Liam Davy is Director of Bars at Hawksmoor, the British steakhouse group that's grown from a single Spitalfields opening in 2006 to fourteen sites across the UK, Ireland and the US, with Boston due in September. We sat down after a night at Hawksmoor's new St Pancras Martini Bar, which has sold over twenty thousand martinis since November.On the episode we dig into what it's like running a bar programme across cities and countries: what travels, what doesn't, and why a steakhouse group has bet so hard on the martini. We talk about the gin boom and its bust, why the Hawksmoor cocktail list is deliberately unfussy and built around the steakhouse experience, and what genuine training looks like inside a fast-growing group. We also get into his time outside Hawksmoor — running the Bad Sports taco place on Hackney Road and co-creating the War in Terroir Instagram account, the wine influencer parody that started during a stretch of unemployment and ended up shaping how a lot of the trade now talks about natural wine. Along the way we cover the cost of going out, what Gen Z actually want from bars, hospitality in the age of top-50 lists and content creators, the operators he genuinely rates — Dukes, the Connaught, Attaboy, Three Sheets, Bar Snack — the institutions that never miss, the elegant decline of bars that fall off lists, the state of British pubs, the resurgence of mezcal, and of course Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew.

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00:00:00 Hawksmoor's new Martini Bar at St Pancras00:02:34 14 restaurants and Boston coming next00:03:19 Why a martini bar00:05:08 The martini's cultural moment00:08:13 Gin's boom, bubble and aftermath00:09:52 Running a bar programme across cities and countries00:13:37 Lessons from the great American steakhouses00:17:03 How a British steakhouse plays in America00:21:39 Recruitment and training inside a growing group00:27:07 Liam's Hawksmoor history00:28:45 Bad Sports, hot dogs and Surfside Cornwall00:43:06 Lessons for anyone opening their own place00:47:38 The state of pubs and independents00:52:28 Who's doing it right00:55:33 The cost of going out01:00:19 Gen Z, phones and the truth about drinking habits01:09:59 War on Terroir: the wine parody Instagram01:14:51 Tribal drinking, natural wine, mezcal01:21:15 We are not normal: rethinking who bars are for01:25:26 Hospitality as entertainment and top 50 culture01:32:26 Dukes, Connaught, attaboy: institutions that don't miss01:39:52 Awards, recognition and elegant decline01:43:50 Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew01:46:45 20,000 martinis since November01:47:42 The Sour Cherry Negroni's lockdown roots01:48:36 Boston Hawksmoor01:55:05 Bringing UK bars on tour01:59:07 Mezcal, education and final thoughts📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/