“Artender” is an imagination, a vision, an idea, based on a belief, based on the question “What could have been if?…”
This vision, or to be more precise, the reality that the vision aspires, does not exist in reality. It needs to be made. “Gym for bartenders” isn’t branding, it’s a training model. One that has not been thought of until today in the context of bar work. The first of its kind in the world, an invention. Our bar language is also an invention. Every exercise and exercise, every word and word, inventions upon inventions. The very language is an invention. A bar language? characters? This is a completely crazy invention.
When the seed for the idea was sown, even before the name “Artander” was born, in its early days, before it garnered thousands of videos (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, website), and millions of eyes, it was an imagination. It was based on a belief that the visual value that could be created behind the bar is worth a lot, and can (and should, in my opinion) be a level in itself. A standard if you will, in the nightlife world and the entertainment culture based on hospitality, alcohol and cocktails.
Unfathomable amounts of inspiration, creativity, originality and imagination… from all of this a world was born, which had no choice but to be imagined, until it become a reality. In order for this imagination to become reality, you have to go through a path that takes years, years! A little more, a little less, but the premise is that there is no way to develop a “skill” to the maximum without practicing it for several years. There are no shortcuts here.
Any bartender, who tries for the first time to twist a spoon between his fingers, open a shaker with a “poise,” or make a proper pouring cut, in order to reach a maximum performance level you need time to practice, accompaniment, and in general need a path that ends with a defined goal, a goal, and of course a cause.
Another imaginary thing was born here, my crystal ball.
For some reason, every breathing person knows what a crystal ball is (look, there’s even an emoji ????.) And even though there are no real crystal balls in reality, you can still use an imagined crystal ball as if it were completely real, how? Through the imagination and the eyes of course.
When I see a green, fresh trainee (who, by the way, can also be a seasoned bartender) I see through the two crystal balls in the center of my skull. Over the years I developed this ability, to see through the boundaries of time how a person will look at the end of the process.
I know how to distinguish nuances and body language, timing, posture, angles. I know how to distinguish movement styles, and different types of character, mentality, patience.
A crystal ball as a fantasy, shows us what is hidden from our eyes, what we cannot see now, at this moment, with our own eyes. Sometimes it’s the future, sometimes it’s a glimpse of a parallel reality. I don’t pretend to know what will happen in the future, it’s impossible of course, but only how the future can look for a certain people who come to work. Who came to train. I watch them move for an hour or two, and I know, based on experience, what will happen to them if they continues to practice for a year or two. I see it in my crystal ball.
The great fun is that I can show in retrospect what my eyes saw through my crystal ball months and years ago. Yes yes, even here on the blog! Here is an example of what I saw in the crystal ball when I first met Yahli:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnetynXoIuW/?igshid=Y2I2MzMwZWM3ZA==
Unfortunately, I am not able to give glimpses into the crystal ball to the trainees, even fleeting glimpses! It just doesn’t work. They don’t see it about themselves, and the truth is I didn’t see it about myself at the time either. It’s probably designed that way, otherwise it would be very easy to go on a diet, learn a new language or start learning to dance salsa. If we could already see the results of perseverance in the first step – it probably wouldn’t have been so elusive. So I try to reflect to the trainee as much as I can what my eyes see through the boundaries of time, my forward gaze through the crystal ball. Ohhh if only I could show them!
It takes a lot of imagination, until it becomes a reality.
