A newcomer at the Hotel Bristol Palace, a Tuscan transplanted in Genoa, Alessandro Longo has taken up the challenge of the hotel bar. He has done so with a smile and a house cocktail reminiscent of sunshine and rebirth, invariably accompanied by an array of snacks. 

I’ve focused not on designing a new cocktail menu but on creating attractive aperitifs and appetisers. These consist of dry snacks (crisps, peanuts, crackers) and the chef’s selection, which changes according to what’s available day by day, but invariably involves cured meats, cheese and fruit. It’s a trio you don’t often find served with hotel aperitifs.

At the moment we’re serving a house cocktail which I’ve called Summer Bristol whose ingredients are vodka, liquidised apricot, Galliano and prosecco foam. It’s bright yellow in colour and it serve as the base for forthcoming house cocktails. It will assume many other seasonal “guises”: orange for the late summer, say, or red for the winter.

It may sound banal but, basically, the first thing to pay attention to is whether the bartender or the waiter greets clients when they enter. I have worked in catering and hotel bars for a long time and I can say that the first thing you have to learn is to greet and smile at clients, offer them a proper welcome and take them to their table, serve them a glass of water immediately and, depending on the number of orders you have to clear, provide a swift, precise service.

As a customer, I love ordering dry cocktails – simple Campari Spritz, say – or, if I have time, a good bottle of wine, maybe a local Ligurian Vermentino!

At the Bristol, I’m alone at the helm but I’m happy to say that I’m managing to stay afloat! I usually get to the hotel at 4.30 pm to prepare the equipment – the coffee machine, for example – turn on the air conditioning and replace bottles that are empty from the previous service.

 

It’s important to be attentive to the tastes of clients staying at the hotel in any given moment because I have to be ready to cater for their every desire. The service begins at 5.30pm, after which it’s non-stop until midnight, when I make the last call before closing the cash point so that clients still sitting in the bar can make their final orders. 

I’d have to say my buvette, a selection of local beers on one side and white wine and prosecco on the other, all in ice buckets. It’s a trick of the trade that allows guests who can’t make their minds up or who are in a hurry to enjoy a nice quick thirst-quenching drink.