POST COVID everyone knows that going out has changed. Hospitality isn’t what it once was.
To me, going out isn’t just something I do without thought anymore. It has to be worth it, and with a cost of living crisis this is doubly so.
Most of my pals spent lockdown missing socialising, and missing drinks, and after the influx of do-it-at-home social media posts, they set about learning how to make that one drink they loved when they went out.
Now, 80% of people I talk to in the bar come in with an ideal drink, hoping to see it on the menu, looking to see if it’s as good as it is at home. They had months to perfect it, and now it has to really be worth it.
For bartenders, and chefs, this is a huge responsibility. Drinks especially are expensive, they have to be worth money and the effort. There’s nothing sadder than a soggy negroni, an overstirred martini or a badly poured pint.
The post COVID convo is a common place topic now, followed by the hangover chat. No one wants a hangover anymore. As a race, to me anyway, we’re finally standing up to it and saying no. We can’t afford to take annual leave to deal with a hangover.
So, this has led me to a lot of people who have decided to treat cocktails like coffee.
I don’t mean relying on it first thing in the morning, rather, I mean people who will have one or two cocktails in the same way that you would go out and have a coffee or two. Cocktails don’t have to be, and probably shouldn’t be, about getting drunk.
If that’s your goal, there are cheaper and more effective ways. Cocktails for the most part, when not made up exclusively of sugar with an allusion to booze, are just as intriguing, flavoursome and rewarding.
I love a negroni. I once rode a bicycle sixty miles over mountains and through a snowstorm to visit Bar Android in Fukuoka, a ride dangerous and stupid.
On reaching the top of the mountain, a foot of snow around me, no phone signal and only the downloaded full discography of Kate Bush to keep me company, I was over 20 miles from the nearest town, in a proper rural part of northern Yamaguchi.
The ride down was more of a slide, the insanely steep paths ski slopes of virginal snow.
A day later I made it to Bar Android, hidden down a lane, in a cellar tunnel, in the heart of Fukuoka, a proper speakeasy style bar, resplendent with red velour. I sat at the bar and the bartender told me last orders had been called. It was the 30th of December and they were shut for new year.
I laughed and told him in bad Japanese of my journey. He laughed, called me crazy then made me a negroni. It was a damn good negroni. I finished it off, left his bar, wandered back to my hotel and was asleep within ten minutes of leaving the bar.
The reason I bring this up is that it’s experiential. Whilst a lot of the story comes from the journey, the drink at the end was the draw. It wasn’t a reason to go there and get hammered. It was to experience a fantastic bar and a fantastic drink. That was it. It was its own complete little experience.
Post-COVID, bars have to be offering this, they have to be drawing people in with this. Nowadays, you can get great cocktails in the comfort of your home. To get great cocktails in bars the bartenders really need to be stepping up.
The appeal should be a drink that’s like a coffee, letting the customer or guest feel like it’s a worthy expense.
