A well-functioning cocktail bar is like a beehive. It’s “an ecosystem characterised by maximum collaboration and cooperation, where every member is crucial”. This is even more apparent when you’re in the position of the queen bee. It’s the case with Martina Bonci, and we’ll come back to this bee thing in a moment.
Martina Bonci and the Gucci Giardino Team
Bonci is the Bar Manager of Gucci Giardino, “the world’s first Gucci bar, which the Maison decided to open to complete its ecosystem in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria”. There was already an exclusive boutique, a museum and a restaurant designed by Massimo Bottura, and on 14 February 2022, they were joined by a place to enjoy breakfast, drinks, aperitifs, light lunches and light dinners. This is Gucci Giardino.
Here, Bonci calls the shots assisted by her trusted colleagues, and she feels “very lucky” to have such a capable staff: “It’s increasingly difficult to find motivated people who want to be an active part of a team”. Passing from words to actions, the new drinks list was conceived to give space to each member of the hive: “Everyone chose a type of drink that represented them and a distillate. Then we created the cocktails based on the team’s various personalities, with their strengths, flaws and unique traits. So each new drink is inspired by a member of the crew”.
Queen Bee, a Cocktail Inspired by Martina Bonci
Bonci has her own drink, too. It’s called the Queen Bee, because although she leads the orchestra, she’s not a standalone maestro. She relies on the group: “While researching, we discovered that when a queen bee is very small, she doesn’t have a stomach, so to feed her the other bees have to chew her food. It’s a vivid but effective analogy to illustrate that I wouldn’t be anything if I didn’t have my team to support me and put up with me. In a bar, the idea of cooperation is the same as in a beehive: everyone knows their duty and they do it as best they can”.
The ingredients of the Queen Bee couldn’t fail to include honey and propolis, but there’s also the memory of a trip to the Dominican Republic, “where there are so many plane trees and I ate a mango like I’d never tasted before”. So, along with honey and propolis, the recipe consists of lemon, banana-infused bourbon, mango-infused vodka and a milk wash of Greek yoghurt and pineapple. As a suggested pairing, it can be served with a revisited croque monsieur made with white bread, cooked shoulder of ham, Parmesan cheese and béchamel sauce.
Gucci Giardino’s Pairings
Another mouth-watering example from the drinks list is a tribute to 1980s arcade games. It’s called the Level 256 “in honour of the level where the original Pac-Man crashed due to a bug”. It’s made with gin, vermouth, blue curaçao, lemon, bitters and vaporised absinthe. The garnish features a small Pac-Man on top of the ice cube. The Level 256 is perfectly complimented with the Toscana Burger: a Chianina PGI tartare with balsamic vinegar mayonnaise and green sauce.
Chi si ferma è perduto
Our third tantalising Gucci Giardino cocktail suggestion is the Chi si ferma è perduto (roughly meaning “move it or lose it”). “It’s a sort of twist on a Tommy’s Margarita and a Margarita, because we use blanco tequila and a super-spicy sugar cane distillate. Then we add bergamot rosolio and a sweet note with a mint leaf and lemon syrup”. An ideal pairing would be a Chianina PGI tartare, Sicilian Mazara del Vallo red prawns, green apple juice, salmon roe, maple syrup and soy sauce. Obviously, these suggested pairings aren’t impositions set in stone.
Sure, they come from people who know what they’re talking about. But, as Bonci says, customers always have the final say: “We’re at the service of the people who visit us, and they must feel free to find a flavour or a certain something that tickles their fancy”. And that includes vegan and vegetarian options, plus “dishes that can be adapted to various intolerances”.
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Images courtesy Gucci Giardino
