opinionated alchemist

I just read today a newsletter of Jörg Meyer (owner of the amazing bar Le Lion Café de Paris), that he has silently taken almost all products of DIAGEO from his shelves - as well as other brands of multinational spirit companies. And I can very much sympathize with that. Unfortunately if you are in Dubai, it isn’t that easy - as these companies co-own the liquor suppliers (hence getting support as well as reasonable pricing is without the brands basically impossible). I also don’t have exactly the same pragmatism as Jörg. I am not necessary against brands only because they are owned by multinationals. Except of course, that these companies reasonably bad screwed up... But I do agree, that if companies are managing with their red pencil and do quality downgrades, because of profit efficiency it really pisses me off. These are my points I do consider: Several expensive ultra-aged rums (e.g. Ron Zacapa) using sugar, to smoothen out the palate. Deceptive labeling (e.g. Zacapa’s...

I have just received and read an interesting article: Serving up a great restaurant customer experience To be honest, I do mostly agree with the article. Yes - a friendly, engaging, enabling atmosphere and approach to guests is important. However there is one big issue: Nowadays people (managers / directors) assume, that if you are good with guest engagement as well as complaint handling, you do have a winner venue. I am sure, that you are not surprised, that I have got a very different opinion. read more

Somebody who wants to be a "real"  bartender should have a well-versed knowledge. Not only about drinks (this is pretty much the beginning), but also what just happens in this world: politics (even though, you should not bring it into a bar), sports (same as before) and culture - not only music (and I don't necessarily talk about pop culture), but also classical music, jazz (...), literature, visual arts... but also science... basically everything what happens on this planet. You don't necessary need to be an encyclopedia and you can have "dark spots", but you should have definitely heard of the Higgs-Boson particle or Jeff Koons. In fact, a lot of classic bars were directly connected with arts - not only that artists (like writers, but also any other kind of creatives) were frequenting them regularly - but there were also references to art: In Harry's Bar in Venice, Cipriani named a drink and a dish after famous Italian painters: Bellini (painti...