As of July 2006 Alconomics has expanded to fill a need for awesome training, profitable consultancy and impeccable service.
The current faculty members in the Department of Alconomics are Angus Winchester, Sam Jeveons and Pete Kendall. With a glowing track record in award winning bars behind all three and a burning desire to learn, teach and travel ahead of them the future looks rosey.
Angus Winchester
Despite his youthful good looks, Angus is a veteran bartender of over 19 years in the trenches of Hospitality. From humble beginnings at a club in Oxford while being a student there he has risen to the heights of being headhunted by Diageo, James Bond and Salvatore Calabrese to run their bars to having founded his own company, the near legendary International Playboy Bartenders, which was among the UK’s hottest and best regarded On-Premise Consultancy. More recently he moved on and founded Alconomics, working more internationally.
Variously described as “a walking encyclopedia of cocktail knowledge”, and an “ambassador of excellence”, in his years in the Drinks and Hospitality industry Angus has served drinks to scumbags and stars, managed and trained bar teams, worked in great bars and drank in better ones. He has written for many industry publications in the UK, Germany, Holland, China and Australasia, been featured in national newspapers and glossy magazines around the world and collected an impressive amount of books on every aspect of spirits and cocktails. He has sold alcohol one drink at a time to customers and cases at a time to bars and suppliers. He has inspired good bartenders and deflated ones whilst assisting many suppliers to understand better their customers.
These experiences has led Angus to develop a range of training plans for retailers and on-premise projects for drinks companies, intended to promote bartending as theatre, grow recognition for bartenders as professionals and create profitable Beverage Programs. A natural and entertaining trainer and speaker, Angus lives “Bar Culture” and is a walking encyclopedia of the stories and myths that surround every drink. He acts as an Ambassador for the Modern Professional Bartender, traveling the world hosting training sessions and tastings. Most recently he has been General Manager of award-winning Trailer Happiness in London and Head Bartender of Salvatore at Fifty.
Over the past 2 years Angus has not only formed a strong alliance with Barmetrix but has become an integral part of the organization by recently being named Director of Training for our international training division. He brings a level of excellence and professionalism that is unrivaled. Angus’ new mission is to roll out the Barmetrix suite of training tools around the world.
Pete Kendall
The ex Head Bartender (and virtual soul) of London's Milk and Honey for two years Pete Kendall is a legend in bartending circles. His attention to detail on all matters, even those that others could consider trivial, is renowned. His service skills are also unparalled. Very much classically driven but with his own style.
More recently he has been overseeing BarCode in Taipei while executing training works around Asia
Here is what he says...
Mr Kendall and another trick pour...
"I've been bartending since I was 16 in my local Pub. Since then I have worked in a wide range of bars from festival bars catering for 75,000 people to small intimate 28 person capacity private Members bars either full time or part time (while I was studying at university).
Since I finished university I started to work full time in London for the Match Bar Group. With the Match Group I was based in bars in Soho and the West End. I was the Head Bartender of Milk & Honey for two and a half years which (while I was Head Bartender) won a total of 12 awards ranging from Class Magazine 'Best Bar' (2003 and 2004) to Time Out 'Best Bar in London 2004'. We also won the Observer Newpaper 'Best Place to Drink in England' in the same year.
I have been nominated a total of 4 times for UK Bartender of the Year as well as once for Manager of the Year. I have participated in international 'Invitational' competitions ( such as the 2003 Woodford Reserve Cup in Kentucky) and have been placed top 3 in 15 out of the 18 or so competitions I have done (I'm a bit picky about the ones I do...).
I have contributed several times to the best selling UK cocktail trade magazine (Class) on issues ranging from 'Fantasy Speed Rails' to international drinking trends.
While in London I was involved with the launch of several new bars within the bar group in Notting Hill and Soho.
I have been training bartenders impartially for over four years now but is the first real 'branded' work i have done. I have been training internationally for 18 months but have already done work in the Middle East (Dubai) and the Far East. I have spent the past 10 months in Taipei setting up BarCode doing everything from the architectural designs of the bar to writting menus and training bartenders. I was also involved in media in Taipei as well as working most nights in the bar itself. I am a bartender rather than a branded man paid to say what I'm told - my opinion is forged through nearly 12 years of tasting, mixing and selling the products."
Sam Jeveons
Until recently Sam has been directing Bartending Operations for the Match Bar Group although he is a competition winning bartender in his own right being flown around the world to compete.
here is what he says:.
"What experience has one acquired to become the third leg of the tripod that is Alconomics?
Well much of my UK based wet ops are covert, and without password clearance you will never get the whole truth. But in a readers digest format, here is a bit about me.
Loved and learned in Nottingham from Lizard Lounge to Lace Market Hotel, falling in with the wrong crowd such as Giles Looker, Tom Ward and the Danny WC.
Nothing to report of note until I traveled Australia under the influence of Alcohol working and settling in Melbourne at the Saint. Something was shaking and stirring in my soul.
Upon returning to Blighty and London, the same wrong crowd from Notts got me a foothold in the renowned Match Bar Group scene, and since that day I haven’t looked back.
Alongside Butt, Looker, Chalmers, Friel (Anthony not Anna, damn!), Kendall, Armstrong and under the auspices of DeGroff one can not go wrong.
Head bartender of Sosho, Match EC1, Match Bar. MBG bars manager to general manager of The Player. Opening The Clubhouse hotel and members bar in Chamonix, returning as general manager in its second winter season to operations manager for the entire Match Bar group. It has been an amusing journey made interesting by the people and places encountered along the way.
There has been a degree of substance behind the style. Nominated for various bartender of the year awards within the drinks industry press over a 3 year period. Havana Club UK champion and 2nd in the world IBA Grand Prix in Cuba ’05, 2nd in the inaugural 42 Below World Cup in NZ ’04. (my personal belief is that gold is tacky and silver suits my complexion)
After losing friends due to competition success, focus was placed on training others – from Top Gun rookie to Top Gun trainer. Within the MBG I liaised and learnt from training experts such as Downey, DeGroff, Dorelli, Ridgwell, Payne, Faith, Estes, the Soulshakers, Winchester and many more, knowledge that allowed me to consult and teach across the UK, France, Norway, Australia,, Moscow and Edinburgh and now out here in Hong Kong
These experiences and many more have made me a conduit for passing learnings and loves from the spirit world onto the few I have met and many more I have yet to encounter. I look forward to the day we meet or indeed meet again. Until that time...
The mixing-session did go rather fast, maybe a couple of extra seconds in this department, would get more of the less skilled people to learn more easily. Angus got a little stressed at the end. I honestly couldn't imagine that i was going to learn this much as i entered the door, so i was a bit overwhelmed at first. A brilliant presenter, and lots of good need to know, and useful trivia from all over the world. Thank you for a terrific day, and training session.
Sam Jeveons