How does someone from Brittany end up in Britain, only to return to Paris and open—of all things—a pub? Don’t be surprised, though: this pub comes with a touch of oh là là.

I’m joined by Hyacinthe Lescoët, whose journey began in France, where his love for hospitality was first sparked while helping out in his mother’s pizzeria at just 12 years old. After earning his master’s degree in advertising, Hyacinthe made his way to London, igniting his passion for the craft of the cocktail.

He returned to Paris, where he championed seasonality, sustainability, and innovation. With this wealth of experience, in 2019, he teamed up with friends to open their own bar, The Cambridge Public House—a space that brings his philosophy of flavor, creativity, and hospitality to life. Today, he’s here to tell us how it all began!

We would so appreciate your support by signing up to our newsletter.  You can get our advice on anything to do with home bartending, where to drink in every major city, special recipes, and even your very own Lush Life mug! Just head to alushlifemanual.substack.com and sign up!

Our cocktail of the week is called Cigarette After Sex.

INGREDIENTS 

• 25 ml Siete Misterios Mezcal 
• 15 ml Sloe Gin 
• 90 ml Agua de Jamaica 
• 10 ml Verjus 
• Garnish: Lapsang souchong tea rim  

METHOD

• Prepare the trim by making the side of a wine glass wet and dipping it into the tea
• Fill a wine glass with ice
• Pour in all the ingredients and stir well 
• Add more ice if necessary
• Serve 

You’ll find this recipe and all the cocktails of the week at alushlifemanual.com, plus links to most of the ingredients.

Full Episode Details: https://alushlifemanual.com/hyacinthe-lescoet-cambridge-public-house/

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Produced by Simpler Media

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New episodes every Tuesday, usually!!

>> Susan Schwartz: How does someone from Brittany end up in Britain

only to return to Paris and open, of all things,

a, uh, pub? Don't be surprised though. This pub

comes with a touch of ooh la la. I'm, um, Susan

Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is

Lush Life podcast. Every week we're inspired to

live life one cocktail, cocktail at a time. I'm

joined by Jacynt, uh, Lesquitt, whose journey

began in France, where his love for hospitality

was first sparked while helping out in his

mother's Pizzeria. At just 12 years old, after

earning his master's degree in advertising,

Jacynth made his way to London, igniting his

passion for the craft of the cocktail. He then

returned to Paris where he championed seasonality,

sustainability and innovation. With this wealth of

experience, in 2019, he teamed up with friends to

open their own bar, the Cambridge Public House. A,

uh, space that brings his philosophy of flavor,

creativity and hospitality to life. Today, he's

here to tell us how it all began. But before that,

if you love Lush.

>> Susan Schwartz: Life, we would so appreciate your support.

>> Susan Schwartz: By signing up to our newsletter, you can get our

advice on anything to do with home bartending,

where to drink in every major city, special

recipes, and even your very own Lush Life mug.

Just head to a lushlifemanual.substack.com and

sign up now. Let's join Jacent.

>> Susan Schwartz: So it's really great to have you on the show. I'm

so excited to have you, especially right after

your global series. So we're. Why don't you

introduce yourself? Even though I've done a little

intro in the beginning and tell the people who you

are, where you work and then we'll start.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. It's really

good to be here this morning. My name is Yassin

Espette. I'm the co founder of the Cambridge

Public House cocktail pub in Paris and also the co

owner of Little Red Door, also in Paris. And I'm a

bartender, owner and everything that's related to

this profession, this age.

>> Susan Schwartz: Of time, all that great stuff. So here at Lush

Life, we always like to go back before we go

forward. It would be great to hear where you're

from and a little bit about your upbringing.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, of course. So I'm from, uh, Brittany, from a

tiny island in the west of France. I've been going

there until I was 18. They went to university. I

studied advertising strategy, which brought me to

Italy, Germany, and then some internship that I

didn't really like. So I moved to London and

started to Work in, in cocktail bars and.

>> Susan Schwartz: Oh, wait, wait, wait. There's a lot to unpack

there. All right, so a little town in Brittany.

And were you always bartending while you were

studying? Was this something that you were doing

for extra money or was that something that came

after?

