Today we’d like to introduce you to Glenn Shriver.
Hi Glenn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In 2007, I started my first bartending job in Washington, DC. I needed work quickly and lied my way into a bartending position. When I left that job in 2008, I swore I would never work in the service industry again. It turns out, that was a lie.
In 2010, I was arrested in Detroit Metro airport. My entire world came crashing down and I lost everything. At the time I was residing in Daegu, South Korea. A local woman and I were running an at-home English school out of a four bedroom apartment. I had a business, a car, a dog, and a great life. With the snap and ratchet of cold steel around my wrists, that great life was immediately blasted into the past and I found myself in a dark, impossible and omnipresent reality.
The blow of losing everything is in no way softened just because that blow came from your own hand. I made a mistake. I paid the price. I take solace in the fact that my crime had no victims. But this story isn’t about that.
While incarcerated I put my head down and did everything I could to prepare for my reentry into society. I took classes on photovoltaic technology. I read every book I could. I even got a Master’s Degree while behind bars. It would all be for naught.
In June of 2013 I walked out of federal prison with a determination to get my life back on track. I was at the bottom and there was nowhere to go but up. I prepared my resume and got to job hunting. No one gave me a chance.
I hold an undergrad in International Relations. I earned a Master’s Degree in Program Management. I had run a business. I have a high level of fluency in both Spanish and Mandarin. And I couldn’t get an entry level position or even an internship. Many companies told me flat out they wouldn’t hire a felon. Or that insurance wouldn’t cover me. Often, they wouldn’t even return a call. So I walked into a chain restaurant.
The manager there couldn’t care less about my felony and welcomed me into a training program. I worked there for about 9 months before I heard about a new restaurant and bar opening called The Oak Raleigh. I was lucky enough to be hired and on April 21st, 2014 The Oak opened its doors and I had a new job, soon to be a career. I still work there today.
In November of 2021, a close friend of mine was getting married in Oaxaca, Mexico. His wedding fell 12 days before my 40th birthday so I decided to stay and do some exploring. For one month I drove through the shores and valleys of Oaxaca and into the highlands of Chiapas. I spent that month eating, drinking, driving and more importantly writing (Not all at the same time, of course).
I intended to write about my life but I ended up writing about the career I had suddenly woken up in. I did not plan for a career in bartending but through my writings I began to realize just how great this career and industry is and how fortunate I was to find it.
My initial writings were just meant to be a journal, but eventually I saw a glimmer of a book. Although I only spent a month writing in Mexico, I came home and continued to flesh it out, add substance to it, and in December of 2024 I published The Art of Professional Bartending.
This book on its cover is a ‘How to’ guide for anyone who is curious about bartending as a profession. Flip through the pages a bit and it morphs into a love letter to the service industry as a career. But when you really absorb the book, its true colors reveal a testament to the fact that we are not defined by our mistakes. Most of us deserve second chances and we are all more than the mistake we made. The Art of Professional Bartending represents my journey to that self realization.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While bartending is not always a smooth road, it is a fun road to travel down. The biggest struggle, and consequently the most rewarding part of the journey is figuring out who exactly you are. Because the greatest bartenders are genuine in their interactions and you can not be genuine until you figure exactly who you are. Once you have that down, your personality begins to shine through your service and that is when you begin to build regulars who reflect you. When you build that base of regulars through genuine interaction and hospitality, then those regulars become your friends and sometimes even your family.
The best bartenders build a community and that community is what people love and come back for.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Bartending is art and that is why I chose to call my book The Art of Professional Bartending. I differentiate it from a science because there is no one size fits all approach. Our guests are all going through different experiences that require different interactions from us. Bars, clubs, lounges, restaurants or any of the myriad places we may sling drinks are all going to require different bartending styles and it can be a balancing act between that genuine interaction and just what the location and guest requires.
I bartend at a bourbon bar and restaurant and we are very much an afterwork spot. After 11 years we have a very strong base of regulars who work and/or live in the area and when they come in, they have an expectation of great food, great drinks, and even better service. Because service is what elevates. People will return to a place with mediocre food and drinks if they truly feel that they are respected and appreciated and can see that through the service they are given. Conversely, even if the food and cocktails are the out of this world, but the service and people taking care of them are lacking, then they are less likely to return.
At The Oak, we specialize in bourbon and that is where I have hung my hat. If you ask me a question about bourbon, I will probably talk longer than you want to listen. I have been the key note speaker for over 50 bourbon dinners, many of them going for several hundred dollars a plate. If you have a bourbon question, you come to The Oak.
We have also developed an excellent cocktail program. We are making our own syrups, acid adjusting juices, building tinctures and rotate a robust list of complex cocktails. While all that is important, we consider ourselves experts on service. Because service is what separates.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The bartending industry is a beast of an industry. I would never seek to pigeon hole the entirety of it but I would like to see one big change happen and a few other current trends fizzle out.
The change I would like to see is to stop putting so much focus on cocktails. If you look up any books about bartending or social media pages dedicated to bartending it is cocktail this and cocktail that. Sure, these cocktails are advanced, creative and scientific but they are so often just an idol built and dedicated to the creator’s ego.
In my experience, most people don’t care if you are adding gum arabic to simple syrup or clarifying a margarita or spending hours on intricate garnishes which generally just end up in the trash. Most people I know want familiarity and a delicious, simple drink.
Can you remember their name? (Cheers nailed it so long ago) Do you know how they like their old fashioned? Can you make sure that their water stays filled? These are the important parts of bartending, albeit much less sexy.
AI and technology is an oncoming trend and while bartending is one of the more insulated industries, I do believe that the human side of bartending will feel a bit of pressure. People could theoretically use AI to develop a cocktail menu then use technology to dispense these soulless beverages and you are even starting to see that in some places.
My opinion and hope is that this will be a short lived trend. There is just too much to gain and experience with dedicated and capable bartenders and as AI takes over other industries, people will need bars to be a bastion and refuge of humanity and human interaction. Both the interaction of bartender to guest and that of stranger to stranger.
There has also been talk of going away from a tipping based system but I don’t support it and believe that any real pressure to abolish tips will be short-lived.
Bartending is a sales job and like all sales jobs, we are paid a commission. That commission is in the form of tips. Which means the faster and more we sell, the more money we make. That is why, in our heart of hearts, so many of us are hustlers. The faster we move, the more we make. That is to the guest’s benefit and I assure you, even a guest who hates tipping doesn’t want us to lose that hustle.
Picture going out for a night to a packed bar. People clamoring around the bar, everyone trying to get a drink, and the bartender has a guaranteed salary or hourly wage. Then I guarantee that bartender will work just quickly enough to not get fired. Now picture that same bartender working for tips. Which one moves faster? Which one is more interested in giving you a great experience? Tips are what keep us pouring as many drinks as we can as quickly as we can.
The earliest discovered taverns stretch back to at least Roman times and although there are new trends and oncoming threats, the fact is that bartending more or less remains the same as it was way back then. Tired people, worn and weary from the trials and tribulations of everyday life still desire a dark place to relax with a delicious beverage in their hand. Residing within that beverage and banking against the walls of those dark and familiar sanctuaries flows the strong undercurrent beneath the still surface of the river of human history.
We will always seek out connection and human interaction. Bars helmed by capable and passionate bartenders are the ideal nexus for that connection.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Glenn.Shriver
- Other: https://a.co/d/cAEzzEB
