half of 2008 ahead of a likely surge in aspiring bartenders.

The aptly named Cocktails and Dreams Academy of Bartending, operating in Mumbai and New Delhi, churns out at least 100 dreams a year. “Suddenly, bartending has become a hot career option. The demand is growing every day,” claims Kishore Thapar, manager and instructor at Cocktails and Dreams.

The money is getting better, too. When Thapar started out in the late 1990s, bartenders were paid about Rs2,000 per month. When Suchde, all of 21 and the only woman in her Mumbai class, graduates a few months from now, she can, in short order, expect to earn anywhere from Rs10,000 to Rs1 lakh a month, depending on where she ends up and how much work she is willing to do.

“I’ve wanted to be a bartender for a long, long time,” says the hotel management graduate. “And finally that dream is coming true.”

She says she knew it as early as 17, but, just as she was about to enrol in a course, the minimum age for the programme was raised from 18 to 21. So, when she came of age, she promptly enrolled at Johnnie Walker.

Students at the academy get to try their hand at techniques of mixing, pouring and bartending with flair. They are also given opportunities to try their budding skills at events. Officials at the academy claim that because of such grounding and exposure, their graduates are in great demand.

“All the students in our first batch were placed in three days,” says Asif Adil, managing director, Diageo India. “And we already have companies who are interested in hiring from our second batch.”

Indeed, the first batch of 14 students have been hired by some of the big names in the industry: China House at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Mumbai, ITC Grand Central, Hotel Le Meredien, and P&O Cruises, a cruise line.

But these courses don’t come cheap.

Diageo charges Rs35,000 for its Johnnie Walker Academy, while the Indian Institute of Bartending in Chennai offers a range of programmes, from a six-week certificate course costing Rs8,400 to a one-year diploma in bar management costing Rs55,000.

Most students, many of whom are already in the hospitality industry and looking for a quick leg-up, say their parents are okay with the career choice.

Masrat Khan, a recent graduate of the academy who now works at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Mumbai, says that the investment that she made into the course is already paying off. “I plan to work abroad, eventually,” she says.

Part of her job satisfaction now, she says, comes from the response from customers at the hotel. “Women usually come up to me and say how happy they are to see a woman at the bar,” she says. “Many also express an interest in taking up bartending.”

Sheena Viegas, another graduate of the academy, earns between Rs2,000 and Rs10,000 per gig. Before the training, Mukesh Jalandra and Abhishwet Borkar were both assisting at the Tavern, a bar at the Fariyas Hotel in Mumbai, but after the course, they were promptly promoted to bartenders.

S. Edison Amalraj, founder of the Chennai bartending institute, also points to heady times for his school. “We offer 100% lifetime placements to our students,” he says, meaning that a student who has graduated from the institute can go back at any time if they are looking for a new job.

Amalraj is a hotel management graduate who went on to become a bartender with several hotels and cruise liners. “From my own experience, I realized that bar professionals in India need far more intensive training,” he says.

Ananth Vaidhyanathan, group general manager, Vie Lounge and Deck, a popular nightclub in Mumbai, sent his bartenders for training and has hired three more from such schools.

“Our club needs people who are well trained in all aspects, including customer service, and can start on the job right away,” he says. “That’s the difference that these academies make. We no longer have to invest a lot of time in training people ourselves.”

Bartending academies dovetail with Diageo’s strategy for the Indian booze business. With $20 billion in global sales, the spirit maker is ambitious and needs to grab more of the $2 billion annual market that consumes some 120 million cases of spirits each year.

“Bartenders form the last mile in our business,” says Adil. “They are the people who communicate with the consumer, so it is important to inculcate brand passion in them.”