Bartender's Choice Matt Brooks, Restaurant Bar & Grill
Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks – this fortnight, Matt Brooks makes a Boulevardier
Bartender's Choice: Matt Brooks, Restaurant Bar & Grill
Other Recent Bartender's Choice Articles
Matt Brooks is a senior bartender at Leeds’ swanky city centre eatery Restaurant Bar & Grill. Based in the Old Post Office on City Square, the venue is well known as a place to eat out, but it also boasts an impressive bar that gets very lively come night time.
“Luckily this is a destination bar, so people come here to drink as well as have a meal,” says Mat. “In my old job it was just people coming in to get leathered and they didn’t really care what they had. It was all go. Here, the customers are different and there’s more class to it.”
Matt’s training has been to start at the bottom rung of the bar trade and work his way up. “I started off back home as a glass collector and just loved it – even doing that,” he says. “I just realised I wanted to work in bars. I started when I was 16, got on to the bar at 18 and then came to Leeds.”
Since working at Restaurant Bar & Grill, Matt has been impressed by the set-up there. “The last bars I worked in were independent and this is corporate,” he says. “It’s completely different. I think this place is awesome. The set up is so much better. Everything just makes sense, it works, it goes well. In the last places it was just less organised. The training opportunities here are brilliant as well.”
So what’s Matt whipping up for us today? It’s a slightly less well-known cocktail called the Boulevardier which is sometimes wrongly called a twist on a Negroni (which is Campari, sweet vermouth and gin), but in reality seems to have been around for 20 years longer.
“I picked this drink because I came across it, thought it looked pretty decent,” explains Matt. “I like Negronis, and this is similar but with the gin replaced by bourbon. I tried it and loved it. It’s really good. You get the Campari on the finish, the bourbon and the first taste is the sweetness of the vermouth. The whole thing just works really well.”
He’s right it really does, with the different flavours both coming through clearly and blending perfectly. Is this the kind of cocktail your traditional Restaurant Bar & Grill customer would order? “The type of customers we get here aren’t really in to this type of thing,” says Matt, “but myself and the other bartenders are passionate about classic cocktails and we keep the interest up between ourselves and that’s why this came about. Our customers are quite open minded and have the money to try new things, but they like to stick to what they know. I always try and educate people and get them in to new things – that’s part of my job.”
So when Matt’s not at work where does he go out drinking? “I love Smokestack, Sela, Neon Cactus – all those kind of places,” he says. “North Bar’s good as well, and I like The Reliance too, it’s nice up there. It’s cool, quite bohemian. Smokestack is just spot on, that’s my favourite place to go. What I drink depends on my mood. I definitely drink more spirits but straight spirits, not spirit and mixer – that just sends me under.
“For me what makes a good bar is the products and the back bar. As a bartender, the first thing you look at when you go in is the back bar, then the staff and their knowledge and the overall atmosphere. When I go out drinking, I don’t want it to be too in your face or too loud, I like to be able to have a chat with my mates and just chillout – I don’t want anything too imposing.”
Â
Boulevardier
Ingredients: 25ml Campari, 25ml Antica Formula sweet vermouth, 25ml Four Roses small batch bourbon
Price: ÂŁ7.25
Posted on Wednesday 26th May 2010
TG
Restaurant Bar & Grill
Old Post Office, City Square, Leeds, LS1 2ES
Sending you to Twitter, hold on... 
