Sophie Bratt, the Class Bar Awards Bar Manager of the Year and bar manager at Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, loves show-stopping drinks, but says we need to be focused on the whole performance.
Have you ever asked yourselves why guests come to your bar? Why they want to spend the price of a good bottle of something on a single drink – a £20 glass of champagne or a Martini? Well, I hate to break it you but it’s mostly not because of what we put in the glass. It’s everything outside of it.
Bars are about the hospitality, the ambience and creating experiences that put smiles on faces. I can have a drink at home, I can have my friends together at my house, but you (the bartender) and your venue have the ability to make me feel special – that is hospitality. At times it feels like a dying art.
More and more I despair when I visit bars that are cold, soulless venues, their bartenders hiding their personalities, letting the drinks do all the talking. All too often the menu is thrust upon me and the interaction is brisk, sometimes brusque. So how do we make the experience more than a transaction? How do we make the magic happen?
There are no hard and fast rules – it depends on the bar you work at and your reading of the guest and the situation. But it starts with the knowledge that you have the power to make people happy. When I look back to how Mia Johansson used to welcome you to Swift, even without physical contact I would feel like I had been welcomed with a hug. Your body language – not least your facial expression – is all part of the experience. Eye contact is essential in hospitality. Being in the moment even more so.
Immersive theatre
In the past, when I’d train a junior bartender I’d use the analogy that the bar was a stage and bartenders the actors, but I think I can refine that idea now – what we are involved in is immersive theatre. A bar in full swing is an interactive adult auditorium where everyone has a part to play, including the guest. The bar manager is the director, orchestrating the performance. He or she must choose – and direct – the perfect cast to create the right balance of energy, personality and chemistry.
Great shows come in many forms. At Sexy Fish, where I used to work, the show is perfectly choreographed. When the team is having fun you can see how the guest enjoyment is heightened – everyone has fun as one. There’s the magic at Murder Inc when the guests and team sing along together to Kiss from a Rose – the perfect accompaniment to a Martini. When I think about a night out in Leeds, at Mal Evans’ Mojo, the fun here is also created by pulling down barriers between guests and bartenders. A good night at Mojo feels as if we’re all at home in the same safe space.
Yes, drinks need to be great, but the experience should be so much more than the liquid. The thing that raises the bar experience from a pleasant to a memorable one is about how it makes the guest feel.
In this quest, bars are not competing with each other, we are competing with the countless reasons people have to stay in. To win – for hospitality to prosper – we can never lose sight of what makes a night out special. We have to be the greatest show around.