When Joe Stake looks at the beverage industry from a big-picture, zoomed-out perspective, a clear line in the sand stands out to him. On one side sits “high-brow” beverage service—craft cocktail bars, intricate builds, and a culture that prizes technical knowledge and polish. On the other is “low-brow” service—sports bars, neighborhood pubs, and high-volume environments where speed and familiarity matter more than flair. Both worlds coexist, Stake says, but too often the industry treats them as separate tracks, with one quietly elevated above the other.
Stake has more than a dozen years of experience behind the bar, long enough to understand both sides of that divide firsthand. He cut his teeth at a handful of spots across the Northeast, initially bartending before moving into bar management and gaining a deeper understanding of how beverage programs operate from both the front and back of house.
Like many people in hospitality, he didn’t originally plan to make a career out of it. What started as a temporary job gradually turned into something more permanent as he found himself drawn to the pace, the people, and the problem-solving that comes with running a bar. In 2017, he opened Valentino’s, a cocktail bar in Worcester, Massachusetts, which he owns and operates with his cousin.
Over the years, Stake began to notice a recurring challenge among people interested in the beverage industry. Many are curious about bartending and see it as a potential career path, but feel unsure of how to break in. The high-end cocktail world, in particular, can feel intimidating and out of reach to newcomers. For some, that intimidation becomes a barrier, discouraging them before they ever step behind a bar.
“There’s this line in the sand between bartenders and the people that call themselves mixologists,” Stake says. “I wanted to bridge that gap and help people get started in the industry.”
Stake is adamant that there’s no shame in getting started at a local pub or sports bar. He also believes people shouldn’t be looked down on for attending a bartending school or taking an online course. In his view, some experienced bartenders—and increasingly, social media voices—have helped reinforce the idea that structured education is unnecessary or even illegitimate, suggesting that “real” bartenders must learn exclusively on the job or through informal apprenticeship.
That kind of gatekeeping, Stake argues, is outdated and counterproductive. It’s also what motivated him to launch The Bar School, an online training program designed to make professional bartending education more accessible, practical, and less elitist. The platform launched a few years ago with a clear mission: remove unnecessary barriers to entry and give aspiring bartenders a realistic foundation for success.
A little over two years ago, Stake stepped in front of the camera at Valentino’s to film the program’s first introductory course. Rather than focusing on obscure classics or deep cocktail history, he designed the course as a no-nonsense entry point for people with little to no experience behind the bar. The emphasis is on fundamentals, like how to pour, serve, and build the most commonly ordered drinks in today’s bars and restaurants, along with the customer service skills needed to survive a busy shift.
“A lot of the training is done as if I was taking somebody that knew nothing about the world of bartending and getting them ready to work for me, so I could put them behind the bar on a busy night,” Stake says.
The tone of the course is direct and unfiltered, reflecting Stake’s own path into the industry. After graduating from a four-year college at just 19 through an accelerated program, he struggled to land a business job where employers took him seriously. Eventually, he turned to bartending at a small, family-connected sports club, a move that gave him firsthand insight into what beginners actually need in order to succeed.
“It’s pretty raw and straight to the point in terms of what I’m teaching,” Stake says. “These are the drinks that people are actually ordering in cocktail bars. These are the most popular drinks being served in the world today. This is what you should spend your time learning, because this is the reality of what you’re going to get in this industry.”
That reality, Stake notes, doesn’t require encyclopedic knowledge. He points out that many of the drinks he was taught early in his bartending career—often treated as must-know staples—have never once been ordered by a guest, even after more than 15 years behind the bar.
“There are thousands of cocktails that exist,” Stake says, “and while there’s some interesting history behind a lot of them, depending on where you work, you’re never going to need to know a lot of those things.”
After running the introductory course for about a year, Stake was confident the concept worked. Students were responding well, and the feedback reinforced that there was demand for practical, entry-level training. At the same time, he realized the introductory course alone wasn’t enough. Last year, he debuted a second, more advanced course focused on what bartenders should prioritize once they’ve mastered the fundamentals.
