Alfredo Pintori has been bar manager at the Hotel Olden for 15 years. GstaadLife met with him to talk teamwork, cocktails and exploring new flavours.

Why did you choose to specialise in the bar?
It wasn’t something I consciously chose. At the start of my career I worked at a hotel in England where we were required to spend time across the various departments. There I learned that running a bar is about far more than just serving wine, beer, spirits and cocktails. What’s central is the whole experience – which includes food. These days it’s very popular to go to bars where you can eat so I’m grateful for my early training.

What makes an excellent bar manager?
I think it’s essential to have the kind of experience that comes from travelling and meeting people, as well as a curiosity to learn about different drinks and what goes into creating them. Every day it’s possible to learn something new – including from our customers. They travel a lot and often discover a new spirit somewhere in the world they tell us about. It’s amazing.

How do you build strong relationships with guests?
Ah, this takes time. The most important thing is to remember our customers’ names and then to learn their tastes. We’ve known most of our customers for a long time and aim to create the kind of environment where they feel as though they’re dropping in at a friend’s house.

I imagine it gets very busy sometimes – what’s it like to work under pressure?
Yes, it can get very busy, but we communicate well across the bar, the restaurant and La Cave and operate as one solid team. We’re lucky that our staff is largely the same across the summer and winter seasons. While we encourage the younger team members to go out into the world and learn other languages, a lot of our team members are happy to return to the Hotel Olden each season and have been doing so for many years. When you have that kind of long-term working relationship with people, everyone knows exactly what they have to do.

Have you seen a difference in the type of drinks people choose over the years? How popular are alcohol free drinks?
Tastes change every two to three years. At the moment people are crazy for tequila and mezcal. Five years ago, it was a gin and before that everyone was drinking vodka. It’s always changing. Behind the bar we’re regularly exploring a variety of flavours, creating new cocktails and also experimenting with new blends that we hear about. We’re never standing still doing the same old thing.

We are definitely seeing an increase in alcohol-free drinks, such as alternatives for gin. People are keen to discover new tastes and we bartenders can help with this. For instance the Negroni was created a hundred years ago, but now we can make them alcohol-free.

What’s your favourite thing about working at the Olden?
I love that it’s never boring. Every day is different. Yes, we’re doing the same things – serving drinks and food - but we’re greeting customers like old friends as well as meeting new people. That’s really our job – to make our guests feel welcome and important so they want to keep coming back.

ANNA CHARLES