Hospitality's New Edge

“See that man outside? He’s the star of the Hong Kong bar scene right now. Opened Bar Leone last year, went from no placement on the World’s 50 Best Bars list to #1 in Asia and #2 in the world. I tell you, that man is living on cloud nine right now.”

Lorenzo Antinori’s Bar Leone, an Italian trattoria-cum-dive bar, serves intriguing twists on classic cocktails and phenomenal bar snacks made from simple, fresh ingredients. The doors open at 5pm and ten minutes later, even standing room is taken. We’re told it’s a quiet Thursday. Impeccable service means that although the bar is bursting at the seams, we’re never left wanting for water, seconds of delicious food or yet another round of cocktails.

Most importantly, Antinori is everywhere. Greeting every guest at the door, asking them where they’re from and what their favourite bars are in their own city. Constantly doing the rounds inside to make sure everyone’s having a good experience.

What’s the secret sauce that’s sent Bar Leone rocketing to the top of World’s 50 Best, ahead of some of the world’s most-awarded bars and big-budget luxury hotel groups? And how can we bring some of Leone’s magic to the business world?

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Reasonable Hospitality

Often heralded as setting the bar for the restaurant industry, Will Guidara’s book, Unreasonable Hospitality, doubles down on the importance of hyper-personalised service. One of his more extreme examples as General Manager of Eleven Madison Park restaurant includes filling the private dining room with sand to give a couple who had just had their holiday cancelled the tropical getaway they were promised.

Unreasonable hospitality is attentive beyond measure and truly makes you feel special, but this level of service doesn’t come cheap and requires private-detective levels of research into your guests. What about a busy bar where you’re not paying for people to remember your name?

Where Guidara’s approach redefines high-end luxury experiences, Antinori‘s is a simpler take on everyday luxury, and may be more easily applicable to our working lives than the hyper-personalised approach.

Friendliness over Flashiness

We’ve known for a while that white tablecloth fine-dining no longer cuts the mustard, and that people are looking for more grounded gastronomic experiences, wearing casual clothes to go out and embracing more authentic, unfiltered media.

Unassuming and cosy, Bar Leone fits the pattern — there’s kitsch Italian memorabilia all over the walls and an old arcade machine in the corner. The tables are close enough to form friendships with fellow drinkers and the staff wear baggy white t-shirts. There’s plenty of inspiration to spark friendly conversation.

Guidara’s unreasonable hospitality approach makes people feel special. Bar Leone makes people feel comfortable, and sometimes that’s more important.

In the business world, we need to make people feel special on occasion but we need to make people feel comfortable around us every day.

Rather than dreaming up grand gestures, could our time be better spent engaging in considerate, empathetic conversation? The kind where we ask questions to show we care about people and have their interests in mind.

From a warm welcome to a “but tell me more about…?” or a “what was your take?”, a friendly approach beats a flashy experience.

Generosity at All Costs

One of the items on Bar Leone’s menu was a mortadella focaccia. The sandwich arrives positively bursting with ham. A generous portion satisfies the eyes just as much as the stomach, and it’s no surprise that the sandwich is as celebrated as the drinks on social media, drawing in the crowds. Generosity goes a long way.

In an economic climate where budgets are tight and margins are low, the uplifting impact of generosity is easily forgotten in the business world. Doing someone a favour or sharing helpful knowledge are the hallmarks of a fruitful partnership, yet too often cast aside in the spirit of “get-all-you-can”.

Negotiation training experts at The Gap Partnership famously differentiate between transactional negotiations (such as haggling to buy a t-shirt) and negotiations with trusted, long-term partners.

Where a cold “walk away” approach may work for the former, generosity and the ability to go the extra mile are key to giving any long-term relationship space to flourish.

Cut, Don’t Shortcut

Free snacks are customary in many Top 50 bars. They’re a double-edged sword, because the quantity must always outweigh the quality.

Bar Leone cuts the free snacks altogether and focuses instead on a short food menu of outstanding quality. Last week, the owner visited the farm in Europe where he sources the olives he and the team home-smoke with cherrywood. “We’ve tried so many versions, but it only works with these olives!” He says, proudly.

In our professional lives, we’re too often afraid to boldly dismiss convention and cut entirely, instead taking shortcuts where we can.

Too shy to cancel an unnecessary presentation, we shortcut the preparation to claw back some time. We do a fair job of everything on our very full plate at the expense of doing a brilliant job at the few most important things. As for those meetings that should have been emails: we try to wrap them up in half the time.

Too many shortcuts is death by a thousand cuts. Better to be bolder in choosing where to put our time and energy.

This may be the first and last time you take career inspiration from a cocktail bar with brilliant ham sandwiches, but the two are not worlds apart. Bar Leone’s customers may well be your customers, colleagues, investors. Whether we’re relaxing in a bar or running a meeting, we’re all people who appreciate friendliness, generosity and a job well-done.

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