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Crumpet is a bar by bartenders for bartenders and easily my favourite place to relax after a shift or ramp myself up before a shift - after all, birds of a feather drink together.
While on the hunt for a post-shift pilsner, the familiar front entrance of Crumpet Bar draws me in. The smell of warm crumpets and honey hangs over the bar, the open door allows a breeze to roll in, flipping open a page in the menu to exhibit their chosen flavor of the month: Pear! Pear-infused calvados, spiced pear liqueur, pear marmalade breakfast martinis - all to celebrate the impending summer flavor profile. The menu that changes on a monthly cadence only adds to the intrigue of Crumpet.
Composed of theatre kids and travellers, this bar pumps out incredibly skilled bartenders who know every single bottle from the wide variety on the back bar and will always make time for a yarn. Whether you serve short pours at a dive bar or don waistcoats and aprons at your cocktail lounge, Crumpet welcomes you with open arms.
The customer base is much the same, reflecting the stereotypical American High School movie - the suits are in one corner, discussing the latest stock trends; the hens are clucking away about that handsome young man who stars in their favourite telenovela; while the hospo friends sit at the bar, taking turns buying rounds of Mellow Corn to ease the worries from a Friday shift.
Despite every table being full of day walkers enjoying one last hurrah before going home, this bar holds one thing sacred: it’s the hospitality workers’ secret club. Working in hospitality automatically grants entrance into The Club, that underlying connection we have with other members who understand the battle we all face every time we step behind the bar. Crumpet clicks onto that and caters to it, providing a safe space to nurse the wounds with comfort foods, reasonably priced tap beers, and an ear to listen to the woes.
While they lift you up during the hard times, they also cultivate the good times. After the pandemic, we all felt the hospitality community grind to a halt. The bar team at Crumpet is working diligently to pick up the pieces of this community again by hosting Hospo Beer Pong competitions, Tequila Tasting Clubs, and other interesting events to get experienced bartenders involved and new bartenders excited. At the end of the day, Crumpet is a bar by bartenders for bartenders and easily my favourite place to relax after a shift or ramp myself up before a shift - after all, birds of a feather drink together.
Born from passion and nurtured with love, this delicious spirit is the brainchild of two visionary co-founders, Stephanie Jordan being one of them. As she sat in a charming café in Amsterdam chatting with me via Google Meet, her eyes sparkled with pride and excitement as she delved into the story of her beloved "baby," Avallen.
Enter Salut Salut, an intimate hole-in-the-wall Spanish wine bar. Despite its cosiness, Salut Salut has an impressive range of wines as well as a handful of spirits and predominantly NZ beers.
Cal Ross is the friendly face that greets you the second you walk into Parasol and Swing, or the wine pop-up downstairs, Brolly. His cheeky British banter and contagious laugh has gained him a reputation for impeccable customer service, which ended up winning him the Lewisham Award for Outstanding FOH for 2023. I sat down with him with a cocktail in my hand, as we often do, to ask about his past, present, and future in our thriving industry.