With 15 years of experience creating drinks and concepts, Zoe Burgess knows a thing or two about building a cocktail offer. As well as developing cocktail menus for chefs including Heston Blumenthal and working with renowned sensory scientist Charles Spence from Oxford University, she has worked with clients such as Emberwood and Artfam and is also the leads drinks consultant for The Standard hotels in London and Brussels, spanning a total of eight sites between the two venues.
More recently Burgess, who is also founder of drinks consultancy Atelier Pip, has turned her attention to the drinks offer at Tom Barnes’ Michelin-starred Manchester restaurant Skof. Working with Barnes and his team she has developed a range of cocktails designed specifically to accompany the restaurant’s food but also be adaptable to its customers’ different drink preferences.
The concise selection gives diners the choice to enjoy drinks such as the Gimlet, Martini and Old Fashioned either as ‘short and punchy’ or lengthened for a ‘lighter serve’ and encompasses flavours to complement the snack selection of the 12 and 16-course menus.
She has also managed to continue Barnes’ philosophy of incorporating British produce into the new drinks menu, with a plethora of ingredients sourced from local suppliers.
How was your experience working with Tom Barnes to create a drinks menu for Skof?
It was amazing. Tom really cares about what he does. He was very respectful of my expertise and was very engaged which is amazing because when you’re going into a space, especially when it’s not your own venue, it’s super important to look at what the people behind the places stand for. For me, these projects are always so fun because it’s such an amazing exchange of knowledge.
Tell us about the cocktail menu you’ve devised
There’s the Shiso Martini, which is easy going but does provide a bit of a kick. There’s also the apricot and pineappleweed Gimlet, which is crisp, fresh and bright and a bit more in the sweet wine style, and then there’s the honey and malt old fashioned. These three drinks can all be lengthened - the Martini with tonic water; the Gimlet with hop water; and the Old Fashioned with Skof Sidney lager.
What inspired the idea to have two different serves?
I find it really interesting when you look at the structure of cocktails and taking the Martini as an example, you see these elements mainly in the States where Martinis would be lengthened with tonic water just to make it a little bit softer, so I decided to offer the option, across multiple drinks, to lengthen the original serve.
This approach is particularly unusual for a fine dining restaurant – why did you choose to do it?
There were a few logistical constraints such as there only being space for a few cocktails, an extensive number of flavours in the dishes being served and trying to avoid an element of repeatability. Also looking at the guest experience and the options they might want to have a stronger or weaker drink. We wanted to give the guest the most opportunities with limited ingredients.
It sounds logistically quite complicated
I’d explain it like a Rubik’s Cube. I have a couple of ideas that could slot into and potentially work in different places. We set the development going on all three drinks at the same time and it was just a case of tasting and swapping flavours over, like turning a Rubik’s Cube until it sits in the right place.
Most people in a restaurant like Skof will drink wine. Why go down the cocktails route?
Skof always wanted to break boundaries, they want the experience not to be too stiff. There is obviously elements of tradition in terms of the service style and the food, but they wanted to push it forward into 2025 and beyond.
What were the main factors you considered when making this menu?
Tom was very humble in that the drinks [at Skof] were good but could be improved. He wanted to get the expertise in there and for me I think it needed an elevated experience that wasn’t too stiff. I really think that’s what Scoff is all about.
How have you reflected Skof’s philosophy of using locally sourced produce?
It mainly comes from using a lot of ingredients that they do in the kitchen like oils and syrups. We use a local honey in the old fashioned, the beers and hop water come from Track Brewing and the shiso oil and pineappleweed syrup come from Simon Rogan’s Our Farm.
Do you think drinks people are now starting to think a bit more like chefs?
Yes, and no. The impact of the chef has been there for a long time now. It was certainly there 15 years ago when I came into this industry and it’s still there now, but it depends on where you look and the level of bartender. I do have clients where we have to work almost exclusively with off the shelf products because there just aren’t the resources of time and skill to use bespoke ingredients.
Tell us about your background
I worked with chocolate originally for a small artisanal chocolatier who opened a store with a small cafe, and we put some chocolate cocktails in there, which set me on this path. Our first meeting was with Nick Strangeway, and he made this cacao-infused Old Fashioned and it fascinated me how he managed to get this experience of flavour in that one thing. So, I started reading about cocktails, then worked for a development kitchen producing lots of recipes and different products, went into owning some bars and then went out on my own just before the pandemic.
What has been the most challenging project you’ve done?
What’s so interesting about this industry is that there are challenges all the time. A tasting can be a challenge when you have to absorb several people’s thoughts and opinions also working in different markets. I’ve opened venues in Dubai which was a challenge because it’s a different space and a different way of working.
Tell us about the F&B you have helped create for The Standard hotel
For the bar Sweeties at The Standard, London I chose to name the drinks first and then find the flavours that would encompass that name. Each name was chosen as a conversation starter, because if you get people talking in a space, then that brings more life into the room. With it being The Standard, I could be a little bit cheekier with clients calling drinks names things like be mine, Kiss Me and real love.
What about the creation of Atelier Pip and its journey to where it is now?
I set it up just before the pandemic, which was sort of a blessing in disguise, because we had that break to figure things out and in that time, I wrote my book Cocktail Cabinet. Originally when I was setting up with my business partner, we had the idea for Atelier Pip to be an educational bartender school but then he pulled out so I decided just to focus on creating drinks and concepts for clients.
You were invited to speak at this year’s international conference for The Science & Cooking World Congress...
The theme this year was aroma and flavour, so I looked at how cocktail culture is evolving from a flavour point of view focusing on how restaurant culture is impacting the creativity of cocktails. For example, culinary influences of something like Mexican cuisine on certain drinks becoming super popular and then the impact of the fine dining restaurant on no and low alcohol, which is a huge area of growth. I hypothesised that what comes next in terms of how cocktails will evolve won’t be from the bar but from the restaurant.
What drinks trends can we expect to see in the upcoming year?
I’m keeping my eye on scotch and things like the whisky Highball because that could be a pivot point from people who have been really into the Martini and looking for something else to try. I still think fruit flavours are going to be a key driver; they’ve been so underrated for so long and there’s so much that can be done there so I think we will be seeing fruit flavours expand into the weird and wonderful. I’m going to keep looking at the effects of restaurants on the culture of cocktails. I am also fascinated by tea and coffee at the moment and so I want to do more work there.