[:it]Lucio D'Orsi: an all-round professional between Majestic Palace Hotel, Dry Martini Sorrento and Don Geppi[:]

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Today we continue the column dedicated to bar managers and head bartenders of luxury hotels with another great protagonist of Italian mixology, Lucio D'Orsi. The professional, who managed to inaugurate the first Dry Martini by Javier de Las Muelas of our peninsula on the terrace of the Majestic Palace Hotel in Sorrento, of which he is the owner and bar manager, is also the general manager of the same hotel and maître and sommelier of the 1 Michelin star hotel restaurant Don Geppi.

Hi Lucio, what path did you take to get to where you are today?

I attended the hotel management institute in Castellammare di Stabia and, since I was a boy, I have attended mixology and bartending competitions. I worked in Switzerland and returned to Italy to take on the role of first barman, then bar manager and then food & beverage manager of the IHG chain (InterContinental Hotels Group), but not before taking on the role of first maître. I started some important teaching and consultancy and then I arrived at the Majestic Palace Hotel in 2010. Here, together with my partner Giulia Rossano, I opened the Don Geppi Restaurant, a Michelin star in 2015, in which I left my signature on the wine list and on the pairing of cocktails for the restaurant's dishes. After that, I managed to make a dream come true, that of bringing to Italy one of the most iconic cocktail bars ever, the DRY Martini by Javier de las Muelas, which we inaugurated on May 30, 2018 on the hotel terrace. Still in the same hotel, on the ground floor there is another Dry Martini also open during the day – from 9am to midnight – which offers a cafeteria service and a smaller cocktail menu compared to the Dry Martini on the rooftop.

What are the duties required of a bar manager in a large luxury hotel?

First of all, compliance with hotel standards, very different from those of a traditional cocktail bar, which the bar manager must strictly apply and ensure that his colleagues do the same. Other important tasks also pertain to this role: one of our main focuses, hospitality, continuous research on ingredients and recent techniques, training, to be proposed to your team, and the creation of the menu, with the relative control of beverage and food cost, the choice of products to use and any partnerships. Fundamental, last but not least, is knowledge of the language.

At the Majestic Palace Hotel in Sorrento do you work with a rather international clientele? What are the advantages of working with such a clientele?

At the Majestic Palace we have a decidedly international clientele, with 80% from the English public and the remainder coming from North and South America, North-East Europe, France and, for less than 5%, Italy. Working with a clientele of this type is a source of great growth for us: many barmen do not have the economic or temporal possibility to travel and, in my case, the first teachers were precisely the clients of large hotels. We are lucky to have the world come to us. In this sense, knowledge of the language becomes fundamental and therefore we require our staff to know English, German, French and Spanish.

In the 10 years you have worked here in Sorrento you have had the opportunity to learn about local and international preferences. What differences have you found?

The foreign market is always very ready to discover, very curious, as is the Italian market, for which sometimes there is only the need to stimulate the customer's curiosity as best as possible to bring him to taste new and often more complex flavors. The foreign customer is more easily advised: looking at a bottle rack with super premium products he already knows that he will drink well and is substantially more open to discovering new flavors. Having made this necessary premise, hospitality and attention to service remain two of the essential standards for being able to work well, with both targets.

How would you define your cocktails?

Complex and incredibly balanced. In many of my drinks I use many ingredients, up to a maximum of 16, and behind the choice of each one and the relative quantity, there is a very long study. Another aspect that characterizes my mixology is the use of some ingredients from our garden or from small producers. For example, the Dry Martini is garnished with olives from the centuries-old trees in our garden, as well as lemons and oranges, which we use to make a jam that is one of the ingredients of the Breakfast Martini.

Along with the locations in Barcelona, Madrid, London, Dry Martini Sorrento is one of the Dry Martini by Javier de Las Muelas in the world. Are there any prerequisites to meet?

