° MEET °
HON G KON G
HK
JOSEPH
BOROSKI N
ew Yorker Joseph Boroski is one of Asia’s most acclaimed bartenders and consultants in addition to operating a bartending school in Bangkok. Drinks World caught up with Joseph to talk about his latest venture, J Boroski - a venue that brings one of the most enigmatic and creative cocktail spaces to Hong Kong with a cocktail concierge service.
DRINKS WORLD: You hail from New York, how did you end up in Asia, what brought you specifically to Hong Kong? JOSPEH BOROSKI: I was doing a bunch of cocktail pairings with some famous chefs in America for events around the country and one of the organisers was actually based in Bangkok at the time. They were setting up kind of a tour with some of the chefs I was working with and asked me to join the tour to pair some cocktails with the chefs. So I ended up coming out to Asia and doing the tour. Afterwards, I ended up getting a lot of enquiries about coming back to venues we were working at to do training with the staff and to refresh their menu, so I ended up getting a lot of consulting jobs through that. I was flying back and forth from New York and I ended up realising that it would be better if I had a base in Asia. DW: Is a concierge service for drinks something that you have experienced in other bars or cities? JB: Not specifically what we’re doing at
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J. Boroski. It is derived from some experiences that I’ve had before, but it’s also derived from some ideas that I had to make things a little bit more original and unique. I wanted to make sure that what I was offering was going to be something that people wouldn’t come across generally, and I think it’s still pretty hard pressed for anyone to have the same kind of experience anywhere. Part of the cocktail concierge service is being able to create something for someone based on his or her preferences. And we go in one of two directions with that; we ask the guest if they would prefer something more spirit forward, which would be your chosen spirit enhanced with other additional ingredients, or something more fresh based, which would be made using several of our freshly prepared ingredients that would be backed up by your chosen spirit or we can choose the spirit if guests would like us to. They’re essentially the two types of drinks that we do. So that combined with some other different personal touches, and the way that Ashley Sutton and I have done the bar is in a way so that it’s very
intimate, and all that combined creates that personal concierge cocktail service. DW: What was the inspiration behind opening J. Boroski, a venue that offers a concierge service where entry is invite only? JB: The inspiration was no inspiration originally. I opened a school for bartenders in Bangkok and I was open for nearly two years when I thought it would be a good idea to have a little bar space within that school because I was inviting guests in every once in a while on a weekend to try some drinks made by the students while they were progressing. I always like to get behind the bar as well when I’m training. The space itself was very much like a cooking school, it was all stainless steel and very sterile. But it wasn’t something that really lent itself to just chilling out, having a cocktail and staying for a while so people would come and have a drink or two and that was working for what it was, but I wanted something that was a little more intimate and comfortable. Ashley Sutton, who I had been working with for many years, and
DRINKS WORLD
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