A Sip of London with Elliot Ball
© Elliot Ball
Bar ohne Namen
Entschlossen verweigert sich Savage, der Bar einen Namen zu geben. Stattdessen sind drei klassische Design-Symbole das Logo der Trinkstätte in Dalston: ein gelbes Quadrat, ein rotes Viereck, ein blauer Kreis. Am meisten wurmt den sympathischen Franzosen dabei, dass es kein Gelbes-Dreieck-Emoji gibt. Das erschwert auf komische Weise die Kommunikation. Der Instagram Account lautet: a_bar_with_shapes-for_a_name und anderenorts tauchen die Begriffe ‘Savage Bar’ oder eben ‚Bauhaus Bar‘ auf.
Für den BCB bringt Savage nun sein Barkonzept mit und mixt für uns mit Unterstützung von Russian Standard Vodka an der perfekten Bar dazu.
This year was the first year ever for BCB London and while the scorching heat was on everybody’s lips, it was mostly - just like its big sister in Berlin - a fantastic opportunity to catch up with global industry personalities, network and see some friends.
London is a big city but like every other big city, it is made of a variety of neighbourhoods that each have their personality and soul. Head east and you will find the grittiest part of town, you will also find the Cocktail Trading Co. - a fantastic cocktail bar right in a party street run by Elliot Ball and his team.
Who are you?
Hi. I’m Elliot, I’m a bartender, I work in a couple of bars around London and Bristol that I’m lucky enough to also own. Me and my partners have been doing the whole cocktail industry thing long enough to like what we like, but ultimately care a whole lot more about vibes and things being smooth and easy for the teams.
If you could describe CTC in 5 words max what would those words be?
Tasty, funny, fast and fun.
What kind of neighbourhood is CTC in?
We’re around the corner from Brick Lane, so proper oldschool East London. There’s a whole lot of different cultures here, and that’s awesome.
Do you think the bar could have been successful in a different neighbourhood when it first opened? What about now?
Well yeah - we had two CTC pop ups before any real landlord would return our calls - first was in Oxford Circus somehow, the second was in Smithfields. While some of the stuff we’ve done over the years is more culturally relevant to one area over another, the ‘formula’ of CTC is pretty accessible - the cocktails are affordable, designed and made by an in-house team of legends who are all in it for the long haul, the vibes are anti-cocktail-bar, ie. funny & cheeky pub atmospherics, and it’s all reasonably priced.
What makes London such an exciting cocktail hub?
London’s always been a cultural hub, and while much of the food and drink in the UK can be pretty lacking, that cultural element with London has pushed it real far ahead. Meanwhile there’s no denying that cocktails are something of a premium product, so to have a real scene, you need lots of consumers who can afford them, so that it’s not just a niche. These two things mean plenty of good reasons for everyone to keep innovating, plus it’s actually a viable career choice for many - you need people who are gonna hang around and grow to really push things forward.
How do toe the line between offering great guest experience and playing the industry game?
Simple - we ignore the industry game entirely. We focus on guests and only hire people who actually love service - they naturally find themselves falling in with the right communities, and, with a good desire to grow they naturally attract the attention of industry. In much the same way that good leaders should measure their successes by the success of those that they lead, we measure our value by how far our team go - and this happens to overlap rather well with the guests getting a good time.
Find Elliot’s favourite drink on their current menu The Cluedo Club in our Sips of London video on our Social Media Channels.
© Cocktail Trading Co.
