5 Things Every Barback Should Know About the Menu Before Their Second Shift
Hey Team!
Let me tell you what I actually tell a new barback on their first day. Not the HR stuff. The real stuff. The stuff that, if they don't know it going into shift two, I'm going to feel it in my ticket times and my bartender's patience by 9pm on a Friday.
Most barbacks come in thinking the job is about speed and hustle. And yeah, it is. But the ones who become genuinely useful within a week, the ones bartenders actually want on their side of the rail, know the menu. Not chef-level deep. Just enough to move with confidence and answer a simple question without looking lost.
Here are the five things I tell every new barback to know cold before they come back for their second shift.
Know your draft list well enough to describe each beer in one sentence. You don't need to sound like a Cicerone. You need to be able to say "that one's a light lager, pretty easy drinking" or "that IPA is bitter and hoppy, not for everyone." Guests ask barbacks what's on tap all the time, especially when the bar is three deep and the bartender can't break away. If your barback freezes up or just points at the chalkboard, that's a missed moment. So before shift two, the barback should walk the entire tap line. Read the handle, taste it if the manager allows, and land on one plain-English sentence per beer. That's it. Lager, wheat, IPA, stout. Easy drinker, complex, bitter, smooth. You can build from there.
Know which cocktails on your list carry the most allergen risk. This one isn't optional. I don't care what kind of bar you're running. At our sports bar, we've got cocktails with egg whites in them. We've got things with nut-based liqueurs. A guest is going to ask a barback before they ever flag down the server, and "I don't know, let me find someone" is fine as a first response, but only if the barback goes and actually finds someone fast. The mistake I see is barbacks who don't even know which menu items to flag as potentially risky. So before shift two, they need to look at every cocktail build and identify the ones with egg white, nut liqueurs, cream, honey, or anything else that could be a problem. Ask the head bartender to walk them through it. Five minutes. That's all it takes.
Know what's 86'd and how the bar communicates it. Every bar has a system. Some use a whiteboard behind the bar. Some use a group chat. Some just shout. Whatever the system is, the barback needs to know it before they show up for shift two. Because nothing slows down service like a barback who doesn't know a draft beer kicked at 7pm and keeps trying to pour it. Worse, they run to the cooler for a bottle that's been out for two days. Before shift two, the barback should ask: where does 86'd info live, who updates it, and what do I do if I notice something is out that isn't flagged yet? That last part matters. A barback who catches an empty bottle on the speed rail and tells the bartender before the order lands is worth their weight.
Know the two or three questions guests ask every single night. At a sports bar, those questions are almost always the same. "What are you guys known for?" "Do you have anything on special?" "Can I get a lighter beer?" A barback who's been on the floor more than one shift should already be hearing these. Before shift two, think back. What did guests ask you that you didn't have an answer for? Go look it up. Ask someone. Write it down if you need to. You're not expected to be the bartender, but you're expected to be helpful, and helpful means knowing the short list of things guests are almost always going to want to know.
Know where every non-alcoholic option lives on the menu and what you can actually make. This gets skipped constantly, and it shouldn't. More guests are looking for non-alc options than ever before. Mocktails, NA beers, specialty sodas, sparkling water with garnishes, whatever you carry. The barback needs to know where those live and, importantly, whether any of them need prep. If your NA beer selection is just two cans in the cooler, fine. But if you do a house mocktail that needs a specific syrup from the back, the barback should know that before they need to run it during a rush.
Now here's the part I really want to land. None of this is complicated. It's a menu. It's a bar. The information exists and it's learnable in an hour before the next shift if the barback takes it seriously. The reason most barbacks don't know it going into shift two isn't because they're not capable. It's because nobody handed them the information in a clear, digestible way and made sure they actually retained it. That's on us as operators.
When everyone on the bar floor speaks the same language, the whole thing runs differently. The bartender isn't stopping mid-pour to explain what just kicked. The barback isn't sending a guest to the server for a basic question. The guest isn't waiting on three people to figure out whether the margarita has anything they're allergic to. It clicks. The floor breathes. That's the difference between a barback who's in the way and one who's actually part of the team.
Get them that information before shift two. It's that simple.
Have a great day! — Terry Psaltakis
Your AI Restaurant Guy
For more on putting this into practice, see how ShiftTrained approaches menu training software.
