Spot on. Although, since the setting is usually more of a bar than a restaurant, add to the remit some of the hospitality capabilities you associate with a good barman.
Although it has gone off the rails a bit in terms of becoming rather more of a performance, the world barista championships give some idea of the requirements.
I think you have a personal bugaboo that leads you to read more into jokes than exists. Check the dipstick on your humor levels and fill as required.
Maybe out in BFE (oh shit, sorry Derleth, was that insulting to your people?). While I don’t actively patronize Starbucks, I’ve been into a few around the state, and I’ve *never *seen this.
Is it really that hard to type “Starbucks”?
No, that just makes a *good *barista. Bad baristas are still baristas.
At least at Caribou, when I was a Barista there, we had rather extensive training on types of coffees, the regions it came from, why it was roasted the way it was (light, med. dark and all the variations), and we had weekly tastings. We pulled our shots of espresso manually, testing them prior to shift on the machine, because the grind has to be adjusted to fit conditions, shots will vary depending on how warm/cool the room is and the humidity. We would have to pull a shot, check the crema, taste it, and adjust as necessary a couple times through each shift.
As far as “waitress” I was paid $10/hr when I worked there 10 years ago, health insurance, and walked away with about $50 in tips at the end of a shift. I’d bet a lot of baristas are better off than many of their customers!
Hey, if you lot can stand to self-apply such imprecations as ‘Easterner’ and ‘Californian’, I think we can tolerate being compared to sandy sodomites.
I live in Mil. Wau. Kee.
Wis. Con. Sin.
In. The. Mid. West.
Whatever. It’s clear that you’re no true Scot.
Quite.
I’m. From Doo. Koin.
Ill. Ih. Noiii. (Iiing.)
I’d still call you an Easterner, though, just on general principles. 
Then why are you speaking like you’re from the Deep South?
Doo Qwin IS the deep south…in Ill Annoying!
Only if I get to call you flatlander back. 
Because **Derleth **apparently missed it both on the corner of every post I’ve ever made here *and *when I pointed it out just a few posts previous in this very thread.