Stories from behind the bar
When I was at high school my teacher has put on a movie, Cocktail, 1988 by Roger Donaldson, with Tom Cruise (Brian Flanagan) hence my second nickname Brian. While everyone in the classroom was just enjoying that little time of unwinding, I couldn’t take my eyes off from the screen, one of the most epic scenes I remember is the Bartender’s speech. I always wanted to jump on the bar and do one (later in the years I did it, bourbon included with way less impact than that). The mixing of different tastes, the sync of the moves and the discipline behind the classics, the thing that there was a code to follow and was Universal, everyone even speaking different languages could actually speak the same thing, was, is so fascinating that i moved every step in the bar since following the rule that there was no higher authority inside the walls of a bar then the bartender, he/she knew the people and their habits and darks as no one else did, relatives included. Once more I got fascinated by this, then I found out about how much of history could actually be expressed by a dram that no the most sincere of the history book could express, so I started reading the labels and then the books I could find about those labels and bottles. Then it became my profession even though I studied something else at the UniversitY.
When I was 15 (fifteen) years old, I talked to dad and said, I want to have a Job, the year before I had a little experience as ‘Commis Chef’ (so they said, but i was actually preparing sauces, peeling potatoes, clearing fish and preparing fruit salad) in a Restaurant Kitchen, was intense and was dark when I was getting in and dark when I was coming out. That year at the end of the school I started watching around and I found near home two guys that had opened their bar for a couple of weeks, and they were looking for help. One was an experienced bartender and the other just the brother that was in business with, (Giuseppe and Diego) at the end of the day I could and had to mop the floor, prepare some nibble and do espressos, a part for some spare episodes when it was really busy and I could pour some amaros (then they asked me to stop as I was overpouring), by the end of the summer, after watching every single day all the summer long I mixed my first Americano (epic moment of my life, I swear). I kept on bartending as I had “acquired” experience, non constantly but with a certain frequency here and there, in a house party rather than in a private ceremony, with friends or with 500 guests alone because the RUSH IS LIFE! When I started to study at the University it became my week-end job, not because I needed it but because I liked it. To then become my Job and studying at the university was my week-days hobby, Sesto, was one of the few in town who could actually claim to have an American Cocktail DiscoBar, with a cocktails Menu that wasn’t flavoured vodkas and mixer, but actually IBA’s, Clara and Marco have taught me almost all I knew, maybe all I know. Then in 2012 I went to Valladolid (Castilla Y Leon) and passed one year alongside amazing people who were teaching me daily the language and the way of enjoying life while you work. It was Austerity time but they still gave me a job and some life lessons I’ll never forget, alongside El Cubi, a midweight Box Champion who was the owner of the bar aside from where I was working. At first I thought he was a competitor, then he happened to be my teacher, in the ring and behind the bar. The 13th of May 2013, I arrived at Stansted and the 15th I was behind the bar of Jamie’s Italian in Stratford, I stayed there for one year between continuous growth, liters of tears, tons of hugs and great vibes with people that I still keep on my side. I then Joined Primo Bar, in Westminster Bridge in a 1119 rooms Hotel, and there I passed 3 years from Senior Bartender to Senior Supervisor, then I moved to the institutional bar of the DRY MARTINI by JAVIER DE LAS MUELAS in London, where alongside a magnificent team I had fun and daily success and the opportunity to classify in the best 35 bartenders for DIAGEO WorldClass 2018. I also won the UK Bimber Distillery Martini challenge 2018 and Classified for the Global Finals of the Goral Masters of Master competition . After the summer, I joined the team at the prestigious Laddershed bar at the Chiltern Firehouse, where, really, any comment or description about the greatness of the experience would not pay enough credit to it. I won the Bulleit Frontier cocktail competition, and was also finalist in The Vero Bartender Amaro Montenegro competition, two times. After, I Joined the team at Lanique Spirit of Rose as Brand Ambassador, where with Jakub “Kuba’ Pesko (the Sales Manager who has chosen me) and Kieran Gandhi (A phenomenal Managing Director) I had the massive opportunity to explore and develop at the best all my influences and passions, leading and hosting masterclasses, creating pop-up bar events including The Rose Bar at the Volt Festival for 8 weeks, focusing on sales leads and new accounts, create and drive new cocktail listings, and support activations, on-trade training and new product development.
Pour high, aim higher.
I stare and study at the main ingredient until when we become one. Sometimes I dream about what to do (I’m being serious I sleep with a notebook and a pen aside of my bed)
The experience I believe is 8/10th of the flavours You’ll catch and remember about your drink, a wide smile is the best serve a Bartender can and should offer, alongside a discrete but intense knowledge. When I go to a bar, the welcome and goodbye is what makes the difference between my low shelf choice (rare, I admit) and asking a Dry Martini olives on the side. The goodbye is what makes me return, I’ve been a skater and I still skate and an amazing rule is that the trick is not done if you don’t end with both feet on the board, if this makes any sense to YOU. In the same way I try my best to give all of mine from the first step in the bar to the last sight at the corner of the door. I want You to come back to me and choose me again, it fulfils me.
I believe that a skill a Gentleman must learn before his 30s is the make of a drink, this includes the craft of the balance and taste and more delicassy, including the food pairing in order to impress his company (this works for both sex please, nothing is more sexy and intriguing than a discussion at the bar about what to take, it says all about who you are with). So, as long as this need is alive the F&B will develop the right place and atmosphere to be the theathter of the most known socialising act since the start of life on earth.
Please, I’m waiting You at the bar to discuss what I’ve said, on both sides.
A dirty Margarita, shaken please. Then it became vodka and cranberry juice.
