Daniel Lermo had planned to work in an office until a stint in London as a barista led him to bartending. Today, the native Canary Islander, 28, works within The Ritz-Carlton Abama’s 1-Michelin-star restaurant, Kabuki. HOTELS talked to him about how he surprises and delights his guests – and the next big drinks trend.
HOTELS: Describe a typical day.
Daniel Lermo: A typical day at work starts always with preparing the areas, especially the terrace, which is a pretty good place to have a cocktail during the evening, and experimenting with the drinks. Now we are making a new cocktail menu so we are trying out all these drinks and figuring out what are the best drinks. Every day there is someone that tells you, ‘Daniel, could you surprise me?’ I always give them options, then I also ask if they like it or not. It’s fantastic to experiment with clients.
H: What’s an unusual thing you have learned on the job?
DL: That the expectation of the guest is not enough. There’s not a limit, as there is always something else you could do.
H: How are you disrupting your field?
DL: I like to experiment with new things and see how can I do it better, how can I improvise a drink, how can I get the guest to feel comfortable with the drink I’m making.
H: What is the industry ignoring at its peril?
DL: I think they are ignoring the basic job… It’s important to know what knowledge do (your customers) have and how can you satisfy them. In this region, bartending wasn’t that popular 10 years ago, but now it’s growing.
H: What are you reading right now?
DL: “Cocktail Techniques” by Kazuo Uyeda, a Japanese bartender.
H: Who inspires you?
DL: My brother, Adan, because he left home when he was 17. He went to Madrid to work. It was a big decision for all of us – he is my twin brother… Today he is a military engineer and I’m very proud of him, and I think he inspired me because he showed me that if you keep going, you can get everything that you want.
H: What’s one prediction for the coming year?
DL: I think all hospitality business is changing constantly, as we see different tools, different recipes, and everything is going to change with the (advent of) molecular cocktails. It will be a big change in what people think of mixology. This trend will reach the island later this year.
HOTELS contributor Jeanette Hurt conducted this interview.