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Hamish Smith introduces the latest magazine

With the recent news that a third of hospitality businesses are operating at loss, there’s a fine balance between addressing the challenges our industry faces and talking up the spots of optimism that still abound.

We walk that line carefully in this issue of CLASS, with UK Hospitality’s Kate Nicholls and multiple bar operator Edmund Weil outlining the economic challenges hospitality faces right now, while still throwing light where we can.

One such tale of optimism is Speak in Code in Manchester, which, year by year, just seems to get better. Bigger too. Literally – it’s knocked through into the space behind it and later this year owner Nathan Larkin plans to open an even bigger bar beneath.

As a venue – and as our cover alludes – SIC has always had a forensic interest in the basics of running a bar people want to be in. At a time when every customer has to be cherished, the fine-tuning of the guest experience is the bar operator’s purpose. We talk to Larkin about how he – or rather his team – does it.

Fresh off the back of a thunderous Class Bar Awards (which, of course, we detail in the magazine), my own column reflects on the role of awards. You’ll probably be aware that Satan’s Whiskers took Bar of the Year for the second year running. Owner Kevin Armstrong returns to these pages with a piece to ruffle a few more feathers as he probes the modern bartender’s unquestioning desire to be original.

John Ennis of Graffiti Spirits Group in Liverpool is also shouting at the clouds – hopefully somebody’s listening. We cannot lose sight of the fact bars are meant to be fun, he says, not minimalist cocktail canteens.

Jacob Clarke of Couch makes his debut with some clear-minded thinking. What if we didn’t hire bartenders based on reputations but looked at personality types to build the perfect team, he asks. Think Moneyball, but for bars.

Crossing to the brand world, Jake O’Brien Murphy lets us in on what it’s actually like to be a brand ambassador, while Panda & Sons’ Iain McPherson has some advice for brand reps – if he can find one.

Becky Paskin weighs in on the stealthy – and dubious – use of animal products in cocktails, while Ellen Manning is also on the farmyard path, looking into the best ways to work with local producers. Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown have their eyes fixed on ingredients too – and the calendar. Their suggestions are hyper seasonal.

In the world of techniques, Tyler Zielinski reports on how to best carbonate your highballs, and we have Stu Bale from Crucible in the first of a new series on lab equipment: first stop, methods of clarification.

On the back bar are some spirits to which you might not have given much thought. We have the embryonic blended English whisky category, spotted first under Millie Milliken’s microscope, while Oli Dodd is looking at tequilas made from 100% agave – and precious little else. And we have Golden Crane’s Benjamin Salguero with a lowdown on what seems the smallest and biggest spirit in the world, Chinese baijiu.

CLASS mag returns in Autumn when, with any luck, the economic skies will be lighter, the forecast for our bars brighter.