House Plans: Midwest Bartending School

Midwest Bartending School

The arrival of the Super Bowl has led to a surge in students looking to take make money from the party crowd.For some, it's a second job. For others, it's a career. But it starts at the Midwest Bartenders School near Castleton Square Mall."This is an explosion that we've never seen before. People are coming out of the woodwork, they want to get trained in a professional way," said Richard Devlin, president of Midwest Bartender's School.The phone at the school is ringing off the hook, from Super Bowl party organizers needing help and students hoping to meet the demand."There's gonna be so many jobs available and you're gonna hit a ton of people, so you mix that with the craziness and you'll probably make some good money," said student Lindsey Griffin."I've got a couple leads, so after that, I'm gonna find something that works around my full-time job," said student Jason Hands.While there is the temporary demand for students from the school due to the Super Bowl, over the long-term, the economy has more older students signing up for classes at the school."Supplementary income. Displaced workers, their unemployment's running out and it's a recession-proof job that's always going to be around," Devlin said.With 40 hours of training, students learn how to mix 150 drinks. The final exam consists of making 12 drinks in eight minutes, some of which are rather complicated. There are even advanced classes called "bartender flair" - don't try this at home.The basic training also includes instruction on how to identify ID cards from Super Bowl visitors from around the world and recognizing how to avoid overserving those who have come to party.If all goes as planned, the pay day can be big."The average bartender, in tips, makes $75-300 a night in tips. I think with the Super Bowl, they could average anywhere from $500-1,500 a night in tips," Devlin said.When the big game moves on, the students hope they'll at least have another set of skills to fall back on.