Folktails. Better Drinks, Less Noise.

A mother in a Spanish village with no bus needed a bar that would feed her daughter once a week. That bar will never be on a list, and this was the week the bar industry sat down to grade itself.

In this episode:

• Bar Convent Berlin turns twenty, drops to two days, and why the third day matters
• The 50 Best Bars list: Bar Leone, London down to three, Hamish Smith (CLASS Magazine) and Tyler Zielinski
• Kings Heath, Birmingham: Matt Wilden (Perro) and Katie Rouse (Couch) open a bar. Chelsie Bailey (Happiness Forgets) on moving to London. Abraham Rivera
• Tom Kerridge's VAT petition, the British Beer and Pub Association on pub closures, and why I think rent is the bigger squeeze

• Rules and the National Trust
• The KAM report on alcohol-free drinks, and what it means behind the bar

• Noah Galuten in Punch on the beach dive bars of southern California, and
• Plus two reviews of reviews of cocktail bars.

Follow me:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/alfdelportillo
TikTok and everything else: https://linktr.ee/folktailsbyalf
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@folk_tails
Substack: https://folktails.substack.com

The number for the week is three — the British bars in this year’s World’s 50 Best list. In the first episode of Folktails, we dig into what the new rankings actually say about who’s rising, who’s falling, and whether novelty has quietly become the real currency of the list (the bars climbing have been open 5 years on average; the ones falling, 9).

Plus: US craft distilleries closing faster than they’re opening, Southern Glazer’s getting sued over pricing to small retailers, London Cocktail Week scraps its festival-wide fee, a Tamago Sando goes viral for all the wrong reasons, and the story that stopped us in our tracks — a 103-year-old bartender in Maryland still pouring drinks in his cash-only basement, 60 years in. We also read (and roast) a couple of real reviews left at Bar Leone and The Clumsies, break down a new technique called “Frost Bloom,” and look ahead to what’s coming at Bar Convent Berlin.

Folktails is a weekly podcast about hospitality, food and drink — cocktails and bartending at the center — hosted by Alf, bartender and co-owner of Quattro Teste in Lisbon.

Follow along:
Instagram — @alfdelportillo / @quattro.teste
TikTok & YouTube — @folk_tails
Newsletter — folktails.substack.com
Everything in one place — linktr.ee/folktailsbyalf

Got news, feedback, or something you want us to talk about? Write to [email protected]

New episodes every week. Better drinks, less noise.