Shaking up the cometition!
BAR MANAGER MATT CONTINUES HIS BID FOR WORLD COCKTAIL DOMINANCE WITH LEGO AND LIQUORICE INSPIRED TIPPLES
HE has already been singled out as one of the UK’S best for his top cocktail-making skills, thanks to Hull-inspired drinks including one featuring Chip Spice.
Now, Matt Smith, bar manager at The Brain Jar, is taking his mixing methods to another level. He is competing against national rivals in a London showdown, in a bid to fly the flag for Great Britain at the World Class Cocktail Festival finals in Shanghai.
Matt has just been on a visit to Denmark seeking inspiration for his next round of drinks. These he will showcase at venues in Mayfair and Campden Market, in the first week of June.
When he was first stirred into action, Matt created his Welcome to Hull!, Big Fat Stupid and Rhubarb and Crushtard cocktails, which won favour with the contest judges when they were whittling down the competition from 100 hopefuls. “There were people in that top 100 who I had admired, and their bars I had admired, for a long time,” said Matt, “and they didn’t make it to the top 20.”
He said it was “a nice surprise” for him, therefore, to make the cut. “It’s mad just to have got this far. Over the course of the two days in London, it goes from the top 20 to the top ten; then there’s the overall winner. I’m gunning for that top ten.”
While he is juggling work at The Brain Jar, in Trinity House Lane, where Matt says he has a very supportive crew, he is constantly thinking about and testing his new cocktail recipes, two of which have to feature the Johnnie Walker Black Label and rarer Blue Label Scotch whiskies. On a visit to Denmark last week – “there’s a very good vibe to the place but it’s very expensive” – Matt sussed out the best bars and bartenders, some of whom have been in the global spotlight themselves, for some ideas.
“I’m definitely going to be working with liquorice - every shop you go into over there, there’s liquorice – but I’m going with a Lego theme with one of the drinks as well, as that’s Danish.” Matt is figuring out a way of weaving a strong Scandinavian principle into a cocktail.
“It’s about the way you think of yourself. You are not supposed to think of yourself as more special, or more talented or smarter than anyone else.
“It’s a bit like in Japan where they say the nail that sticks out the furthest gets the hammer. In other words, if everyone’s modest, we achieve better, so this one is going to be an equal-parts cocktail, and there are going to be all-red Danish plants in it.”
There were people in that top 100 who I had admired, and their bars I had admired
Matt Smith