Georges Sahinides is the owner of Tailors Concept in Luxembourg. He makes us two cocktails, one with Genever and Dubonnet and the second with Gin and Whisky.
Georges introduce yourself
My name is Georges Sahinides and I am originally from Greece. I moved to Amsterdam to work for Bols Genever for several years, then went to Moscow where I worked at City Space Bar, a cocktail bar in a hotel. After a year I moved to Luxembourg to join a private members club called House 17, where I was managing their bars. With this experience, I felt it was time to move forward and open my own business, with a special concept and its own unique identity. And here we are, at Tailors Concept which I opened nine months ago here in Luxembourg. The whole concept includes a Michelin star restaurant on the main floor and a speakeasy in the basement with a hidden cigar room. On top of that, we have a boutique with a workshop in collaboration with a tailor in London who can design bespoke suits for our customers. That’s our idea of hospitality which covers all the basic needs of a person: food, drinks and clothing. Regarding our bar, we have a menu of 27 cocktails which mixes classics and signature drinks or people can try flights of spirits like whisky.
The classic you want to show us
Whisper
20ml of Bols Genever
20ml of Dubonnet infused with Blood Orange
20ml of Aperol
Smoked with Thyme
A Spray of Kefir Lime
The bar you dream of
My dream bar is really Tailors Concept because I worked on this concept for the last three years. No architect helped me, I designed everything myself, so I’ve actually managed to make my dream come true. So for the moment, I would not change a thing. Of course the market will evolve, then we’ll evolve too.
What do you do in your time off
I work in my laboratory because there I can think clearly, away from any distractions. Otherwise, I try to spend most of my free time with my family and keep the right balance between my family and my business.
The spirit you like the most
It would be genever. At the beginning of my career, as I told you I was in Amsterdam in a genever academy so I really learnt all about it this product. I saw how they distilled it, the quality of the ingredients and in a cocktail, it’s the right spirit to use if you want something well balanced. I like genevers with oakey flavours to mix in a cocktail.
What makes a good cocktail
The passion behind the drink. It’s not only about the products you choose to put in a cocktail, but also about the service, the way you present the drink and to make sure your customer experiences a special moment.
What ingredient do you enjoy using in cocktails
I always say follow the roots or go back to the roots. The roots for a lot of spirits are in a barrel (wine, eau de vie, cognac, grappa etc). I believe that if you want to give depth to something, you need a barrel. Behind our bar, we have ten different barrels (three oak casks that we had made with our logo in the UK and South Wales, four mulberry barrels from Kentucky and the last three are sherry casks from Greece). We are ageing cocktails inside the oak and sherry casks and have added white spirits to the mulberry casks.
The signature cocktail you want to show us
Ritzy
40ml of Applewood Gin
20ml of Mancino Secco Vermouth
0.5ml of Black Ceylan and Bergamot
0.5ml of Benriach 10 year old Whisky
Where do you think we need to go to interview another bartender
You must visit the Gorilla bar in Thessaloniki. The owner is the winner for Greece world-class in 2018 and it’s an incredible bar. He is young and very motivated and proves there are diamonds not only in capital cities. Also go to Oriole in London as the drinks they produce in the laboratory, the level of service, the music and the ambience are amazing.