Welcome to Jigger Daily, your newsletter dedicated entirely to bars and bartenders!

This edition is brought to you in partnership with the Bartender Beach Challenge.

Here’s what’s in store for this issue (among other things!):

• 🧐 A Monopoly-style menu
• 🍅 An everyday Bloody Mary
• 🏆 Some competition
• 🌵 A non-agave agave syrup
• 🥃 Perfectly imperfect glassware
• ⚖ The question of cocktail recipe rights
• 🤖 AI mixologists
• 💡 "Nerfing"
• 🌊 Briny drinks
• 👐 New openings

And much more!

🏖️ The Bartender Beach Challenge 2024 is on!

Organized in partnership with Cozigou, the Bartender Beach Challenge is returning to the Breton coast for its second edition, promising loads of briny flavors! From now until June 1, all bartenders in France are invited to sign up on Instagram via @bartenderbeachchallenge, for a chance to compete in the final on July 1 at La Potinière (Carnac). The grand prize for the winner is a trip for two to a European capital. Are you ready to follow in the footsteps of Axel Pencolé (pictured), winner of the 2023 edition?

🍸 Bar News

Xplorer

Back from India, Corentin Gaudin, bar manager at Danico, told us about the concept and the creative steps behind his Xplorer menus. He also shared his insights on the young Indian cocktail scene and on Japan’s, which inspired the bar’s current menu – Read more

A Sense of Taste

To mark the launch of the spring menu at Les Ambassadeurs (Hôtel de Crillon), Kevin Rigault, the bar’s director, spoke with Jigger Daily about his creative process (inspired by AI, among other things), his career, and his mixed feelings about the Parisian palace bar scene – Read more

Le Syndicat x Arnaud Scotty

With 2024 shaping up to be a busy year for Le Syndicat (Paris), Arnaud Scotty, the venue’s new bar manager, also spoke with Jigger Daily to explain the concept behind the bar’s new menu and share his thoughts on various aspects of a cocktail menu, plus his upcoming projects for the months ahead – Read more

In Brief

• Bastien Bonnefoy, former director of Bisou in Paris, has opened a new venue in Lyon (6th arrondissement), called You. The menu (24 cocktails, some clarified, such as a Pornstar Martini served transparent) is inspired by the world of perfumery and is presented like a Vogue-style magazine. Additionally, the establishment promises relaxed high-end service, summed up as “5-star in a tracksuit” 👌 – Source
• Meanwhile, Colin Lach, former bar manager at Monsieur Moutarde in Dijon, will soon open his own place called Nuage. He plans a menu focused on 100% French spirits and ingredients – Source
• And Guillaume Drouot (ex-Danico) should soon unveil a new address in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris: Nature – Source
• L'Heure du Singe in Toulouse permanently closed its doors on March 9 after 8 years. Its co-managers Nicolas Blanchard and Morgane Peyrot-Blanchard plan to reopen the bar in a more central spot in the city, with a terrace this time. Stay tuned! – Source
• Across the Atlantic, the Experimental Group will reopen this summer in Soho (New York) with a new bar split into two concepts: a wine bar upstairs (i.e. Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels) and a cocktail bar downstairs (i.e. Experimental Cocktail Club), with the drinks program directed by Nico de Soto. The first New York ECC closed in 2016 – Source

• Finally, Tao Zrafi, finalist in the first season of Drink Masters on Netflix, will open a new cocktail bar called No School Tomorrow this Thursday, April 18, on the campus of the Itasca Country Club in Illinois. Notably, it will only be open Thursday through Saturday, 5pm to midnight (because “nothing good happens after midnight”). The menu, “inspired by school activities like science class or recess”, will be served in steel lunch boxes – Source

🗺 International Menus

The Grand Maybe Sammy Hotel

Maybe Sammy (Sydney) has unveiled a new cocktail menu. After Mirage and its AI-generated illustrations, now comes The Grand Maybe Sammy Hotel, a menu inspired by Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Designed to be more interactive and playful than the previous one, it’s presented as a board game reminiscent of Monopoly – Source / Video

