Where’s the Drink List Gone? The Art of Mastering the Menuless Bar by Jessica Rapp
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A menu isn’t just a handy guide to cocktail ingredients, it can help you communicate with your bartender. How difficult is it to train staff to be able to find the right drink for a customer? The biggest challenge is talking to customers. Between myself, my partners, Linch and Eric, and Stephanie from Mao Mao Chong, we have about 30 years of bartending experience, so that’s helpful. Everyone is familiar with the different categories of cocktails.
november 2014
photos: mitchell pe masilun
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f you don’t know your whiskeys from your bourbons, then rolling up to a menuless bar can be daunting. Luckily, you can be confident that there are bartenders in this city who have your back. Following a longtime trend that has caught on among the watering holes of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, the menuless bar is beginning to snake its way through Beijing, and with it, savvy bartenders like Douglas Williams of BBC. We tested a few of his dark rums before launching into a chat about the challenges and rewards of no drink list.