E-Kantipur

FEB 01 -

It was six months ago that Cocktails and Dreams opened their School of Bar and Beverage Management (SBBM) at Nagpokhari to offer their services to those interested in learning more about bartending, cocktail-making, and other related skills. Within the short time span that the school has been functional, it has acquired a reputation for providing quality practical-based training in its specified field. A testament to its success is the fact that three former students are now en route to Legend Hotel, a five star establishment in Malaysia, to work as paid interns in bartending.

Upon entering the school, one can see a largish group of about a dozen students milling around SBBM’s bar, watching one of their own making and mixing cocktails in a demonstration of sorts. All while Rajkumar DC, Managing Director of SBBM, instructs them on proper procedures such as how to mix the liquors as per regulation to achieve the best results. Practical skills are also supplemented with theoretical knowledge; DC narrates the history of various popular concoctions like Cosmopolitians and Margaritas.

“The Cosmopolitan was popular with women in New York in the 1990s,” DC tells the students, before launching into the recipe, giving out strict measurements—45ml of vodka, 15ml of lime juice, 15ml triple sec and 30ml cranberry juice—all of which are emptied into a shaker filled with ice, then double strained into the requisite vessel and garnished with a slice of lime before serving. The environment here might be casual, as one would expect of a bartending school, with students chatting their way through the classes, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t serious about learning.

Anup Sharma, a bachelor in Hotel Management student from Gate College, says enrolling at SBBM was a great decision. “It was a completely new experience,” he says. “To be able to take a full-on course in something like bartending which used to be taken so lightly, it’s a great opportunity. More people should do it.”

Similar feelings were expressed by Nikita Tamang, a BBS student, who says she’s learned a lot more in the past three months than she’d expected to. “Classes were informative and I’ve become acquainted with so many new skills in mixology. And I’ve made a lot of friends,” Tamang says. 

With the bar culture slowly flurishing in the country, instructors at the school say that this is the perfect time for such an institution to have come about. Niresh Thapa, flair instructor at the school explains that new skills such as the ones he teaches are in demand no, because these days customers don’t just want to drink, they want to be entertained. “It’s all about luring in the guests,” he says. “And my students have generally shown a lot of talent in picking up flair skills.”

Besides the possibility of job offers following the end of their course, students still enrolled at the school admit to already being able to earn some pocket money serving as bartenders at various events and festival celebrations within Nepal. “I got to go to Dharan, Itahari, Pokhara, and many other places to bartend even before the course was complete,” says Bhanu Saru, one of the students nominated to go to Malaysia for the paid internship at Legend. “This meant I was able to earn back more than half the money I had initially paid for my course. It is a pretty good deal.” 

The SBBM offers comprehensive training programmes in all disciplines of cocktail-making and bartending from customer service to bar etiquette, product knowledge to mixology among a number of other services. What the school represents, besides a place where potential bartenders can come to learn and strengthen their skills, is a gradual opening up of mindsets towards vocations that are beyond the conventional few to include a more diverse range of interests.

Posted on: 2012-02-01 08:44

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