Of course. We have a code of ethics, a manual, which is always expanded over time. The parameters to be respected - the dress code, the white shirt and double-breasted suit, and the impossibility of wearing rings, bracelets, watches except the wedding ring - come from Barcelona. If these choices are dictated on the one hand to express order and elegance, on the other we want the customer's attention to be captured by gestures and not by superfluous aspects such as jewelry or various accessories. Another peculiarity of all Dry Martinis is a menu entirely dedicated to this cocktail, the menu of 100 Dry Martinis, all variations of the great classic.

Where can your freedom extend, instead?

In all other decisions that, as always, must be agreed with the parent company, to always be able to carry forward a discourse of brand recognition. With Javier we have created a very personal relationship and this allows us to develop creative ideas, which are not found in any other place in the world. An example is DRYpedia, a menu that is a true encyclopedia of beverages linked to the arts. This year the inspiration was literature, while next year it will be music and dance, for a total of 7 arts until the end of the project, which will be in 2023. In addition to being unique for its purpose, this project is also unique for its duration which, being a drinks list, is definitely above average.

How is the Dry Martini Sorrento menu divided and how often does it change?

At Dry we have several menus: the main one is divided into different categories, from Classic Cocktails to Signature, Vintage & Trendys, Excentrics, Dry & Tonic, Frappè, Mojito, Fresh Fruits Martinis and Non-Alcoholic. Many of these sections have small visual menus that accompany them, folding menus that rest on the tables. Then I combine an entire menu dedicated to Dry Martinis, the same in all the locations of the group, with 100 different variations of our iconic cocktail. Every year we change many cocktails that are on the menu, but leaving some bestsellers.

What do you serve to go with it?

The menu of the gastronomic proposal in combination with our cocktails is fun. It consists of very refined and at the same time delicious tapas, prepared by the Don Geppi kitchen. Some examples are the Toasted bread, date and Cantabrian anchovy, the Bikini sandwich with San Daniele ham, truffle and buffalo mozzarella, the Jamón Serrano croquette and the Mini Club Sandwich. In our future projects there is the desire to include a food fusion proposal, ranging from Japanese to Peruvian and Nikkei cuisine, obviously to be added to the proposals already on the menu.

What impact has Covid-19 had? Have you launched any initiatives?

In the critical phase you have to invest and that's why we did it to change the look of the starred restaurant, which now has an 86 m2 canvas that covers all the walls, in the new hotel website and in the DRYaway project, an e-commerce with which you can buy ready-to-drink drinks from the project of the same name. We were the only Dry Martini to do it and for this we are very proud of it. The idea came from many of our customers who, when leaving the hotel, expressed the desire to be able to take our cocktails away. Then the lockdown arrived and the idea, which until now had remained in the farmhouse, became a new project, which was structured with the creation of 14 cocktails in 100, 200 and 500 ml formats: from the classic Dry Martini to the Old Fashioned, passing through the Hanky Panky and the Truffle Negroni. One of these, the Golden Heritage, was created in collaboration with Belvedere Vodka, using the newly created Heritage 176. The cocktails have been on sale since late March-early April, also in some selected venues, such as wine shops. It is a project that works and several new products are already ready to expand it further.

Can you give us the recipe for one of your signature cocktails?

Of course. The recipe is that of Estli Maya, a cocktail that is part of our Excentrics collection and is inspired by the customs and traditions of the Mayan civilization. The ingredients were chosen based on their importance in the culture of this people. The tomato because red was a symbol of rebirth for them, the tequila and chili pepper for their importance in their diet and the gold in memory of the sun.

Ingredients:

4cl Tequila Patron Silver

5 cl Tomato juice

1 cl Fine Sherry

1 cl Green Chartreuse

3 cl Lime cordial

0.5 cl Agave syrup

5 Coriander leaves

2 Hot chili droplets by Javier de Las Muelas

Decoration:

Chili pepper threads

Gold leaf

Technique:

Shake and strain in a glass with ice, top with crushed ice and add the garnish

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