>> Speaker C: Yes. Uh, my mom had two pizzerias. So, um, I was

like 12, which is not really legal. I was working

there in the summer to just help and make some

money. And all the time throughout my university

time, I've been working in restaurants. Balls,

mostly. Drink, like waitering, not really

cocktails until London.

>> Susan Schwartz: Was it something that you thought that you would

ever get into? I mean, was you. Did you have

parental pressure to say, come and take over our

pizzerias or was it, no way am I doing that, I've

got to do something completely different?

>> Speaker C: No, there was no pressure at all. But it's just, I

guess a lot of people going in my age going to

marketing or communication, uh, studies was like

kind of where you go and you don't exactly know

what you want to do. So I think I've been looking.

I, um, didn't really know what I wanted to do. So

I've just been, okay, I'm going to study and

hopefully it will appear to me.

>> Susan Schwartz: But you worked in IT for a couple years, you said.

>> Speaker C: I wanted to get a master degree in Italy, and then

I moved a little bit to Germany, still in the

process of studying. So I've done some internship

throughout my university time and never actually

worked full time in there.

>> Susan Schwartz: What was it about the drinks industry or what you

had been doing that was kind of so seductive that

you said, you know what, screw it, I'm going to

try my hand at this.

>> Speaker C: On the first day in London, it was, uh, at the

radio bar and there was the bar backing. So I just

wanted to stay for the summer and I just got

interested. So I tried to push really hard to jump

behind the bar every time I see an occasion. I

tried to study cocktails. It just looked very, uh,

fun. And also the interaction with the guests and

the people and it was actually also really good

money. So there was a lot of factor that was

attractive to this profession. And then I was

lucky enough to push the right dolls and world of

like world, uh, class Cartel came to me and I hear

hand services. And um, yeah, I started at 69

copycrow and a drink factory. And that's where I

actually learned everything.

>> Susan Schwartz: I know you've mentioned a few things about the

community, about making some money. The cocktails

at that Time. Did you realize that this could be a

profession? You know, was. Because it's a while

ago.

>> Speaker C: Uh, yeah, for sure. I mean, the first year I was

like, okay, should I go back into what I've been

studying? So I don't like wasting it. I always say

the past five years of my life. No, I think also

my goal after doing some internship, I didn't

really enjoy the office of his job. I didn't

really enjoy having like, uh, the same schedule

every day and doing the same, like going to the

same office every day. So I think through

bartending and also seeing what could happen with

like events and guest shift and mostly also being

my own boss was something that really, uh,

interested me.

>> Susan Schwartz: Especially working someplace like 69 Cobweh, which

was at the forefront of the cocktail renaissance

revolution or whatever you want to call it,

Especially here in London. Those you just. It

could blow your mind. I guess what they were doing

then.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. It wasn't really about the. The

cocktails are really interested there. I mean the

cocktails were interesting, of course, but it was

more the. The way the service was going was such a

tiny space, but, uh, so many people are going

through it. Uh, working there was probably still

the best bar ever walked out because it was like a

dance with the team. I, uh, was lucky enough to,

to be there at golden age the bar as well. So it

was a really incredible place to, to work at. And

then after I entered the drink factory part where

you can actually see the lab and you can see

production. And so, yeah, I was lucky enough for

them to trust me to go in every single department

of the company.

>> Susan Schwartz: Having such a great experience there. Did you

always want to come back to Paris or, you know,

did you think that London would stay your home for

a while?

>> Speaker C: Uh, London was a little too intense for me. So

it's a really major city and um, it's quite long

to go any place to commute. Paris seems to be a

big city, but it's actually quite small. And if

you want to go from east to west, I cycle there in

30 minutes. Uh, London, everything takes 30

minutes minimum in London, which is good, but it

just wasn't for me. I think I also cherished like

work, life, balance. So Paris was a, uh, bit more

that to me and also a business perspective. I

think it was easier for me to. To open a bar in

Paris because I've got like my people here and I

didn't know the market at the time, but maybe it's

one or so came back to Paris. So we had. And I

think the cocktail wasn't as developed as London.

So, yeah, a lot of factors.

