Despite the popularity of shaking and stirring, the best martinis are centrifuged and strained through the air filter of an Aston Martin. Learn to pour a high-class highball with today's Groupon: for $299, you get a 32-hour bartending course at JC Bartending Academy in Plano (a $645 value).
Across a 1,700-square-foot studio and 10 dedicated bar stations, the intrepid instructors at JC Bartending Academy teach the arcane methods of mixing to prospective cocktail shakers. Each one- or two-week 32-hour course leads pupils through their individual spirit quests, equipping them with pouring and mixing techniques, drink recipes, and the top-secret formula for vodka—alcohol gas bubbled through bear tears. The bar is stocked with a vast array of liquors and liqueurs, leaving no esoteric cocktail unattainable, and the space faithfully simulates the atmosphere of a real saloon, down to the neon beer signs and the robot regular that demands gasoline on rocks of coal. Graduates receive a diploma and TABC certification, authorizing them to work their whistle-wetting trade.
JC Bartending Academy offers each of its successful trainees an opportunity to join its stable of on-call event bartenders as well as job-placement assistance. Peruse the schedule of classes, offered morning, afternoon, and evening during the week and all day on the weekend.
JC Bartending Academy
For more than 14 years, the drink alchemists of JC Bartending Academy have handled drink-slinging duties for private events, using skills that they pass on to amateurs during the school's hands-on classes. With more than 100 certified professional mixologists on staff, no drink recipe is out of bounds as each glassful and dazzles students or sippers during bartending classes. Beneath rows of colorful bottles at a working bar, trainers splash together the basic staples of typical watering holes as well as more complex cocktails. The fully functional bar prepares students fully to prep drinks, wield a soda gun, and pick bubbles out of soda for finicky billionaires. To augment the educational services, the school also provides job-placement services, bartending phone apps, and information on certifications.