Foreword I find myself wiser this year, I come prepared. Tickets at the ready and a preemptive arrival early enough to beat the lengthy queues that swiftly find themselves weaving through the back streets of Brick Lane long before the gates fling open, I arrive in time for a pre Coffee Festival coffee at Nude […]
Read moreHospitality. There’s no magic formula, granted, but why is it great experiences in bars and restaurants that really encompass the true essence of hospitality are so few and far between in reality? So what really is hospitality and where do so many places slip up at the first, if not second hurdle through the door. […]
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This piece was written by Julian for Imbibe.com, featuring Opinion section. ‘You’re a bartender?’ ‘Yeah…’ ‘What you having?’ ‘Not sure… What do you recommend?’ … Wait for it… There it is. The bartender’s handshake. I’m not talking about a shot of Fernet, nor tequila, I’m not taking about an actual beautifully intricate secret handshake that’s taken years […]
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Recently I was in the beautiful city of Gdańsk, where I had been asked by Better Bar Show to do a presentation on what I actually do for a living. The specifics were left up to me, so I spent a while pondering what I was going to talk about exactly… drinks technique? A room […]
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We’ve been reading the headlines for at least two years: “Over-priced, over-hyped and over-rated”, “London is Over”, “Is London Dead?”. Attention-grabbing though these articles may be, London is demonstrably neither over nor “dead”. Yes, it can be eye-wateringly expensive and the Tube is the bane of us all, but the idea that every Londoner is living […]
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In case you hadn’t noticed, the fruit with a once assumed status of great pomp and nobility has reared a younger generation that seems to be rather enjoying its cork-and-bottled forefathers munching down on a slice of humble pie these days. From London Wine Week’s cleverly named UK Garage club night Genuwine to the championing […]
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This could be any high-end cocktail bar, in any city. It doesn’t matter. My cheeks have barely touched the plush padded barstool when a small perspiring glass slides gracefully towards me over the polished mahogany, the dapper bartender holding my gaze intently, daintily replacing the crystal jug back in its seat; a continuous movement comfortably […]
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What do you think is the biggest selling soft drink in the world? Coke? Sprite? Red Bull?…Irn Bru? No, no and no. You’re not even close. It’s bottled water, and it’s bigger than all of those combined. Bottled or packaged water has recently overtaken fizzy drinks as the world’s best-selling soft drink. Crazy. The average person […]
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As a teenager in Amsterdam you might imagine that I had many an informative and eye opening experience. My brother from another mother, a few years my senior, had already started forming considered opinions on the new trendy bars and restaurants opening in the city. One night he came home and told me about a […]
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Wine: at its best an incredibly complex, evocative liquid to behold, and deliciously old news that we have celebrated for millennia. That said, as we enter the midst of what is arguably the most excitingly progressive era for drinks of all time, the same can now confidently be said for coffee, cocktails, spirits, sodas and […]
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