Shaken, not stirred

Local bartending school open to JMU students

By Aimee Huynh, contributing writer
Posted on October 29, 2007

Gary Roach started bartending at the age of 21 when he was looking for a job to support his snowboarding hobby. After working at a bartending school in Arlington, Va., he decided he wanted to open a school of his own.

He chose Harrisonburg and opened Jiggers Bartending School.

In his effort to teach students the ins and outs of the bartending business, he commutes Saturday through Monday from Front Royal to Harrisonburg to teach students not only how to make drinks, but to serve alcohol responsibly.

“They need to know how to recognize fake IDs and know when to stop serving alcohol [to customers],” he said.

As bartenders must remember other rules and regulations, Roach teaches the class how to mix drinks by using a variety of techniques, such as creating acronyms to remember ingredients. 

“I teach them the foundation and history of bartending so that they’re more versatile,” he said.

The drinks used for teaching contain no actual liquor and are made from mixtures of food coloring, water or latex paint. The sour mix used is actually a concoction made of latex paint, yellow food coloring and soap, to make it look frothy.

Most of his students are college students, with over 50 percent from JMU. He recently signed a contract with Blue Ridge Community College to offer a noncredit class, called Mixology and Bartending 101, through its workforce training center.

Barret Diehl, a senior from Mary Baldwin College, said that she was interested in a job as a bartender.

“My dad actually found out about Jiggers and told me I should take it,” she said. Her favorite drink to make is the Stoplight, which consists of three different drinks: melonball, kamikaze and royal flush to portray the colors of a traffic light.

Roach helps students looking for bartending jobs as much as he can, although job placement is not guaranteed. He said that students looking for work were relatively successful this past year.

In cities, restaurants, bars and clubs often look for more experienced bartenders, making it difficult for students who have only taken classes, so he looks for jobs in seasonal tourist spots like beaches or resorts, where experience isn’t as important.

Tiffany Updike, a senior from Mary Baldwin College, is enjoying the class thus far. 

 “It’s just a lot of fun,” she said.