Riccardo Marinelli: Jerry Thomas (Rome)

Riccardo Marinelli is the bar manager at The Jerry Thomas Project in Rome. He makes two cocktails for us, one with Rye Whiskey and Maraschino Liqueur and the second with Gin and Bergamot.

Riccardo introduce yourself
My name is Riccardo Marinelli and I work at Jerry Thomas as a bar manager. I followed all the workshops and masterclass training related to Jerry Thomas around Italy for the last ten years and then I became a bartender. I firstly worked in a wine bar, because wine is important for Italians, then I joined Jerry Thomas.  What I like here, is that it’s important to be able to create a proper experience, not only serve good drinks. Our customers spend time at Jerry Thomas for the experience and they can feel our passion.

The classic you want to show us
Manhattan
45ml of Rye Whisky Single Barrel
45ml of Red Vermouth del Professor
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Orange bitters
4 dashes Maraschino Liqueur

The bar you dream of
My dream bar is a romantic idea of a classic, small Italian place with 45 seats and space for 5 to 10 people at the corner of the bar. It would serve classic italian food and drinks for aperitivo, olives with foccacia with a good selection of oils and different salts, cheeses, jams and honey. I love simplicity and a combination of food with drinks. It would be in front of the sea in my home town or Australia.

What do you do in your time off
Managers don’t have days off. I study and also work with Campari and Appleton. I never really switch off.

The spirit you like the most
At this moment, my palate is more into sweetness, so rum would be my choice… agricole and Jamaican. I love the versatility of agricole rum, as it can be used for fresh drinks like ti-punch, collins style or sour drinks. Jamaican is stronger and more complex so you can make a very rich drink like in an old fashioned or a manahattan or even a tikki style drink.

What makes a good cocktail
Probably the details. Because if you have two different bartenders working with the same recipe, the same ingredients and ice, there will be a difference. The difference is in the hands of the bartender, for every detail of the drink from the measurements to the temperature.

What ingredient do you enjoy using in cocktails
I love vermouth because I am italian and vermouth is very important in the history of cocktails. Vermouth is sugar and a little part of sour with aromatic wine and it adds complexity to a drink. And of course I use our own line of vermouth, del Professor.

The signature cocktail you want to show us
Negroni del Professor
45ml of Gin del Professor
25ml of Bitter del Professor
35ml of Red Vermouth del Professor
2 dashes of Bergamot Bitters

Where do you think we need to go to interview another bartender
You should go to Martinique to try ti punch in any of the beach bars, otherwise my two favorite bars are the Connaught  and the American bar in the Savoy, which are both in London.