The Maybourne Riviera bars

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. For today's show, I speak with the head bartenders and mixologists Bastian Remillier and Julien Le Charpentier from the prestigious De Meybourne Riviera, hotels Setobar and Le 300. They tell me about the cocktails you must enjoy this summer. Let's have a listen.

1:03Bastian and Julien from the Mayborn Riviera Hotel. You're both bartenders and mixologists and responsible for the amazing bars at the hotel. My first question to you is very simple. I want to know a little bit more about you before you started at the hotel. So maybe, Bastian, if I may start with you, where are you from? Where you started your career as a mixologist? So, like a lot of people, I started without actually wanting to do bartending. I ended up studying in another career path in marketing and always did that on the sideline. I'm from a French father. I am from Quebec. Spent most of my life in Montreal.

1:43and this is where I actually got the passion for bartending and really pushed forward for that career path. I was there for a bit over 12 years working in bars and the last places I worked were the Cold Room Cocktail Bar and the El Pecanio Cuban-inspired cocktail bar in Montreal, Old Port. And I arrived here in 2022 and I've been here for almost three years now. Amazing. Well, is that when the hotel was kind of launched to the public, right? That is correct. What about you, Julien? Tell me more about you. It's a little bit different way for me. So I'm originally from south of France in Menton, the little city next to Italy.

2:29So I'm a local product. And so passionate about the world of botany since my teenage years, I decided to specialize my studies in agronomy and botany and plant identification during my studies. So I have started my bike career at the Grand Hotel du Caféra. So it's a hotel near to Nice. Very popular. It's in the four-season industry. Then I work in Monaco, Metropole and Monte Carlové. During two years, we have organized different cocktail pairing with the chef Marcel Ravin, very popular in Monaco, based on them, set-based chef. Passionate about my craft. I always worked independently, and I want to develop a strong identity about the preservation and the local product in the south of France and to develop the bar industry with a new way.

3:14And both of you, correct me if I'm wrong, but you work in different bars at the hotel. For example, you, Bastien, you are kind of in charge of the Seto Bar, which is the bar from the very famous and renowned restaurant with the same name as well, right? So tell us about the location and what's the vibe of Seto Bar before we talk about some of the nice drinks you make. So the Seto Bar, just like the restaurant, is really oriented around the universe of the sea. So it's on the last floor of the hotel. Gorgeous view. The bar in itself is a seasonal bar, so a bit of a pop-up bar. It's outside on the terrace of the restaurant.

3:52So we're going to be open from May to October following Mother Nature's decision on the good or the bad weather. And we've been working on a similar but different image or mood, if you want, from the restaurant. So we have the Michelin star restaurant CETO and we want to have a bit more dynamic environment to combine both environments to be cohesive in parallel. We have the bar, which is more relaxed, more seasonal vacation, escapism as well. Enjoy the view. It's one of the best views I've ever seen in my life. So I'm a bit spoiled on my office, if you want. So this is pretty much first and foremost, the mood and the trend of the CETO bar.

4:33I mean, the view is impressive, right? Because the hotel, it's set in a cliff or something like that, right? Exactly. So the hotel was built a very long time ago before being the Mayborn Riviera. It was, long story short, it was the Vista Palace, Vista Hero, then prior to that, it was a teahouse, so a little berge. It was built on a viewpoint of the mountain and within time just got bigger and more ambitious and the Mayborn Riviera took over and made this absolutely stunning hotel. It's really attached to the mountain. I like to say that the mountain needs the hotel and the hotel needs the mountain.

5:11They hold each other for a really unique architectural hotel. It's one of a kind. And Julien, I want to know more about your bar, Le 300. How do you say Le 300 in French? So it's called in French, Le Trois-Saint. Le Trois-Saint. Tell me more about Le Trois-Saint. So first I would mention the name of the bar because it's about the altitude. So we have called it Le Trois-Saint about the altitude of the hotel and of the bar. So a little bit different, a thematic about the 300. So each menu at the bar 300 has been designed with a clear goal to preserve the local identity as much as possible to honor the products of our heritage by working with them in the modern way.

5:52and to offer with our customers a new approach and vision of the cocktail world. So the Bar 300 opened in 2021 and we have now released four different menus. But this is the same way for each season. So to preserve the locality and to honor our heritage. So the goal is to don't use exotic products and to discover something different, but with our product in the south of France. I will ask a very random question to both of you. Which drink do you like to serve to people? One that you particularly like, and if somebody orders, you're like, oh, I like this person. Good taste. So I always try to get people out of their comfort zone.

6:37So that's the tricky part with our signature cocktails. You know, the south of France, people come here for the view, not necessarily for the cocktail. So this is a tricky part. The Seto has a very complex theme. So it's the flavors of the sea, the umami flavor profiles. So it's a bit tricky if you want. It's not the hook, line, and sinker of the Publix palate if you want. If you think of ocean, you don't really think of having fish in your drink. That's not really catchy, right? So this is where seasonality is really important. The catcher is the seasonal fruit. We're going to have more niche ingredients with that.

