It’s a conversation you don’t forget in a hurry: Giacomo Giannotti was at work at Paradiso when he was approached by a gentleman who said he loved the bar so much he wanted to open one in Dubai. Though Giannotti had heard similar proposals before, this time his interlocutor was serious. A year later, Paradiso Dubai opened in the Five Luxe hotel. Ibiza followed, and two more locations are coming. “We want to open seven or eight Paradisos across the globe,” Giannotti says.

He isn’t the only one with global ambitions. Madrid’s Salmon Guru opened a Milan location this year, following the success of its Dubai outpost. Buenos Aires’ Florería Atlántico is also set to open in Washington DC, a year after its first overseas venture in Barcelona. In the United States, Dante has been leading the charge with three US locations and long takeovers in hotels in Europe.

This is a trend with historical roots. The most important name in European cocktail history you’ve probably never heard of is Ciro Capozzi, an Italian bartender who worked under Jerry Thomas and opened Ciro’s in Monte Carlo in 1888. He is credited by historian David Wondrich as the chief populariser of cocktails in Europe. Capozzi sold the operation in 1911 to London businessmen who went on to open locations in London, Paris, Hollywood and Berlin. Another historical example is Cipriani, though it’s arguably, despite the Bellini, more a restaurant than a bar brand.

Food might actually be the secret weapon for building a bar’s brand. This is at least the opinion of Shingo Gokan, co-owner of a string of bars on three continents. He never considered expanding a single format, citing his passion “for creating something new”. But when he opened his bar Gokan in Hong Kong last year, he realised the concept might be exportable. “It’s one big room and has a strong food programme,” he explains. “With food, the target is wider: age, population... It makes it safer, and you rely less on the presence of a specific bartender for the programme to work.”

This idea is echoed by industry veteran Alex Resnik, who worked for years for chef Wolfgang Puck and his brands, including Spago. Now the driving force behind Florería Atlántico’s international expansion, Resnik observes that “not everyone drinks cocktails, but everyone needs food”. He also notes that “there are a lot of countries where you can’t sell alcohol”, and a significant amount of the funding for international hospitality expansion comes from such places.

Major asset

Food is also a major asset, according to Salmon Guru’s Diego Cabrera, “because it means you’re still busy when straight cocktail bars are empty”. While Zuma, Sexy Fish and Amazonico are restaurants with strong drinks programmes that are tearing it up internationally, they could be described as cocktail bars with a strong food programme.

This approach has implications for which bars have international potential. According to Cabrera: “You can’t have a model that’s too specific – where you work only with local produce and homemade ingredients, for example – and you can’t be personality-driven: the brand is the bar, not the bar owner.”

This is an important distinction because many leading bartenders have become their own brand through consulting and other work, often becoming much bigger and better known than the businesses they operate. The key to successful expansion, therefore, is ensuring the venue can thrive without you. “When we opened Salmon Guru, I had this dream of opening one in every relevant city,” Cabrera says. “But it was only when I had a shoulder issue and had to stay away from the bar for a few months that I realised it could survive without me, and we were ready to expand to places like Dubai.”

Opening new locations requires strong involvement. Giannotti, for example, took six people from Barcelona to open Dubai and visits every six weeks. The challenge is to focus on the new opening, which always requires a lot of work, without negatively impacting your core location. “The temptation is to think you know it all,” Cabrera says. “You believe your recipes have stood the test of time, and since your bar attracts people from everywhere, the model should work somewhere else. But it doesn't. You need to listen and adapt.” He points out that, while 90% of their initial cocktails in Dubai were the same as in Madrid, “now, with a good team and a better understanding of the market, 25% are created locally”. Giannotti echoes this sentiment: “Barcelona is not Dubai, and Dubai is not Ibiza.” Paradiso Ibiza, for instance, is inside Pacha, a nightclub where cocktails are a novelty. “We mostly do twists on classics we think work well in a club context (Espresso, Pornstar...), while in Dubai our cocktails are easier than in Barcelona, where we do more complex recipes. However, all our locations also have a selection of Paradiso classics.”

Growing while upholding standards at home and broadening your appeal without losing your essence abroad is a difficult balance to strike. However, many bar operators are now tempted to try. Cabrera and Resnik both say they often get calls from peers wanting to understand how it works. It’s understandable. While people often say there are diminishing returns to opening more bars (you make less money off your second bar than your first), an internationally driven expansion of a replicable brand, with solid partners, can potentially unlock much better returns.

Even though he’s acutely aware that the best-laid plans don’t always work out – Florería Atlántico Barcelona closed down in early September – Resnik, who’s “been there, done that” with Puck, is convinced that within five years, a cocktail bar brand might receive major investment, much like restaurant groups such as Zuma or Dani García have.

Cocktails are on the brink of going platinum and someone might just become this century’s Capozzi.