DARKUS: Featuring The King of Soho

INTERVIEW WITH

EDITORIAL NOTE

Based on the philosophy of creativity, hedonism and non conformity, The King of Soho is unlike anything you have experienced before, and as a brand is one which honours and pays tribute to capturing the essence of Paul Raymond..

Having recently launched their latest spirit, The King of Soho Copacetic Vodka, which is is lovingly crafted in small batches in the heart of England using copacetic English wheat, this standout new spirit in its vibrant purple bottle celebrates the ascendancy of vodka in the late 70s and early 80s. Vodka heralded the dawn of the disco era, epitomised by big hair, big flares and big cocktails!

Excited to discover more about the latest chapter, we were honoured to welcome cofounders Alex Robson & Howard Raymond.

ALEX ROBSON & HOWARD RAYMOND

I N T E R V I E W B Y E D I T O R I N C H I E F T H U S H A R A S . C H A N D R A S I R I

I N C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H

ALEX & HOWARD , IT IS A PLEASURE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US. EXCITING TIMES FOR YOU AS YOU HAVE ADDED A NEW MEMBER OF THE FAMILY TO YOUR PREMIUM RANGE. WHAT HAS THIS PAST FEW WEEKS BEEN LIKE FOR YOU IN THE LEAD UP TO THE RELEASE OF THE COPACETIC VODKA?

Alex: It’s been a bit hectic to say the least! In my usual unflappable fashion, I ran this to a tight timeline Business is about relationships, that’s not just something you read in a manual it is very much a fact and the creation of our Copacetic Vodka is a testament to that

I flew by the seat of my pants, fortunate to have good supplier and customer relationships that go back 10 years, to help me get our Copacetic Vodka bottled to time I love what I do, and I love the people I interact with to create our premium drinks In my job I am fortunate to be surrounded by colourful spirits and not just the pouring kind

I am the day to day driving force of the King of Soho, the business is female led, but this is very much a partnership, an independent family business Let me introduce you to my ‘vodka drinking’ drinks’ partner Howard Raymond Howard’s father is the entertainment & property mogul, Paul Raymond, the original King of Soho and our brand inspiration.

Howard: We had been chatting about vodka for some time but only started working on it in April of this year. We felt that the time was right, as its clearly a drink people are becoming excited about again and it’s always been popular with me!

LET’S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE KING OF SOHO , TO THE DAYS OF 2013. HAVING BEEN CREATED ALMOST 10 YEARS AGO, WHAT HAS THAT JOURNEY BEEN LIKE FOR YOU AND HOWARD - HAS IT BEEN ONE OF COMPLETE SMILES?

Alex: I’m always smiling, so that’s not really a measure! I’m lucky in that I possess a positive energy & creativity that helps work through challenges, not just in business but also in life The first challenge we met and the biggest was the bottle design and how to do it. We wanted to encapsulate the spirit of Soho and the legacy of Howard’s father. The ‘Spirit of Soho’ icon that adorns our bottles reflects not just our creativity but also that of the district of Soho both past and present Intricate, detailed and full of colour, the icon stands in his rich velvet suit and red top hat, holding a book and a trumpet, reflecting Soho’s long association with fashion, literature, music and art The fox’s tail is a nod to both Soho’s past as a royal hunting ground and to the nature of urban Soho today - the fox being a naughty, enigmatic creature of the night.

The design is screen printed using organic inks and this gives a painted on tactile feel – the process is cutting edge and the finished look is difficult to achieve it took a couple of runs to get there, definitely a challenge! The bottles are 100% recyclable and eco-friendly which was important to us from the start

More recently, like many businesses, we have had to overcome the challenges presented by COVID. Well represented in small shops & grocers in March 2020 we found ourselves gazumped by toilet paper in the scramble for shelf space as the pandemic hit and the world as we knew it shut down

Howard: Then nobody, went out! Saying that we had a strong presence online and Amazon, Ocado and other online retailers were most definitely our friends during lockdown.

I REALLY WAS INSPIRED TO READ THAT THE BRAND WAS VERY MUCH A NOD OF RESPECT TO HONOUR HOWARD’S FATHER, PAUL. WHAT WAS IT ABOUT PAUL’S LIFE AND HIS ENERGY WHICH REALLY RESONATED OR EVEN INSPIRED YOU?