>> Susan Schwartz: What year are we talking about? When did you move

back?

>> Speaker C: In 2015.

>> Susan Schwartz: Okay. So a good 10 years ago when.

>> Speaker C: I worked at the Bacon, La Marie Celeste, which is

part of the Quixotic Project. So Candelaria Group

and I opened the. A new business for them. And

after that, in 2019, we opened the Cambridge.

>> Susan Schwartz: When you were in London, what do you think that in

your mind, being an inherent marketer and having

studied it for a long time, that you were

thinking, okay, my goal is to have this kind of

thing that you thought, when I get to Paris, I

want to do everything that I can to do that.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. I think, again, the ultimate

goal was to not have any bosses.

>> Susan Schwartz: All right, I forgot. Yes. I don't think you said

that before. Exactly.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. It's to be free to do, like, whatever kind

of whatever I want. So that was. That was the goal

behind opening a bar.

>> Susan Schwartz: Sometimes the bar can be the boss, you know?

>> Speaker C: Yeah. There's always the bank.

>> Susan Schwartz: So the bank and the bar. Right. There's always

some ball. All right, so. So you're working,

you're doing your menus. Did you have a kind of

bar in mind? Because it's. It's funny that you

started one that's named after some place in

Britain. Not Britain, but Britain, you know. So

what were some of your ideas before you started,

uh, the Cambridge?

>> Speaker C: Well, to be honest, when we moved to Paris, we

were, like, maybe a little cocky. Was like, oh,

we've been to London. We're going to move to

Paris. We're going to. We're going to open the

best bar. Something like that. And then after one

week, we realized, like, we weren't ready. So we

pushed back the project for.

>> Susan Schwartz: Okay.

>> Speaker C: We didn't decide for how long, but we're like,

okay, we're not ready. Uh, you guys are gonna do

what he's doing. I'm gonna walk in different bars

and restaurants and see how it goes. We didn't

have the idea of the pub at first, but it's, uh,

with another. Our third partner called Greg, is

from London. We used to work together there. And,

um, we realized we. We miss pubs, so we are

meeting every week for some drinks. And then we

always talked about it. So the idea came. Came

like that, just by having something that we were

missing in Paris.

>> Susan Schwartz: Now, you said we. Who was the other person?

>> Speaker C: Uh, so a guy called Greg Inder.

>> Susan Schwartz: No, no, I meant other than Greg. You said, we came

in So I wasn't sure if there were two of you @

Paris.

>> Speaker C: My partner today is uh, called Hugo, uh, is uh,

doing more the back of house and the financials

development part of the company. It's not working

in bars. It's always working as uh, an

entrepreneur or in startup, something like that.

So he's my m business partner.

>> Susan Schwartz: So the three of you, you got your two Frenchmen

and one Brit and you come up with this idea for a

pub type bar, right?

>> Speaker C: Exactly.

>> Susan Schwartz: Did you think there is kind of a rivalry between

the Brits and the French? How did you think the

Parisians would take to it?

>> Speaker C: I say everybody, everybody loves a pub here. We do

have a lot of pubs but they all have the same

offers kind of so you can find the same beers and

the same food, etc. Uh, and it's not really well,

well seen. Sometimes it's a little bit dirty. It

doesn't have the same appeal as the pubs you have

in London and UK or in Ireland. So we want

something a bit more modern. We already saw some

cocktail pubs in London where it's a little bit

more of a modernized version of a pub. So we

really wanted to have this like, include cocktails

and into like casual environment. At the time it

was still very much a speakeasy trend. In Paris

you have a lot of speakeasies and we didn't want

to walk in the dark for our life. So we want

something very open, something welcoming. Cocktail

culture is a bit hard in France because we have a

big wine culture, beer culture, sorry. So to have

like a very uh, welcoming space to make everybody

feel like safe and welcome to enjoy your cocktail

beer they want, that was the goal.

>> Susan Schwartz: Maybe you can talk me through not just your first

menus but maybe your kind of your mission for it

because you're a B corps now. I mean was this

always part of your plan to put sustainability at

the forefront?

