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Feature
Celebrating global bar luminaries
All over the world, talented people are innovating in the bar industry and changing how venues operate, or the very culture of the sector itself. Here are some of the leading examples.
To conclude our Global Bar Report 2024, we looked around the world for leading examples in the world of hospitality. From those putting often overlooked cocktail havens on the map to luminaries leading the way for a more equitable and health-conscious industry, keep reading to discover those making a positive difference in the trade.
Jean Trinh, Alquímico
Europe and North America tend to get the most coverage when it comes to the bar industry, but there’s a whole world of mixology out there. One person hoping to shift perceptions – and succeeding – is Jean Trinh, the founder of Colombia’s Alquímico bar, which was named the World’s Best Bar at the Spirited Awards 2024.
Born to Vietnamese parents in Paris, Trinh grew up washing glasses and plating up in his family’s restaurants before moving to Colombia in late 2013 to open a pop-up cocktail bar. Turning away from expensive imported ingredients, he began using only produce from Colombia, before opening Alquímico in Cartagena in 2016.
While farm-to-table has become a popular concept in restaurants, Trinh is pioneering the farm-to-bar movement. He operates his own farm, which produces ingredients for Alquímico, and works with a community agricultural association called Asocoman.
His passion for the Colombian bar scene extends beyond his own endeavours. Speaking to The Spirits Business this year, he announced: “Now we have many bars, good cocktail bars in Colombia, not only Cartagena but in Bogota, Medellin, many cities – and all of them work with Colombian products.”
Tim Etherington-Judge, Healthy Hospo
Tim Etherington-Judge’s career journey is typical of the hospitality industry. He started out slinging lattes and pasties on the beaches of Cornwall, before switching to the on-trade.
By 2009, he had hit the big time, being named New Zealand Bartender of the Year and eventually becoming a global ambassador for Diageo’s Bulleit Bourbon.
Unfortunately, Etherington-Judge’s story is typical of the industry in less happy ways, too – in 2016, following serious challenges with his mental health, he tried to take his own life. Fortunately he survived, and decided to use his experience to start Healthy Hospo, a non-profit organisation dedicated to mental health in the industry.
The business offers training and workshops for individuals and companies around the world, as well as a digital classroom where people can learn online and in their own time. Course topics include avoiding burnout, managing drug and alcohol use and abuse, and healthy eating. Plus, there’s a weekly chess club to support networking, socialising, and learning new skills – all part of improving mental health.
Not content with solving our mental health troubles, he decided to also take on the climate crisis by founding Avallen Spirits, a climate-positive spirits brand.
Siobhan Payne, Hannah Sharman-Cox and Dan Dove, the Pinnacle Guide
While there are many awards for bars, nearly all of them involve an element of competition. The World’s 50 Best Bars has businesses competing for the top spot, and while the Spirited Awards offer many categories, only one can win each prize.
The Pinnacle Guide, which launched in 2024, is an exception – created by Siobhan Payne, Hannah Sharman-Cox, and Dan Dove – to highlight excellence in the industry in a similar way Michelin does for restaurants.
Bars must apply to be considered, and filling out the application form is more than just admin. The Pinnacle Guide asks bars to consider their operation as a whole, from the drinks programme to staffing and environmental concerns. Bars are also assessed by anonymous judges with a rigorous scoring framework.
As for its founders, Payne and Sharman-Cox are also behind London Cocktail Week, a programme of events celebrating the capital’s on-trade that became a non-profit organisation this year. Dove is the founder of Global Bartending, an agency that represents bartending talent, and spent a decade as luxury events and World Class manager for Diageo Reserve.
All three have made significant contributions to the industry – with the guide being the pinnacle of their achievements.
Fabio La Pietra, SubAstor
Fabio La Pietra has spent more than a decade shaping Brazil’s cocktail culture, serving as the driving force behind São Paulo’s SubAstor bar. Originally from Italy, La Pietra’s journey into hospitality began when he was 14, following in his brother’s footsteps.
His early career saw him working in some of Italy’s finest bars and hotels before heading to London – but it’s his work since his move to Brazil that has guaranteed his place as an industry innovator.
In 2013, La Pietra was headhunted for SubAstor and moved to Brazil, where he embraced the country’s rich biodiversity and culture, and began crafting drinks that highlight the nation’s six biomes. His initiative, The Mission, which launched in 2018, takes guests on immersive trips to explore Brazil’s ecosystems and gather unique ingredients, which are then incorporated into SubAstor’s cocktail menu.
Under La Pietra’s leadership, SubAstor has made its mark on the global bar scene – not just Brazil’s – becoming famous for its innovative approach to blending local ingredients with elevated techniques.
His commitment to exploring Brazil’s diverse biomes and showcasing the country’s cultural richness is reflected in every drinks menu, transforming SubAstor into a hub for creativity and sustainability.
Deano Moncrieffe, Equal Measures
Years before we all knew what a global behemoth the Tequila industry was to grow into, Deano Moncrieffe was ahead of the curve, opening London’s first agaveria, Hacha, in 2019. This turned out to be a notoriously bad time to open a bar, with the on-trade shuttered for large swathes of its first year. But Moncrieffe was ahead of the curve yet again – having bottled the bar’s best-selling cocktail, the Mirror Margarita, just in time to keep consumers happy during lockdown.
