STRAIT talking - Sophie

Hi Sophie! You’re the newest Bartender at The Strait. How long have you worked here for?

I've worked here for a year now. Wednesday last week was my year here.

And what has drawn you into working in the hospitality industry?

It's something you kind of stumble across. I was working in hospitality through my A-levels and then you go, actually, I really quite like this! Let's go do something better with it and push yourself to learn new things and try new things, and you get to talk to people and learn interesting things.

What do you like about working here at The Strait.. if you do?!

I do like working here at The Strait. I love the variety here. You get everything from your funky beers to your spirits to your cocktails and the freedom to create things. When you get customers coming in after something that they really want, you do have the freedom to make that for them and make people happy. You also get to have really interesting conversations because you get all sorts of wonderful people here and they're really interesting to talk to.

So for anybody who hasn't been here before, how would you describe a typical day / night at the Strait?

During the week, it's really chill. Everyone's really friendly, it’s a really good vibe and everyone's just having a good time. Come Friday, Saturday, it changes tone completely. It's really busy, it's full of energy, the music's turned up and it's a bit more of like a party Bar setting, which is nice to have both sides of it.

And what about a Sunday?

A Sunday is similar to a weekday. It's very chill, really relaxed. We get some of our regulars in, having a conversation and we do lots and lots of cleaning.

Do you have any particular areas of interest within the drinks industry?

My particular interest is the spirits and the cocktails. I've been learning lots and lots about the spirits, all about production and that helps me craft really great cocktails. Well, I think they're great. I've tried to make good cocktails. Yeah, that's probably where I like to excel at.

You've just been in London doing your WSET Level 3. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

It's all about spirits production, tasting and how that affects things. So I've spent a week studying stills and production methods and raw materials and maturing and all of that kind of funky stuff. Spirits all over the world and then how that affects the taste and trying hundreds of different things.

That sounds interesting!

Yeah, it is interesting. It's a lot to take in when you're looking on this bottle, you've like matured something for this long, in this kind of cask, and then you can tell a customer, okay, so from this it'll taste like this. That's the kind of the knowledge you've picked up without realising. So yeah, the production is something that kind of interests me.

You’ve also done your WSET level 2, is that right?

I did my level 2 in August and my level 3 this month.

How did your level 2 go?

My level 2 in London went amazingly, I passed with Distinction at the top of the class. I kind of smashed through it. It's A four-day course. This one was a lot, lot harder. It was a 6 days intensive course with a much longer exam and a tasting examiner and I'm waiting on the results for this one. Hopefully it will go well.

Fingers crossed for you Soph, you're going to smash it!

I hope so.

OK, so if you could recommend one drink to someone, maybe something undiscovered or underrated, what would that be?

Personally, I love making a really funky old-fashioned. I like to mix it up rather than like just putting your Bourbon in there. I'll chuck all sorts in there and make people question what the drink actually is. I recently got a friend onto Aviations… It's a gin-based cocktail with some violet and a little bit of cherry in there. Really, really strong and really, really floral.

So would you say that's your favourite drink to make here or is there something else on the menu that you just think is really fun to make?

The Blazer is quite fun to make. I hate everyone watching me sometimes, but it's quite fun setting things on fire. You can burn your hands sometimes, but that's all part of it.

So tell us what's in a Blazer and what do you have to do to serve the perfect Blazer?

The Blazer at the moment is a spiced rum and apple Blazer. So we've got some pear brandy, spiced rum and dark rum in there and loads of apple juice. and we put all the alcoholic ingredients into gravy jugs, set it on fire, mix it together, pouring it between them, and then mix it with the apple juice and pop it into the hip flask. So it's a hot cocktail. It's really, really nice and fun to make.

And then finally, what is your personal favourite drink?

I like a Daiquiri or an Old Fashioned or Manhattan.

They're 3 quite different drinks!

Yeah, I've always loved an Old Fashioned, they're my go-to, but I've recently been really liking a Daiquiri.