Kostas Bardas and Angelo Sparvoli

BAR MANAGER, KOSTAS BARDAS, AND HEAD BARTENDER, ANGELO SPARVOLI, AT ST JAMES BAR, TELL US MORE ABOUT THEIR LIVES AS EXPERIENCED BARTENDERS, AND TAKE US ON A JOURNEY WITH EL DOMINGO – A SERVE THEY CREATED AS PART OF THEIR A TASTE OF THE WORLD MENU.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR TIME AS A BARTENDER.

“After eight years of working in the hospitality sector in Greece, I decided to move to London in order to increase my skillset and knowledge within bartending”, Kostas explains.

“I started to work at St James Bar, in Sofitel London St James, as a bartender, and with my high dedication and continuous pursuit of providing high-quality drinks and service to our guests, I was promoted to Bar Manager.

“In my current role, I guide and motivate my team members to develop their skills and help them to grow within their career. Together with Angelo we have created a high-standard service and a very tasty cocktail menu.”

Angelo answers: “I started my bartending career back in 2013, in a bar in my hometown, the heart of Le Marche region in the centre of Italy, mainly making coffees and simple classic cocktails.

“In January 2016, I joined the team at the American Bar, at The Savoy, in London, which is considered the temple of bartending, where I worked my way from Barback to Bartender. After some years here, and a couple of challenging ones due to the pandemic, I joined the St James Bar, at the Sofitel London St James, as Head Bartender.”

PLEASE SHARE ONE OF YOUR EXCEPTIONAL COCKTAIL CREATIONS.

Our menu, A Taste of the World, is inspired by known flavours from around the globe, and El Domingo is an interpretation of the popular Andalusian dish, gazpacho, which is made with tomatoes, bread, and seasoning.

Our most popular style of drink is the long, low abv cocktails and El Domingo fits perfectly within this category – with a low abv, it is a pleasant drink to enjoy at any time of the day. The equally important visual effect of El Domingo is another talking point that influences our guests to try it.

To make the drink, we start with three drops of saline solution at 20% and one dash of olive bitters. We then add 85ml of strawberry and plum tomato water, which we make by blending the two ingredients with a touch of Pectinex. To balance sweetness and acidity, we continue with 15ml of rye sourdough and Verjus cordial, obtained by flavouring some water with toasted bread, and then adding Verjus, in a proportion of 1:4, and equal parts in weight of sugar. Finally, we add 20ml of Ketel One vodka and 40ml of Tio Pepe fino sherry. After adding all the ingredients together into the shaker, we throw the drink five times in order to aerate and oxygenate the mix, while giving a little dilution and chilling the cocktail. When presenting the cocktail to our guests, we garnish it with a fruit cracker, made from the leftover of the process of strawberry and tomato, and an oregano blossom, to add a Mediterranean touch. www.sofitelstjames.com/st-james-bar