Interview: bartender Yanni Kehagiaris (Nopa + Nopalito)

Bartender San Francisco

INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

What’s your favorite part about bartending?

I think just the general camaraderie behind the bar, at the bar. There’s no question that we do a pretty intense, somewhat repetitive job, at the end of the day, but every day is truly different, and a bar’s as unique as all the people that are sitting there. So I think that’s one of my favorite parts. Whether it’s a really on-point joke, or something that elevates a conversation, the intangibles are certainly my favorite aspect of working in bars.

What does a bartender have to be to work for you at Nopa?

Passionate, above all. That’s definitely the big thing. No matter what you do, no matter what that may be, as long as you’re passionate about it and really love it, that’s all I can really ask. I’m always willing to train and coach and train on my end too, as I do every day, but I definitely think the drive is the one thing you can’t train, if you will. If you’re not passionate about it, it’s hard to create in someone. When people are genuinely excited about it and want to learn – and here it requires probably a little higher level of experience, in fairness – not to say it’s impossible to go from the bottom up, because we’ve had two barbacks that were formerly food runners that are now full-on bartenders, who are both fantastic. They’ve grown so much, even in that year-and-a-half, and that’s cool too. I can’t tell you how many people – and I’m sure a lot of other bartenders in the city can boast this as well – a lot of us have trained a lot of people. It’s kind of cool to see that evolution and now, a year-and-a-half later, there were two people that literally knew nothing about the bar business and now are back here, able to talk about it, understand technique and why they’re doing what they’re doing.

What’s your top selling cocktail at Nopa, and why do you think that’s the case?

When you talk about a top selling cocktail anywhere, that equates to accessibility. That equates to how easily it drinks. I try to rotate the list often enough to always give something else a chance to manifest itself into being the top selling cocktail on the list. Right now, I’d have to say it’s the Sunshine Fix. That was recently featured in 7×7 as well, as one of the Top 50 Cocktails to Try Before You Die. Cool and humbling to be on that list, along with kind of classic places, whether it’s Buena Vista Café and their Irish coffee, or Presidente at Bar Agricole. That’s definitely the accessible one, but I also like to challenge people. The cocktail list, it reads pretty difficult. I’m aware of that. For someone that doesn’t work in restaurants, it’s been their drinking habits for years, a lot of people will pick up the menu and not necessarily know what a lot of the ingredients are, but that’s okay. It’s all about having the original cocktails, and then we branch out to people. With the Sunshine Fix, it’s equal parts of gin, lemon juice and Aperol, and a dash of Angostura, and it’s shaken and served up with a grapefruit twist. It’s all about bracing acidity, a little bit of bitterness, kind of low octane, and a lot of those themes translate into my style as what we see on the menu. For the most part, now’s the time of the year where I’ll have a little bit more of a juice presence on the menu.

There’s never any added sugar in any of the drinks. I don’t believe in that, outside of something like a Gimlet, but I don’t design any of the house cocktails with any sugar. For the most part, I almost stay away from citrus too. There have been points throughout the last year and change where I’ve had an entirely spirituous menu, where it’s all stirred, like Old Fashioneds, like Manhattans, things of that nature. And I think that’s kind of cool, pushing things like bitterness and smoke and not giving in. The Sushine Fix is as close as you’re going to get at Nopa to having a super accessible cocktail, but I still think it’s challenging for people, in that it doesn’t lean on sugar, it has a little bit of bitterness. It’s kind of taking a profile that people might not necessarily think they like.

I was going to ask you, but you kind of got at it there, the criteria for a cocktail at Nopa.

For me, it’s a lot of different factors. It’s being true to the base spirit. It’s playing nicely with food. It’s challenging. It’s complex. I try to offer different things from all the bars in the city. In a very classic, minimalist way, I stay away from the molecular gastronomy or the molecular mixology end of things. It’s really not my style. I can do things like make Nocino and bitters, and all of those things, and that’s great, but I typically don’t. Any of these drinks can be easily recreate-able, which I think is kind of cool. Aside from sourcing the ingredients, anyone can make my drinks, my entire catalog. If you can source the ingredients, I’m very much about keeping it simple, simple, simple, simple. It’s definitely a cornerstone of what I think about.

What’s your approach when naming cocktails?

