Meet the Specialist in Asian Spirits:

Tasked with our latest food-and-drink-themed mission, we’ve made our way through the winding streets of Cowes and slipped in through a side door of Smoking Lobster. Taking a perch by the bar we wait for Cinz (pronounced ‘chintz’, for those yet to be acquainted) — a co-founder and co-director of the restaurant group, as well as a specialist in Asian spirits.

Within moments, Cinz makes an appearance, setting down a bottle of Japanese sake nestled in a bed of ice, as well as a pair of small ceramic ochoko cups to drink it in. “Some people like to drink it warm, but I always think it’s best served cold,” she explains as she pours a splash of the crystal-clear fermented rice drink. “And it’s always best enjoyed with friends.” As a sake first-timer, we’re not quite sure what to expect but after clinking cups and taking a sip we’re pleasantly surprised by its smooth and fruity nature, similar to gin (in our opinion) but less intense. “This is a Daigonjo,” Cinz explains, “with a 50% rice polishing rate. They rub the rice together to remove the protein from the outside of the grains, removing any undesirable flavours and creating a lighter, brighter drink.”

Born in the Hertfordshire fringes of London, Cinz moved to the Isle of Wight at the age of six with her four siblings, her British mum and her half-Italian, half-Chinese father (the driving force behind the relocation, inspired by his love of the sea).

Cinz grew up fishing and spear-fishing off the Island’s twisting coastline with her siblings, and being cooked a range of Chinese specialities by her dad — including rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At the age of 18, she left home to study photography at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, before taking on a role as an apprentice with Vice Media in London — which makes us wonder how she first got into Japanese sake. “It started to become a real interest when I was working for Vice and did some restaurant marketing for a Pan-Asian restaurant called the Great Eastern Dining Room in Shoreditch, part of the Ricker Restaurants group. It was at that time I decided to focus on hospitality full-time and started to study for my sake qualifications with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). A few years later, I did up a run-down pub in Hackney with my husband and randomly started to serve sake there, a move which went down surprisingly well.”

As the pub’s lease ran out in 2017, Cinz travelled back to the Island to help her brother, GC Giancovich, start the very first Smoking Lobster restaurant on Ventnor Esplanade. “He wasn’t 100% sure if the Island was ready for contemporary Asian cuisine but they totally were. So I got Neil Witney from Ricker Restaurants to come down, show him some sushi techniques and convince him it was the right thing to do.”

Since then, Cinz and GC have grown the brand to include 23 chefs across four locations, with Drunken Lobster popping up in 2020, Smoking Lobster Cowes opening its doors in 2021 and the Italian-style Brasserie commencing service earlier this year. For each location, Cinz has used her extensive experience to craft a modern and tempting drinks menu, including a number of cocktails (like the Amaretto Wasabi Sour) invented through pure experimentation. As she pops back behind the bar to rustle up a ‘saketini’ (like a martini, but with sake replacing the vermouth), we take a look at the other drinks on offer. On the menu since day one, you could go for the Lychee and Cucumber Martini (made with fresh apple and gin), their best-selling Hakushu whisky (a 12-year-old single malt, distilled in the forests of Mount Kaikomagatake) or even sample the Roku Japan Gin (flavoured with sakura flower, sakura leaf, green tea, sanshō pepper and yuzu peel).

“Each week, we come into Cowes early to make all our syrups from scratch,” Cinz explains, cocktail shaker in hand. “And we make all our own juices too — meaning our fruit account is often quite high, but we want to be as natural and healthy as possible. We order everything from D. J. Hunt in Rookley, who make sure we get things like pineapples really ripe, which is always super helpful.”

Drunken Lobster in Ventnor’s Pier Street gave Cinz the opportunity to create a venue that was “much more me”, focused mainly on drinks — and it was the opening of this location which convinced her to give up a job at an Australian-themed restaurant in Kew Gardens and move back to the Island full-time. Based on the izakaya bars of Tokyo, here you can try the Saketini (with an added dose of cherry bitters) or the Raspberry Chilli Margarita (served with a supersize cube of ice).

As our photographer steps forward to take Cinz’s portrait, we ask her about what the future might hold (following an eventful and whirlwind few years). “Well, I’m hoping to study for the next level in my sake qualifications in the next year or two, which will include going to Japan to meet the distillers. My textbooks have already included over 300 pages on enzymes and polishing rice grains, so I’m sure it’ll be fairly intense. In the meantime, I’ll be focusing on my career with the restaurants and making the most of life on the Island. I still love everything that I loved about it growing up, the beaches, the fishing, the passion people have here for food and drink. Also, the summers and the al-fresco nature of life in the summertime — that’s something which you just don’t get in London.”