Preservation of Fire

The Singaporean bar Atlas has revealed its new cocktail menu, Preservation of Fire. Divided into 4 chapters, each representing a modern technique (Carbonation, Temperature, Washing, and Infusion), it offers reinvented versions of 4 classic cocktails (Martini, Champagne Cocktail, Sour, and Old Fashioned), all illustrated by Adrien Pack in the style of vintage spirits advertising posters – Source

🕺 Bar People

Ducasse Paris

Alain Ducasse announced the arrival of Margot Lecarpentier (Combat) to the Ducasse Paris group as Cheffe Cocktail – Source

Margot will bring her creative and unique mixological signature to the menus of my venues. We share a common taste for original liquid combinations, and of course our commitment to sustainable and responsible gastronomy.

En Place

Alex Francis and Barney O’Kane (now De Vie) have been busy since leaving Little Red Door:

• They contributed to creating the new menu at Bar 8 in the Mandarin Oriental (Paris) – Source
• They also released the first episode of their new web series “Mise en Place”, explaining the steps of building a bar from scratch – Watch

Nomad' Spirits

Nathalie Hobe (ex-The Bootleggers, LRD, PWP, and Ferrandi) has founded Nomad' Spirits, a new event communication agency specializing in Wines and Spirits. Its aim: “to produce responsible events that not only delight the senses but also contribute to the well-being of our planet and our collaborators” – Source

Sweet&Chilli

The global drinks agency Sweet&Chilli announced it has hired Mido Yahi to lead its Strategy & Trade Advocacy projects in France – Source

Schofield's

Joe and Daniel Schofield, owners of Schofield's Bar in Manchester, have increased their minority share in the Seven Tails Brandy brand, founded by former Singapore bar operator Joel Fraser and Banks Rum founder Arnaud de Trabuc – Source

At the same time, Joe Schofield has also been appointed ambassador for the mixer brand Fentimans – Source

🌱 Sustainability

Wabi-sabi

Every detail counts! Double Chicken Please (New York) explained in an Instagram post that the bar doesn’t automatically discard or replace chipped glassware but rather opts for repair to extend its life and reduce waste. And the result is particularly striking – Source

Agave straws?

The latest episode of Agave Road Trip explored with Natasha Tucker from Mind Your Plastic whether agave straws are truly more eco-friendly than plastic ones, which isn’t as obvious due to certain chemical additives they contain. The episode therefore encourages bar owners to consider other alternatives, such as reusable metal straws – Listen

🧪 Mixology

All Day Bloody Mary

If monosodium glutamate and citric acid don’t scare you, Jeffrey Morgenthaler shared his recipe for the Bloody Mary (and for the homemade mix to make it) on his blog, with a methodology aimed at making daily prep in bars more cost- and time-efficient – Cocktail / Mix

Nogave

On a creative note, at the Mírate bar in Los Angeles, bartender Max Reis came up with a homemade syrup called “Nogave”, serving as an eco-friendly alternative to agave syrup. It’s made with Demerara sugar and orange blossom honey, allowing it to emulate agave’s taste but with a smaller environmental impact – Source

Recipe rights?

In its latest episode, the VinePair Podcast questions whether bartenders should have rights to the cocktails they create. While it seems legally impossible to protect a recipe, what if a brand decided to bottle, for example, a Cosmopolitan (Toby Cecchini), a Naked and Famous (Joaquín Simó), a Paper Plane, or a Penicillin (Sam Ross)? Could they receive royalties? Or at least be mentioned? – Listen

🏆 Competitions

Nc'nean Creations

The eco-friendly Scottish distillery Nc'nean has launched the 2024 edition of its Nc'nean Creations bartender competition, and there’s something new this year: France can participate! The prize: a trip to Scotland and the chance to select – and sign your name on – one of the distillery’s casks that will then be bottled! Registration deadline: April 30 – Source

