Jörg Meyer - Gin Basil Smash, 50 Best Bars, Le Lion, German Bar Scene, Bar Economics, Classics

Jörg Meyer is the founder of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Hamburg, one of the most consistently recognised cocktail bars in the world and the birthplace of the Gin Basil Smash, a drink he created in 2008 that now accounts for upwards of 25,000 pours a year at Le Lion alone and has become one of the few genuine modern classics produced outside London and New York. In this episode we go deep on the full origin story of that drink: the Whiskey Smash he fell for at Pegu Club in New York, the G'Vine recipe booklet with a basil garnish that caught his eye, the batch of basil he borrowed from a restaurant warehouse next door, and the blog post on July 10th 2008 that set the whole thing in motion. We talk about the strange position of being a committed classicist who loves two-ingredient drinks and measures success in restraint... and yet being best known for a vivid green herb cocktail that outsells everything else on the menu by a considerable margin. Along the way we get into the surprisingly technical world of basil sourcing (500 kilograms a year, with quality varying dramatically by country of origin), why over-muddling produces a drink that tastes of chlorophyll rather than basil, and what a gin fizz served at Bar High Five in Tokyo taught Jörg about the cost of too much lemon. We also get into the World's 50 Best Bars list in considerable depth — Jörg was on it for seven consecutive years, peaked at number 16 in 2013, and has since developed a very clear-eyed view of what the list actually is, how it can be gamed, and why being on it can sometimes be more damaging than helpful for small independent bars. Elsewhere we cover the Diageo World Class competition and what happened when Jörg started asking questions about how it was being run in Russia, the business mechanics of Le Lion right now (sales up 30% without a price increase), the Le Lion summer pass modelled on an 80s German youth leisure scheme, and a Midori cocktail that a Ueno San of High Five in Tokyo served him with barely concealed contempt. We end on Germany's bar scene — where it came from, where it is, and Jörg's honest and slightly uncomfortable answer to the question of what Germany uniquely contributes to global cocktail culture. 00:00:00 — Intro: kids, alcohol, and growing up in the countryside 00:04:08 — Young drinkers in Germany today 00:05:00 — The Gin Basil Smash: 25,000+ a year (and counting) 00:08:34 — Being pigeonholed as "the basil guy" 00:09:36 — Le Lion by numbers: capacity, turnover, seasons 00:11:10 — Half a tonne of basil a year 00:12:57 — The greenness problem: Israeli vs African basil 00:14:03 — Too green is wrong: the over-muddling epidemic 00:15:25 — Tokyo and Bar High Five: learning restraint 00:18:39 — The tension: classicist vs his most famous drink 00:19:16 — The history of the Smash: Jerry Thomas and Dale DeGroff 00:23:08 — The true origin: a warehouse, a recipe book, and a bunch of basil 00:29:05 — How the drink escaped: the blog post, July 10 2008 00:31:23 — Jeffrey Morgenthaler at BCB and the moment it went international 00:33:37 — The Coquetier: trying and failing to create a classic on purpose 00:37:08 — You can't manufacture a modern classic: timing and the internet 00:40:03 — The first-ever bar ranking: #5 in the world, three months after opening 00:43:46 — World's 50 Best Bars: seven years on the list, peak at #16 00:45:22 — Falling out of love with 50 Best 00:48:23 — How the list actually started: emails, Excel, and 20 people 00:56:34 — City bias, guest shifts, and how to game the system 01:00:54 — The Shangri-La experiment: proving the list could be bought 01:02:07 — Why being on the list can hurt small bars 01:04:21 — Arriving ten minutes late to a top-ranked bar 01:06:45 — Le Lion's business today: 30% up without raising prices 01:08:27 — Gift cards, summer passes, and making things feel precious 01:13:38 — The Diageo World Class falling out: corruption and consequences 01:17:32 — Learning when to call it out — and when to shut up 01:19:12 — The German bar scene: where it is now 01:20:54 — Economic hardship and the return to classics 01:22:12 — The Ramos effect: one Chinese influencer, 900 drinks 01:24:36 — Midori, radioactive green, and a Japanese bartender's withering look 01:30:33 — Final question: what does Germany uniquely offer the world? 📷 Follow me on Instagram -   / tristanstephenson   📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/