barstaff

English

Etymology

From bar +‎ staff.

Noun

barstaff (plural barstaff)

1. (singular or plural) The staff of a bar.
   • 1981, Denise Schnurr (article author), Market Watch, volume 22, pages 28 and 30:

     He is well known for providing practical on-premise service information that managers and servers, including barstaff, can take back and use immediately. […] Today, he manages a barstaff of seven at the 220-seat restaurant, which he says has a 46-seat bar area that is packed every night.

   • 1998, Ted Bruning, Historic Pubs of London, Passport Books, published 2000, →ISBN, page 17:

     Beer is now so expensive that the kitty system has all but replaced the old habit of buying rounds, and barstaff are used to being asked for an empty glass.

   • 2003, Dick Hobbs, Philip Hadfield, Stuart Lister, Simon Winlow, “A Word At The Door: Bouncers On Their Work”, in Bouncers: Violence and Governance in the Night-time Economy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section “Access denied”, pages 120–121:

     The vetting of customers is a skilled process, and although the discretion utilized by individual bouncers is immense, certain themes emerged both from the interviews and from our observations, which overwhelmingly related to issues concerning the perceived threat of violence to doorstaff, barstaff, and customers.

   • 2003, Katja Pantzar, The Hip Guide to Helsinki, Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, →ISBN, page 82:

     Only music in English is played, and the barstaff are all bona fide band members.

   • 2007, Charles Kelley, Jim Molis, editors, Your Guide to the Irish Pubs of Boston, 4th edition, Green Line Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 111:

     They offer a good beer selection and the barstaff is among the best you’ll find in the Boston area.

   • 2014, Mike P. Ireland, Tomos’ Lot, →ISBN:

     “I must admit the barstaff has got younger. They used to be an old couple.”

   • 2017, James Kelman, That Was a Shiver and Other Stories, Canongate Books, →ISBN, page 178:

     And the barstaff: barstaff are typically interesting. We try not to study them too blatantly lest personal misunderstandings arise. But we do study people. We are people and people study people.

2. (rare) A member of staff of a bar.
   • 1983, D R Lillicrap, “The food and beverage service area staff”, in Food and Beverage Service, 2nd edition, Edward Arnold, published 1987, →ISBN, page 9:

     The cocktail barstaff must be a responsible person versed in the skills of shaking and stirring cocktails and should have a thorough knowledge of all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, the ingredients necessary for the making of cocktails and of the licensing laws.

   • 2003, Dick Hobbs, Philip Hadfield, Stuart Lister, Simon Winlow, quoting Pauline, “Market Force: Class, Violence, and Liminal Business on the Night-time Frontier”, in Bouncers: Violence and Governance in the Night-time Economy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section “Pauline’s story: where security meets protection”, page 214:

     It wasn’t just a scuffle between two people who’d had too much to drink, these were sober people sat in a corner and all of a sudden off it would go, they’d leather somebody or turn on a customer, or go for a barstaff and then they’d be gone.

   • 2006, Glyn Maxwell, Plays Two, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, pages 89–90:

     I’m an actor, remember, not your common-or-garden barstaff, your run-of-the-mill golf caddie, your two-a-penny garage bomb constructor, I’m an actor now, like I was that afternoon you told me if I kept in with you, someday I’d have a hotel of my own, I think you said, not a caddie shack, or a Maple Vale cravat, or two weeks holiday or the Wednesday off, but a hotel of my own. […] ‘Ah,’ they’ll say, when they’ve been rescued, ‘always knew that Bailey for a barstaff.’