Bartender HQ Podcast : Bar Culture, Cocktails and Flair Bartending for Everyone.

I’m chatting with Magician Ben Francis who opened The Oracle Magic Bar in Liverpool late in 2019.

The pubs and bars in England were given the go-ahead to reopen their doors last weekend. We talk about how they’ve adjusted to the changes required to keep guests safe and how to open a bar based around magic performance when live entertainment is banned.

The Oracle Magic Bar is a beautiful and nostalgic venue filled with nods to the magic community from menu colours to famous magicians favourite drinks being served.

Independently owned and imagined, The Oracle is a far step away from anything ordinary. It’s enticingly elegant with a touch of mystery. Located in the centre of Liverpool, we’re a small cocktail bar with close up magicians making their way around the tables.They come from all around with a desire to meet The Oracle. After one drink, you see things as you wish they were. Another drop, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they truly are. The guests who arrive in search of truth must first be deceived.

We were put in touch by Mat Parrott, a mutual friend who we featured on The Booze at Ten earlier in the lockdown. Check out our chat with him here.

Finding The Oracle Online

* The Oracle on Instagram* The Oracle on Facebook* The Oracle Website* The Oracle, 92 Duke Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom, L1 5AG

On this week’s BartenderHQ Podcast we’re talking Independents Day with G Franklin. The UK Bar industry has been given the go ahead by the government to open their doors for the first time since March’s lockdown on July 4th 2020.

In the show we talk about what bars can do to mitigate the lower capacities an capitalise on their social presence, growing their following and making socially distanced ordering possible.

We also talk briefly about the work of UK Hospitality and the other campaign groups that have been working to get the industry open again safely.

Useful Links for Independents Day Reopening Bars

* Team Spirit Project from Cellar Trends https://cellartrends.co.uk* Hospitality Union https://www.hospitalityunion.co.uk* UK Hospitality https://www.ukhospitality.org.uk

Find G Franklin online

* Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GonTour/* Instagram https://www.instagram.com/luxardo_g/* YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVHnX7Gm3q7D-1aI7Z7Oqw

NIO Cocktails (Needs Only Ice) are a cocktail delivery service that brings craft cocktails directly to, and indeed through your door.

2020 has been a very strange year for the hospitality industry, as well as of course, pretty much every other industry on the planet.

We’ve not been able to got to bars in the way we used to and socialise in the normal way. One thing that has become clear however is that consumers do value good cocktails.

Many cocktail bars have been running successful delivery or take out cocktail programs, while pubs that simply sell beer have struggled to compete with the same beer being sold by supermarkets. But if you don’t have a local cocktail bar to support, or they’re only offering their own signature recipes and you fancy classics, NIO is a brilliant option.

NIO Cocktails

NIO Cocktails are packaged in slim CD case sized cardboard sleeves that contain a pouch of 100ml of cocktail goodness. Shake, tear off the corner and pour over some ice. You’re good to go. They need only ice.

Our three drink pack that was sent to us for review contained a Daiquiri, Boulevardier and a Tommy’s Margarita, but the NIO Cocktails website offers a wide range of flavours, all created and balanced by head mixologist Patrick Pistolesi in Italy. Get yours at https://niococktails.co.uk

Full disclosure – the cocktails were provided free to me for review purposes but no payment was made to publish the review.

In this show we take a very high level overview of my editing and filming process for BartenderHQ content. I touch on a number of editing options from free to professional along with what they can do.

Luma Fusion

If you want to do everything from filming to edit and upload just on your phone, Luma Fusion is the best there is. Its a one off very reasonable app purchase, which you can use across multiple devices.

iMovie

Free on iOS as well as any Mac, iMovie is a great starting point for anyone needing to do the basics like adding titles and music to videos. Its limited in that it only supports a small number of layers, but for basic editing its absolutely adequate.

Final Cut Pro X

As far as I can tell Final Cut Pro uses the same underlaying engine as iMovie but with all the more advanced features you’d need, no practical limits to numbers of streams other than what your hardware can support etc. Final Cut integrates with Apple Motion for animated motion graphics or creating custom title animations too. The learning curve is much steeper than iMovie but that is because of the scope of control that it gives you.

DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve by Black Magic is a fully featured cross platform edit suite that can do everything from the timeline through colour grading, motion graphics and more. It runs just as well on Linux as Mac or PC so if you’re after something with power and flexibility, its well worth a look.

Adobe Premiere

As with many of the Adobe suite of products, Premiere has a solid base of fans, and it integrates well with After Effects. This allows Premiere to create motion effects and compositing easily. Again, this works across Windows and Mac systems, so you’re not limited to a single hardware platform. It is a solid choice, but again with a learning curve.

