(805) 964-5400

 "ABOUT US"

          PCBS Helps Restructure Other Schools Curriculums to 
         Raise the Bar on Professional Bartenders Training!!!

Cheers & Wishing You Continued Success, 

John Rickman 
Owner/Director

"ABOUT JOHN"
   Bartending School Aims for Growing Market 
Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif.  By Frank Nelson

      Jul. 13 2006--While some people idly wonder how so many restaurants, hotels and bars can all survive in Santa Barbara, John Rickman sees the proliferation as a business opportunity.  He reckons there are more such establishments per square mile here than anywhere else in Southern California and translates that into a growing demand for well-trained full-time, part-time and seasonal bar staff. 
       That's why he opened the Pacific Coast Bartenders School, in a fully functioning training bar inside a Goleta office suite on South Kellogg next to the Sizzler and Bak-Dor Bar. 
      Like many bar workers, Mr. Rickman got into the business as a means of making extra money while attending school, in his case studying theater at the University of Washington, in Seattle.  He kept up the bar work while working as an actor in Los Angeles, where his credits include dancing on Michael Jackson's classic "Beat It" video, and then got into teaching the bartending trade. Mr. Rickman met his wife, Colleen, when she was a student at National Bartenders School, LA; the couple married in 1990 and today have two children Alex and Casey. 
      Mr. Rickman was previously a technician and senior production specialist at  Raytheon and a couple of other related companies, while continuing to work as a bartender at the World Famous El Paseo Restaurant and Zia Café.  When he gave up the world of engineering, partly for health reasons, he considered opening his own bar, but getting a liquor license was discouragingly expensive and time-consuming. So instead Mr. Rickman invested $30,000 in the bartending school, a venture that offered the prospect of more fun and more time with his children. 
      Classes are a mix of theory and practical exercises, beginning with a lecture that leads into hands-on sessions. During the course students will cover everything from customer service and the law to how to prepare and serve drinks. 
       The course costs $595 for registration, tuition, books, equipment and supplies, and at the end students must pass a written and a final hands-on pour test. 
       The school also maintains a recruitment networking system with local employers to help graduates find work. 

         For more information go to            
www.pacificcoastbartendersschool.com.
    Copyright (c) 2006, Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif.

YOUR FULLY CONSTRUCTED WORKING BAR CLASSROOM

 Goleta Valley Voice

Strictly Local: He reigns where they learn to pour 
By Sonia Fernandez, Voice Staff Writer It’s happy hour at Pacific Coast Bartending School. The lights are low, the music is loud, and owner John Rickman is calling out drinks to Kandis, his newest student. The mood may be festive, but for Kandis — who’s pouring colored water into glasses of various shapes and sizes and adding a cherry here, a slice of lemon there, not to mention talking with the “patron” and tossing in a fancy bottle flip or two — it’s what amounts to a final exam. “It’s been hard,” said a smiling Kandis, of all the information she’s had to cram into her head for the past couple of weeks, but for her the work was also fun. Located oh-so-conveniently next to the Ba’k Do’r at 320 S. Kellogg Suite E2, PCBS is the result of Rickman’s 20-plus years of bartending and teaching bartending school. “When I first started I barely knew three drinks after the first 30 days,” he said. His education was hands-on behind a real bar, and often different bartenders had different methods of pouring the same drinks. Rickman, who was a Raytheon engineer in his other life, decided after taking and teaching some bartending courses that he could improve on the formula. He opened his school last year.So far he’s graduated at least 50 students, and maintains a network of local bar managers and other bartenders through which he can feed his grads. “If you go to the Biltmore, I’ve got one there. I’ve got one at Bacara, too.” He’s got people behind the bar from Santa Maria to Ventura. His course lasts a scant two weeks, but the time is spent in hours of intensive lectures and practical work. He prefers to teach small classes, which is a benefit for both the bartending newbie and the bar manager looking to refresh. But if you think it’s all fun and games, that’s because Rickman makes it look easy, a skill he passes on to his charges. In fact, there’s almost a whole science and art behind the happy hour. Rickman drills his students in 150 drinks. Besides that, he teaches them in the fine art of cutting people off when they’ve had too much, keeping the place clean and, most important, making happy hour, well, happy. “(Bartenders) have to like being with people,” he said. Shy people and reclusives need not apply. For more information, call 964-5400 or visit www.pacificcoastbartendersschool.com Photo by Sonia Fernandez Caption: Pacific Coast Bartending School owner John Rickman watches student Kandis pour a tricky drink in his classroom on South Kellogg Avenue. Strictly Local is a weekly profile of a Goleta Valley-based business. To suggest a business, call managing editor Jim Logan at 681-5905, or e-mail him at jlogan@goletavalleyvoice.com.