7:08Then you can actually get someone in the comfort zone and outside of their comfort zone at the same time. And I have one specific cocktail that I really like in the signatures. It's a Forsyth. It's a bit of a based on the Martinez structure. So we're going to have kiwi, caper berries, sea asparagus, vodka, manchino vermouth, and a hint of chartreuse. So from there, we're going to have a lot of complexity, but it's always built on a light flavor profile, subtle, the summer, the heat and everything. And each and every time, it's a no-brainer. People get a bit wary because of there's so many, so much ingredients and so on, but it's really well balanced.

7:46and this is my go-to for people that want to try something different. And so far, it's been a breeze and such a nice way of just serving those cocktails, and this one specifically. Wow, that's a very good tip. What about you, Julia? So for the Bar 300, we have one very, very good cocktail, very popular now. It's called the Lemon Pie. So it's a kind of twist of tequila sour. So the goal of the drink is to use all the parts of the lemon. So we start to infuse the tequila with the lemon leaves. who bring a little bit of vegetable notes and earthiness. After that, we add the touch of bergamot liqueur, homemade limoncello with sedro spirits, vanilla, lemon juice, and after that, we shake it in the top with homemade orange blossom, Greek yogurt, honey foam.

8:32So very texturized with two different parts and very, very sweet. And it's representing the city where I come from. The product very popular in Menton is the lemon because every year we make it a first. It's called the Lemon Fest. It's in February, and we wanted to honor the product with this drink. It's really a good drink. Honestly, even guests come, they're like, you're sure you can't make a lemon pie at Seto? It's like, it's really that good. Well, you can say you can go there later. You can have a drink in each bar, right? Absolutely. Of course. And I do like a sour, I have to say. Another thing, I think perhaps that's the art of bartending and mixologists because sometimes people get a bit confused you mentioned there bastian that you see so many ingredients you feel a little bit overwhelmed but do you think if we have a chat with you someone says you know what i'm looking for something a little bit light or high or high ball of a very not very sweet high ball do you do that you chat with perhaps your customers so to identify which cocktail would be the best one for them well it's always very important depending on the mood of the guests.

9:39If they want, they have a specific idea, they already know what they want, or they're a bit open to get those suggestions. It's those key questions that you ask on their arrival, if you're going to know with the body language, how they answer, if they want to be suggested. And from there, you can suggest something that is more on the refreshing aspect, more on the highball aspect, if they want something more on the spirit forward. And key questions, this is going to be where It's going to guide me into suggesting the right cocktail or the right ingredients. And I'm never going to choose or push or pick for the guest.

10:14Sometimes people don't want signatures and they want a good classic. And it's more than okay. It's very normal. It's just the environment where we need to give the guest what they want. So if they want to try something new, we're there for that. If they want some comforting classic cocktail they appreciate, we're there for that as well. I might, Ash, actually do a little request here. So, for example, I'm the kind of guy, I do like some sort of a high ball, could be something mildly sparkling, but nothing too sweet. I do have a problem with too sweet. So what would you suggest to me? We have two options that I suggest.

10:48If you want something a bit more in the comfort zone, we are going to have a red berry cocktail. That is our go-to. It's a bit of our safe bet for guests that they don't want to attempt something too outside the comfort zone. We have raspberry eucalyptus kombu algae with rum and sherry as a homemade soda. And we also have one that is our homemade signature iced tea, if you want. We're going to have peach, false pepper, horseradish, and lapsang tea with cachaça and peach wine as a sparkling highball as well. So there you're going to have two very complex yet very comfortable cocktails. This is my go-to.

11:26I would suggest you like to try something a bit more highballed, but different or something a bit more on the crowd pleaser. I like that. If I go to Les Troissants, what would you offer me, Julien? Okay. So for me, we have two options too. So one is a little bit of twist of spreads. So very popular. So it's called the sour spreads. So it's composed with peach wines. And after that, we add a little bit of the juice. So the juice is an unripped grape juice. We bring a little bit more acidity and balance to the drink. And after we top up with homemade fig leaves soda, very fresh, easy, with just only two ingredients and very low ABV so not too powerful and not too sweet too in the same time and good for starting for the aperitif.

12:05And the second one a little bit more complex so it's called jasmine and celery so this is the two ingredients used in a drink so we wash the gin with a low-age olive oil so after that we add a bit of coquilla americano vermouth, axia mastica distillate and after that we top up the drink with a jasmine pearl soda and a celery hair. So very earthy and floral at the same time and very surprising drink.

12:47Thank you very much Bastien and Julien. The show was edited by Flynn Simons and Steph Tchungu. And I am Fernando Gusto Pacheco. Thank you for listening.