On today’s show we welcome Nicole Barker, owner of Happy Bartenders Thrive on Facebook and resident of Reno, Nevada.

Happy Bartenders Thrive is all about creating a mindset shift in the hospitality industry, training well rounded bartenders and creating longevity in the service industry.

You can find Nicole online by searching “Happy Bartenders Thrive” on Facebook

Find today’s Superhero Cocktail recipe, Captain Marvel’s Black Manhattan here.

On Today’s “abridged” Booze at Ten, our Flash Cocktail, the SpiceEEPU cocktail. I was planning a full show today talking about how I edit these shows (as I want to support other bartenders creating their own thing!) but it was not to be.

This morning my youngest son was at hospital for his regular chemotherapy, and on returning home decided to turn the bathroom taps on full. This resulted in my office/studio below being flooded, and most of the day being taken up with clean up!

So apologies, here’s a SpiceEEPU cocktail, our The Flash special to tide you over and we should be back with an interview again tomorrow!

The Flash SpiceEEPU Cocktail Recipe

* 50ml Old J Spiced* 60ml Cranberry Juice* 15ml Lime Juice* Top with Energy Drink (eg Red Bull)

Build over ice, garnish with lime

Apologies for the short show but the flooded studio was a bit of a drama today!

Mat Parrott, the Magic Bartender joins us for the second Booze at Ten.

The Magic Bartender

Mat started his bartending career by accident off the back of juggling and has since become a very well respected bartender within TGI Fridays UK and beyond. He’s incorporated his love for magic as a part of his bartending for the past number of years and we discuss some of his influences in both the bar industry and magic in this show.

Mat has been a finalist in the TGI Fridays Bartender Challenge multiple times in recent years and brings his magic to the bar to make his guests experiences even more memorable every time.

Find Mat’s Geek Magic book here: https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/9505

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicbartender/

Want to learn WAY more about mixology OR learn magic from Penn & Teller? And support our show? Check this out!

In the show we mention the notorious viral Old Fashioned video – here is the redemption version! https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/a30172952/viral-old-fashioned-cocktail-video-jim-beam-redo/

Wonder Woman Vanilla Daiquiri

You can find the full recipe for our Wonder Woman Vanilla Daiquiri here!

On our first Booze at Ten show, we have Samuel Boulton, our long time co-host talking about how he’s kept his business relevant during the lockdown.

We discuss the Mead Boutique, his online retail arm selling mead to the world, take away cocktails and the new normal, as well as our quick fire questions.

Check out his recipe for his Thor cocktail, a mead twist on the Bees Knees here.

Find Sam at Vanguardbar.co.uk and TheMeadBoutique.com

Want to learn WAY more about mixology and support our show? Check this out on Masterclass.com

Hey everyone, I just wanted to update you on what’s going on right now – the show was paused for a little while because my three year old who’s undergoing Leukaemia treatment has been in and out of the hospital the past week.

I want to reassure you, it’s not because he had COVID – he was tested twice and negative both times. But with Leukaemia treatment and chemotherapy ongoing he’s in the extremely vulnerable category and isolated for 12 weeks.

Because of COVID restrictions we weren’t able to get my wife food and supplies while she was in the hospital with Ted and they barely got any sleep, and I’m now having a small taste of that while trying to let her catch up on some rest.

We’ll be back, probably this weekend with a new later night format rather than the morning show. Stay tuned!

While the bars are closed many bartenders are trying to grow their brands and you can easily get started with just your iPhone, android or whatever you have to hand. Here we’ll show you the basics of lighting, using the right camera and how to just get started with iPhone Video.

Key points on iPhone Video (or any smartphone)

Always shoot for the platform you’re using.

This used to be a simple case of “always shoot in landscape” but now, there are multiple vertical format video sites and use cases like Instagram Stories, TikTok, Snapchat and more. Facebook will also tolerate vertical video, but its still well split between phone and desktop users right now.

Use the right camera on your phone.

The best quality camera on almost any phone is the one that’s on the opposite side to the screen. If you can possibly use this, your videos will look better, and you’ll be less likely to be looking at the screen rather than the camera too. When you’re not looking directly at the camera it can appear that you’re distracted, even though you’re just checking focus and framing.

More light is better for phone cameras.

Phone cameras are getting better in low light every year, but the physics still comes town to having a small camera not being able to take in as much light as a larger lens. This means iPhone video and android phone video can often have noise that shows up and looks even worse once compressed for online video sites.

A cheap tripod goes a long way.

Picking up a mini tripod from a pound/dollar store or on eBay will give you much more flexibility in where you can shoot – and also add some stability for handheld shots with your phone.

Make sure your lens is clean.

Because your phone lives most of its life in your pocket, the lens can often get greasy from fingerprints or covered in lint. A quick wipe over will sharpen up your video image in many cases.

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