Features

A day in the life of... a hotel bar manager

28 May 2010 by AndrewGough

Alessandro Palazzi, bar manager at London’s Dukes hotel, talks to Michelle Mannion

3pm We open at 12pm, but I usually start work about now. I come before the rush so I can meet with the general manager, check the bookings, read my emails and deal with special requests for the evening. Once a week there is a head of department meeting, and there is also a weekly food and beverage meeting. Hotel bars are what I prefer – it’s more like a village and you get to deal with all areas of the business.

Suppliers also visit in the afternoon – for some, it’s important to have their products at Dukes. [The bar has a high pedigree – it’s known as the place where Ian Fleming coined the term “shaken not stirred” for James Bond’s signature martini.] When I was asked at interview why I wanted the job, I said, “If you’re a professional bartender you have to make a martini at Dukes” – I think that’s what got me the position. But I don’t like to play on the Bond connection. I never met Mr Fleming but he drank here for years.

5pm I hold a quick briefing with the team. There are four of us altogether, with three working each shift. One person will open up and another colleague and I work until closing.

5.30pm From now until 9pm is the first big hit. On Monday to Friday you get the business people – they can hold meetings here as it’s quiet. We cater for people who want to have a proper, civilised drink, who want to talk and enjoy the atmosphere. There’s no music, no TV and we don’t want people standing.

I mainly do the receiving and seating – the bar holds 60-70 people. Sometimes I will have a queue outside so I’ll check everyone’s okay. I’ll also work the floor serving martinis – certain customers will want only me to make them. There’s a little bit of theatre involved – we wheel the ingredients out on a table and do it in front of them. We do roughly 150 martinis a night, maybe 200 on a busy night, and have roughly 12 gins and 12 vodkas to choose from. We’re trying to give someone an experience.

9pm It gets a bit quieter so we ready ourselves for the next rush, making sure the tables are clean and the glasses are ready. My team are professionals and we share the work, so I will muck in. As a manager, you have to pass on your skills and experience. I don’t teach the team much about the cocktails but I teach how to serve them, sell them and make customers happy. That comes with age – I’ve been doing it a long time [Palazzi has been in the trade since the seventies, working in Paris, Italy and Los Angeles, as well as London].

To be a good barman, you need three qualities – to be diplomatic, acrobatic and charismatic. We don’t just make drinks – we get taxis, make bookings, solve problems and do it all in an invisible way. The psychological bit is the most important thing. If someone wants to show off, you have to help them – so if a guy is on a date and says the champagne is too cold, you have to go along with it.

10pm It starts picking up again as people come out of the theatre and finish dinner, and will stay busy until 12.30am depending on who’s in.
Non-residents can stay until 11pm.

We don’t get trouble. People may have two martinis and if they ask for a third, we might suggest they have something else. Some people don’t like that – it can be quite a challenge. Once, one guy was swaying and I took his drink away. We don’t want you to have a bad experience but we don’t want the table next to you to either. If people swear then that is the time for me to say “I’m Catholic, I’m Italian” – it’s good to tell an anecdote and improvise a little. You don’t want to embarrass them.

12.30am-1am We close up about now, sometimes later. We cash up and get the bar ready for the next day. I also talk to the night manager about what happened during the evening.

1.30am-2am I head home on my scooter. I find it easy to switch off – when I get home everyone is asleep, so I have a bite to eat, watch TV and am in bed at 2.30am-3am. I’m up again at 8.30am to take my son to school. I love my job – every night I go to a party and get paid for it. And one of the best things is that you learn every day – when I stop, they can put me in that box.

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