Bartender's Choice Paul Hyde, The Wellington
Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks
Bartender's Choice: Paul Hyde, The Wellington
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Bar supervisor Paul tells us that “absolutely everything” has changed at The Wellington pub since the new owners took over earlier in the year. “Every table, every chair, walls, pictures… I used to work at The Wardrobe and my manager here used to work there and she asked me to come here, and when I came over here and the first thing I saw, I couldn’t believe it. But now it’s really changed; we’ve got a totally new crowd now. ‘New management, new attitude’ is the motto at the moment.”
Paul came to Leeds from the Lake District to study music technology. In the meantime, he got a job at The Wardrobe, where he honed his cocktail making skills. “It’s quite quiet in the Lake District but it’s good,” he says. “But to come here it’s a totally different world. Back there you don’t even know about cocktails, you just don’t get cocktails, and if you do they’re not made properly.
“I love Leeds. It’s definitely home to me now. I think it’s really accessible as a city. You can get from one side to another in 15 minutes. It’s quite humble as well; I don’t find it intimidating. I think it’s a breath of fresh air in comparison to other cities: it’s easy to work, the people are nice, I think it’s got a lot to offer that people don’t really realise, definitely. I wouldn’t like to leave any time soon.”
And Paul has big plans for The Wellington. “Music was one of the main reasons I came to work here. We’re looking to do live music Wednesday until pretty much Saturday. From September that’ll be my main job, the promotion and booking bands, running that really. I’ve got a night planned called ‘Takeover’, where the bands can pick how the evening goes. Whether it’s prices or beer promotions or whether they want a DJ on in the middle or whether they want two or three bands, everything’s gonna be under their control. So it’s a place for new local music.”
Paul rustles up his drink of choice, the Moonshine. “My area manager came up with this drink two years ago for a competition and won. She was given a holiday to see bar flaring in New York. So the drink was obviously well liked – it’s an award winner, so we had to go for this! It is quite a bitter drink. It’s the pears that do that – we put the liquorice in it, which is the really sweet Spanish liquorice, and to try and balance it out we put the Nashi pear in, instead of it being too juicy. And because liquorice was first made into a sweet within the Yorkshire district – it used to be just used as medicinal stuff – it kind of works with it being from Yorkshire to a point.
“It’s quite simple to make. You get the pear and half a bar spoon of sugar. Nashi is a variety of pear, they call it an apple pear, because it’s a hard pear. It hasn’t got any flavouring of an apple at all, it’s just the density of it really. Then you heat some Spanish liquorice and cube it, and put half a bar spoon of sugar to make it coarse so it cuts through the liquorice, releasing all the flavour, then a shot of Tanqueray gin, then a bit more muddling, another shot of Tanqueray gin, then shake, then double strain. And we use a lime for the sprinkles on the top to garnish.”
Drink: Moonshine
Price: £6.50
Ingredients: Nashi pear; Spanish liquorice; ½ bar spoon sugar; 2 shots Tanqueray gin; silver edible glitter garnish.
Posted on Wednesday 1st September 2010
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