Alex: Paul was quite a phenomenal man and I was lucky to know him personally, although he was quite old when I met him! He was an intuitive businessman and he had quite the sense of fun, something which Howard has inherited

Howard: I had a close relationship with my dad He used to take me to the zoo in Chessington, looking back it feels like it was a weekly thing but I’m sure that’s a childhood perspective. Honouring him was important to me. He was a game changer. He changed the rules and in fact helped to change the laws of this country relating to clubs and adult content Definitely a forward thinker and a talented businessman but ultimately, he was a real person, he was my dad and only close family knew that deep down he was extremely shy

Alex: Looking back I cannot really identify any particular catalyst. As an entrepreneur I am self-driven, I think you have to be In those first few years I was focused on creating beautiful and tasty gins, bringing pleasure to peoples’ lives Creating and growing the King of Soho is a dominant part of my own life journey, it’s my passion. When we launched back in 2013, there was a huge gap in the market for premium craft gins and we were one of the first craft gins on that train. Our gin distiller is 11th generation, a master distiller in London. It was important to us that our King of Soho London Dry Gin be distilled in the capital as not all are.

Howard: It’s been such good fun and that was the catalyst in itself As Alex says we got the timing right, as we know a lot of these things depend on timing.

GOING BACK TO THE COPETIC VODKA, I MYSELF HAVE MANAGED TO GET MYSELF A BOTTLE. IN FACT THIS IS NOT JUST A BOTTLE ITS ART, WITH A VERY BEAUTIFUL AESTHETIC - AND PURPLE TOO WHICH IS MY FAVOURITE COLOUR HA! TAKE US THROUGH THE PROCESS YOU WENT THROUGH TO GET COPACETIC FROM A CONCEPT WITHIN YOUR HEAD TO A FINAL PRODUCT WHICH YOU CAN HOLD WITH YOUR OWN HANDS?

Alex: Our original bottles are blue for the London Dry Gin and red for the Variorum Pink Gin, so purple was a natural progression from there if you were mixing on a pallet and I just like the colour! It was important to us to create a British vodka, so we found a British distiller and we use English wheat. The result is an expertly distilled and exceedingly fine spirit that is subtle, delicate, and smooth.

All our bottles are adorned by our colourful ‘Spirit of Soho’ character One of the first steps was therefore to trial print our icon on the purple coated glass, and I must admit he looks mighty fine on that colour too! A lot of vodka bottles have a screw top, but we decided to keep the cork, to give our premium Copacetic Vodka the respect it deserves.

Howard: We called it Copacetic Vodka to reflect our advocacy to the making of premium spirits Copacetic is an American word that has been forgotten, until now! It means exceedingly fine As a teenager I spent quite a few years in Miami. So, the word also reminds me of my misspent youth and as you can imagine being the son of Paul Raymond, I had a lot of fun!

WHAT WERE SOME OF THOSE SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS, ESPECIALLY IN THOSE FIRST FEW YEARS, THAT YOU FELT ACTED AS THE CATALYST TO KEEP THE FIRE OF THE KING OF SOHO BURNING EVEN MORE BRIGHTLY?

Howard:Love a good vodka and orange!!

Alex: That was probably the starting point, but we wanted to add a little bit of jazz without distracting from the simplicity We used the synergy of 2 classic drinks the Buck and the Bucks Fizz to create one serve combining vodka, orange juice and ginger ale

(The Buck hails from 19th Century America and is a spirit base with citrus and ginger ale. And the Bucks Fizz was created in London’s Buck’s Club in 1919 using orange juice and sparkling wine )

WHAT EXCITES YOU AS YOU LOOK TOWARDS THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE CONTINUED GROWTH AND EVOLUTION OF THE KING OF SOHO?

Howard: I am looking forward to getting back to some form of normality in life and with this will come growth not just here, but also overseas, as we are a global brand.

Alex: Being able to travel again is important for me and our evolution Developing those oversea markets, some new and some to the next stage, is not something you can do from a chair in London Travel, meeting your overseas customers, going to trade fairs and getting a feel for the culture is so important. We were successful awarded a DIT grant for overseas development just as Covid hit, so I would finally like to be able to use it My next trip will be to Japan and I am very excited by that and the road or should I say the skies that lie ahead

‘Soho’ is internationally synonymous with art, creativity and non-conformity – you can find districts and bars called Soho in different parts of the world. There are no boundaries, as to where we can go with our spirits. We also have a new product in development which excites me – it’s always good to have something on the horizon

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE KING OF SOHO VISIT : SPIRITOFSOHO.COM/THE-KING-OF-SOHO-VODKA

I LOVE A GOOD COCKTAIL FROM TIME TO TIME, AND ITS GOOD TO KNOW THAT YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UNTIL YOU HAVE TRIED YOUR SIGNATURE DRINK, THE SOHO BUCK. HOW DID THE CONCEPT FOR THAT ORIGINATE?

F E A T U R I N G