Editor Hamish Smith introduces the latest magazine. Access the digital magazine here. Not subscribed? Bartenders can sign up for a digital or hard copy here.
There is no doubting the hardship hospitality faces right now, but how we grind and hustle, the spirit with which we serve and the optimism with which we approach our day, that’s all up to us. As an industry, with a common goal – to offer world-class hospitality – we have to stick together.
In that spirit of optimism and togetherness, who better to stick on our front cover than the owners of Liverpool’s current favourite cocktail joint, Bar Glue. The Class Bar Awards New Bar of the Year isn’t flash about things – it has the humble aim of being a fun cocktail bar and a hub for its bartender community. Mike Bower, Hatt Bower and Nathan Price are true hospitality people – we hear their story in this edition of Class.
Across the country there are bartenders following in their footsteps into ownership – not least Pippa Guy and Seb Fileccia who are doing just that in Bristol. Plus, there’s our usual round of reviews, revealing the best – and not so best – bars to have recently launched in the UK. In our big review I venture through the antique revolving doors of Hawksmoor St Pancras, a historical setting but in many ways a bar built for the times we live in – what it offers is affordable luxury.
Oli Dodd is once again on a mission to find bang for buck – this time in the pricey category of brandy – while Tilt’s Liam O’Brien has great money saving and value-boosting tips for converting waste into homemade vinegar.
Zooming out further, Satan’s Whiskers’ Kevin Armstrong investigates the last remaining avenue for recruiting overseas talent – youth mobility schemes – and Edmund Weil looks back on 15 years of Nightjar (p48). Think of a bar with longevity as a Ship of Theseus, he says.
We have the raft of regulars also in residence. Millie Milliken writes on how the Scotch loch could be redirected to bars in the form of lower-cost mixing malts, Anistatia Miller & Jared Brown advise on seasonal ingredients, Jake Patrick ruminates on the Old Fashioned, Tyler Zielinski is getting geeky over at Nipperkin and Clinton Cawood is stroking his beard at the thought of more dusty classics.
That’s not it, nostalgia lovers: Ben Reed’s contemporary history of London’s cocktail bar scene turns the corner of the Millennium – and we welcome the return of the industry’s pre-eminent historian, David Wondrich. He tackles the kind of question we’d trust him and few others answering: which country invented the cocktail?
It helps in times of uncertainty and instability to remember that bar culture has a long and rich history underpinning it. Never forget that hospitality is what the festive season is all about and you’re the people who deliver it.