As part of the search for the Best New Bartenders of 2026, Punch hosted a series of panels in partnership with Astral Tequila. At events in Chicago, New York, San Diego, and Charlotte, North Carolina, alumni of BNB and local industry leaders shared their experiences and their advice for the next generation of the industry.

We asked about mentorship, how to extend hospitality to both guests and fellow bartenders, and our panelists’ hopes and dreams for the future. Here are some of the highlights from our conversations.

What’s your best advice for young bartenders?

Start simple. “There are so many resources that weren’t available when I first started out. Now there’s probably a YouTube video or an article about pretty much anything and everything. But with there being so much information out there, I think new bartenders today want to get to the most exciting stuff. They kind of skip over some of the steps with learning the basics... I think learning the building blocks of cocktails before you just jump right in and get started is really important.” —Lily Wang, partner at Nine Bar and Cara Cara Club in Chicago

Put yourself out there. “Show up for stuff. It doesn’t just have to be a competition. It could be an educational [opportunity], it could be a brand thing, it could be a seminar, it could be your friend’s pop-up. But show up, put yourself in the room, give other people the opportunity to meet you and get to know you.” —Izzy Tulloch, founder of A Bar Called Pancakes in New York City

You don’t need to be a mixologist. “Don’t feel like there’s this massive barrier to entry. It’s not like you have to have all the equipment… As great as it is for your craft to learn how to take it to the next level with molecular gastronomy, you don’t need to… Bartending is an art because we all have different styles and that’s really the most beautiful thing about it.” —Jenna “Duckie” Reynolds, bartender at Hermanita in Charlotte, North Carolina

Learn to take feedback. “Developing an ability for critical self-evaluation is really important when you’re starting up. This doesn’t mean you need to put yourself down, but you do need to develop an ability to look at your skill set and look at how you perform, shift to shift, and be honest about the pitfalls. If you struggle with that, you need to become much more open to feedback from your peers and your direct superiors.” —Daniel Villa, beverage director for R+D at Thai Taste in Charlotte, North Carolina

Understand the business. “If you want to progress—or even if you just want to bartend forever—knowing the business, knowing how to make a bar profitable, and how to cost your cocktails is important. [Say] you want to put a new cocktail on, it’ll be much easier to get that cocktail on the menu if you say [to your manager], ‘I got this idea for a cocktail. I costed it out. It’s only going to cost us this amount, and the prep is easy… The farther you go up [in management], it’s honestly less about creativity and more about reading a P&L, making sure your beverage cost is correct, managing a team, and things like that… When you go into beverage director or bar manager interviews, they’re going to be interested in that.” —Devin Kennedy, partner at Press Club in D.C. and Best New Bartender alum

Be thoughtful about who to ask for mentorship. “I’m a big fan of mentorship… When you're looking for a mentor, it's important to find somebody who you sync with. It could just be your approach to cocktails, your approach to business, your approach to back-of-house machinations. Whatever it is, it has to be that you share a bit of the same philosophy, and I feel like that’s when it can be most fruitful for everybody.” —Erick Castro, co-owner of Raised by Wolves and Gilly’s House of Cocktails in San Diego

When you were a new bartender, how did you connect with people in the industry?

Make opportunities for yourself. “In Los Angeles, when I was coming up in the industry… as a queer person, there just weren’t a ton of opportunities presented to me. With one of my friends, I started a gay bartender night where we had gay industry professionals design a menu and throw their own parties. That kind of took off. I took it upon myself to create the spaces that I wanted to be in. So, even if an opportunity doesn't present itself, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there. You just have to force it to happen sometimes. And then the rest will follow.” —Ramsey Musk, founder of the Mama’s Boy pop-up and Best New Bartenders alum

Work collaboratively, not competitively. “I went to do my first and only intentional competition, which was actually against Leanne [Favre, also on the panel]. I remember being absolutely starstruck because I knew that she worked at Leyenda, and I was like, That is the bar that I want to work at. That’s my dream bar. She pulled me aside, and she was like, ‘Hey, I like your vibe. Do you want to study my specs with me?’ I was like, ‘Why would we do that? I’m your competition.’ She said, ‘No, let’s do this. I think you're cool, and we should chat.’ We kept in touch over the years, and she helped me build my agave program in New Jersey, right before I left for New York, and then she got me my first New York job and even let me sleep on her couch for a few months.” —Kitty Bernardo, bar manager at Paradise Lost in New York City and Best New Bartenders alum

