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Welcome to Pacific Coast Bartenders School. You now have a new, convenient
bartending school located here in the Santa Barbara area. Mr. John
Rickman, founder of Pacific Coast Bartenders School (PCBS) is a former
instructor and adminstrator for over 10 years with American and National
Bartenders Schools, teaching thousands of students. He assisted in
the set up of two National Bartender Schools (one in Los Angeles,
CA and the other in Fort Myers, FL). John oversaw the development
and implementation of a series of comprehensive bartender training programs
for the National & American Bartenders Schools. In addition,
John brings almost two decades of bartender/management experience to the
business and will lead the school as it establishes itself as a high quality
bartender training service provider.
Many bartenders learn the trade by "on the job training"
which typically takes a minimum of 3 to several months. This is where
PCBS comes in! Within the second hour of our training program, our students
are brought behind the bar to start pouring. In just two short weeks
(not months), they have learned many of the most common and trendy drinks
on the current market. Understanding over-pour, under-pour, spillage,
breakage, well, call and premium brand alcohols as well as the legalities
of serving. Letting all the mistakes happen behind our bar and not
while on the job.
Cheers & Wishing You Continued Success,
John Rickman
Owner/Director
YOUR FULLY CONSTRUCTED WORKING BAR CLASSROOM
Santa Barbara News-Press
Bartending School Aims for Growing Market in Santa Barbara, Calif.
By Frank Nelson, Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif.
Jul. 13--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 has just opened the Pacific Coast Bartenders School,
which is holding its first course this week in a purpose-built training
bar inside a Goleta office suite on South Kellogg.
There he's offering two-week certificate courses with classes running
from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays; as demand picks up,
he expects to add morning sessions on those same days.
"With mostly fliers and only one ad in the News-Press and Independent,
I'm receiving a lot of interest," he said, adding that each class is limited
to just six students.
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.
"Students learn various techniques and approximately 150 different
drink recipes," said Mr. Rickman, a former instructor with American Bartending
Schools who helped open National Bartenders Schools in Los Angeles and
Fort Myers, Florida, in the mid-'90s.
Students learn about "well" or "house" liquors, "call" and "premium"
brands, after-dinner dessert-type drinks, happy-hour cocktails, specialty
drinks, "signature drinks", liqueurs and mixers, brandies, champagnes,
beers and wines.
The course costs $595 for registration, tuition, books, equipment and
supplies, and at the end students must pass a written test with an 80 percent
or better and a final pour test with at least a 90 percent.
Mr. Rickman says some people shy away from the idea of graduation tests,
but he feels they are important for the confidence and pride of each student.
The school also maintains a recruitment networking system with local
employers to help graduates find work.
Thanks in part to the 1988 Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail," some people
have an image of bartenders spinning cocktail shakers, tossing bottles
and generally performing a few juggling tricks to entertain customers.
Mr. Rickman, who's done more than his share of tossing and spinning,
says he will be teaching students a few such tricks. However, he also notes
that many establishments these days do not allow such theatrics because
of possible spillage, broken glass and even injury.
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; the couple married in 1990 and today have
two children ages 7 and 10.
A certified public accountant, she works as a controller at Vetronix,
a business specializing in automotive electronic diagnostics, while Mr.
Rickman was previously a technician and senior production specialist at
Raytheon and a couple of other related companies.
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.
For more information go to www.pacificcoastbartendersschool.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif.
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.
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