Before Justin Noel was thirty years old he became Proprietor and Beverage Director of 1534 Bar, NYC. Since then he has also earned the title of Prestige Portfolio Ambassador and Beverage Consultant of his own company, Closing Time Cocktails. Not bad for someone who started bartending as a secondary career option. He used to play soccer professionally and upon visiting bars overseas with teammates realized there was almost a celebrity persona around the star working behind the bar and found the transition from a professional athlete to life behind the stick to be an easy one.
What is a bar star?
[quote]The whole idea is to promote the occupation as a whole, by becoming a brand ambassador, promoting yourself as a brand on television or on the Internet and being present at industry events. If you take a look at what chefs have done, and try to follow the same road toward recognition and getting noticed, in the same way, we build credibility for what we do. Once you begin to have a face in the industry, a recognition that is marketable, it opens up all sorts of doors; you can open bars based on your concepts or represent a brand on a global or nation basis. At the same time you give the occupation that legitimacy. Paving the road for all that follow, making it a profession for everyone else who wants to become a bartender. This is a bar star. We give credence to what we do, as did the icons like Dale DeGroff, bartenders who can put their egos aside for a bit and say, we can collectively promote this occupation so future bartenders taking this route don’t feel like it’s not a real job and can find a future in it. You do have to have that passion for it, if you don’t you are missing the point. And the main key to this success is to go behind the bar and escape your day to day baggage, lose everything else that is happening in your life, become your rock star, therapist, social, sage, alter-ego persona and show your customers a great time and make them feel at home otherwise they’ll just drink at home.[/quote]
