Remy Savage
Born in France, Remy Savage started his bartending career sixteen years ago to pay for his philosophy studies. After being crowned World’s Most Imaginative Bartender in 2014 and second most influential person in the global bar Industry by Drinks International in 2022, he is widely regarded as one of the world’s most pioneering entrepreneurs in terms not only of flavour research and innovative techniques, but also in combining philosophy and art in the drinking experience.
How much of your work is unexpected discovery and how much is creation of something you had in mind beforehand?
Remy Savage: In our bar the experience comes 50% from our side (the venue, the drinks, the staff) and 50% is ‘created’ by our guests. In our half of the equation 95% is prepared in advance. I always loved school and studying, I loved being prepared, with my homework done. What is left as a variable to be discovered are small tweaks and maybe errors that occur. Especially how people will respond is unforeseeable. For each bar’s concept, we choose a specific art movement which had an impact in history and resonated in the cultural sphere, so we know it is relevant to people. We then use the rationale and the reasons behind the birth of that movement and see if it can be applied to current needs (an example is the Minimalist menu at the Artesian Bar in London, where all the 22 cocktails were made of just 2 ingredients each). This process is then ‘built’ and translated in an experience for the guests. So we know that the aesthetics are relevant and that the actual everyday work is well organized, with very little room for surprises and improvisation. What is left to be discovered is who will walk through the door and how they will view the space and interact with it.
The undiscovered \ unpredictable part is very important because it too has an influence on how the bar is, making it a collaborative space made up by everybody in it. My bar in London is dedicated to the Bauhaus Movement, but, maybe, for somebody it is just ‘that bar with nice chairs’. People also create their own experience in the venue, it is not entirely dictated by us. When it comes to cocktail creation it is a process where, knowing what combines well with what, we envision the final result and then work hard to achieve it, trying not to rely on lucky accidents. Even the unexpected accidents are not purely random, they were subconsciously put in place by us, ready to happen.
How much do you view the work and personality of a creative bartender as an explorer (open to all possibilities), rather than a methodic scientist (data driven with a predetermined goal)?
RS: A very important aspect to consider is that the bartender is not like a social media influencer, he makes drinks that will be actually served to people, so his inclination to positive face to face interaction is paramount. Primarily he should be a nice, funny, caring, empathetic person for his guests and co-workers. I don’t believe that talent really exists, so we all need both aspects, the urge to ‘try our luck’ exploring backed by hard work and preparation. If the creative spirit is disconnected from the groundwork, nothing can be really achieved unless very fortuitously. When we train our teams, we encourage their explorative spirit to emerge exactly because we are able to communicate the fundamentals to abide by: technique, rules, criteria, boundaries, and especially deadlines! As the minimalist artist Donald Judd said: Passion needs a deadline.
What other fields of interest do you take inspiration from when exploring new cocktail ideas?
RS: My backgound is in philosophy. Historically however, many disciplines, now separated and specialized like maths and philosophy for example, were in practice one field. The different subjects and fields of human knowledge are for me different viewing angles looking at the same thing. So I mostly draw inspiration from philosophy which I studied at Oxford, but philosophy comprises by its nature many things, among which are history, maths, physics, ethics, aesthetics. These last two are the ones I’m most interested in: what is Beautiful (with a capital B) and what does it mean from an ethical standpoint. This leads me naturally to art and self-expression. Whatever is based on the idea of Beauty interests me. For instance two years ago I was asked by Cartier to collaborate on perfumes. It was outside my area of expertise, but since the whole project was about Beauty I enthusiastically agreed.
I hear sometimes ‘bars are full, art galleries and museums are empty’. Maybe some professors made Philosophy boring, and some Museums made art boring, for many people. For me philosophy comprises everything in our daily life, and art is the most important thing in the world, so I always think about how can I subtly and lightly introduce Art to as many people as possible. I just use my medium of expression, the bar, which is based on the eternal need people have for socializing, while exploring and discovering new flavours. I believe that the bar is an ideal place to mix art in people’s everyday experience, since bars are more accessible than restaurants and don’t have any perceived ‘pretentiousness’ and distance that people sometime associate with the Art world.
Your guests are arguably also driven by an explorative urge to discover new things. How do you inspire your guests to bring out their curious \ explorative side?
RS: To be honest, the design in itself is what aims to intrigue people. It doesn’t look like a bar, from the uniforms to the layout and everything in between. There is a strong identity and it all looks a bit surreal. That said people can just have a good drink without noticing much around them and that would be enough to have a good experience. We don’t buy into that trend of putting complicated and obscure ingredients on the menu to inspire curiosity and ‘admiration’. There’s a fine line between being ‘cool’ and being pretentious: you must prioritize quality over the ‘surprise’ factor. It is true that many artists specifically wanted to ‘shock’ with their art, but when it comes to flavours and edible creations, we have to be more careful. I adhere to what I think can be timeless Beauty (in my philosophical framework of absolutes and ideas) while ‘shocking’, ‘offensive’, ‘provocative’ are interesting but are time-defined concepts, they might change every generation. It is important for us that the ‘weirdness’ of the location is balanced by our approach which is very friendly and unpretentious, since people are there to have a good time at the end of the day.
How important do you think storytelling is in the drinking experience? Was it a one-off pillar in your ‘Life Defining Moments’ menu in 2017 or is it something you try to have in every menu and every bar\ service routine?
RS: I think storytelling is key but also that the way you tell the story is very important. We are a small bar with 40 people capacity and we make on average 400 drinks a night. Therefore, lengthy explanations to guests to tell the story behind the drinks and the place are not practical. The story has to be told by the entire environment: the walls, the drinks, the service, the people, the lightning, the music etc… For example people see the laboratory equipment and they don’t see many recognizable bottles, and this tells them that we create most of our ingredients. Drinks are made very quickly and are served very cold, so this narrates what we believe is most important for a good experience. If you try one of our drinks you will see that it is the drink that does the storytelling, we need to narrate with the product, with what we do, and not only with words.
You were crowned ‘World’s Most Imaginative Bartender’ in 2014, how do you balance the two sides of the bartender, imaginative (exploration) and reliable executor of classic recipes (repetition)?
RS: First and foremost a bartender job is about constant interaction with different guests, which cannot be repetitive. That said, I prefer to work with people who are also very good at repeating actions, consistently keeping quality standards. I value a lot preparation and love prep-shifts (a full working day just preparing ingredients, ndr) as I can take a break from creativity pursuits, which are exhausting! With a team of 20 people, all of them just exploring new ideas and creating new things the business is destined to fail, while it can very well work with 20 people who are reliable, organized, precise, hard-working and well prepared. Creativity requires time and has to be earned, after you practice and learn the basics and have strong foundations.
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