In Brief

• The Danish whisky distillery Stauning has launched its own cocktail competition, Stauning Drinks Kollektive. Bartenders (including those from France) have until May 4 to register. Finalists from each country will have a chance to win a fully paid trip to Denmark to visit the distillery – Source
• The Bartenders Society announced the theme of its 9th edition: The Future! Applications are open until June 10 – Source
• Jameson launched the 3rd edition of its Jameson Black Barrel Bartender Series. Registrations started on April 1 – Source
• As for results, the French final of the Cointreau Margarita Challenge 2024 took place on April 8. Thomas Trefcon (Le Verre à Mélange) won, ahead of Benoît Bouillard (Monsieur Moutarde) and Julien Le Charpentier (Bar 300) – Source
• Italicus held the French final of its Aperitivo Challenge 2024 this Monday. Maureen Cadet (Chateau de la Gaude, Aix-en-Provence) took first place, ahead of Régis Célabe (Jules & Jim, Paris) and Pierre Dieusaert (Bar 300, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin) – Source

👔 Bar Business

Nerfing

In Class, Kevin Armstrong from London’s Satan's Whiskers warned about “nerfing”, a practice where some brands quietly tweak their product recipes at the risk of lowering quality. Examples mentioned include tequilas that changed repeatedly from 100% agave to mixto, then back to 100% agave, a bourbon that lowered its ABV (i.e. Maker's Mark presumably), or a gin whose ABV dropped from 43.1% to 41.3% recently (i.e. Tanqueray, though Beefeater did so as well) – Source

Quarterly Sales Tracker

According to the latest Quarterly Sales Tracker by CGA, the total value of cocktails in the US rose by +5% in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. On average, venues sold 1,192 cocktails on 778 checks, a +6% increase, at an average price of $13 (+$1 vs Q4 2022). The Margarita remains the most popular cocktail (1/5 of sales), followed by the Martini and the Moscow Mule. Tequila-based cocktails now account for 34.1% of sales value (+1.8 points), ahead of vodka-based ones at 28.2% (-1.3 pts) – Source

Aperitivo

According to a study by CGA by NielsenIQ, 56% of French consumers say they enjoy aperitifs on almost every visit to bars, pubs, and restaurants. Meanwhile, more than a quarter of them favor cocktails – Source

Heredity

A General Social Survey study spanning over 20 years in the US found that bartending is a line of work often passed from parent to child. Indeed, children of bartenders are 36 times more likely to become bartenders themselves (significantly higher than in other professions) – Source

Pub closures

According to accounting firm Price Bailey, 769 pubs went bankrupt in the UK in 2023 (vs 518 in 2022), an average of 2.1 closures per day (vs 1.4 in 2022), the highest figure in a decade. Factors behind this trend include rising energy, labor, and raw material costs, along with declining consumer purchasing power. The total number of pubs dropped from 41,015 in 2013 to 38,175 at the end of 2023 – Source

📚 To watch, read, or listen

AI vs Humans

Who comes up with better cocktails: artificial intelligence or real bartenders? That’s the question tackled in the latest Bottlefield Show! We analyzed (among other things) the case of Axelrad in Houston and its bold “Humans vs Machines” menu where customers were invited to taste cocktails created by ChatGPT and by the bar team, as well as the concept of the Drinking with Robots podcast, in which each episode pits a bartender against an AI to craft a cocktail from the same prompt – Watch

How To Drink x ChatGPT

In a similar vein, How To Drink’s new video features ChatGPT inside an old computer, turning it into a vintage interface for creating pop-culture-inspired cocktail recipes, which he then tests. Overall, the results look pretty decent, though some proposed creations seem a bit questionable. Entertaining, to say the least! – Watch

In Brief

• Christophe Davoine (MOF, House of Suntory Brand Ambassador, and Vice President of the ABF) was featured in the latest episode of Derrière les Bouteilles – Listen
• The spring issue of BARTENDER Magazine (USA) is now live and available for free online. There’s even a double page on clear ice—perfect for those who appreciate a pristine cube! – View

💌 That's all folks!

And that’s it for today! 😅

If you enjoyed this edition—or didn’t—please let us know by clicking the 👍 / 👎 at the end of this email, and most importantly share it with your colleagues, friends, and so on!

And in any case, don’t forget to sign up for the Bartender Beach Challenge!

We’ll catch up this summer to share the results!

On that note, have a good shift!