\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n When Alex Francis and Barney O\u2019Kane left Paris\u2019 Little Red Door in 2024, there was never any question what their next step would be. They would, of course, continue serving cocktails, and it was a given that their new bar program would be a sustainable one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the duo launched the first part of their De Vie<\/a> concept, Comptoir De Vie, a Paris restaurant with a fine dining menu and cocktail pairings to match. Bar De Vie, centered around drinks, will open later in the year with a short and sweet menu of recognizable classic cocktails with seasonal De Vie twists. There are no agave spirits or American whiskeys; the majority of ingredients are local. Every drink in the program is served up\u2014and that\u2019s not a stylistic choice. Francis and O\u2019Kane have designed the menu to operate without ice entirely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
For the co-owners, De Vie is simply an extension of how they already live their lives. \u201cThe greatest impact any of us have is through the work we do, and we want to support the world we want to see,\u201d says Francis. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t imagine working any other way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Here, Francis shares how he and O\u2019Kane have not just prioritized sustainability at De Vie, but also, how they\u2019ve built it into the bar\u2019s whole foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n [Though we work without] ice, only use French spirits and work seasonally, none of that should be relevant to the guest; they shouldn\u2019t have to know that to understand what\u2019s going on [in our bar] or have a good time. I see the way we work as an extreme; it\u2019s a way of looking at how to do things differently, but I don\u2019t think that [everyone needs to] completely remove clear ice or ice in general from bars.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We did it for a lot of different reasons. The main one is just that ice is such a waste. It\u2019s literally just stuff that goes in the sink, and then you\u2019re turning on hot water to melt it. If we put too much food in the bin, we\u2019d freak out that we\u2019d be wasting too much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n No bar in Paris is making their own ice because of the size of venues, so here, a company makes them and delivers them, and ice is heavier than concrete, so you\u2019re basically transporting cinder blocks from one part of Paris to another. Even if you have regular ice, like from a good ice machine, it takes over 10 liters of water to make one kilo of ice. So it\u2019s a waste of water, a waste of energy, a waste of money. Guests don\u2019t value it as much as you think they do. It\u2019s more of the industry inflating [its importance]. I\u2019ve even had people say to me that we\u2019ll never be on the 50 Best list because we don\u2019t have block ice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Although the idea was brought up because of sustainability, economically not having block ice also has a lot of advantages. If we were still implementing clear ice in our bar program, then we would have to compromise on the amazing independent French spirits [we use].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n Beyond just designing the drinks or the menu, we had to design the space to not have ice from the start. <\/span>Instead of having a typical bar station, where most of the space is taken up by the ice well, ours are based around a flexible refrigerated drawer unit, which can be both a fridge or a freezer, depending on how we decide to use it that day. It holds all our batches at the specific temperature that we want.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Pre-batching whole drinks in advance allows us to keep the time from the drink\u2019s execution to the guest\u2019s first sip as short as possible. (Of course pre-batching isn\u2019t unique to us, and it\u2019s one of the reasons why going iceless didn\u2019t feel like a big challenge or shift; it\u2019s fairly standard in the top tier of the industry as it ensures consistency and efficiency in service.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n After pre-batching, we had to think about the temperature once the drink gets to guests. At Comptoir De Vie, 99 percent of guests are taking a [curated cocktail tasting] experience with drinks that are a maximum of three sips in size, so there is very little need to keep drinks colder for extended periods of time. But for \u00e0 la carte drinkers who take what most people would consider a \u201cfull cocktail,\u201d we designed the service materials and glassware to help keep the drink as cold as possible for as long as possible. This includes pouring drinks tableside from insulated metal cups, using thicker recycled glassware so that long drinks retain the cold freezer temperature for longer, and designing <\/span>ceramics with built-in \u201cwhiskey rock\u201d pieces<\/span><\/a> that create a larger thermal mass, which will, again, retain the temperature of the freezer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We also have to think about different ways to do the dilution. We use teas [and] infusions, and for the sour-style drinks, we mix fruit or vegetable juices with other modifiers such as acids or sugars, and create a frozen cube designed to completely dissolve, either through blending or shaking, to bring the drink to its intended temperature and dilution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n In terms of signature drinks and stuff like that, [we don\u2019t have one, because everything changes so often]. We\u2019re very lucky that in France, the average person is much more aware of the season they are in because you see the reflection of it in the supermarket, in the markets. You don\u2019t see that in the U.K. and definitely not in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n One of the things we try to embrace as much as possible in Comptoir De Vie is that inconsistency of availability is great, and it allows you to value things when they\u2019re available, and you look forward to them when they\u2019re not. We\u2019ve found that our guests really enjoy that. What we would like, instead of people coming back regularly for the same thing again and again, is for people to be excited and think, \u201cWe can\u2019t wait for citrus season because they\u2019re going to do <\/span>that drink<\/span><\/i> again.\u201d Our version of a bar is an attempt to give [some of] that consistency: There\u2019ll always be a Martini, and there\u2019ll always be a highball or whatever, but we\u2019re not going to ask you, \u201cDo you want a twist?\u201d It will come as it comes, and it will change within the seasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/span><\/i>
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