IT is probably fair to say that, over the past two years, Brian Smith has had less sleep than many.
From the heartbreak of ‘going on the dole’ when the Island first entered lockdown in March 2020 to ‘the excitement, emotion and fear’ that is accompanying his latest venture, the proprietor of The Blind Pig and Ce Soir has been on something of a rollercoaster ride since the outbreak of Covid.
‘Closing the doors of the bars two years ago was a devastating experience and I knew, after that first lockdown, that I never wanted to be in that position again,’ he recalled. ‘While I was grateful for the government support, it was, in reality, no different from being on the dole.’
Determined to provide for himself and his family, Brian knew that he had to do something different when the Island’s hospitality sector was forced to close again later that year.
‘I toyed with the idea of property development but the prospect didn’t excite me,’ he said. ‘Throughout my life, I have been inspired by hospitality, and drinks in particular, so when I came up with the idea for a home-delivery cocktail service during lockdown, I knew that was the path to follow.’
In many ways, the launch of Forbidden Cocktails was a natural extension of Brian’s 27-year career in the bar trade. In other ways, though, his new venture has taken him far from his ‘comfort zone’ and propelled him firmly into ‘the sleepless-night territory’ in which he now finds himself.
‘I feel like I’ve got myself on a treadmill and it’s running pretty fast,’ he said, with a slightly rueful smile.
The easy part for the bartender, who opened The Blind Pig a decade ago, was making the drinks.
‘I have been developing flavour profiles for nearly 30 years and there is no rocket science behind creating a tasty cocktail,’ he said. ‘It’s simply a question of balancing the four elements of sweet, sour, strong and weak.
‘There were some challenges, though, in creating, for example, the crémeux that you would expect to find on the top of an espresso martini. This is easy to achieve when making each cocktail to order behind the bar but a lot harder to replicate in a bottle.’
Challenging though the process was, Brian was determined to include an espresso martini within his initial range, which also features a Passion Fruit Martini, an Old-Fashioned and one of the most popular drinks on The Blind Pig menu, the Lemonberry.
‘That was my punt,’ he explained. ‘The Old-Fashioned, Passion Fruit Martini and Espresso Martini are classics in the cocktail world, with the latter two the top-selling cocktails in the UK. The Lemonberry was a risk but it was my concoction and I was determined to have something different in the range.’
A risk it may have been but it seems that it was one worth taking, with sales reports showing the Lemonberry selling in greater quantity than any of the others.
Anyone familiar with the Irishman’s love of storytelling will not be surprised to know that just as much thought went into developing the brand as the recipes.
‘The brand had to tie in with the story of The Blind Pig, which is almost a “forbidden” bar, entered through the back door, tucked away downstairs in a room without windows,’ he said.
‘It sounds wrong, illegal almost, but, inside, it is opulent and exciting. I wanted something similar for Forbidden Cocktails, something interesting, mysterious and fun but also edgy. I didn’t want your run-of-the-mill sunshine picture.’
Indeed, the end result could not be further from that traditional cocktails-on-the-beach image.
‘I call the model Vesper Star and my initial inspiration for her came from Vesper Lynd, a character in Casino Royale,’ Brian explained.
‘She is a strong, empowering woman, a goddess of strength and beauty, who discovers the elixir of life contained in every bottle or can of Forbidden Cocktails.
‘To keep the brand current and trendy, the artwork was done by local tattooist Ash Lewis and the digital work was done by iPop Digital. Everything apart from the bottling and canning, which takes place at a facility in Leicester, has been done in the Island.’
While Forbidden Cocktails was born from lockdown, Brian’s love of the hospitality industry started in his childhood.
‘I fell in love with bartending when I was about four or five years old,’ he smiled. ‘Both my parents worked in the industry and my mum used to take me to a bar in which she worked and I would stack the shelves.
‘What triggered my emotion, though, was looking over the bar and seeing the happiness and laughter all around you. When you left the bar again, it felt as though you were stepping into a different world.’
Having worked in bars around the world, Brian came to Jersey in 1994 for a ‘two-week holiday to visit a friend’.
‘Seduced by the sunshine and the social atmosphere, I never looked back,’ he chuckled, recalling opening the original Rojo in Bond Street with his then business partner, before the duo went their separate ways and Brian launched The Blind Pig.
‘At the time, that speakeasy concept was new to Jersey but word of this new “secret” bar spread quickly,’ he said.
With lockdowns and a growing demand for convenience shaping every market, the fastest-growing segment in the alcohol industry is now ready-to-drink.
‘With Forbidden Cocktails, I’m at the forefront of the wave but there is plenty of competition out there,’ Brian said.
‘The next big trend coming from America is hard seltzers, a sort of alcoholic sparkling water. I have tried this but found it flavourless, which is why I have done something different with the range of Forbidden Cocktail canned drinks.’
Launching with three flavours – passion fruit, lemonberry and a mojito – the cans are aimed at the growing ‘grab and go’ market.
‘The drinks are a cross between a cocktail and a hard seltzer, almost like a sparkling version of a cocktail,’ he explained.
While targeting those who want the convenience of a cocktail from a bottle or a can, the drinks are also aimed at restaurants and bars which do not have the trained staff or facilities to make drinks to order.
‘Sadly, the cocktail world is slowly disappearing because of the massive staff issues in the industry,’ he reflected. ‘It is very difficult to find trained mixologists and bartenders. But, clearly, you still need to be able to sell your product and bottling it provides the answer.
‘Suddenly, you don’t need a trained bartender; you just need to open the bottle or can and pour the correct measure into a glass. This is a low-labour solution that enables other bars, restaurants and cafés the opportunity to extend their menu and, potentially, attract new customers as a result.’
With a number of local eateries including Nude Food, Seafish Café and Meat and Eat now stocking Forbidden Cocktails, Brian is fast building a strong trade and retail customer base in the Island.
‘We are now in more than 30 shops locally, which has given me confidence in my product and the belief that this has the potential to be a long-term, thriving business,’ he said. ‘However, to achieve that, I need to grow Forbidden Cocktails beyond the Jersey market.’
And that, says Brian, is the root cause of his current sleepless nights.
‘Ironically, the fact that the business has been so successful has created the greatest challenges yet, as I am now trying to raise funding to get into the UK and Irish markets,’ he explained. ‘It’s exciting, scary and frustrating, as I know the product is good but to scale up to a level that would meet the demand of UK distributors is a massive – and very expensive – step.
‘In theory, I could scale up to producing 100,000 units per month but then I might trip myself up by not having enough money to pay for the ingredients.
‘Having said that, if I stand still and don’t take the opportunity to grow, I could fail because the local market is too small to sustain the business. It’s a double-edged sword.
‘Whatever happens next, though, at least I can say that I gave it a go. My wife, Stani, and I took ourselves out of our comfort zones and created something of which I am very proud. The world is changing so quickly that you have to adapt and that is exactly what we’ve done.’
