[:en]Lucio D'Orsi, General Manager of the Majestic Palace Hotel and Dry Martini Sorrento by Javier de las Muelas talks about himself and his passion[:]

[:en]

Of CORRADO LARONGA

Lucio D'orsi, General Manager of the Majestic Palace Hotel, Dry Martini Sorrento by Javier de las Muelas and Don Geppi Restaurant, talks about his land, his passion and his bar, revealing how he managed – the only one in Italy so far – to convince Javier de las Muelas to allow him to open a Dry Martini in Sorrento. 

Sorrento. It is never talked about enough in Italy, and yet it is a dream place for tourists. How did it become so?

Sorrento has always been one of the most popular tourist areas in Italy. We owe it to the cinema, which has made our splendid land known to the whole world, we owe it to music, to history and of course to the landscape itself, with the typical rocky ridges that frame the deep blue sea, through which you can reach Capri in just ten minutes. Our tourism has always been predominantly foreign, especially English and American, and this is why already in the 70s Sorrento was able to satisfy a very demanding international clientele, who found in our large hotels, restaurants and bars the best places in which to spend their holidays. Today, Sorrento holds some records that are rarely talked about but which I am happy to highlight: it is the place in Europe with the highest density of large hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, we have always had a vocation for quality hospitality. The Majestic Palace Hotel for example has no rooms smaller than 30 square meters and was one of the first hotels to have a three-meter deep swimming pool. We want to give our guests the best possible experience.

Let's talk a little about mixology?

English: Until a few years ago, the mixology offered by cocktail bars and hotel bars was rather basic. The evolution of mixology in the large hotels of Sorrento owes its rapid development also to the presence of so many international customers, who have brought great cultural ferment and have given us part of their knowledge, allowing us to broaden our views. I always say that ours is the best job in the world because we can travel even while staying still. Going abroad, visiting important structures and venues to learn is essential, but here we are also very lucky to be able to learn by working, during the opening period, because it is abroad that comes to us and brings us into contact with different ways of thinking, all equally useful and fascinating. I manage the Majestic Palace Hotel, which is home to the Don Geppi Restaurant, a Michelin star, and the Dry Martini Sorrento by Javier de las Muelas. It is a bar with an international profile where quality is made up of incredibly careful details and where service and the customer are the absolute protagonists.

So the Dry Martini is a mix that is always evolving.

Absolutely, our proposal is constantly evolving and we have a strong vocation for the research of new products and new combinations. But there is one particular that distinguishes us with absolute certainty and that is the respect for that classic tradition that has made mixology great, without this meaning disdaining the use of the most modern equipment and technologies. Many of the great cocktails that have gone down in history have a maximum of 3/4 ingredients - like the Cosmopolitan - whose combination has left its mark. Obviously, after this thousands more have been invented, many of which in reality only follow the fashion of the moment. I believe that the future of mixology will be a return to simplicity, to creating cocktails with three or four ingredients in which the recognisability of the ingredients, the quality and above all the balance of flavours will count.

Do you think Sorrento as a tourist attraction will change much with the Covid19 crisis?

Sorrento is a wonderful land. Sheer cliffs, clear water, houses perched on a hill and that priceless view of Vesuvius at sunset with its lights and the lampare at night in the middle of the sea. This will never change. I believe the love for Italy and its beauties will also lead to an increase in Italian guests. The situation of the last few months, paradoxically, has given us much more time than usual to study, to prepare and to create new proposals to present to our customers: new cocktails for the Dry Martini Sorrento and new dishes for the Don Geppi. Of the 15,000 square meters of garden that we have in the hotel, 5,000 are used as a vegetable garden, to directly grow the vegetables that will then be found in the dishes and cocktails. It is a sort of return to the origins that we would like to share with our international guests and also with many Italian guests, when they come to visit us.

How do you become a Dry Martini bar?

You don't become one (laughs). I'll tell you what happened to me. I've always loved Spain, I have lots of friends there, even bartenders. The first time I entered the Dry Martini in Barcelona I immediately felt a strong affinity between my philosophy and the philosophy of that fascinating place. One evening, talking to the head bartender of the Dry Martini in Barcelona, I asked what was necessary to open a Dry Martini in Italy too. He promptly replied "It's impossible!" and I, in return, said "Then it can be done!". It was exactly at that moment that I started to believe in this incredible project. I knew that Javier had already been contacted several times to open a Dry Martini in Italy but that he had always refused. After speaking on the phone we set up an appointment in Barcelona. Ours was not just a meeting between businessmen but a meeting between people with the same philosophy of life, of mixing, of hospitality and, above all, an identical passion for their work. For him, every Dry Martini is like a child, a creature to which to dedicate not only mere time but above all attention and a constant desire to improve. For me and for us, Dry Martini is a Lifestyle. Commercial reasons count for little, it is more a question of empathy, of common intentions. It is no coincidence that the Dry Martini chain has existed for 41 years but that there are only 5 in the whole world.

And one of them is the one you manage at the Majestic Palace Hotel.

I managed to convey to Javier all my desire and passion, also showing him in person the bar of the Majestic Palace Hotel in Sorrento that I have been taking care of since I arrived as director of the entire structure. He perceived the strength of the love that I have for my work and the passion that I would put into expanding the brand, so he decided to allow the opening of what is now the Dry Martini Sorrento by Javier de las Muelas. Over time, the Dry family of Sorrento and the family of Javier and all the other Dry Martinis in the world have become one big family. Even though we carry out the projects in a shared way, each Dry Martini has its own personality: in ours, for example, there are, in addition to the drinks that can be found in all five bars in the world, also signature drinks created by us with a strong territorial connotation, our imprint. Everything comes from the same passion that leads us to love the brand we are part of, the Dry Martini Family.

What cocktail would you recommend we try at Dry?

Difficult, very difficult, also because we have almost 180! There are one hundred variations of the Dry Martini, both historic and modern, to which we have dedicated a separate menu. Then we have our cocktail list made up of Signature, Classic, Vintage & Trendys, Excentrics Cocktails and Non-alcoholic, without forgetting the illustrated “single drink” menus such as the one dedicated to the various variations of the Mojito, the one of the Dry&Tonic, the one of the “Frappè” (Dry Martinis made with the infusion technique and served at -28°C) and finally the “Fresh Fruit Martinis” line, that is, the Dry Martinis to which fresh fruit and more is added (one of the most loved is the one with mint and chocolate).

If I had to recommend a cocktail that you absolutely must try, I would say The Carnivor, for which we use the flower of a carnivorous plant known as Venus' Vase as a "glass", which can hold almost 150g of product. Inside we find strawberry, cherry, Pisco and Sechuan Button, the so-called "electric flowers". The consistency is pasty at first taste and then gives a few small "shocks" due to the effect of the flowers. Like all our Excentrics Cocktails, it is also a gastronomic cocktail, used to accompany the dishes of our Michelin-starred restaurant. This one, for example, is perfect when paired with a ceviche of Amberjack from our seas.

Thanks Lucio! Let's close with the upcoming news, are there any?

Absolutely, I'll give you an exclusive: we have created a line of twelve cocktails that will be launched at the end of this week and will be called "DRYaway", a line of 12 ready-to-serve cocktails. Since more and more customers, even before the lockdown, were asking us for a way to enjoy our cocktails at home, we thought we'd please them! They will be in 100, 200 or 500 ml glass bottles and will not only be distributed at Dry Martini but also in wine shops and gastronomic environments, such as restaurants that want to offer their customers a high-level mixing experience.[:]