Stake describes the advanced course as three programs in one: customer service and sales, advanced mixology, and marketing and self-promotion.
The customer service and sales component centers on a reality every bartender understands: income is largely driven by tips. Stake breaks down how small changes in phrasing, confidence, and guest engagement can have a measurable impact on check averages and gratuities. The course covers upselling higher-tier spirits, steering guests toward cocktails instead of draft beer, and handling objections without confrontation, including situations where a guest complains that a drink is too weak.
“We’re working for tips,” Stake says. “That’s the bulk of our income, so it’s important to know how to essentially drive that bill up in terms of the product that somebody’s ordering, and then how to get the most tip out of those customers.”
From there, the course moves into advanced mixology, but always with practicality as the throughline. Stake focuses on techniques that look impressive without requiring major investment or specialized equipment. Infusions, creative garnishes, and visually striking builds are positioned not as indulgences, but as tools that can help drive sales.
“You’d be surprised at how very little investment it takes in some of the tools,” Stake says. “You can buy something on Amazon and really change the cocktail program at any bar just by doing a few simple things.”
At Valentino’s, one example is a pineapple coconut margarita made by infusing coconut tequila with fresh pineapple in a $25 glass jug with a pour spout. Displayed on the back bar, the infusion becomes both a visual hook and a versatile product, used for margaritas, shots, or on-the-rocks pours. A small investment turns into a high-margin seller.
The final pillar of the advanced course is marketing and self-promotion, an area Stake believes is often overlooked in bartender training. Drawing parallels to industries like real estate, he argues that the most successful bartenders don’t rely solely on the bar’s brand—they build their own following. “I’m a big believer in self-promotion as a bartender,” Stake says. “It’s how you build your following.”
Students are taught how to use social media intentionally, from reminding friends and followers where they’re working to promoting specials and encouraging repeat visits. To make that easier, the course includes ready-to-use graphics for more than 35 cocktails, formatted specifically for social platforms.
“You could be the bartender that’s happy with just being employed at a bar that’s busy,” Stake says, “but if you really want to be good, you tap into the market of people that know and like you and follow you and you get them to come and visit you at work. So we talk about how to drive your tip income up by creating regulars, about the importance of branding yourself as a bartender and how to promote yourself.”
“We set it up so that a bartender takes these courses and knows how to make all of these drinks,” he adds, “but we’re also leaving them with this toolkit to start marketing and driving people into the bar to try these cocktails.”
Looking ahead, Stake is clear that The Bar School is still in its early stages. His goal is for it to become one of the first options people consider when deciding how to enter the bartending industry, positioned as an alternative to both traditional in-person schools and the scattershot approach of YouTube tutorials.
He also recognizes that bartending isn’t one-size-fits-all. What works in Massachusetts may not translate directly to California, Texas, or New York, and regional differences in customer preferences and bar culture matter. As the business grows, Stake plans to introduce more specialized, market-specific courses tailored to different environments.
Content creation will also play a larger role moving forward. Stake recently completed a major media shoot to kick off 2026, collaborating with multiple beverage brands. The footage will support a slate of podcasts, videos, and educational content aimed at addressing industry pain points and trends.
Ultimately, Stake sees The Bar School as more than a course platform. He wants it to be a resource and a counterweight to what he views as unnecessary pretension in the industry. That philosophy extends to his broader advocacy for bartending as a legitimate career. Stake pushes back against the idea that bartending is merely a fallback option, pointing to his own experience earning more—and finding more satisfaction—than many peers who pursued traditional office jobs.
After graduating college at 19, bartending while earning his MBA, and eventually applying his business education to bar management and ownership, Stake realized hospitality offered something desk jobs never did: autonomy, income potential, and fulfillment.
“Screw what everybody else says,” he says. “You can make good money in this job, and I can show you exactly how. All you have to do is commit to it.”
