Erik Lorincz, award-winning bartender and international cocktail luminary, sets out across the world celebrating, experiencing and hearing about the tales behind the cocktail and spirits industry. Navigating the international cocktail scene, Erik’s jetset lifestyle takes him from London to Rio to Tokyo and beyond, meeting the people behind the brands and visiting the most innovative bars around the world. Dive bars and speakeasies, prestigious hotels and iconic landmarks, Erik shows us behind the bar and takes us inside where the locals celebrate and congregate from city to city.

Erik Lorincz first stumbled upon the world of bartending when he attended hospitality school in his native Slovakia. “I saw an advertisement for a cocktail competition one day and decided to go,” he explains. “After witnessing the creative side of bartending, I was inspired to pursue it.” He attended an intensive bartending program in Prague before opening Bratislava’s first cocktail bar, and eventually moved to London in 2004. His hard work and passion were rewarded with the prestigious title of World Class Bartender of the Year in 2010.

Since winning World Class, Erik has been a sought out figure in the cocktail industry being flown all over the world for competitions, industry events and private tastings and openings. He is the Head Bartender at the prestigious American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London. It is one of the most enviable positions in the industry, working at the bar that produced the Savoy Cocktail Book and carrying on the legacy of Ada Coleman, Harry Craddock, and Peter Dorelli. At the Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans in 2011, the American Bar was awarded as ‘World Best Hotel Bar’ and Erik as ‘International Bartender of the Year.’ Shortly afterwards, USA Conde Nast Travel magazine hotlisted him as ‘Bartender of the Year,’ and GQ magazine UK shortlisted him, as one of the ‘100 Best Things’ in London. 

In the latest James Bond installment, Skyfall, Erik was named a consultant on the movie. His role was to train the actresses and assisting during the filming of the bar scenarios with Sam Mendes. He also created the official Skyfall cocktail for the Royal World Premier. In 2012 and 2013, he was included on the Evening Standard’s prestigious, annual list of London’s 1000 Most Influential People. During the 2013 Fashion Week, Erik was appointed as Executive Bartender at the private residency of Elton John.

Through all his work behind the bar, Erik believes bartending means not only making a drink. ‘It’s a philosophy of etiquette, how to be a gentleman and how to treat your guests,’ he says. ‘Not just making them a drink, but make them a night to remember.’