[:en]Gift ideas for enthusiasts and professionals: the latest news from schools and cocktail bars[:]
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Christmas is upon us, but if you still have to make a gift for a friend or relative who is passionate about mixing or who wants to pursue this career, there is still time. After a careful selection throughout Italy we have found some realities - schools or cocktail bars - that we would like to point out to you, which provide training and refresher courses - which can be attended from next year - or, more simply, offer the possibility of living experiences, physical or virtual, which will certainly be an excellent gift idea for the lucky person who receives them.
Here is our selection.
TURIN
- The Drogheria Bar Academy
In January 2021 La Drogheria, the cocktail bar in Piazza Vittorio in Turin, launches a service born from the experience that the Turin group has acquired in recent years. After the opening of the Bazaar in 2019 - a resale of wines, liqueurs and spirits built alongside the cocktail bar - a training service was born led by bartenders Michael Ciaccia and Sergio Pisu, under the direction of bar manager Martina Franchini. There will be three types of training courses: amateur, professional and tailoring. The former will allow people to delve into the basics of mixing, to learn about the main products or, more simply, to learn to drink well. The professional courses, basic and advanced, will prepare the working figure of the bartender with a focus on the aspects of speed, quality, order and historical/merchandise culture, with the possibility of working one evening together with the staff, in the restaurant in Piazza Vittorio. The tailoring, however, will be tailor-made for the customer, with the most disparate possibilities: in-depth courses on homemade products, preparation for a bartending competition with the bartender Carola Abrate, business consultancy for the start-up of a cocktail bar or the creation of a drink list. All courses are designed both as individual and group courses.
For info and reservations:
Martina Franchini – 3398644800
- Barz8
Courses for professionals are currently suspended, in mid-January at Barz8 - a cocktail bar in the Gran Madre area opened 10 years ago - a 12-hour course divided into three lessons will start, which are held once a week, in two amateur classes, in time slots 3-7pm and 7-11pm. The topics covered are a first approach to the world of mixing with some basic techniques - there is the possibility of learning how to prepare a shakerato or a great classic, such as Negroni, Americano and Gin Tonic - and some notions of product categories, in order to allow the people to be able to set up their own little bar corner at home. All the cocktails were chosen to be replicated at home with simple equipment, for a total course price of €180. The same venue also offers Barman at Home, a home bartending service, in which Salvatore Romano or one of his collaborators go to customers' homes for an hour during which, after some training, they proceed to create the cocktails. There are three themes that you can choose from: aperitif, film sagas and gastronomic drinks. The service is active, for groups of 4-6 people, only in Turin and its first belt, at the price of €50 for a cocktail each for 4 people and €100 for 2 cocktails each, with the possibility in the latter case to choose two out of three themes.
For info and reservations:
Salvatore Romano – 339 5331352
MILAN
- Not just cocktails
Waiting for the resumption of courses for professionals from mid-January, five different digital experiences can be purchased on the Nonsolococktails website, a project by expert bartender Mattia Pastori for enthusiasts. The Dynamic Aperitif allows you to learn how to create drinks like a real bartender, through a box with everything you need, the Perfect Aperitif allows you to learn, in an hour, how to create finger food and paired cocktails together with Mattia Pastori and one chef. Mattia Pastori Cocktails Experience is an offer capable of offering 4 signature cocktails – Martini di Milano, Negroni di Modena, Mediterranean Daiquiri, The Gentlemen – with matching snacks and a musical playlist, at the price of €55, with the possibility, for those who wish, of follow the story of the cocktails online on January 21, 2021. Bartender For One Night it is a package that contains everything you need to become a bartender for a night: from equipment to glasses through to vermouth and tonic, including the possibility of organizing a private one-hour meeting with Mattia Pastori, for the total price of €104 For companies there are Web Cocktails Tasting, a team building moment during which participants can taste cocktails with Mattia Pastori, delivered to their home in boxes, which can be customized if necessary, also containing appetizers.
For info and reservations:
ROME and NAPLES
- Flair Bartender School
Flair Bartender School is a school for bartenders that has twenty years of experience in the field and whose courses it organizes are designed for enthusiasts and professionals. Among the former, courses are the most popular Basic Bartender, which allows you to study and taste all the most important spirits and liqueurs in the world and learn to prepare over 50 recipes in 10 lessons, with the possibility during the course of practicing in some places in Rome, of Basic Flair, which introduces you to the world of flair so you can start moving like a professional bartender, and Mixology, in which you learn the most common old-style mixing techniques such as aging and smoking. Among the courses for professionals, however, you can choose between Bartender PRO, Executive Bartender, Advanced and Extreme Flair, Bar Chef And Advanced Mixologist. All information can be found on the individual course pages, which will resume on January 10th. The school has two different sites, the first for the courses held in Rome and Latina, the second for those in Naples.
For info and reservations:
https://www.flairbartenderschool.com/
ROME and LECCE
- Flair Project
The school owned by Francesco Spenuso, founded in 1999, twice winner of the Best Bartender School in Rome according to the Spirits award and winner of the Rome Cocktail Week 2016, offers professional courses for bartenders and aspiring bartenders. There are two locations - Rome and Lecce - and several courses that can be attended. The program will resume from January 7th and, if it is not possible to return to the classroom, the school is equipped to provide the courses online, as it has already done in the last period. The most popular course is undoubtedly that of Bartending & Mixology, of the 60 hour program, with 8 internships and 6 to obtain HACCP certification. The school itself offers refresher masterclasses, most of which are free, and collaborates with many professionals in the sector.
For info and reservations:
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