SLTN Award-winning bartender Ryan Way is determined to push standards

Cocktails are a year-round passion for Aberdeen bartender Ryan Way.

Ryan, who was named SLTN Barperson of the Year at last year’s SLTN Awards, is assistant general manager at Aberdeen cocktail bar Orchid.

The multiple-time SLTN Cocktail Bar of the Year has a well-earned reputation for the quality of its drinks and service, and as assistant GM Ryan is responsible for helping to maintain those high standards. 

“The standard here is much higher than anywhere I’ve ever worked before,” Ryan told SLTN. 

“What you need to know about a spirit class, a style of drink or the history of a drink, how you operate your service. It’s just very different.”

Orchid wasn’t the first stop on Ryan’s hospitality journey.

Having worked in traditional pubs since he was 18, he found himself ‘falling down the rabbit hole of cocktails’ after he moved to a more spirits-focused venue several years into his career. 

“I think it’s that you can spend your entire week researching and looking at things and working out ingredients and trying different things and barely scratch the surface,” he explained. 

“It captures your imagination. There’s no end to it so you can just keep going and going, researching, making up new stuff and trying new stuff.”

And passing that knowledge on to the junior team members at Orchid has become a big part of the job, said Ryan.

“At the moment we’ve got quite a small team so training is more informal, where it can be a little more off the cuff,” he said.

“If it’s a quiet shift or if I need a hand doing some prep or whatever I can get one of the guys in or take them aside and say ‘right, we’ve got a bit of time just now. Is there anything you’re not 100% on?’

“A lot of what we’re trying to do as well is get brand reps and the like in to make sure the guys are taking part in training and tastings as well.”

In the past, Aberdeen has had a reputation for the closeness of its bartender community and Ryan said that – despite people leaving the industry over the pandemic – the scene continues to be as friendly as ever.

“There was a bit of a worry because we didn’t know what the scene was going to be after the pandemic,” he said.

“There’s a lot of new faces but it’s still a great scene.

“There’s a lot of people interested and it’s that kind of city where you can go into any bar and see someone you know from the trade. And everyone gets along really well.

“It’s not just Orchid and 99 that are organising tastings and things. 

“You’ve got Milo (Smith) down at The Old Workshop and Craig (Scott) at Bartenders’ Lounge and a few others that are stepping up and putting on tastings and training as well. 

“The more reasons for reps and brands to come to Aberdeen, the better.”

As for the hospitality sector in the granite city overall, Ryan said bars across the city are finding it ‘quite tough’ at the moment, with a general downturn in people coming out at night.

He said: “I think the city as a whole is struggling a little bit, which is tough. 

“But a lot of the bars are working so hard to make sure that the people that do want to come out are being well looked after and want to return and maybe bring some more people next time.”

Serving the best quality drinks has clearly never been more important, then, and that’s something the team at Orchid will continue to focus on moving forward.

“We’ve got a really good reputation and we don’t want to just rest on that,” he said. 

“We want to keep pushing what we can where we can. 

“That’s kind of a big thing we want to do over the next couple of years.

“Aberdeen doesn’t necessarily need a leader. Sometimes we’re just happy doing what we’re doing in the city. 

“But I think it’s nice if Orchid can help push everyone, as it has at times in the past.

“It’ll just raise the game of the whole city, and that’s a great thing.”