Mixology: Patrick Pistolesi and the New Human wave

In the world of mixed drinks, Pistolesi – whose Drink Kong bar in Rome is on the list of the World’s 100 Best Bars – has come out with an innovative drink list for “new humans”.

For those of you who frequent cocktail bars, Patrick Pistolesi needs no introduction. Half Italian and half Irish (which he jokes explains his love of alcohol), he has been bartending for 20 years with the sensibility of an anthropologist and spirit of observation of a theatre actor, a vocation he dabbled with in the past and which he said he would have certainly pursued had the world mixology not captivated him completely.

Before opening his own establishment in October 2018, Drink Kong in Rome’s Monti neighborhood, he worked throughout Italy and Europe, starting at 19 in a discotheque and then ending up at Caffé Propaganda, near the Coliseum, where he ran the bar for several years. Since then he has worked with the trusted Livio Morena, who today is the bar manager at Kong and is Patrick’s intellectual accomplice in the creative management of this establishment that has become a reference point in Rome and beyond. And this thanks to its innovative mixology style shaped around the concepts of instinct bar and Japanese minimalism (Japanese culture is Patrick’s second great passion).

With good reason, in 2019, Drink Kong came in at number 82 in the list of the World’s Best 100 Bars, which comes out annually and is drawn up by an international jury of over 500 beverage experts. His bar also won their special Campari One to Watch prize, awarded to new bars “to keep an eye on”. The 2020 list is due out in October and the advances made by Drink Kong in recent months are sure not to go unnoticed. This culminated last March 4 with the presentation of a new drink list that to define as innovative would be a gross understatement.

In accordance with the concept of the instinct bar, in which the bartender is called upon to, in an almost maieutic way, guide the client in selecting a drink that fits their mood of the moment, the “New Humans” list focuses in five main sensations (umami, acidic, sweet, bitter and salty) that are, in turn, associated with five moods. These are drinks for “new humans” to be consumed first with the mind and then with the palate, in a fascinating and complex game that combines mixology, psychology, anthropology and alchemy.

It is a conscious way to approach a drink that can satisfy even those who do not want or cannot consume alcohol, thanks to a low and alcohol-free selection that can finally satisfy both the client and the bartender. All this is laid out in a menu that seems more like an art catalogue for how lovely and well-designed it is (in fact, they were all snapped up during the presentation).

Drink Kong
Piazza San Martino Ai Monti, 8
aperto tutti i giorni dalle 18:30 alle 2:00
Tel. 06 23488666
drinkkong.com