But it’s Moncrieffe’s other lockdown project that has particularly powered the industry. Equal Measures is an education platform that aims to change the conversation about ethnicity in the hospitality and spirits sector.
Since 2020, it has supported 90 beneficiaries from marginalised and under-represented backgrounds with high-level, fully funded industry-relevant qualifications and training, including WSET Levels 1, 2 and 3 in spirits. It has also educated more than 600 members of the trade, and saw its beneficiary pool grow by 288% in 2023.
Sadly, the support that Equal Measures received in its first year, propelled by a response to the Black Lives Matter movement, has started to dwindle, despite its vital work. Hopefully the industry can buck up its ideas and reverse that trajectory soon.
Amie Ward, Safe Bars and The Healthtender
A self-described ‘jock’, Amie Ward has carved out a unique and essential space in the industry. As executive director of Safe Bars, founder of The Healthtender, and president of the Baltimore Bartenders Guild, Ward dedicates her efforts to improving the physical, mental and emotional health of hospitality workers in the US.
Ward’s journey in hospitality began early. At 14, she was washing dishes in a crab house, followed by roles in retail management and as a barista. While studying exercise physiology and kinesiology, she became disillusioned. “I chose to bartend because I like talking to strangers for a living more than I liked the conservative nature of academia,” she explains.
In 2015, Ward launched The Healthtender to address the often-overlooked wellness needs of bar staff, offering simple, affordable solutions to better health practices, from nutrition and fitness routines to ergonomic advice for behind-the-bar movements.
Then, in 2022, Ward became the executive director of Safe Bars, furthering her mission to create safer, healthier spaces for workers and patrons alike. Safe Bars aims to empower bar staff to recognise and intervene in problematic situations through bystander intervention and de-escalation training.
Shingo Gokan, the SG Group
With bars in Asia, the US and now Europe, Shingo Gokan has cemented his reputation as one of the most creative forces in the global bar scene.
The Japanese-born bartender’s career took off internationally after he won the Bacardi Global Legacy competition in 2012, when he was head bartender at Angel’s Share in New York.
He went on to open Shanghai bars Speak Low and Sober Company in 2014 and 2017 respectively, followed by six further openings in Asia in later years, including Swirl, which specialises in wine cocktails. It opened in Tokyo’s Shibuya district in 2021, before relocating to Shanghai in 2024.
It’s an impressive portfolio for anyone in the industry, but 2024 has seen the bartender pick up pace and take on new continents, opening Sip & Guzzle in New York in January, followed by the SG Tavern in Tokyo in May, Gokan in Hong Kong in July, and concluding with Devil’s Cut in Madrid in September. His style blends Eastern and Western influences, with a particular interest in the culture of Sherry – he’s as keen on wielding a venencia (the instrument used to sample Sherry, if you didn’t know) as he is a cocktail shaker.
Anna Sebastian, Celebrate Her
Despite making invaluable contributions to the industry, women are often absent – or uncredited for their work – in the upper echelons of the bar world.
One exception to that rule is Anna Sebastian, who was pivotal in reviving The Langham hotel’s Artesian bar in London, and who as a consultant has worked with clients including Fairmont Hotels, MGallery, Sofitel, The Savoy, and Raffles Hotel at the OWO.
But Sebastian isn’t content with being the exception – she wants to disprove the rule. In 2019, she founded Celebrate Her, a global community and platform to elevate and financially support women and non-binary people in hospitality. Represented on every continent, Celebrate Her focuses on education, networking, events and building a supportive community. The initiative has grown steadily and is now in the process of becoming a formal charity, promoting education, gender equality, and community building for women in the industry.
On a day-to-day basis, Sebastian represents women in the industry by speaking at events about the importance of inclusion and diversity, while also spotlighting pioneering individuals on the platform’s social media channels.
Colin Asare-Appiah, Ajabu
Africa’s first bi-annual cocktail festival, Ajabu, was held this year in South Africa, but its co-founder, Colin Asare-Appiah, has been making waves in the industry for decades.
Born in Ghana and raised in the UK, Asare-Appiah began his career as a cocktail guide for the BBC’s The Good Food Show, before consulting on myriad spirit brands. Then at just 22, Asare-Appiah co-founded the London Academy of Bartending. He is now senior portfolio ambassador at Bacardi, where, as well as building brand loyalty, he elevates the global bartending community through brand-focused educational programming.
In 2022, he co-wrote Black Mixcellence: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mixology, a book that aimed to encapsulate the invaluable contributions made to the industry by Black and brown mixologists.
Then, in 2024, he partnered with Mark Talbot Holmes to create Ajabu. “There are lots of people doing amazing things around Africa but they are not being connected,” he told The Spirits Business at the time. “Because of things like salary gaps and socio-economic conditions, lots of bartenders in Africa can’t fly to all these international festivals.”
Thanks to Ajabu, a whole continent of talented mixologists now has a chance to succeed on the world stage.
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