Behind

“BEHIND!” A barback yells as he makes his way between quickly moving bartenders to refill glasses. Most guests don’t even take notice of the bold declaration, and instead marvel at the talent displayed by his ability to carry a massive tray filled with glassware without toppling over. However, without his clear communication and perfect rhythm with his colleagues, and awareness of guests in the bar, that tray could have taken a tumble a dozen times before it even left the bar.

What you see when you’re enjoying a drink at a bar is just the surface of it all. Behind the bar, in the kitchen and everywhere in between, bar staff members are talking in industry lingo, utilizing quick footwork to avoid collisions, and seamlessly working together like a well-oiled machine. If you haven’t worked in the service industry, you probably aren’t familiar with everything that happens before you take your first sip, but to the bar staff and bartenders, it’s their world full of context clues, half-spoken sentences and nonverbal communication.

With all that’s going on in a bar, energies are high. To keep a packed house happy, every single person on staff must do their job and pick up the slack when they see it. As bartenders sling drinks and work around each other, the bar filled with guests gets louder, happier and even more energized, but still, the bar staff stays focused, so as not to deliver the wrong drink to the wrong person or miss an ingredient in a recipe.

The sound of glass breaking can kill the symphony. Items crashing to the floor are the equivalent of the fourth wall coming down, which makes the guests realize that they’re not alone in the space. To avoid such calamity, the team assembles in nearly choreographed moves, as if dancing through every step. Two steps backward are okay, but three steps backward will cause a run-in that will end poorly, thinks a bartender trainee to themself.

This high-intensity, exciting and often challenging environment brings staff together, making them work as a unit. Before a shift starts, they sit down for family meal, because breaking bread together bonds you to get through anything.

The feeling you get when you sip a fantastic drink or eat a delicious meal is about so much more than good food and drinks. Behind everything on your table is a required commitment to collaboration, perseverance when things get tough and an unending understanding that the bar, and restaurant, are only as strong as the team that’s hard at work.

So yes, the energy might feel infectious, the drinks might have the right mix of flavors, and the food might arrive piping hot. But none of that just happens. The energy is transferable to the room when the staff is all in unison. When you take the time to appreciate the team that has been on their feet for hours, racking up workout points on their activity trackers and speaking in what sounds like a code language, your meal becomes even more enjoyable. Those with first-hand experience know of the unbeatable bond that gets created when a team is dedicated to achieving a collective goal, which is what happens every single night before your mint julep even arrives.