Two young bartenders, full of energy and creativity, participated in our latest Paragon photoshoot. They agreed to share their experience behind the bar and tell us about their new adventure, Sete.
Giovanni Allario and Julie Couder co-founded Sete, a cocktail & communication consulting service for the bar industry.
Where did the idea for Sete come from?
Giovanni – Both of us do not come from the bar world. Julie has a background in communications and I studied graphic design. I’ve been in the restaurant business for seven years, and Julie has been working in the business since she was 17. We worked in cocktail bars by chance. We worked for others, and now we want to put forward our various skills – communication and knowledge of the bar world – and to blossom by working for ourselves.
Julie – We love to create. The COVID lockdown pushed us to embark on the entrepreneurial adventure. Being your own boss can be scary but it’s also a great challenge. During the second lockdown, we opened the “Sete” [ex-Soif] Instagram account, with an official launch in April 2021. If we travel, we can live this adventure wherever we want. We didn’t want to be dependent on one city. Communication can be done from anywhere. With Sete, we want to do a wide range of consulting.
If you had to pitch the concept, what would you say?
J. – The goal of Sete is to be a report on everything related to cocktails. It can be spirits, wines, glassware, ingredients, etc. Everything related to cocktails, from garnish to glassware. We want to democratize cocktails.
G. – It’s easy to do things from home, we want to push it and show it to people.
J. – The Instagram account is more of a showcase of what we know, to show what we are able to do if people ask for our help, either in bar or communication.
What is your creative process for a cocktail, what are your inspirations?
J. – We love to eat (laughs).
G. – It can come from a dish. It’s not a structured process unless we’re asked to create something specific.
J. – We overdo it, we experiment, we add things, we try to make it different/original, but easy to access. It depends on the demand. The goal is for people to be able to do it again.
Do you ever think that what you’ve done doesn’t work?
G. – Nine times out of ten it works, it’s rare to fail.
J. – It happens, but it’s cool because doing multiple tries opens up multiple possibilities.
G. – Sometimes it works but it’s disappointing because it’s not what you had in mind at first.
J. – We’re very demanding with ourselves.
How do you choose your ingredients/products?
G. – Often, if we’re going to make cocktails – it’s rare to make just one – we think in a global way, about the cocktail set. We give ourselves guidelines for each cocktail, so it’s easier to build the cocktail, to choose a product that supports or brings complexity, to achieve the result that reflects our initial idea.
Do you think about the cocktails together or on your own?
G. – One of us has an idea for a cocktail, we talk about it, we push the concept, and we work together to find out what’s wrong, how to refine it, etc. But often it’s an idea from either one of us and we discuss it. Each one brings their part. Alone, you can make a cocktail that is good but with another voice it makes the cocktail more universal. If there were six of us, it would be complicated but even better.