Our resident bar guy at The Hoxton, Amsterdam has been making damn fine drinks for guests and locals since 2015. Working in construction for six years, he craved a more social and creative environment. A quick Google search lead him to a bar course, which eventually lead him to Lotti’s.

Waking up to ‘70s R&B slow jams to get me in the right mood, I fix myself some breakfast and read the daily food-and-beverage reports. I go through the figures and reviews and finally catch up on the latest Workplace posts before heading into work.

When I get to The Hoxton, I take a walk around, check the ambience, and make sure everything is in place, clean and organised. I follow up on the handover that was made the night before by our head bartenders and delegate the daily tasks amongst the morning team, featuring, if I may say so, some of Amsterdam’s finest baristas and barbacks!

Just like any other bar, we prep as much as possible to reach high volume without compromising on quality – from pre-batching cocktails to making the freshly pressed juices.

Changing the cocktail menu is always the most exciting part of the job. I keep track of what the team’s created – and how they’ve been received by guests – and use it to inform what we next put on the menu. It takes a lot of testing and learning! Our focus is on cocktails, but we also need to consider what wines, beers and spirits we stock, too!

When a new cocktail recipe’s been perfected and confirmed, we have to add it to the system. We’re lucky enough to work with a very smart inventory system, which covers the admin side of the bar set-up and gives me a clear overview of daily operations and margins.

From cocktails, we jump to coffee. (Yes, I know they’re usually consumed the other way around!) Lotti’s is very much known for its specialty coffee. I’m proud to work with an expert in coffee who’s been sharing his knowledge and passion with the rest of the team. Coffee lovers flock to Lotti’s, so it always feels lively during the day.

We make our coffee with a house blend that changes from time to time, which is the same for all Hoxtons globally. Besides that, we also like to experiment with different kinds of coffee here and there, so it’s never a dull day.

Of course, I can keep on talking about how great The Hoxton is and how I so enjoy working at Lotti’s, but you can never really know the vibe until you’ve experience it for yourself! So come on down and say hello!

Want to join Jairo and his team at The Hoxton, Amsterdam? Click here for all available jobs.