[:en]A 5-star hotel has opened in Dubai with two cocktail bars where three Italian bartenders work[:]

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Located in the Burj Khalifa district – the tallest skyscraper in the world – inside the spectacular The Opus building designed by Zaha Hadid, Me Dubai is a 5-star hotel with 93 domotic rooms, including 19 suites. Opened at the end of November, among the three venues hosted inside are as many Italian protagonists previously employed at the Galaxy Bar in the same city: the Operations Manager Danilo Pozone and the two Head Bartenders Mauro Cortese and Francesco D'Arienzo. To find out more about the project, we decided to interview them.

 

Hi Danilo, you are part of a visionary project, unique in the world, Me Dubai. When were you called to work on it? When was it inaugurated?

It was September 2020 when I received the call and I didn't think twice. I felt that, after having achieved some results with Galaxy, I needed a new and bigger challenge. The hotel opened in soft opening at the beginning of March and was immediately forced to close within a few days. So, it reopened on November 28th. Two of my former colleagues at Galaxy Bar, Mauro and Francesco, decided to follow me because we knew we had given our all in the previous venue – 67th in the latest edition of the World's 50 Best Bars and winner of the Campari One to Watch young promise award – and we were eager to get back in the game.

 

 

Can you tell us about the project in detail? What role are you, Mauro and Francesco playing?

The hotel is part of the Spanish hotel chain Melià and is located inside the spectacular building The Opus. More specifically, it is a Me, a format designed for modern travelers. Inside there are three venues, the Central Cosmo Tapas & Bar, the Latin-South American concept Deseo and the bar with an Italian accent Botanica, which I manage together with my trusted colleagues Mauro Cortese, the Senior Head Bartender of the last two, and Francesco D'Arienzo, who is instead the Junior Head Bartender. I, as Operations Manager, take care of all three proposals and the remaining Food & Beverage part of the structure, including the minibar offer. Here we have chosen to serve premixed cocktails to customers who request them and no plastic bottles, because we are very attentive to sustainability. 

 

Danilo Pozone
Mauro Cortese
Francis D'Arienzo

 

Let's go into the details of the cocktail bars. Mauro, can you tell us more about the offer you propose at Deseo?

At Deseo we want you to breathe the air of South America. The grandeur of the room and the possibility of tasting our cocktails near the pool gave us free rein in our creativity when designing the menu. In the place, which is open from 12 to 24 seven days a week, we serve pleasant and refreshing long drinks. We make extensive use of rum, tequila, pisco, mezcal, cachaça and tepache, a sparkling and slightly alcoholic Mexican drink, obtained by fermenting pineapple peel.

 

 

How is the cocktail list divided?

Excluding the spirits section, dedicated to vodka, gin and rum, we have four different sections: the first – Classics, Signatures & Good Times – with eight cocktails, Bienvenidos en Cuba, with four twists on the Daiquiri, our ready-mixed Bottled Cocktails and three non-alcoholic cocktails, which make up the Mocktails section. 

 

Can you give us some examples of cocktails?

Of course. In order, we have La Palenquera with spiced rum and Colombian soda, Piña Tepache, a twist on the Piña Colada with Fat Wash rum with coconut oil and tepache and Mascalzone Latino, a twist on the Tommy Margarita's with anejo tequila, cachaça, lemon cordial and slightly salted agave distillate. In Bienvenidos en Cuba we have the Banana Daiquiri, with Cuban rum, clarified banana and lime and the Mulata Daiquiri with Cuban rum, crema de cacao and lime juice, among the Bottled Cocktails four classics of mixing – Daiquiri, Negroni, Rum Old-Fashioned and Tommy's Margarita – and, among the Mocktails, Café y Tonica, with coffee and tonic water.

 

Coffee and Tonic

 

The other cocktail bar is Botanica. Francesco, can you tell us more about the offer you propose here?

Botanica is a cocktail bar focused on serving four well-known cocktails: Martini, Spritz, Negroni, Gin & Tonic. Each is served in four of our interpretations, for a total of 16 cocktails in total. For customers who want them, we also serve our pre-mixed 300-350 ml. The name of the proposal itself, Botanica, recalls the floral and citrus aromas on which the menu is focused. Unlike Deseo, in this case the proposal is less seasonal and is the one we focus on for most of the year. 

 

How is the cocktail list divided? Can you give us some examples of cocktails?

The cocktail list has four different sections: Shades of Martini, Spritz and co., Shades of Negroni, Shades of Gin & Tonic. In the first we propose the Floral Martini with lavender-infused vodka and vermouth with fennel seeds, chamomile and lemongrass and the Mediterranean Martini with vodka and dry vermouth infused with tomato juice; among the Spritz the Bubbly, so called for the bubble effect, with Italicus, Aperol with Japanese mint (shiso), white vermouth and soda and the Mamma Mia, with Campari infused with hazelnut and blueberries, Disaronno, Sauvignon Blanc and soda. As for the Negronis, we have the Claypot Negroni – the classic cocktail recipe refined in ceramic jars, where it takes on fermentation notes – and the Floral Negroni with amber vermouth, elderflower liqueur, violet liqueur and Butterfly Pea flowers and, as for the Gin Tonics, T & T, with Tanqueray flor de Sevilla, Cynar and Fever Tree Indian tonic and Jimmy & Tonic with Roku gin, lime and pink pepper, Goldberg yuzu tonic by Jimmy Barrat, the global manager of Zuma.

 

 

The last place is Central Cosmo Tapas & Bar. What kind of offer can you find here, Danilo?

Central Cosmo Tapas & Bar is a bar serving contemporary and cosmopolitan Spanish food paired with wine, mostly Spanish and South American, vermouth, sherry and Spanish craft beers. It is the only one of the three venues that does not serve cocktails.

 

What were the greatest difficulties in this opening and what were the greatest satisfactions?

There is a lot of pressure. It is not a job for everyone and you need to have a lot of strength of spirit. To all the possible difficulties is added the problem of Covid-19. The greatest satisfaction, however, is that of working in a hotel that sells itself, of international caliber and resonance. Dubai is a very modern city, in which mixology is always in step with the times, thanks to the use of the most recent techniques and very rare products, unexplored in much of the rest of Europe. It is a huge pleasure for us to have been asked to work on a second project of this level, after the experience at the Galaxy Bar.

 

Between October 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, Dubai will host the Expo, with 25 million visitors expected. What goals have you set for that date? Do you intend to reach certain positions?

Undoubtedly. The place we will focus on is Deseo, whose name means desire and is our flagship. Four or five times a year it will host international pop-ups, starting with Dante – the world's #2 bar in the 50 Best Bars – which joined us from January 15th to February 13th with the support of Mancino Vermouth, The Botanist Gin, Cointreau and Remy Martin.

 

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