When Alex Francis and Barney O’Kane left Paris’ Little Pink Door in 2024, there was by no means any query what their subsequent step could be. They might, after all, proceed serving cocktails, and it was a on condition that their new bar program could be a sustainable one.
Earlier this yr, the duo launched the primary a part of their De Vie idea, Comptoir De Vie, a Paris restaurant with a tremendous eating menu and cocktail pairings to match. Bar De Vie, centered round drinks, will open later within the yr with a brief and candy menu of recognizable basic cocktails with seasonal De Vie twists. There are not any agave spirits or American whiskeys; nearly all of components are native. Each drink in this system is served up—and that’s not a stylistic alternative. Francis and O’Kane have designed the menu to function with out ice totally.
For the co-owners, De Vie is just an extension of how they already reside their lives. “The best impression any of us have is thru the work we do, and we wish to help the world we wish to see,” says Francis. “We couldn’t think about working some other method.”
Right here, Francis shares how he and O’Kane haven’t simply prioritized sustainability at De Vie, but additionally, how they’ve constructed it into the bar’s entire basis.
[Though we work without] ice, solely use French spirits and work seasonally, none of that needs to be related to the visitor; they shouldn’t should know that to grasp what’s happening [in our bar] or have a superb time. I see the best way we work as an excessive; it’s a method of how you can do issues in another way, however I don’t suppose that [everyone needs to] utterly take away clear ice or ice usually from bars.
We did it for lots of various causes. The principle one is simply that ice is such a waste. It’s actually simply stuff that goes within the sink, and then you definitely’re turning on scorching water to soften it. If we put an excessive amount of meals within the bin, we’d freak out that we’d be losing an excessive amount of.
No bar in Paris is making their very own ice due to the dimensions of venues, so right here, an organization makes them and delivers them, and ice is heavier than concrete, so that you’re mainly transporting cinder blocks from one a part of Paris to a different. Even you probably have common ice, like from a superb ice machine, it takes over 10 liters of water to make one kilo of ice. So it’s a waste of water, a waste of vitality, a waste of cash. Friends don’t worth it as a lot as you suppose they do. It’s extra of the business inflating [its importance]. I’ve even had folks say to me that we’ll by no means be on the 50 Finest record as a result of we don’t have block ice.
Though the concept was introduced up due to sustainability, economically not having block ice additionally has a whole lot of benefits. If we have been nonetheless implementing clear ice in our bar program, then we must compromise on the superb impartial French spirits [we use].
Past simply designing the drinks or the menu, we needed to design the area to not have ice from the beginning. As an alternative of getting a typical bar station, the place many of the area is taken up by the ice properly, ours are based mostly round a versatile refrigerated drawer unit, which may be each a fridge or a freezer, relying on how we resolve to make use of it that day. It holds all our batches on the particular temperature that we would like.
Pre-batching entire drinks prematurely permits us to maintain the time from the drink’s execution to the visitor’s first sip as quick as potential. (After all pre-batching isn’t distinctive to us, and it’s one of many the explanation why going iceless didn’t really feel like a giant problem or shift; it’s pretty customary within the prime tier of the business because it ensures consistency and effectivity in service.)
After pre-batching, we had to consider the temperature as soon as the drink will get to visitors. At Comptoir De Vie, 99 p.c of visitors are taking a [curated cocktail tasting] expertise with drinks which can be a most of three sips in measurement, so there’s little or no have to preserve drinks colder for prolonged intervals of time. However for à la carte drinkers who take what most individuals would contemplate a “full cocktail,” we designed the service supplies and glassware to assist preserve the drink as chilly as potential for so long as potential. This consists of pouring drinks tableside from insulated metallic cups, utilizing thicker recycled glassware in order that lengthy drinks retain the chilly freezer temperature for longer, and designing ceramics with built-in “whiskey rock” items that create a bigger thermal mass, which is able to, once more, retain the temperature of the freezer.
We even have to consider alternative ways to do the dilution. We use teas [and] infusions, and for the sour-style drinks, we combine fruit or vegetable juices with different modifiers akin to acids or sugars, and create a frozen dice designed to utterly dissolve, both by mixing or shaking, to deliver the drink to its meant temperature and dilution.
By way of signature drinks and stuff like that, [we don’t have one, because everything changes so often]. We’re very fortunate that in France, the common particular person is far more conscious of the season they’re in since you see the reflection of it within the grocery store, within the markets. You don’t see that within the U.Okay. and undoubtedly not within the U.S.
One of many issues we attempt to embrace as a lot as potential in Comptoir De Vie is that inconsistency of availability is nice, and it permits you to worth issues after they’re obtainable, and also you sit up for them after they’re not. We’ve discovered that our visitors actually get pleasure from that. What we want, as a substitute of individuals coming again commonly for a similar factor repeatedly, is for folks to be excited and suppose, “We will’t look ahead to citrus season as a result of they’re going to do that drink once more.” Our model of a bar is an try to offer [some of] that consistency: There’ll all the time be a Martini, and there’ll all the time be a highball or no matter, however we’re not going to ask you, “Would you like a twist?” It’ll come because it comes, and it’ll change inside the seasons.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
