Bar The Bix - interview with Maxim Sitnitsky

The best jazz bar in the world called The Bix :)

Tell us: what are the main aspects of being a bartender? What is the basis?

I think it's love for people. It is impossible to stand behind the counter and stupidly prepare drinks. I think you'll burn out very quickly this way. We just recently had a great lecture on the topic of burnout. Some guys tend to concentrate on cooking and not communicate with anyone. This is just one of the signals of your burnout.

Love people, be hospitable, because we work with people all the time.

It's the most important. You also have to love mixing drinks. In fact, people who came to make money or just saw somewhere in a movie how cool it looks to make drinks don’t stay in the bar for long. They fly away after a year or two. You really need to respect and love this profession.

How is the menu created?

In our case, we need to build on the concept. This is America in the 20s and this is jazz. We have no intersections with Prohibition, we are more about the atmosphere of New Orleans and Chicago. Accordingly, we take the drinks of that time and slightly transform them to suit modern tastes. For example, I take the classic Manhattan cocktail and make a reverse of it - a reverse Manhattan, which is more drinkable, more enjoyable and more understandable to the modern consumer.

How do you improve your bar menu? How do you know what needs to be cooked in a certain way?

This comes with time. Our contingent, for example, is 30-40 years old, that is, people like to drink drier drinks. Loves dry wines. Patriarchal - here you can’t go without Aperol. So, you need something like Aperol.

Do you have Aperol on the menu?

Well, not exactly, we have an analogue, it also has pink sparkling wine and Fiero as an aperitif. It looks like Aperol, but a little differently, in this author’s variation.

Since we're talking about Aperol, this has been an enduring trend for several years. What other trends are there in 2021?

There is a trend among bartenders to wear masks and work. Well, the trends are probably still the same. So far, these are low-ABV drinks - weak drinks, because the contingent is mainly 30-40, people are starting to monitor their health, measure the amount they drink, and do not get drunk. Therefore, they drink some not very strong drinks. Soft drinks are also, in general, a trend. Nowadays a lot of non-alcoholic distillates are being made. It seems to me that some Scandinavian distillates will also be a trend. Sooner or later they will reach Russia. Perhaps tiki bars, tropical cocktails, an atmosphere of fun, never-ending parties will return. I would like this trend: for bartenders to do manicures. I think it looks nice and cool, not necessarily with a pattern, just to keep your hands in order. This is a cool trend that I'm rooting for.

I support. It's always nice when someone with well-groomed hands cooks for you.

I do it periodically even with a drawing.

Any crazy, funny, interesting stories from the bar?

Yes, there was one very crazy story. Come visit us, dude, 40-50 years old. Doctor, a respected profession. Actually, he came and simply reveled in the trash. Apparently he didn't follow the trends. In this situation, the dialogue is as if Tarantino wrote it. He’s talking to the bartender for something, he’s very negative about him, the guests are sitting next to him and saying: “Dude, you’ve got a gun in your back pocket.” He says, “Oh, I have a gun in my back pocket?” He takes a gun out of his back pocket, the bartender just falls because the gun was pointed straight at him, it was an injury, in my opinion. The bartender simply fell and begins to crawl out of the bar. All the guests also start falling, hiding behind some chairs, the guy was very drunk, he couldn’t put two words together. He walked around, waving a pistol, asking for something, but no one understood what he wanted. We called the cops, at some point he wanted to leave, but the staff blocked his exit, closed and locked the door, he couldn’t open it. Eventually the cops came and took him away.

This is the story...

Well, yes, America in the 20s, everyone carried guns. Everything is according to the concept.

What advice can you give to a bartender if he encounters this type of behavior?

Definitely don't escalate the situation. You need to hide or try to somehow calm down carefully, because anything could happen. The dude had neurosis.

Does it happen that dishes break during parties?

Simply in kilograms, this is our main expense. FirstThe first expense item is wages, the second is dishes.

How do you choose dishes, what do you focus on?

Yet again. We took beautiful dishes and expensive, very beautiful thin glass, it perfectly matched our concept of the 20s. But, since we have open seating and rather shaky small tables, we had to give up these dishes, because this would cause the establishment to operate at a disadvantage. I had to sacrifice it. But we found a balance between strength and appearance, so that it matches the concept and is beautiful.

What brands do you prefer?

The main suppliers are Libbey and Rona, the shots are random, we change them constantly. Something appears on the market - naturally, this needs to be monitored, better options may appear, we are monitoring this. There must be a balance between price and quality, between these components.

How do you approach developing a new drink?

Our menu is updated once every six months, during this six months I make a note for myself, which is called “new menu”. Every time I see something that inspires me to make a new drink, like we have the Fluffy Grasshopper cocktail, I was once asked by the guy at the counter to make a Negroni for the crash. At first I didn’t understand, it was strange, but then I made it for myself, took a couple of sips, and I thought it was cool. It wasn't as harsh and the crushed ice diluted it quite well. I thought why not take a cocktail from the New Orleans era, like the Grasshopper, and give it a crash to make it even more delicate. This solved the problem of ordering a mojito, that is, the cocktail itself is mint, but we don’t prepare mojitos. It turns out that by preparing this cocktail, we are giving some kind of alternative to mojito. At the same time, this corresponds to both the concept of the 20s and modernity. It happens in different ways. You can think in categories, like: there’s Pina Colada, and now it’s fashionable to drink lightened Mil Punchies. I take the pina colada recipe as a basis and make a clarified milk punch from it. Naturally, you can’t go far from Bix’s worldview; you can’t do anything too difficult to understand. We need to do something understandable, something simple, within the framework of the concept and drinkable.

What's your favorite drink you're currently making at The Bix?

I have always been proud of the Arnaud cocktail. I did one simple thing. I took a very sugary Arno drink from the 20s. I really liked the name, the idea - that it was named after a jazz pianist. Just made it balanced. The cocktail contains currant liqueur, gin and dry vermouth. I made two vermouth mids, greatly reduced the amount of liqueur, but to preserve the bright currant flavor, I infused the gin with currant leaves. The result is a cocktail that is dry, easy to drink, and matches Bix

Is it on the menu?

It’s not on the menu; it’s one of our classic drinks. Guests already know about it, and the bartenders themselves offer it.

You should come and try it, we invite everyone to visit. Tell me, please, where are you located?

Bolshoi Kozikhinsky, building 9/12, you will see a gold The Bix sign and a green door. Welcome, friends.