“Arrogance will never make a great bar,” says The Connaught’s Giorgio Bargiani

The Martini at The Connaught Bar in London might just be the world’s most famous Martini right now. You may have seen it: a suited bartender wheels the Martini trolley throughout the room, upon which sits all the elements you need to craft the perfect Martini, along with a trio of unique, custom made bitters; an atomised spray of these is given to each guest, and they’re asked to decide which they would like to add to their very own Martini.

It’s a pretty special Martini.

Giorgio Bargiani is the assistant director of mixology at The Connaught, and in April he came to Sydney during the Maybe Cocktail Festival, in part to showcase the arrival of Grey Goose Altius to our shores.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, we talk about his career, the art of the Martini, what makes Grey Goose Altius a luxury choice beffiting of The Connaught, and about what makes a great bar.

You can also check out the full chat in the latest Drinks At Work podcast below.

BOOTHBY: Before we start talking about The Connaught Bar and about Martinis and Grey Goose Altius, what’s your origin story? How did you come into this world of hospitality and the bar?

GIORGIO: Without going much into the endless story of my life, my family still to today run hospitality businesses in my hometown in Pisa. It started in the 1960s on my father’s side. On my mother’s side, they started a perfumery shop in 1884. Its scent, aromas, food, drinks, people, hospitality, has been part of me forever, things I remember. 

But then it was nightclubs when I was a teenager up to 22, 23 years old. I was doing more bottles to tables and PR. And there’s something I think I still carry with me. I love connection, I love networking. And then one day, yes — I wanted to make a career out of it.

I wanted to start with a career [that was] more serious, respectable — something with more structure in terms of career. So I joined the hotel world, but not in the bar at the beginning, because I had to learn everything. 

From being a very cocky nightclub person to go to the standards and refined hospitality and bespoke experiences took a while — to know how to walk, how to talk, to do things, interactions.

Did you go to hotel school?

I joined a very old school hotel in Portofino, Italy, where I learned old school hospitality. Not much about the complexity, the ingredients, the recipes, the techniques, but more about how to host people in a five star way, how to entertain, how to amaze, how to take care of people from every aspect. But the goal was always to move to London and work in a hotel bar. Life wanted me to end up at The Connaught Bar. 

So that was 11 years ago. Can you tell us what your position involves now?

I’m the assistant director of mixology. Which is a unique role, I’m the assistant of Ago Perrone who is the director of mixology. And our roles are unique because we’re not necessarily beverage managers, we’re not necessarily bar managers. We’re more about the creative aspect of what we do. We’re very focused on creating concepts, events. I personally love social media, so everything that involves creating social media assets for onsite, offsite, cocktails. There’s not really boundaries of what we can create.

Are you kind of like ambassadors for the bar as well?

Sort of, sort of. I’m at the bar. You will find me whenever I’m in London — and people don’t believe it — at least four or five days a week I’m at The Connaught Bar. I’m at the bar because I like to host and entertain. Whenever I travel, or whenever I talk publicly about the bar, I am a proud ambassador of the place.

For people who maybe aren’t familiar with The Connaught Bar, can you tell us what’s the bar all about? Because it’s quite a special place.

So this year, The Connaught Bar celebrates 17 years of life. The building is much older, and the hotel is over 200 years old. But when this bar was opened by the current owners 17 years ago, they were looking to change the hotel industry, because to that point, hotel bars and restaurants were way more exclusive, were probably way less innovative, and they were more conservative.

Well they’ve done things that way for a long time.

Exactly. They were more amenities of the hotel rather than destinations themselves. So The Connaught Bar, together with a few other places around the world, was one of the first to introduce the creativity, the innovation, as well as the way of hosting people off the street at the bar. 

It has been an incredible ride for the last 17 years, but it has been definitely an evolution from 2008 when making foam was something extraordinary in an hotel bar. We had our trolley with bitters — to this day people are fascinated by our bitters collection, but imagine 17 years ago?

It would have been unheard of.

So since then, the mission has always been the same, the vision — hospitality, taking care of people, creating memorable experiences as well as of course exploring the world of mixology through different styles.

Now The Connaught Martini is probably the world’s most famous Martini at the moment I’d say.

It’s very well known.

You’re very humble. Can you tell us how that Martini gets served at the Connaught?

So I think the most valuable part of our Martini is the fact that we give time to people before giving them a drink. So thanks to our trolley, we can travel all around the room, and also around the world. To see each and everyone. So we speak to them, we ask them about how they feel, what they like, because ultimately — I will never say this enough — the Martini cocktail is the most personal and personalised of the cocktails. And why do I say that? When you order a Negroni, what do you ask for? A Negroni? Maybe you like a certain gin, but it’s uncommon that each and every Negroni is ordered with [a different] gin, with [a different] vermouth. 

When you ask for a Martini, there is also a string attached: Which spirit? Gin? Why not vodka? Which garnish? Lemon, olive, onion? No garnish? Shake and stir, dry, extra dry, more vermouth, less vermouth — everyone has their own Martini. So because many people who visit us don’t have their own Martini, we’re giving them our time, we made them discover, going through all these elements and providing our bitters selection, five different bitters that we let our guests smell as perfumes. Why it is important to smell? Because [when you’re] talking about something, you need to have [its] background. If you know what tonka is, you can say I like tonka or not. But if you don’t know what it is, you’re out of the conversation. So smelling the bitters allows our guests to discover and according to their background, choose something.

This reality for us is truly important: our guests are the star of this interaction, without spotlight on them. [They] feel important. [They] feel valued and recognised because we care about them. 

