Booze hounds

Luca Missaglia

Amaro Santoni's managing partner & all-round booze badass

What’s your bar background?

I was the bar manager at Quo Vadis, but at the moment, I'm not working at the bar anymore. I worked as a global ambassador for Italicus for years, and a year and a half ago, I decided to move on and start an adventure on my own. So I started my own company that helps small brands like Amaro Santoni. What I actually do is the brand management. My agency's called Cocktail Concierge, in collaboration with Simone [Caporale]

At the same time, we just launched an educational platform for bartenders. We decided to create our independent platform, which is called The Art of Shaking and is now up and running. We are showcasing content related to cocktail creation, how to create a menu, how to develop techniques which are sometimes not possible to find anywhere. So basically you pay a monthly fee to have access to all of this. The content you find on there is not how to make a Mojito, because for that, there's YouTube, right?

What’s your favourite bar?

This is a difficult one. I will say Sips in Barcelona is super cool, I love it. I love the concept. I love the people working there. It’s like a family. I also love The Connaught Bar as well, and Tayer + Elementary. They're my top three.

And what’s your fave cocktail?

Well, I have to be honest with you, it’s the Garibaldi. It's Amaro Santoni and freshly squeezed blood oranges.

What’s your proudest career moment?

I think when I went to jump out from depending on a salary and working for a company to starting. That was a proud and scary moment at the same time.

And your go-to hangover cure? 

This is a difficult one. I think it's not really ethical, but I would say Coca-Cola. That's my cure. A Bloody Mary with a lot of spice and a lot of salt helps a lot, or a Virgin Mary is really good. With celery!

What’s the best city in the world for drinking cocktails? 

Right now I will say Barcelona. It has improved so much. I mean, five years ago it wasn't like right now. I see a lot of going on. London is great, and I still think London holds the prize as one of the best, but Barcelona is improving really fast.

Type

Booze hounds