Mixing it up

Steve Schneider considers himself more of a craftsman, someone who works with his hands. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Steve Schneider found his way to cocktail stardom by accident, after the Sept 11 tragedy and an injury made him rethink his life, he tells Dong Fangyu

Wall Street bankers do it before work; laborers do it after work. Bartenders are among a rare bunch who need to do it both before and after work.

Perhaps the fact that anyone would need to shower twice a day is no surprise given the sweat that pours from the likes of Steve Schneider and the two bartenders who work with him each night as they make an average of 600 or so cocktails in total.

At that rate they could be regarded as manual laborers, even if many consider them more like artists.

"I don't consider myself an artist, although I respect artists," Schneider says. "I consider myself more of a craftsman, someone who works with his hands."

Schneider has been crowned cocktail world champion several times, and the Nightclub & Bar Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas recently named him 2015 Bartender of the Year.

He hails from one of the most highly regarded cocktail bars in New York, Employees Only, which won the World's Best Cocktail Bar award at Tales of Cocktail in 2011. Schneider was in Beijing last week on a five-night bartending stint at Atmosphere, the highest bar in Beijing, on the 80th floor of China World Tower.

Schneider is obviously a master of mixology, but he reckons that the most important trait of a top bartender is to know the guests and to know how to entertain them.

"When I'm shaking, I'm not only making a drink, but multitasking, making eye contacts with my guests, and talking to them," he said.

In a city like New York, with so many choices, "you have to appreciate every single person who chooses to spend their hard-earned money in your bar", Schneider said. "People come not to have a certain number of drinks, but because they have a certain amount of time."

Schneider's thoughtful reflections on bartending and his obvious attachment to his craft can be attributed to the circumstances that brought him to this career - a brush with death.

After the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, not far from his home in New Jersey, Schneider felt he needed to do something useful, so he signed up for the United States Marine Corps.

"As a kid I was voted 'class clown' in high school, always a joker and prankster. School wasn't for me. So I signed up for the marines and wanted do the best in the courses. I achieved the rank within six months that usually takes two years. I was also in good shape, bigger and stronger."