The first time Emilio Giovanazzi was asked to create a cocktail list, he was working in Paperinos, the beloved but now-closed Italian restaurant in Glasgow that belonged to his uncle
“It was a great place, and it would consistently win awards for its wine list,” he recalls. As the city’s eating habits evolved, they needed to think of a way to attract a younger crowd. Emilio’s dad (who owned La Parmigiana restaurant), figured cocktails was the answer. “He went to a charity shop and picked up the first cocktail book he could find,” says Emilio. “And it happened to be The Savoy Cocktail Book.”
That discovery guided Emilio into the world of bartending, via a spell in academia. He studied engineering in Aberdeen but eventually dropped out and worked in bars across the country before setting his sights on Gleneagles.
In 2019 he began working at the hotel’s Century Bar, and these days you’ll find him dressed in his finery as head bartender at the American Bar, the hotel’s glamorous Art Deco-inspired cocktail lounge. Much has changed since he arrived. “We used to have a simple, mostly champagne-forward cocktail list,” he says. “But then Michele Mariotti joined us as head of bars from Singapore’s Mandarin Oriental, and he wanted to create something more conceptual.”
A berry-themed menu centred on Perthshire’s raspberries and strawberries was an obvious starting point. “Until we discovered they aren’t berries – they’re from the rose family,” laughs Emilio. So the team doubled down and focused on botanical berries instead. Dehydrated aubergine skins, roasted avocado stones and fermented cucumbers aren’t typical cocktail ingredients, but the Book of Berries was a huge success.
In 2023 it was named the world’s best cocktail menu by 50 Best, and it set the stage for the Rose Compendium, a new menu launched earlier this year. Plums, cherries and apples are among the members of the rose plant family to have received the American Bar treatment in this latest edition. Several ingredients are sourced from local producers and the Gleneagles estate.
In the Blossom Breeze, juice from Gleneagles’ apples is distilled to create a hydrosol, which is then carbonated. For the Blush & Blossom, quince jelly off-cuts from the hotel’s cheese trolley are steeped in Fino sherry. Graham’s Family Dairy created a peach yoghurt for one concoction; chilli jam from Allan’s Chilli Products features in another. “We also do guest shifts at bars around the world, so we get to showcase Scottish ingredients in places like Milan and New Orleans,” says Emilio. “It’s amazing.”
The craftsmanship on display at the American Bar shows just how innovative modern bartending can be. In many ways, Emilio has become an engineer. Just a very different kind.
Learn about another Scottish tastemaker below — this time, from Dundee.
Tastemaker: Harris McNeill, the Dundee-based chef bringing splendour to simplicity at Eastfield
