Katie Rouse Interview

Katie Rouse is the co-owner of Couch, a neighbourhood bar on the outskirts of Birmingham that currently occupies top spot in the UK’s 50 Best Cocktail Bars List. Katie is also the current CLASS Magazine Bartender Of The Year. We spoke to Katie about the temperature in the on-trade and her views on how brands build relationships with bars.

Katie, you have just returned from France. What were you doing there?

I’ve just launched Couch Surf, which is my community project, the first event was at Cambridge Public House in Paris. We are using the tag line ‘take back the takeover’ because I think people are trying to tick off as many takeovers and guests shifts as possible, to try and get their bar and concept on lists and build their careers, which is absolutely great, but I feel that as a result, these events have become a little bit lazy.

Do you think bars and bartenders feel they have to do takeover-style events to be considered for these 50 Best-style lists?

Yes, for Top 50 UK, the votes are cast by the Top 50 venues, so if you are doing takeovers with that top 50, they are more likely to vote for you the following year. But obviously, if you do ten in a year, are you really showing off your best self? Are you building a friendship with these teams? Because you are going to show up really knackered, do a shift, drink too much Guinness after the shift, then you are back home. We’re rushing the process which means you don’t gain any education or connection, so instead of this, we are linking up with people who have the same value of community as us, across the world, and doing these Couch Surf events every four months at a different community bar.

We do Q&As with those teams, and learn a lot about their drinks and how they do things, and we’ll bring all this back to the UK. It’s a privileged to travel and do these takeovers, and Couch Surf is about being able to share the learning they create with people who don’t get to do it as often as us.

Given the very well documented pressures on customers’ finances, what would you say is the number one priority for guests who come to a venue like Couch?

Customers are spending less money, so when they go out for a drink or food, they want it be the best version it can be. They are treating themselves, so they want a nice atmosphere where they can switch off from life, with a good product in front of them, and good service. A lot of people are going to local venues because that’s where you get ‘friendly pub service’. Because of this, I think city centre venues, especially in Birmingham, are struggling a lot more than we are. I’ve also had customers say that coming to a local bar like Couch saves about £12 on taxi fair, which allows them to have one more cocktail.

On the subject of cocktails, what drinks are most popular with your guests at the moment?

This is the first menu where we don’t have a solid top two or three, but we have an Irish Coffee called Black and Black, it’s like a Guinness and black in concept. It has a blackcurrant cordial, a stout flavoured lengthener, and a blackcurrant cream on top. That goes out a lot. And I always put something savoury on the menu. This time it’s called Community Crisps, which you’ll get if you are British, if you don’t fully open up the crisp packet, you’re probably not British! So I made a BBQ sauce butter washed Takamaka Rum, salt and pepper vermouth with Shochu, and paprica cordial. It’s a small Martini twist with lots of crisps flavours. It’s one of the biggest sellers, which has surprised me.

When guests order off menu, is there a spirit category that seems to be doing better than others?

Agave, it’s all Margaritas, Spicy Margaritas, and Palomas. That trend is still going strong.

Advocacy is a hot topic at the moment, with some commentators saying there has been a shift away from educating and supporting the trade in favour of a sales first approach. Would you agree with that sentiment?

I think that’s spot on, but it’s important to look at it from both sides. We need support from brands more than ever, and we do want to push our concepts out there and build our businesses with brands that can help us do that. From the brand side, especially with takeovers in the UK at the moment, brands are starting to look at these things and think ‘what are we actually gaining from it?’, and I do think they are gaining less than they were ten years ago. Having said that, I do think brands should focus their support on things that help get education out to the community.

Is there a brand that you see doing a really good job with advocacy and education at the moment?

Diageo are still nailing it. Their A&P budget is split between marketing and education, so they have different pots for different things. They put a lot into Women+ and education for that group, they are good at shining a spotlight on underserved members of the community. Even before Couch made the Top 50 list, Diageo always helped us push to get noticed, and helped us with mentorship.

On a practical level, they are good at understanding that different people learn in different ways, so they provide a mix of training types. They put lots of work into things like exposing us to generational bartenders, as well as distillery trips and spirits training. A lot of the distributors have done away with ambassadors, but Diageo sees the value in their ambassador team, all of whom have their own passion projects that they can push forward. This stuff all adds up.

Diageo are obviously a gigantic organisation, have you seen any of the smaller brands do good things with training and advocacy?

I just love Speciality Brands, I think they have the most incredible sales and ambassador team. They are like the perfect spirits geeks. For example, we have Tom Bartram looking after us, I’ve never met anyone who knows more about the Agave world than him. They do training and tastings that focus on how the spirits are made and their family values, but they are also very good at visiting their accounts, passing on knowledge, and taking care of people.

Is there are behaviour or work practice that you regularly see from brands that is a turn off, or is out of step with what the trade wants?

It’s really just the old classic, where you can tell a person is going to try and sell you something immediately when they walk into the bar. The people who do it well get to know the team and actually experience the bar before trying to sell to you. There are people I know who came in to the bar and actually felt like regulars before they dropped the bomb that they work for a brand. You get to know them, you’ve got a friendship going on, and then they say ‘If you need anything, here’s what I can do’ and it’s not pushy. I enjoy that.

Have any new products piqued your interest recently?

It’s not all that new now, but I love Boatyard. I love Declan (McGurk, former American Bar Head Bartender) and the team. I went on a trip with them recently, and fell in love with the brand. They have a really good mix of advocacy and looking after bars, and just have an incredible product, which is actually a great price for margin in cocktails. So not super new, but that’s still my favourite.

If you had the head honcho of every drinks company in a room, what would you tell them the trade community needs the most from their brands?

That’s a big question! I think the word community is used a lot at the moment, but as a buzzword. It’s become a trend. In the real world, every bar has an actual community, you just have to figure out what it is and if you want to support that bar, you have to understand its community first. For example, going to Cambridge Public House, the hospitality community in Paris absolutely adore them and everything they do.

So their community is not just their regulars and their staff, it’s also the wider industry as well. Understanding that would allow you to support that bar in a way that allows it to support its wider community. It’s up to a brand’s sales and ambassador team to learn about each bar and each team and each community, and what really drives them.

Looking ahead, what predictions would you make for the trade in 2026?

Low, Mid-ABV, and tiny drinks are going to keep going. That has moved from a trend to being something that people now expect. Whether it’s because guests want to spend less or drink less alcohol, those options will become more important.

And I think neighbourhood bars will becomes more common. It’s a bit of a buzzword at the moment and to do it well you need to properly understand what a neighbourhood bar is, but I think changes to customer behaviour are starting to lean towards that kind of venue.

What is the biggest challenge Couch will face this year, and how will you overcome it?

I think it will be the balance between being number one on the UK list, and being a tiny neighbourhood bar. We have a lot of regular custom, and they are so excited for us, but they are also very scared about being able to get their seats. We are creatures of habit over here in Stirchley, people come in on certain days and at certain times, and they are worried they won’t be able to get in. Obviously we want to have more trade and have more people experience Couch, but we make sure the priority remains with our community.

We’ve been really busy since the Top 50 list came out, with people saying ‘we saw you in so-and-so article and didn’t know you were here’. That is fantastic, but we are a 20 seat bar, so we have to work out how to give people the Couch experience, while maintaining the community values that got us here in the first place.