Guess who’s coming to Sydney for Maybe Cocktail Festival

I began writing this piece thinking about the conflicting business narratives in the bar industry right now: how, on one hand, new bars keep opening, and hospitality groups continue to add new concepts to their portfolios. Yet this is happening despite real challenges: the cost of spirits keeps going up thanks to twice yearly tax increases, the rent is as expensive as ever, and the public’s appetite for spending has gone down, with the mid-week being a particularly difficult time to lure punters into bars.

I’ve been thinking about this because I spoke to Stefano Catino for this week’s episode of Drinks At Work ahead of the return of the Maybe Cocktail Festival in April for its third year — which is some very good news, and I have more on that below.

But I was thinking about the climate for bars because Stefano and I also talked about where the industry is at right now — something we did around this time last year, too.

So I looked back at the piece I wrote last year. And it turns out we’ve been in this moment a while. Last year’s piece began:

“We are living in some interesting times for hospitality, with what seems to me a conflicting narrative out there at the moment.”

It seems not a lot has changed, right?

But I suspect one key thing has: people’s patience. There is a sense of frustration out there with few solutions for high spirits prices and low consumer spending. If you care about the health of our hospitality sector, this is worrying.

It’s worrying because — as Stefano talks about in this episode — hospitality, food and drink, is an important part of our culture, and that culture has to be nurtured and encouraged.

“I want to see a vibrant city, I want to see the bars full every night,” he says.

“Where life happens, that’s where culture happens.”

I couldn’t agree more. So — there’s an election on the way. If you see the candidates around, ask them what they’re going to do about it. Email them. Hit up their social media accounts. Hassle them. Ask them just what they’ll do to support hospitality businesses, but specifically the smaller scale independent operators who help to make our culture vibrant and exciting. They don’t need a handout, they just need the playing field to level and fair.

It should be difficult to run a hospitality business — otherwise everyone would do it. But it should be just that little bit easier for small operators to do the thing they are passionate about. They might have one bar, two, maybe five — and if they’re doing well, they’ll create more opportunities for staff, and for the next generation of hospitality operators.

Among that next generation, by the way, are bartenders. And bartenders will never be able to open up their own joint if their household rent keeps going up, if the cost of eating and drinking out continues to go up. If they can’t participate in the culture as well as work in it, they won’t be able to become the business owners we need tomorrow.

We’ll all be poorer for it.

Well, speaking of culture. There is good whack of international bar culture — and the opportunity to learn from it — on the way to Sydney in April. From the 7th to the 13th of April, the Maybe Cocktail Festival is back for a week of guest shifts and some education from some of the world’s very best bar talent.

The full timetable is yet to be announced, but as Stefano says in this episode, there are a few bars he has on the way.

From The Connaught in London, Ago Perrone and Giorgio Bargiani are making their way to Sydney. So too is Margarita Sader from Paradiso in Barcelona, who will also lead — along with Maybe Sammy’s Sarah Proietti — talks dedicated to women in hospitality during the week.

International man of spirits and cocktails, and one of the most engaging speakers in the business, Jacob Briars is the global advocacy director for Bacardi, and he’ll be in Sydney to share the wisdom he’s gained from 25-years plus in the business. If we’re lucky, he might even make a Corpse Reviver No. Blue or two.

And Boothby has the good fortune of hosting a day of talks during the festival, featuring some of the week's biggest hospitality brains.

Other bars on the way are Floreira Atlantico (Buenos Aires), Zest (Seoul), Manhattan (Singapore), CoChinChina (Buenos Aires), Tokyo Confidential (Tokyo), with more to be announced.

Keep an eye for updates on the website, maybecocktailfestival.com and book your time off work now.