10 MINUTES WITH…
Cuba Krzyzanowski
Meet Cuba, owner of renowned Brisbane gin bar, Covent Garden, and co-founder, along with his partner Kellie, of multiple other gin-oriented businesses & projects — Ginuary Festival, Hottest 100 Aussie Gins, CG Gin Co. and now also…the GINBIZ magazine! From growing up in a small town of Poland, to running nightclubs on the Spanish riviera, Cuba shares how his love of travel & adventure set the course for his future in Australia, and how he became so invested in our homegrown gin industry. Living most of his early life up to his early teens in a small Polish town close to the border of Germany, Cuba’s aspirations rarely left the realm of just enjoying the most of what’s around. That was until his growing love of basketball had him imagining himself as a future NBA star. A huge reach for a not-so-tall kid from Poland, which unsurprisingly never came to fruition, but one that speaks volumes about his personality – never afraid to dream, as no dreams are impossible, you just need to find a way to reach them. When the time was right, he left Poland for the much warmer climate of southern Spain (if you know him well, you will also know the one thing he genuinely hates is cold weather), where he completed his Master’s Degree in International Commerce & Brand Management… only to become a bouncer at a local nightclub. Because why work 9-5 in a well-paid corporate job, if you can instead deal with drunk teens & tourists on a wild night out, right?! But, some people are just not made that way, and being in his early twenties with a love for adventure and always keen to meet new people from all over the world, he never thought twice. All those years at university didn’t go to waste though, as he soon found himself managing one of the busiest clubs in Alicante, and his love for the hospitality industry began. Spain is also where he first tried gin, although not in the way you’d think. With its piney notes & very affordable cost (just remember this is early 2000’s Spain, and not Australia in 2022), gin was actually very commonly used in bars as a table cleaning disinfectant! As all good things must come to an end, so did his ‘wild times’ in Spain. What’s fun for a fresh university graduate was not as fun for someone nearing his thirties, wanting to settle down somewhere a little bit less dangerous (plenty of stories there to tell, but you’d have to ask him about those yourself). So, he was on the move again, another fresh start, but this time 17,000km away from home, and more importantly — somewhere even warmer!
