Stories

Paulo Azevedo

27 January 2021

My Story

Paulo Azevedo

Nationality: Portuguese
Occupation: Bartender
Workplace: The Goring Hotel, London UK
Favorite Cocktail: Negroni
Favorite Spirit: Tequila

What inspired you to become a bartender:

Since I was young, I’ve always wanted to embrace new cultures and travel across the world, so I decided to become Bartender. As a bartender, I learn a lot of new things related to other cultures while talking to customers, colleagues and also by studying and discovering new products.

Tell me about your bartending journey and how you got to where you are now:

I started 3 years ago when I signed up to Hospitality School in the F&B Management program of 18 months, with the ambition to work abroad. Since I didn’t have any experience, I was working as an extra in a few 5 star hotels to learn and to pay my bills. I did my internship in a local bar called Vermuteria da Baixa, and when my internship was finished I decided to move to London to learn everything that I could about this fascinating area. After only 2 months of finishing my course, I started working at one of the best hotels in the world, The Goring Hotel.

What stamp would you like to leave on the industry:

Nowadays it’s very hard for one single individual to leave a stamp in the industry, nobody can go further alone. If I could say something to anyone who is starting out now, I would recommend to stay humble, learn your stuff, be passionate, make your customers happy and live your life. Don’t take yourself too seriously. As Gaz Regan’s said, “You sling drinks for a living, for *** sake. Big deal”.

Can you explain your personal process for creating a cocktail:

Creating a cocktail always comes from something that inspires me. It can be a movie, music, a story, or a person. It can take 2 minutes or 2 weeks. I always try to pay attention to the smallest details because I believe that’s what makes the difference. One of the most important things is the story around it, you can do a simple twist of a Gin and Tonic but if you create a story that you believe in, and you can tell it to your customer in such a passionate way, he/she will love the cocktail. It’s not just about the drinks that you mix inside the glass, but everything else around it as well.

What is the most important part of what you do and what does it mean to you:

Customers, customers, customers. Without them, we wouldn’t have a job. When we realise that, we do everything for them. It doesn’t matter if they only want sparkling water, we welcome them, we treat them well, we do everything to make them feel good and create great experiences and memories – for them and for us too.

What do you think will be the future of the F&B industry:

Unfortunately with this pandemic, it’s hard to say. There’re a lot of places that are near to closing doors for good, a lot of people lost their jobs and things are not as they used to be. I believe that it will take at least 3 years to get back to the F&B industry we used to know.

Anything that would you like to add?

In the middle of a pandemic when a lot of colleagues have lost their jobs, this is such a great way to promote them!
Keep the good incentive.

Most bizarre client request:

It wasn’t weird but it was funny. It was a rookie mistake, someone asked me for a Pussy Foot, and I stared at them like, “I beg your pardon?”.