What'll it be? Cocktail bartenders and the redefinition of service in the creative economy

While service industries have expanded to accommodate the needs of creative professionals in postindustrial cities, some professions within these industries have transformed into respectable occupations with enormous creative potential and intrinsic rewards. Using cocktail bartenders as a case, this article examines how this transformation occurs and the role of creativity in service work in creative economies. Through an ethnographic analysis of their practices and understanding of their work, I show how cocktail bartenders add creativity to the manual labor of bartending by engaging in “craft production” that is based on the historical principles of “mixology.” They use their aesthetical understandings of alcohol production and consumption to redefine the service aspect of their work. They see making drinks not as a passive act of service but as an active interpersonal exchange that provides customers with a unique sensory experience. The case of cocktail bartenders reveals how occupational niches are formed within the service industry.

Research highlights► This article examines how some professions within service industries have transformed into respectable occupations with enormous creative potential and creative rewards. ► I show how cocktail bartenders add creativity to the manual labor of bartending by engaging in “craft production” that is based on the historical principles of “mixology”. ► It reveals how occupational niches are formed within service industries.