Just be yourself. “I got my job at Lady Jane in Denver by lying on my resume… During my stage, I was like, ‘This is a place called Lady Jane, with a gay manager, and I am surrounded by cis straight white men. Y’all need some femme, fun, silly energy in this place.’ And [the GM] hired me on the spot, basically. [I got it] by walking into this space and being very unapologetically authentic. He kickstarted my career and also let me advocate for causes that I care about and made it very clear that in the right spaces, that would be valued, and that would be embraced. And I’ve literally built my career doing that ever since.” —Mak Kelly, bartender at Double Fun in Chicago and Best New Bartenders alum

Share what you know. “Peers who were ahead of me [in their careers] took time and effort to put me on, to share knowledge with me, or to introduce me to some of their friends… There is always someone near you, or a little bit behind you, in your career, and being willing and able to have some grace and share knowledge or just have a conversation with those people, goes a long way.” —Nick Sinutko, beverage and creative director of Chick & Hawk in San Diego

How do you prioritize hospitality at your bar?

Don’t get lost in the weeds. “I want to see people’s eyes up. Don’t forget to look around the room. Don't forget to grab someone’s attention [when you’re very busy] and tell them that you’re getting destroyed, but you’ll be right back. That is, I think, the epitome of hospitality.” —Leanne Favre, owner of Dolores in New York City and Best New Bartenders alum

Put yourself in the guests’ shoes. “I visit a lot of our [hospitality group’s] spaces on my own time, and it’s just simply for me to sit there and to listen in, tableside, to someone else’s experience. I get to kind of see from a different point of view. Because the way in which I work, I kind of have blinders on; I’m not always seeing things from the perspective of everyone else that comes through our doors. So enforcing that as my own practice helps make sure our spaces are engaging.” —Alicia Perry, beverage director for CH Projects in San Diego and Best New Bartenders alum

Curate the room. “Curation is, whether we like to use this term or not, a form of gatekeeping. A safe space is not necessarily a space that is accessible for everyone. A queer space isn’t necessarily accessible for everyone. A space for people of color isn’t necessarily accessible for everyone. A space can be very specifically curated to make sure that the people in it, the ones frequenting and working in it, feel safe and know that they can express themselves and their identities to the fullest extent.” —Bernardo

How do you extend hospitality to the other side of the bar, to your coworkers or to other bartenders?

Information is power. “You shouldn't be scared to talk about what you’re making and what you’re getting paid. The only person that [keeping it a secret] protects is the employer. So, you know, when you’re doing brand work, when you’re taking management jobs, when you’re getting salaries, have the conversation with your male coworkers… Don’t be scared to talk about it.” —Favre

Ask the right questions. “If you are the person directly in charge, [it’s important to ask] are staff engaged, education-wise? Are they learning anything? Will their experience at your bar prepare them to be promoted or to go to their next place more knowledgeable? Is it a fun, safe place to work? Do they feel proud to tell people that they work there? Can they invite their friends or family in and know that they are going to get taken care of? How do you treat your staff when a guest is rude to them?” —Kennedy

Combat burnout. “Bartender burnout is really real. In my experience, the easiest way to retain talent and make people want to stay in this industry is being really, really honest about that up front and giving them the space to work through the growing pains that every single one of us are still going through.” —Kelly

What do you hope to see in the industry in the future?

More small businesses. “I really hope to see more independently owned businesses. Unfortunately, that's gonna have to be something that the state and the city are going to need to help out with. Being an independent business owner, especially right now, is harder than ever. So I’d like to see more support from our government to help small businesses to be able to create those spaces.” —Wang

Better work-life balance “I would like to see benefits, better pay and taking more care of bartenders. I think so much of the reason that people take this industry really seriously and want to be on these [award] lists and be recognized is because more opportunity and more money comes with that. It’s easier to focus on your work-life balance and to have other hobbies when you're not stressed about how you're going to be paying your rent… I wanna see support from the top down. And then we will have more fun and feel more inspired to stay in this industry when we are given that opportunity.” —Kelly

Less gatekeeping. “I’d like to see more dissolution of ego, more open source sharing… What if you could get a whole city of the best bartenders exchanging their [ideas] in a group chat? How quickly could you master [new techniques] compared to one bartender or team experimenting whenever they have the time?... I hope to see the end of secrecy. Like, ‘Here’s all the recipes on our menu. You can grab inspiration from them if you want.’” —Villa

Less judgment. “I would love to see people not be so judgmental about what customers are ordering. Like, I don’t care if you come in and order a Long Island [Iced Tea]. I love that for you, diva… Bartending is fun and it should be fun. Why have we made it this very convoluted complex thing? It can definitely be that, but we should also be having fun and we shouldn’t be caring so much about how we’re perceived.” —Musk

This is an excerpt from Pre Shift, our newsletter for bartenders, chefs and hospitality workers. Subscribe for more stories like this.