Bartender Interviews: Summer Insights From Three UK Cities

British Summer is now upon us and, if the Met Office’s long range seasonal forecast is to be believed, those who enjoy hot weather may be in for a treat because it looks like 2025 may deliver some heat and indeed, heat waves.

The Summer season poses several challenges for cocktail bar operators. Indoor-only venues often feel the pinch when the sun comes out, and the growing roster of bars committed to using sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients have to tweak their menus as products come in and out of season. But perhaps most importantly, cocktail bars need to be able to adapt to guest behaviours and desires as the season changes, so they can offer Summer drinkers what they want.

LinkedIn drinks buzz suggests that spritz-style drinks are the order of the day, partly because their lower-alcohol content offers the sort of all day drinkability that brewers used to call a ‘session’ drink. Established wisdom also has it that low and no alcohol drinks are becoming increasingly popular, especially among younger drinkers, and research conducted by Wilde Toast earlier this year points to the Aperol Spritz being the UK’s most popular cocktail at the moment.

Much of this opinion and sector intelligence is gleaned from analysing Google searches and social media trends, both powerful trend prediction tools. However frontline bartenders who are interacting with the public every day remain the best place to look for real-time consumer insight, so I spoke to three of them, located in cities that (more or less)  trisect the UK, about their Summer menus, guests, and expectations:

• Scott Stevenson, Head Bartender, Ga Ga Kitchen & Bar, Glasgow
• Leighton Rathbone, Bar Manager, Lyon’s Seafood and Wine Bar, London
• Daniel Bovey, Group Beverage Manager, Outer City Group, Bristol

I first asked the group if their venues approached the Summer season by actively creating new seasonal drinks, and received three different answers – yes, somewhat, and no. 

Leighton Rathbone: “Most definitely, our ethos is very much tied to locally and ethically sourced produce, as well as seasonal availability, so we have found the best method is replace individual cocktails once their batch and source ingredients are out of season… At the moment I’m working on a replacement for a rhubarb-based Spritz, now with strawberries instead. I have reminders in my calendar set for season changes, when I expect I won’t be able to source an ingredient, so I can start on the next cocktail. I also have a road map for the season.”

Daniel Bovey: “Both Milk Thistle and Raven run yearly menus, so we aren’t able to reflect the seasons easily in those drinks. We’re looking at a couple drinks for the next menu at Milky, whose DNA will stay the same for the year but components will change with seasonal availability, a shrub using seasonal fruit, for example. Across the restaurants in our group we run six-monthly menus and switch out drinks to suit the time of year. It’s easier there as the menus are generally half the size and the drinks aren’t on the level of complexity that the bars are.”

Scott Stevenson: “Not really, we tend to keep the bulk of the menu quite tropical and juicy year round.”

Next, I asked the group if the availability of fresh ingredients had an impact on their drinks offering, and how they dealt with seasonal changes. The answers provide welcome reading for anyone glad to see the back of preservative-filled carton juice in good cocktail bars.

Leighton Rathbone: “100%, winter can be a dim time, but yes, if it’s not fresh, and ideally coming from the UK, or at the very least Europe, I try and avoid having it featured on the menu. I’m lucky to be working with suppliers like Shrub who are very on the ball with this stuff, we get WhatsApp messages a few times a week with what’s been harvested from their various farmers.”

Daniel Bovey: “In the restaurants yes, but in the bars we combat that by using frozen fruit, preserves, pickles, etc.”

Scott Stevenson: “100%. Once produce becomes of a poorer quality we make changes to those drinks that use it, either by altering one ingredient or replacing the full drink.”

Moving on from drinks to guests, I asked the group if they see a change in the sort of drinks their guests order once the weather warms up.

Leighton Rathbone: “Very much so, tall drinks start coming back into fashion with a vengeance, spritzy drinks, with with a focus on summer and tropical fruits. Old Fashioneds and Negronis on the other hand all but go into hibernation.”

Daniel Bovey: “Absolutely. Way more spritzes, slushies and Margs. There’s a focus on longer, refreshing drinks.”

Scott Stevenson: Yes, we tend to see a lot more spritz-style drinks coming off the bar.”

I wrapped up the interview by asking the question that is probably most interesting to anyone reading this at a drinks brand –  Do you have a feel for any drink trends that might surface this Summer, both in your venue and in the wider cocktail scene in your city?

Leighton Rathbone: “I get the feeling that Palona is going to hit hard, there seems to be a push on social media which I think will translate to in venue requests.”

Daniel Bovey: “From the consumer side margaritas are bigger than ever. The Paloma is getting called for a lot more too. In our restaurants we’re trying to find a fine balance between interesting and delicious but also affordable as everything gets more expensive. Quite a chunk of our guests are choosing to go no alcohol with their meals, so we’ve bought in more interesting sodas, 0% beers and kombuchas. In the cocktail bars it’s very similar, while still maintaining a really well curated selection of spirits at all levels as we’ve seen an uptake again guests wanting choice on what they drink. Whether that’s whisky in the vault at Milky or Rum at Raven.”

Scott Stevenson: “I think we’re going to see a similar wave as we have done over the last year or so. It’s going to be about spicy margaritas and Palomas, and no or low offerings.”

While a casual chat with three individuals does not constitute a piece of research, it is interesting to see such consistency in answers coming from bartenders in different venue-types, cities, and indeed regions of the UK. It would seem that LinkedIn drinks buzz is right, Spritzes and Low/No offerings are indeed the order of the day. The move towards local ingredients that are sustainable due to their low food mileage seems to have bedded in too.

While it’s obviously no surprise to learn that people want to drink refreshing long drinks in cocktail bars during the Summer, it is nice to hear it from the horses’ mouth, so to speak. It’s always good practice to check ones data against real-world experience. More than anything though, my conversation with Leighton, Daniel, and Scott made me wish there were some sort of cocktail stock market, because if there were, I would definitely go long on the Paloma.