A Drink With… Dan Thomson, BYOC

Dan Thomson, former manager of Zenna Bar in London’s Soho, has opened BYOC, the first booze-free cocktail bar in London. He tells Marinel Fitzsimons how it works.

BYOC is an original idea – how did you come up with it?
It was actually my business partner Aleksey who came up with the idea – and the funding. We’d worked together before, and we had initially started by just collaborating for the Juice Bar on the ground floor. Then, two weeks after we started working on that, he called me and said we could run a bar in the basement – even without a license, so long as everyone brought their own booze. And it just grew from there.

So how exactly does a bar without an alcohol license run?
We’re not allowed to sell alcohol, so instead, we make drinks using alcohol brought in by customers. We have an extensive range of bitters, syrups, fruit juices and other ingredients which we use to make a bespoke cocktail for each customer. We have two bartenders there – Phil Renna and Pete Urch – although only one a night. We’ve gone for event bartenders as they have a really good grasp of how to work in an unusual, often demanding environment, focusing on the drinks and the customers, rather than on their performance behind the bar.

But how can you make a profit if people are bringing their own booze?
We charge a £20 cover charge per person for a two-hour slot. There are 18 covers in the basement, and the bar is open for about five hours in the evening. During those two hours, most people tend to get through four drinks, although it really depends on the speed they drink and how busy the bar is.

What’s the most popular spirit that’s brought by customers?
Mostly we’re getting nice and easy spirits like gins and vodkas, but there have been some slightly more unusual stuff, like Shochu, Arak and even a truffle liqueur. The Arak was actually really hard, as the liquorice flavour was really overpowering and difficult to balance.

What’s your favourite base spirit to work with?
Tequila! And unfortunately not enough people are bringing it in as a base spirit.

What style of cocktails are people asking for?
People are really open to our suggestions, actually. We’ll try and guide their choices, starting with something light and refreshing, and then for the next drink, we’ll give them something stronger to slow them down a little, and then for the third drink, we’ll ask which they liked best of the first two and gauge their tastes from that, unless they have specific requests.

What kind of people are attracted to your bar?
At the moment it’s people who are either in the industry or follow it closely – so lots of journalists, bloggers, industry types – basically anyone who heard about it early on. Because you need to book early – we’re now completely fully booked – not even one space – until June. The people who got wind of the bar later – after the industry types – are all the 25-40 date crowd. BYOC lends itself really well to dates because it’s such an intimate and unusual experience.

Do you get many repeat consumers, or is the allure of B.Y.O.C. the novelty value?
Actually, we do. A lot of people email us back the day after they’ve been and say what a great time they’ve had, and book in another slot – that’s why we’re now fully booked until June.

It all sounds very interesting, but how durable is it as a business concept?
It’s really working well for us at the moment, and looks set to carry on that way.

Do you have any intention of opening any new bars soon? What would the next thing be?
We have a couple of things in the pipeline – we’re keen to take the Juice Bar to new places, maybe getting them into gyms; places where the target audience is right. We’re looking at opening two more BYOC bars in Shoreditch and Notting Hill. We’re also trying to work out the logistics of a Sweeney Todd gin-palace-come-barbershop, but all that’s very much in the pipeline, so watch this space.