An Interview with Steve Gleeson – bartender at The Hideout

Steve Gleeson is a drinks industry veteran with over seven years experience working within hospitality. He has spent the last two and a half years tending bar at The Hideout in Bath, a venue he describes as a whisky and cocktail bar with the comfort of your neighbourhood pub.

WT: Steve, you entered Diageo’s World Class competition this year. How did you get on?

SG: Yes, a Johnnie Walker Black Label cocktail cocktail got me in the door and I progressed to the Top 50 stage. The brief for that was to create a drink inspired by a global music icon. I’m half Indian and like to try and include something that shows my cultural ties, so I chose an Indian pop star called Daler Mehdi, who started out as a local musician but grew to have national and then international acclaim. I love his music, but there is also a direct parallel between his ascension and Johnnie Walker’s, who started out in Kilmarnock and then grew to fame throughout the rest of the world.

WT: World Class is a huge competition that requires a large investment of time and energy to enter. What motivated you to make that investment?

SG: In general my love of competitions comes from my mentor, a guy called Jamie Locke who now works in Cardiff. He was my bar manager when I first started and he taught me everything. He entered World Class in 2022, and it culminated in four of the greatest bartenders in the UK coming to compete in one place, that seemed to me to be an incredible challenge.

So I wanted to enter because of that big, prestigious challenge, but also because the brief was fun. Diageo have also been heavily investing in local advocacy teams, like, a lot more than they were when I started bartending, and all of the people in those teams are really awesome. They put a lot of effort into getting as many bartenders into the comp as possible and making it enjoyable, for example they provide workbooks for new bartenders so they can get the most out of the experience.

WT: Having progressed a long way with World Class this year, what do you feel you gained from the experience?

SG: That falls into a couple of categories. Number one, the competition itself has an air of prestige which forces you to push yourself and do something creative in order to create a cocktail that is totally unique, that’s the kind of air that World Class makes you breathe. Secondly, and in my opinion most importantly, it’s the connections. My favourite thing is that you can attend a heat and there will be bartenders there from all over the country that you wouldn’t otherwise meet. I think that’s pretty special.

WT: From a brand’s perspective, cocktail competitions are all about advocacy. What does that word mean to you, and can you give any examples of brands who do it well?

SG: I entered the 2024 Giffard Cup and my experience with Giffard remains my best experience in bartending. The comp runs every two years, so that the off years can be used to host a ton of events which the bartenders from the comp are involved with, keeping them within the brand for a second year. Giffard are a family business and they genuinely want to you feel like you have become part of that family. That’s been my best experience of advocacy, but in more general terms, I think the best advocacy programmes make bartenders feel the brand is almost like a venue, their bar, and the brand make you feel valued, like they are bringing you into their home.

WT: To take that a bit further, imagine a newbie rep, selling a new product, is about to cold-visit The Hideout. What approach should they take?

SG: Just walk in and say hello like any normal person. If we don’t know you, you’ll be treated like any customer coming into the bar. That’s all we want, a normal human interaction. If you sit and have a beer, and then say ‘hey, my name is Jonny or Jenny, and I work for so-and-so brand, have you got five minutes to try some stuff?’, that’s perfectly fine for us. I know you are trying to represent a brand and make some sales, but be a human being first. Authenticity is important too, in the sense that bartenders can tell when a rep isn’t proud of the product they’re selling, and we can tell when a rep is reading a schpiele from a head office who don’t know how to communicate to bartenders. Whilst that isn’t one person’s fault, great brands are ones who know how to make their reps feel valued and seen, and in turn, those reps are able to communicate their positive experiences to us just in how they communicate.

WT: You mentioned an un-named brand that gets this sort of thing wrong. Can you describe exactly how they are falling down?

SG: It’s an inherent expectation that their liquids deserve a place in every bar because they are so-called prestige brands. And these placements are expected without giving anything back to the bar itself, whether that be stock, tastings, or financial help to an independent venue. There is an entitlement that doesn’t come from the brand reps or ambassadors, it seems to come from people above, or an inherent company policy that has decided they have a right to be stocked. When a brand turns over millions in profits but offers no support to independent bars, but will offer that support to big name bars, well that just doesn’t work. Entitlement is a good way of describing it.

WT: Have you tasted anything recently that’s knocked your socks off?

SG: So many things! We are doing a lot of single casks at The Hideout, and we are about to release a peated Glenturret which has absolutely blown my mind. On the cocktail side, the team from Slowpour in Liverpool come down to do a takeover recently, and their drinks are just really incredible.

WT: A final question. What is your favourite kind of brand swag?

SG: I’m a fiend for pin badges. If you come into the bar with enamel badges and stickers, I’m yours for life!