Usually it has to do with history or scenario. I could go right now the list. The Expat is kind of a Champagne cocktail made with dry Amontillado, so it’s reminiscent of the Alfonso, which was Dubonnet sparkling wine and King Alfonso was in exile from France to Spain, so I thought to myself, “He found himself in Spain and there wasn’t Dubonnet. He’s an expat. There’s Sherry in Spain.” There’s always subtle historical links or even like the Quintessential, quinine is the big backbone of that drink. That word is kind of an amalgam of what’s going on there. The Aristocrat is a Negroni made with Sherry in lieu of Vermouth. The original Count Negroni was an aristocrat in Florence, so there you go.

Do you end up telling these stories a lot behind the bar?

When people want to know. A lot times I question who they’re for, whether it’s for the guest or for my own kind of – it’s what brings it altogether – and it’s hard to do. I think there are definitely cocktail names that totally flow, and there are other ones where it’s, “Well, at least the drink’s good.”

In terms of flow, when you’re behind the bar, what sort of music do you enjoy listening to?

I love music. It could be anything from classic rock to hip-hop, kind of everything in between. At Nopa, we put the music on later at night, usually from 10 to 1 is when we get a little bit of a later crowd – it’s night, I guess – so the music comes on and it definitely adds to the whole room. We started brunch about a year and change ago, and brunch is a whole different set of music. You can go daytime Motown, and that really sets the tone. It’s easy, it’s lively, but then again, by the end of brunch, it can be the “Humpty Dance.”

Is there somebody you’ve never worked with behind the bar that you’d like to work with?

Daniel Hyatt.

How come?

He’s just one of those guys that’s kind of on another level, in terms of his palate, the way he thinks, he’s got it all. We were talking earlier about having all these different things in terms of history, or a scientific understanding, or the swagger, he’s kind of got it all. He’s the bartender you want to get yelled at by. I just really like the guy. He’s been running a great program for years at The Alembic, and just like I said, just his wry wit.

Where and what do you like to drink when you’re not working?

Honestly, in the last year or so, I think I’ve grown most prone to drinking beer. I’ve grown a huge affinity for beer. That being said, I live about a half-block from Toronado, living 10 feet away from the Mecca that is beer, so it’s not difficult to have that rotating, awesome selection. I got into that in the last year, in the way that a lot of people get into wine. And you really start to examine varietals and styles and what you like. That’s honestly probably been primarily what I’ve been drinking, but in terms of cocktails, I love to give house cocktails a try when I go out, whether it’s Bar Agricole or [15] Romolo or whatever it may be, Alembic, but again, they’ve got to speak to me personally. Does it meet my criteria for the way I like to drink? Is it more spirituous? Is it more aperitif-ish? What’s going on with it? But other than that, it would be classics, Manhattans and Negronis. Probably Negronis all night.

If you could only drink one more cocktail, what would be in the glass?

Jesus…Negroni.

Who would you let make it for you?

I would have Kevin Diedrich make it for me. He’s a close friend that runs the bar over at Jasper that I used to work at Bourbon & Branch with as well. Yeah, I think a Negroni by Kevin.

What would you like to be known for as a bartender?

For bartending and creating relevant lists. And for being there and owning it in that regard. I want to write. I want to do some bar-related writing. If I can knock out a book or two, that would probably eventually be what I’m gearing towards.

What’s the biggest challenge as a bartender?

I think there can be a couple. Being taken seriously, on some level. I know that sounds kind of harsh, maybe. A lot of people are like, “Oh, yeah, I bartended in college.” People are always quick to tell me that they bartended two months somewhere to get themselves through schooling, and that’s great, but people really don’t understand what it’s not like. It’s not just that. It goes so much deeper than that. You can’t explain that in the moment. Another bartender who used to work here who’s now working at Rio Grande and is going to be opening the new Trick Dog, Morgan Schick, he once put it to me like, when you’re at a dinner party or something, and you’re with people who aren’t bartenders or necessarily in the industry, they say, “Oh what do you do?” You tell them and you get a look like you just told somebody you were a lion tamer, and that’s always kind of made me laugh. I’ve felt that look sometimes where people give me a look like, “Really?” I might as well be holding the chair and the whip. And again, that’s an example of those moments that keep bringing me back, that wit.

Address: 560 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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