Interview with Emanuele Mancini (pictured)
spirit lab How cocktails can be served in the nightclub environment and not just a bar When we approach a project for a club we focus on both speed and consistency. It’s a fast paced environment and bartenders need to deliver a large amount of drinks in a very limited and defined time frame. There is not much time to ‘fluff’ around with garnishes and sophisticated techniques, but this shouldn’t compromise the quality delivered to guests.
Q. Who founded Spirit Lab and who runs it? A.
The spirit lab was created by myself and I run it on a daily basis. I like to keep myself busy and I cover all of the sales, marketing and administration side of the business myself. Furthermore, I have a team of really talented and experienced tutors who deliver the course to our alumni.
are either not given the necessary know-how to start a career in the industry or are kept isolated and limited in terms of the knowledge they can learn in a specific venue. This is not because owner/managers are not passionate or knowledgeable enough, but because there is always less time to allocate to this kind of task and there are always more compelling things to do.
Q. What services does Spirit Lab offer?
I decided to open the academy in early 2014 and our bartending school offers top quality professional training with an aim of turning you into a world class bartender, achieving professional fulfillment and salary remuneration!
A.
Q. What is professional background and that of your trainers?
Regarding our courses the first level is our ‘Foundation’ or as we call it international mixology course, that is aimed at beginners as well as developing Bartenders.
A.
The Spirit Lab trainers are top of the range professionals with extensive experience in some of the world’s top establishments. Each of our tutors has more than 10 years experience in highend bars, private members clubs or luxury hotels around the globe. I personally have been involved in hospitality on an off for about 12 years now and I worked within several UK operations as well as in Asia. I started working in bars for the Maxwell group back in 2003 and I progress to work for several cocktail bars and nightclubs in UK. I then moved to Australia and worked for Hugo’s Bar in Manly/ Sydney (Awarded Best Bar in Australia 2010), opened The New Park Hyatt Sydney Hotel and ended up opening and managing a speak easy restaurant/bar called Reno Sweeny. I then moved back to the UK and opened the Cafe’ Royal Hotel after which I started The Spirit Lab.
Q. Why was Spirit Lab set up? A.
The Spirit Lab has been set up in order to raise bar standards throughout the world and get it back to the glorious past image of bartending by leveraging on a never-ending fundamental component: THE BARTENDER! I saw a gap in the market due to the fact that nowadays bar staff
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Interview | january/february 2016
In a nutshell we offer: Professional bartending school in London. Basic and Advanced courses, bar and brand consultancy, job placement assistance, Level 1 diploma in spirit through our partner WSET which is recognised in 60 countries globally.
The other is our ‘Professional course’ or as we call it Advanced molecular course, that is aimed at solid Bartenders with 3+ years of experience. They both run for 1 full week (35h approximately) and our objective is to equip professional alumni with the level of mixology needed for a career progression or simply for a desire of expanding their horizon in cocktail making. We do provide a professional diploma at the end of every level and because we are an approved partner of WSET, students can decide to take a further exam in order to gain the Level 1 Award in Spirit which is recognised in 60 countries globally. Furthermore we do provide job placement assistant and real live training experience after the completion of the course (subject to T&C). In terms of consultancy for spirit brands or bar we do adopt a bespoke service on case by case project. This can go from a simple menu design, full in-house training, staff recruitment to push a product to market ect.
Q. What facilities does Spirit Lab have? A.
Our head office is located in a brand new building right in Piccadilly Circus in which we sometimes host the theoretical