The right ingredients

[L-R] Ghaith Zeidan, Sid King, Etienne Haro, John Quick, Shaun Roesstorff, Giorgio Vallesi and Nick Hancock strike a pose in Eclipse Bar at the Inter

Why isn’t this a market that can lead?

Zeidan: It’s about not having the producers here, so you don’t have that invention here; so we have to rely on new ideas from outside.

Quick: Why can’t the bartenders here have new ideas though? I think if people are encouraged to be creative, then they absolutely can be, no matter where they are.

Story continues below

And OK, maybe in independent outlets it is easier to empower the staff to be creative in that way, but it’s not a hard-and-fast rule by any means.

Zeidan: But I think we always come back to the same point here, which is people.

Hancock: And that brings us back to the first question, on what the main challenges are; for me, it’s staff. You find some decent empowered staff, particularly in independent outlets, but still…

King: My staff are empowered — to a certain point. To throw away a cocktail, no; to promote their outlet’s speciality cocktails, yes. But there is a limit, if you’re on a small wage and the budget is tight, as they are nowadays.

What you need are people with charisma and character, which is what my bartenders have, and I think if they’re friendly and focused and get people buying, then good for them.

Quick: That is one of the main problems, though: salaries. Many outlets will hire for volume rather than skill; cheap labour rather than people with real knowledge and experience. But then I know some really good bartenders in London, and they’re on great salaries — so they would never come here.

Vallesi: To have that confidence, to recommend things and get your customers to try something different, I think you’ve got to build up your skills up behind the bar — i.e. by cleaning glasses and working the tills, rather than going straight in and having a list telling you what to put in a Cosmopolitan.

If you don’t have the basic training, you won’t be able to excel as a bartender; if you don’t learn to walk, you can’t run.

Quick: It’s also about having a bit of passion in what you’re doing, following a career path you want to. A lot of the top guys in Europe are career bartenders — look at Salvatore Calabrese, he’s a legend.

These people do it because they love what they’re doing, and that’s what we want here: people that come to be bartenders and are passionate about learning and furthering their bar career. And then if you have a few new recruits, then that’s fine: the experienced hands can train. There’s a balance to be struck.

So can anything be done about this staffing situation?

Hancock: I think there’s a lot we can do — it’s just getting the boys in HR and finance to agree! But I look at what Zuma have done; they’ve broken that mould in Dubai where you’ve got 100 Filipinos and Indians behind the bar who aren’t particularly interested in making a career in the beverage industry and who haven’t been trained properly.

Instead, they’ve got a handful of professionals from established beverage markets, such as South Africa, and the UK, and these experienced career bartenders are there to train and help the recruits from the Philippines, or India, or any other major feeder market, who don’t have the experience. And these professionals will show them the enthusiasm and passion that can go with a bar career.

Roesstorff: It does all come back to the staffing. There are too many people coming in without the necessary required knowledge, and who then get moved up before they have really mastered the basic skills. So that initial training does need to be addressed — perhaps by offering training in the basics for anyone who works in the outlet, from the bartenders to the glass washers.

Quick: When we do our training, everybody goes — the bartenders, the bar backs, waiters, receptionists, everyone. So then everyone can up-sell and understand the product.

King: This is one of the challenges of my role; I’m in charge of beverage training for 180 front-line staff for our restaurants and bars.

We do promote from within, we never take bar staff from outside the hotel, and it is a high-demand job because tips are good. And those who are keen and come to all the trainings are the ones who are considered.

Zeidan: Do you find most people are there out of passion for the business, or is it because they want more money?

King: It’s a bit of both, definitely — and the third reason is because their manager sent them!
But you can quickly tell who is passionate and who is not, so we just have to try and get the message across as best we can.

Zeidan: Ultimately, if you don’t have passion for what you’re doing, you won’t excel.