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[The Booze Issue ]

Building a better cocktail: Inside the Southern Wine & Spirits education center

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Academy of Spirits and Fine Service at Southern Wine & Spirits
Photo: Christopher DeVargas
E.C. Gladstone

Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada might not sound like an educational institution, but the leading distributor of wine, spirits and beer in Las Vegas has been investing significant time and money in something far from guaranteed to generate sales: teaching bartenders the history and culture of their world.

“This is my $2 million baby,” Francesco Lafranconi says of Southern’s new education center. Though the executive director of mixology and spirits education won’t confirm an exact budget, the room—designed in collaboration with Southern’s senior managing director Larry Ruvo and interior architect Todd-Avery Lenahan (whose typical clients are luxury hotels like Mandarin Oriental and L’Ermitage)—was constructed so meticulously that it wasn’t truly finished until more than a year after its original completion date. “It was important to me to deliver something different, and special,” Lafranconi says.

Hosting the Academy of Spirits and Fine Service (it even has an Ivy League-style crest!), the sleek, wood-lined room features stadium-style seating with ergonomic chairs, up-lit tasting desks and multi-camera video screens. The true centerpiece is somewhat hidden: Lafranconi’s stainless steel bar design, a significant reworking of the standard bartenders’ station that is impressively ergonomic, aiming to both speed up the work of serving cocktails and make it more comfortable.

A “racetrack” inset well holding 12 essential bottles around three separate ice buckets, an ice carving station, a cutting board for garnishes, refrigerated drawers, self-cleaning taps and many more elements make it feel almost medical in its precision. Mixology tools, distillation models, refrigeration with three different holding temperatures and an herb garden still being cultivated are other elements.

“It’s one of the most advanced rooms in the world when it comes to bartender training,” Lafranconi says. “We are investing in [Las Vegas] to be the most educated spirits, beer, wine and sake community in the country.”

“Most” and “best” are words Las Vegas loves to use whenever possible, but Lafranconi has certainly been dedicated to that goal, teaching versions of the company curriculum to Southern salespeople and local bar and waitstaff since 2000, now charging a $500 “commitment fee” for his three-hour a week, 12-week course.

Where other cities might rely on the organic influence of a leading bar like the Dead Rabbit (New York City) or the Varnish (LA), the culture of Vegas arguably would not have developed as it has without the concerted efforts at Southern. Other courses taught by Joe Phillips, Luis de Santos and Sam Merritt cover wine, sake and beer, respectively, offering serious techniques for tasting methods. “We’re not drinking, we’re learning,” Lafranconi likes to tell his students.

“There are a lot of self-made bartenders in the U.S., but very few mentors to follow,” he says. “In Europe, a beverage manager knows how to make drinks and tend a bar and teach the bartenders, but in the U.S. beverage managers know how to order and make schedules, not necessarily mix drinks. I’m trying to fill that gap.”

The academy is not the only such entity in Las Vegas. Across town, Drew Levinson has been doing some of the same work at Wirtz Beverage Nevada since 2009, when he inaugurated the Alchemy Room, a similar facility that focuses on brand education seminars, staff trainings for new and existing venues, and a cocktail menu development lab with every tool and ingredient available. The room has been so rewarding for the company—Levinson estimates it paid for itself through increased sales within 18 months—that a second has been built in Chicago, and there may be others, even if few markets rival Las Vegas in volume.

“It’s not just a training room. It’s also a great tool to spread the passion for culture throughout the sales team,” Levinson says. Wirtz’s Beverage Development Specialist Andrew Pollard notes that the room has been analyzed and copied by competitors in several states.

Neither company’s efforts are wholly altruistic: Brands that participate in the courses find it increases bartender interest and loyalty significantly, and Lafranconi points out that many of his graduates have gone on to be national ambassadors for liquor brands, which is an exploding field in itself.

But Lafranconi’s course also emphasizes discipline, cleanliness and above all, attitude. “At the end of the day, I feel I’m a promoter of civilization,” he says, quite earnestly. “It’s more than just booze in a glass.”

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