Flying back to Europe we can enjoy a little French connection in the wonderful country of Spain, where we meet our expert and spirits writer; François Monti.
First of all, tell us who you are and what’s your job 🙂
François Monti
I’m a cocktail lover who spends far too much time thinking about what he drinks. A drinker who writes, if you will. I write for whoever has me, in French, Spanish or English. I’m also the author of three books, including 101 Cocktails to Try Before You Die (in spite of the title, a work where I focus on history) and El gran libro del vermut. I spend quite a bit of time educating both professionals and enthusiasts on topics such as cocktail history or vermouth, and I have led seminars and masterclasses at events such as Tales of the Cocktail, Bar Convent Berlin, etc. When needed I also work with brands, helping out with product development or putting together education program, for example. Basically, anything that has to do with drinks is fair game.
Last but not least I’ve recently been asked to be the World’s 50 Best Bars Academy Chair for Spain and Portugal. Hopefully, that will help me justify to my folks all the time I spend in bars…
Coming to the COVID-19 crisis, how did you react humanly, psychologically at the spread of the virus and the consequent lockdown?
In Spain, where I live, we sensed things were going very very wrong indeed on March 9. On the 10th, I was traveling to Catalonia to visit a few vermouth producers, and then to Barcelona to see bars. The city was empty already. On my way back home on the 11th, it became clear we were about to be locked down. After a few days of ‘let’s see what happens’, it started to sink in and the first couple of weeks were extremely tough, mentally. For the last few years, my life was basically travel-orientated. All of a sudden, I was stuck at home, and receiving heartbreaking updates from bar owners friends across the world. I think we were all feeling aimless and adrift, initially. I had never had so much time in front of a computer and I never wrote so little… As always, you end up adapting to the situation.
François Monti speaking at Jillian Vose’s Masterclass
Could you describe how is the bar scene of your country changed after the COVID-19 crisis?
I think it’s too early to tell. Waaaay too early. Spain is already in the middle of what looks like a second wave, and many bars have had to close their doors once more, and for God knows how long. The problem is that a lot of cocktail bars here have late-night licences, similar to bars where people go dancing. In many parts of the country, bars with late-night licences are not allowed to open, even if their business model is built around table service with social distancing protocols in place. I’m very afraid for all those places: they survived the first lockdown, will they survive this new phase? I’ve said since the beginning that autumn would be key and I think the risks of a bloodbath are increasing by the day. The fact that many cocktail bars rely on tourists to make money doesn’t help, obviously. It’s a shame, really, as the cocktail scene in Spain is better than ever. or was, I don’t know.
In your opinion, how will it change in the future?
The main question is: how many top bars will survive? Of course, new ones will come, but cocktail scenes depend on a certain dynamic. If many bars close at the same time, that dynamic is killed off. If we manage to save a critical mass of important bars, the future could look good. Spain is a country where people enjoy gin & tonics or rum & cokes in very busy bars. As an alternative, a lot of cocktail entrepreneurs offered concepts where you’d have first-rate table service, fewer people standing and elaborate drinks. Those bars are ideally placed to surf the waves of a socially-distanced future. They offer better service, more distance between guests and easier traceability. This could be key.
It’s also important not to forget the economical crisis that will follow this. Spain is already one of the hardest-hit countries. As we’ve seen in 2008, this doesn’t mean that people don’t go out and spend, it means that when they do, they want a better experience — they want service, they want the perfect food, the perfect drink. Here again, great cocktail bars could benefit. But it’s the hope that kills you, right?
Could you suggest five bars in your country?
François Monti
Thought question. I won’t mention the five Spanish bars that ended up in the World’s 50 Best Bars 100 list. Just look them up. Five other greats bars, spread out throughout the country, would be: El Niño Perdido in Valladolid, Atelier in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria), Caribbean Club in Barcelona, La Tuerta in Madrid and Varsovia in Gijon. Some have been around forever, others opened a few months before the pandemic, but all are deserving of our love and hopefully will still be with us next year. I’m sorry for all the great bars I had to leave out but BlueBlazer.it just wanted me to name 5 of them…
