This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
SB Podcast: the positive impact of The Pinnacle Guide
The three founders behind The Pinnacle Guide discuss the long journey to creating the bar recognition system, and the positive impact it has already had on the on-trade.
Siobhan Payne and Hannah Sharman-Cox, co-founders of London Cocktail Week, and Dan Dove, founder of Global Bartending, teamed up to launch The Pinnacle Guide.
The guide uses a rating system based on ‘pins’ spanning three tiers – one pin, two pins, or three pins – with the latter being the highest recognition the guide offers.
Following a lengthy consultation phase with the global drinks industry, the first pinned bars were revealed in May this year.
Speaking on The Spirits Business Podcast the day after the announcement, Payne said: “We really believe in the review system. It’s nerve-wracking; we didn’t know if it was going to work – but it does. When forms started to come in, we were like ‘it works, this is good’.”
Bars must meet a strict set of criteria in the initial application phase, and during their ‘mystery shopper’ review. Venues have to excel across various areas of service, from front of house to the drinks programme, and even extending to the community to show inclusiveness and responsible drinking. Sustainability is also a key factor in assessments, as is employee welfare.
Sharman-Cox said: “The number that are down to four-day weeks, and that is across the board, four-day weeks, is more common certainly than I realised. It’s common now because people understand, great operators understand, that four-day weeks are probably about right if you’ve got to be on. You need time to recoup.”
Positive response
The response from bars – particularly bars that have not yet received a pin – has really moved the co-founders, they explained.
“There’s been quite a few really kind emails that have come back to us to say, ‘we started the application, we read some of the questions, and, do you know what, we’re not quite ready yet. We’re going to go back, we’re going to fix those elements and then we’re going to come back in a few months and then apply’,” said Dove.
“And I think that, at its core, is the ultimate goal. And if everybody can go through it, whether of not a pin is the outcome, for sure it’s going to better the way that their staff are being looked after, their sustainability credentials, their quality of drinks and service, and that is something we really hoped and has come to fruition.”
Episode four of The Spirits Business Podcast is available to listen to on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.
Alternatively, click the link below to listen to the latest episode with The Pinnacle Guide founders.
Episodes one to three featured Brothers’ Bond Bourbon, Equal Measures, and Sastrería Martinez.