High Street Bar Team: At the top of their game

The bars of Croydon in South London were the first to be put to the test when the Sebor Absinth/Publican squad began its hunt for the High Street Bar Team of the Year.

And it was the Walkabout bar on Crown Hill which came out at the top of the tree after a busy Friday night which saw six different venues visited by the team, which included award-winning bartender Jamie Stephenson. The same round of six drinks was ordered in each bar, with the venues assessed according to set criteria including teamwork, interaction with customers and product knowledge and serve.

The Walkabout team, and team member Karen Beagley and assistant manager Lesley Vissie in particular, were picked out for working together professionally and politely and serving an excellent round of drinks.

But Walkabout was not the only venue to offer a fast, efficient service.

All the venues visited generally had the right number of people behind the bar, although they did not always have the right number of people clearing glasses front of house.

An exception to this was All Bar One on Park Street, which was the only bar where some of the team were offered table service by barstaff in front of the bar. In a busy bar on a Friday night, it's a service that could make a real difference.

Good teamwork was on show at a number of the bars, including Lloyds No.1 on the High Street, where other barstaff pitched in with product knowledge when the barstaff serving us did not have a ready answer.

As Jamie Stephenson said on the night: "If you are not serving someone, you should be serving someone who is."

The order​

Our order was deliberately testing for the bar teams, comprising a glass of white wine, a cappuccino, a pint of lager, and a Coke, and a gin and tonic. A different cocktail was ordered from the menu in each bar.

The most difficult drink to find was the cappuccino. Two of the bars claimed the coffee machines were not working, while the third admitted the machine was turned off after 4pm each day. But the Walkabout and All Bar One, while not able to serve a cappuccino, served up beautifully presented filter coffees within a short space of time.

It proved difficult to get a good gin and tonic, with the appropriate mix of ice and lemon. The best was found at the Lloyds No. 1 bar on the High Street, which included just the right amount of lemon and lime.

JD Wetherspoon pub the George on George Street was the only venue to offer ice and lemon with Coke - and to point out that it was actually Pepsi, not Coke, in the glass.

But all of the testing team were agreed that the enthusiasm and teamwork of the bar team was just as important as the quality of the drinks on offer.

Roll on the West Country for our next visit next month.

Jamie's pick​

Cocktail guru Jamie Stephenson picked out the Tazmanian Island Iced Tea cocktail served at the Walkabout bar as the best cocktail he sampled on the night.

Although the glass was too full, he described it as "the best looking and best tasting" of all the cocktails he attested on the night.

"It was the only cocktail which really looked like it had any methodology behind it," he said. "It was made to the correct recipe, it was nicely presented and it was very good for the high street."

Next month: Bristol​