Arts
It’s been a year like no other, especially for bartenders and anyone in the hospitality industry. So for our final episode of 2020, we're taking a look back at the year that was on the Living Proof podcast. You'll be hearing snippets of a few of the conversations we were lucky enough to have in 2020, the first of which focus on the subject of wellness and balance for bartenders. We had some great discussions with Tim Philips-Johansson, Australia's most awarded bartender, and Mark Livings, CEO of Lyre's Spirit Co, about how and why young people are increasingly choosing to drink less. Then, we cast our minds back to when the pandemic first took hold of cities the world over, spelling a long lay-off for many bars. We hear from Dante's Liana Oster, who we spoke to back in April, and then Big Bar's Eugene Lee and Selene Martinez. Finally, we explore how the industry might emerge from the challenges of the year with a renewed focus on high quality customer experiences. Alex Ross, who opened the renowned Ginger bar in Melbourne, talks us through how she keeps the customer front-of-mind whenever she's working on a project. And Diageo's Global Cocktailian, Lauren Mote, describes how the front- and back-of-house are coming together to create guest experiences that go beyond the glass. And we couldn't look back on 2020 without re-visiting our hilarious chat with Artem Peruk of El Copitas Bar in St Petersburg - the bar that went from scrounging around to find enough chairs to open, to sitting proudly on the World's 50 Best Bars list.