And everything is made in a way that you feel like that, or at least we strive for that, more or less 25 to 27 thousand times a year.

So that’s what, about 60 Connaught Martinis a night, every night?

Yeah, probably even more on a busier night.

You have to put jet engines on the trolley. Tell us about what you’ve been out here doing with Grey Goose Altius.

I think Grey Goose Altius is very relevent these days, because I feel like people more and more are after premium products.

I mean, Grey Goose itself is pretty premium.

It’s always been, but there’s always a way of elevating what you’ve been doing forever.  I think that’s very much aligned with us at The Connaught. We don’t think that what we do is the best of the best — probably it is the best in that specific moment in time, but it always needs to be re-looked at and evolved and made more appealing and relevant for our guests. 

I think what is very much sometimes overlooked in spirits is mouthfeel, for example. Because flavour is important, definitely. But if flavour is not delivered properly it doesn’t have length. So the mouthfeel for example, having a spirit like Altius with this purity as well as this very special French water. We Italians share the Alps with the French, I know it’s a very high quality. 

I had the pleasure a few times of meeting [Grey Goose master distiller] François Thibault and witnessing his knowledge, but also his passion for this product really gave me the confidence of creating a Martini with Altius.

I’m putting in something which is iconic, I’m putting something that people recognize. When people recognise something is a symbol of quality and a symbol of luxury, they certainly see the value of what we do.

And that adds to that memorable experience that you were talking about, right? Do you think making that experience more memorable is probably more important than it ever has been? Because it seems as hard as it ever has been to stand out.

I think so. Very much. Competition is through the roof. I never see competition as a bad thing. I see competition as a way of improving ourselves. It’s not like looking at others and complaining — it’s more like, okay, what could we do better to be more appealing for our guests? To be more exciting for the industry? To have something to say each and every time? And using a premium product in our case is certainly something we must do. 

Jacob Briars has said that The Connaught Martini is expensive — it’s a 30 quid ($60 AUD) Martini. But he said that if you can afford a 30 quid Martini, it’s the cheapest way to feel like a millionaire. 

It is indeed.

I’ve been at The Connaught, it’s a fantastic Martini, especially with the table side theatre. I still remember that, I still talk about it. How do you think about those sort of Martini moments? Are there other ways, other avenues for the Martini that you like?

I’m a big advocate of a Fifty-Fifty Martini. I think especially in a world where alcohol consumption is a bit sometimes more responsible, the Fifty-Fifty is correct. Also, as a proud Italian, I believe aperitifs in general, and fortified wines are something that are very relevant to me.

What is your choice of vermouth?

I like to do blends because they bring an extra layer of complexity and a different experience. We are very blessed that a lot is available these days compared to 20, 30, 50 years ago.  We are able to have our own Martini without going crazy in complexity. Like if you blend the vermouth and you want the touch of bianco vermouth, you have something more palatable, more soft, that perhaps will go extremely well with the softness of Grey Goose Altius, for example. But maybe you put a splash of sweet vermouth, so you do a sort of Perfect Martini, which could be most suitable for an after dinner sort of occasion. Things like bitters, as we do, but why not sometimes drops of vinegar to make it bright and fresh? I feel like the world of the Martini is just opening up. 

Well, Martinis here in Australia have been really growing rapidly. A lot more people are drinking Martinis than ever before, but I’m not sure why that is.

I think again, probably premiumisation is something that is growing not just in the drinks world, but in clothing, watches, cars, you name it.

It’s a little taste of luxury.

Correct, and the Martini feels like a luxurious experience. You drink a Martini for an occasion, you you don’t go to the local place, like a dive bar to have a Martini. The Martini involves a whole ritual of dressing up, going to a certain place, or celebrating something. And because of its strength and personality, you don’t have 10 Martinis, while some people might have six beers — so that one Martini needs to be the one and that’s what people are after more and more.

So what in your professional opinion makes a great bar? And then, what makes you happiest in a bar?

Okay, so what makes a bar great? It’s a blend of happiness and kindness. Because when you walk into bars where people are genuinely happy and you can tell? Like Maybe Sammy: I’m here because of the happiness that Stefano Catino shares — not just shares, he sweats happiness. You look at Stefano and you’re happy. And that is so well spread throughout his venues, his people.

Many times, even to us at The Connaught, people say they look at us, and they feel happy. They see ourselves laughing and making jokes and enjoying. And that can cancel mistakes, that can erase bad moods. Then everything else comes along. If you’re happy to be in a place, you enjoy it, you’re proud of it, and you know that you need to be knowledgeable, you need to follow standards. You need to respect people and that goes along with kindness, because at the end, hospitality is all about being selfless. So if you’re kind, whatever you do in those eight, nine, 10 hours of your day, you do it for other people. And if you generally do it for other people, you do it with love and people will acknowledge that.

I think maybe it’s too conceptual, and it’s too blah blah romantic Italian. 

But I think attitude then sets everything else. Arrogance will never make a great bar.

What makes you happiest in a bar? Makes you smile?

People are mirrors. If you smile, I smile. It’s as easy as that. I come into a place, and you don’t smile? What should I do? Shall we cry together? No, I don’t want to cry with you. Shall we argue? I don’t know. Honestly, smiling is very contagious. Positivity is very contagious. We can always go better and better and better, and there’s no downhill when you smile. 

I’m trying to define the recipe of what makes a good bar. I’m trying to understand why people after 17 years order 27,000 Martinis a year;  there’s no complex technique, there’s no out of this world ingredient. It’s truly the  interaction, the care, and the gesture of sharing that people enjoy most.

You make people feel good.  I don’t think people remember the drink so much as how they felt.

I always like to say that.