For part two of the content series Dispatches from the bars’ frontline, in partnership with Perrier, we travel to three diametrically opposed cities from three continents. Compare and contrast the first-hand accounts of their situations today as the bartenders and their teams face up to the next stage of the coronavirus response and begin to tread the delicate path towards relaunch
BUENOS AIRES
Renato Giovannoni
Florería Atlántico, No.3 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019
This is the first time I have spent longer than three consecutive weeks at home in 10 years. Travel was becoming a bit of an addiction for me; there was a time that even if I was at home with no immediate plans to travel, I’d log on and buy tickets to somewhere just because I thought I should.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I spent 90 days in the same place, but this period with my family has been wonderful. It’s been tough for the kids getting used to having both me and [my wife] Aline around, but we have found it hugely rewarding. It’s taught us both a lot as parents and learning and re-learning to help home-school the kids has been great.
We were one of the first businesses in Buenos Aires to shut our doors on 17th March, which was four days before the official lockdown started here. I didn’t want to put our Sailors [Florería’s bartenders] or customers at risk of infection. Initially, the government said that we would be reopening in June, but as of today, there has been no update. Argentina has been relatively mildly affected in comparison to a lot of South America. There have only been 735 who have sadly passed away, with around 25,000 infections.
The entrance to Florería Atlántico, hidden behind a florist
The government are informing us that they are worried about the favela neighbourhoods, where the infections are said to be growing and are harder to track. Now, we are hearing as passed-on information that it will likely be August or September when we can reopen. Around the streets near my bar, waiting this long just isn’t an option. People have been setting up their kiosks and small shops to sell things as they are desperate for money.
The economy in Argentina was already a mess before coronavirus. Now, I’ve no idea what will happen. The government have been helpful by providing some salary contributions, but on the other side, our debt is still growing. I still owe money to my suppliers, but having been in business around here for nearly 30 years, my relationships are good. The little money we have trickling in from selling our canned cocktails I’ve been using to pay as many of them as possible, so at least they can see that I am trying to pay what I can.
This period has given me time to reflect on the kind of bar I want Florería Atlántico to be in the future. When we opened as a neighbourhood bar in 2013, we had very few tourists. It’s really only been the last five years that Argentina has been on the tourist map.
We have lost a bit of our identity as a neighbourhood bar. Since we have been on the 50 Best list, the business has grown so that before lockdown, around 80% of our guests were tourists and with instruction from the government, we pushed up prices. When we reopen, I’ve decided to take the cost of drinks right back down so the neighbourhood can use the bar like they used to. The most expensive drinks will be around 400 pesos [$5.70], but we will have some cheaper than that, too. Most of our drinks are made with Argentine products, which will allow us to drop prices so we can have something to appeal to everyone.
Florería Atlántico's subterranean secret bar
Inflation here is still high and is only likely to increase, so we need to stop thinking so globally and make a friendly price for locals. The good thing about the bar industry is that most bar owners were once bartenders. Most of my friends I have spoken to will be reopening as soon as they can to give people somewhere to go without really considering profit. Most of us do it for the love of the craft, the camaraderie behind the bar and the people that we serve.
Martin Hudak
Maybe Sammy, No.43 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019
One thing I’ve learnt about this period? People like pizza more than they do cocktails. The demand for pies from our sister venue Maybe Frank has been unbelievable. We’ve been banging out about 300 a night.
We’ve just reopened after the period of closure and it has been excellent. While we were closed, the number of messages we got asking when we’d be back was crazy. It’s great to know that we have an impatient and thirsty clientele.
We had no stock or ingredients, but we called in some flavours to be able to get some stuff together and open. We’ve crafted a creative, reduced menu. The menus feature QR codes for ordering and there are paper copies for guests to keep or throw away. We’ve worked hard at the design, so hopefully they will make a nice keepsake. Operationally, we’ve implemented a load of new cleaning procedures to make sure that all the surfaces that need to be cleaned are on a near limitless rotation.
In terms of our capacity, it’s going to take some getting used to and working out what is safe. In normal times, we have a 90-person limit with some outside space. The Prime Minister’s guidelines are all based on how big the venue is in square metres, but there’s a bit of confusion of what this actually means. We’re learning with every service, but one thing we don’t want to do is start insisting on a bunch of rules or start implementing minimum spends – it’s really not what we’re about.
The hotel bar-inspired Maybe Sammy set in The Rocks in Sydney
The national government has left everything on our shoulders, but our landlord was helpful in that he froze rents for a few months. We also were selected as one of 200 businesses here to receive a AUS $10,000 grant from the City of Sydney [a private enterprise company] to help pay invoices. If we weren’t on the 50 Best list, I don’t think we would have got it, so that’s been amazing.
Even though the situation has been bad and we’ve been closed, we’ve received an overwhelming number of offers from investors. Loads of people seem to want to work with us and now we just need to decide which we want to go with. It’s actually been really exciting for us to know that people outside the bar world here like what we do and still want to back us. It’s certainly very promising for the recovery in Sydney.
I guess they noticed we didn’t give up and that we pushed all the way. We made Mr Black coffee pods, tried frozen pizza, bottled cocktails. We made a vow to not once say ‘fuck it’ and give up.
Now we are open, the first thing I’m doing is looking for staff. Most of our pre-closure team were not citizens or on student visas, so we couldn’t keep them all. I’m on the lookout for locals – so if any Sydneysiders are looking for a job please hit me up! I’m good with coffee; Stefano [Catino] knows Italian food – we just want people who are passionate and share our mentality.
The locals here are not designed to be kept in chains and they are itching to get out. They seem to be accepting of queues – we’ll take their number and call them when we have a table. We know we’re not going to make any money for a while, but we just want to be here and restart the place. Breaking even is absolutely fine for a few months before we even start thinking about profitability.
OSLO
Odd Strandbakken
Himkok, No.17 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019
We were forced to close our doors on 15th March and we opened again on 2nd June. Fortunately, the separation and social distancing has worked well in Norway. We had a national celebration day on 17th May where people would usually all be singing and dancing in close proximity. Everyone really took distancing seriously though and there were only eight new infections after the holiday.
We spoke a lot during lockdown about potentially doing delivery cocktails, but to be honest it didn’t make sense for us to do too much. We’ve spent the time connecting with our families and taking time to work on ourselves. Personally I’ve done an online Harvard course in chemistry and I took advantage of a free WSET [Wine and Spirits Education Trust] qualification.
In the bar we have set everything so that guests can have a 1m distance. Luckily, we have some large tables that can safely host up to 20 people. The hygiene measures are very strict – touch points will be constantly cleaned and reported. We are only offering table service.
The main element where our business will be affected will be the opening hours. The government are strictly instructing that we close at 11.30pm. This is tough for us as we usually do the most of our trade between 11pm and 2am from standing guests, something that is not allowed at the moment. With this in mind, we are not opening the whole house; just the main bar, the Distillery Bar and our back yard.
Himkok's 'backyard' - the Cider Terrace
Like many bars, a lot of our customers come from overseas and most say this won’t start to pick up until the end of the summer. However, Norwegians are usually big travellers, so we will look to capitalise on our local crowd who have not been able to go anywhere.
It’s the first time we’ve had to put restrictions on ourselves in the five years that we’ve been open. We didn’t want to invest to much in R&D, so we’ve basically taken the time as a mandatory vacation. Fortunately, the weather has been great and when the sun shines, there a few more beautiful places in the world than Norway.
Dispatches from the bars’ frontline, in partnership with Perrier, is a content series from 50 Best that explores bartenders’ experiences as they face up to the ever-shifting challenges presented by the global pandemic.
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