Many adults have a favorite drink that they choose to order when at a bar or restaurant, be it a mojito, margarita, long island iced tea or maybe scotch on the rocks. Regardless of the alcohol or drink preference, the business and person serving these libations have a legal obligation to keep consumers and those in the community safe, and Rob Arnold trains businesses and servers to do just that!
Rob Arnold, owner of Arnold’s ABC Classes LLC, has been in the restaurant and beverage industry since attending Tennessee State University in the late 1990s. His passion for keeping consumers and the community safe is rooted in his previous experiences of witnessing friends drink in excess, and bars continue to serve them past safe drinking limits. These serving practices have not only proven to foster potentially deadly consequences, they are illegal.
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is committed to educating the public and enforcing the laws related to safe serving and consumption. As one of the few certified African American instructors trained to teach TABC alcohol awareness classes, Rob uses real life examples as he trains others to be responsible servers of alcohol.
The server permit training course is approximately five hours long with objectives to improve the ability to recognize signs of intoxication, ensure that guests have a safe time while they are consuming alcoholic beverages, and improve the server’s confidence in handling awkward situations which arise when people drink too much. Arnold’s ABC Classes, LLC also provides insight on how alcohol interacts with the body and who is at a higher risk of becoming intoxicated.
Rob Arnold has been and is teaching private classes at Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. The resort recognizes the importance of training all staff who come into contact with the service of alcohol. He personalizes the classes for the Gaylord STARS by adding information that would be helpful for them in their specific environment.
More recently, he has begun offering a series of ABC classes in the Downtown Nashville Metro area. These classes are taught on Thursdays at the George Jones Museum and the Wildhorse Saloon.
Rob feels very optimistic about the increase in demand for ABC classes. With the passage of Senate Bill 837, which authorizes the Alcoholic Beverage Commission to issue licenses to sell wine in grocery stores, more retailers will be required to have a workforce full of ABC card-carrying members. By law, anyone who serves and/or sells alcohol to others must complete the alcohol awareness-training course and the server permit license expires after 5 years.
For more information about Arnold’s ABC Classes, LLC or the responsible service of alcohol in general, contact Rob Arnold at arnoldsabcclasses@gmail.com.
