Stories

Michele Lombardi

14 June 2020

My Story

From Teenage Dream to London’s Cocktail Scene

Nationality: Italian
Occupation: Head Mixologist
Workplace: Quaglinos’s Bar, London
Favorite Cocktail: De la Louisiane
Favorite Spirit: Rye Whiskey

What inspired you to become a bartender:

Well, to be honest I was 16 when I started to tend the bar and it was the family business. What inspired me to become a bartender has been to chat and see people enjoying the time having drinks. Most of the time people in the bar are happy and surrounded by happiness and that makes me happy too. Whatsmore, you create such lovely connections all around the world which is something incredible.

Tell me about your bartending journey and how you got to where you are now:

I started when I was a teenager making cocktails for nightlife in my hometown. After some bartending courses, my passion for this job definitely took over me. After some experience all around my region in Italy (Puglia) I moved to Rome but my dream was London which is literally “the Mecca” for every bartender who loves this job. Thanks to one of my old good friends and colleague Nicola Paterno (Head Bartender in one of the coolest bars in Singapore) I had the opportunity to begin a trial for the company which he used to work with in London, Dirty Martini. After that I worked for Aqua Shard and City Social, two of the coolest places in the world for me, which really took me to the next level and now I am creating cocktails for Quaglinos’s bar.

What stamp would you like to leave on the industry:

I really want people to get involved as much as they can in what we (bartenders) love to do, to be a huge part of us, and be part of our deep passion. For us, the best part of this job is to make customers happy and to make them live an unforgettable experience.

Can you explain your personal process for creating a cocktail:

I always take inspiration from classic cocktails, they’re my bible and I’m really a classic cocktail lover. I start from there and I like to play around with merging our contemporary techniques to create something new and unique.

What is the most important part of what you do and what does it mean to you:

It’s definitely the passion for the bar and the happiness of the customers. Seeing a customer leave the bar happy because of the experience makes me happy too.

What do you think will be the future of the F&B industry:

I think the future will be ‘simplicity’. Sometimes what happens is that people don’t really know what it is they’re drinking or eating – this attitude needs to change. We need to create something simple to understand but incredibly tasty. That’s the future for me. Less is more!

Anything that would you like to add?

I really want to thank you Mattia, for your incredible passion and love for what you do. I really want to be surrounded by people like you. Big up buddy!

Most bizarre client request:

Hot chocolate in August (with 40 degrees outside).

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