>> Speaker C: Well, the last, last project I worked at before

the uh, Cambridge was called Les Gros Vert. It was

the new bar restaurant of the quixotic groups in

Paris. And it was a goal to be to waste as less as

possible. Even with the kitchen, to the bar, to

the furniture was really well uh, thought of. So I

got a lot of inspiration from that. But it was

mostly to work with seasonality and I think was it

wasn't really nice everywhere but it wasn't that

much at the time. We always had the idea to change

the menu a bit every week. Also it's, I find it

boring sometimes to work in bar where you know,

you don't really have access to creativity and you

just replicate the menu for one year. So after a

few months it becomes quite monotonous. So

changing a little bit every week, working with

season because we have such a great terroir in

France. So it wasn't so much about being like,

okay, we're not going to waste anything away. It

was always to incorporate this in the creative

process. But some of it, you have fun and to be

playful with ingredients.

>> Susan Schwartz: Uh, I don't know if you remember it's been a while

since you opened, but you know, some of those

first cocktails and how you felt that the people

who were coming into the bar and enjoying them, as

you said, how they took to these cocktails, did

they like them? Were they open to this? Was it

tough to get people thinking about the way or

thinking the way you thought?

>> Speaker C: No, to be honest, it was quite easy. Uh, the first

menu was mostly some classic twists I've learned

from London that was maybe not very famous in

Paris. So we took a stone friends and worked with

quints. We took an army navy and worked with

seaweed. Uh, just having a little twist on this

classic. Mixing spirits as well into cocktails is

something like we always did. And slowly, slowly

we walked throughout the, the cocktail of the week

phase. So every week we have a, we have a new

cocktail. And it was a great way for us to um, to,

to work with Regulus to open the uh, cocktail

world to some of, some of the guests that were

just coming for beers and we became friends. So

after a few weeks, like, okay, we have this new

cocktail. Do you want to try it? It's on us. And

then, you know, slowly, slowly, they just come

every week to, to try the new cocktail. So it's

very, very easy and well received from a

community.

>> Susan Schwartz: That's a great idea that cocktail of the week,

especially to get beer drinkers. Because obviously

you come to a pub here, most people drink it.

Actually, most people don't expect cocktails to be

that great at a pub. It's really. I won't say it's

rare, but they're definitely coming for the beer.

So if that's the same, and especially in Paris

where they weren't, as you said, so in tuned to

cocktails. That's brilliant. It's a great see the

marketing in you.

>> Speaker C: And the cocktail of the week is always our best

sell, whatever it is. So even if we have a drink

with red onion, it will still be the best sell.

But people get really interested and I think they

kind of trust us now.

>> Susan Schwartz: So, yeah, they're coming back for that cocktail of

the week. It's a brilliant one. So let's go on to.

Okay, you're chugging along. You're doing your

cocktail of the week. Why don't you talk about

what your global series is and why you thought it

was necessary to start something like that?

>> Speaker C: Definitely it was more about community than

sustainability. I think we look more into, like,

community and responsibility, but it's just

because we've always been kind of grateful. We are

really lucky to be living in Paris. We have

everything we need. So, uh, very grateful to have

some food on our plates and, like, a roof over our

head. So we're always grateful for all of this. So

we really want to give back to our community.

Also, the first year we opened in Paris, we were

struggling, so we only survived because we have

communities. Always been very grateful, and we

kind of want to give back. So the global series

started as a fun project. We used to have this

amazing, amazing festival in Paris, Cocktail

Spirits, where they were really pushing education.

And this disappeared with COVID So we didn't have

really a, uh, platform for this in Paris. I think

it's also very, uh, for me, I mean, I'm super

happy to invite this, like, nine people, A, uh,

lot to say about. And there's three topics that

are very important to the Cambridge, which are

education, environment, and the social aspect of

the bar industry. So every year now, we invite

nine bartenders from all around the world to share

the story. There's three days of events and guest

shifts, but there's also one big day of education

where we do some roundtables about very, uh,

important topics. And it's super well received. We

had over 100 people this year, uh, attending the

seminars, which is very good for Paris, for

France. So, yeah, very happy about this. It was

just an idea at the beginning where the Rugby

World Cup. I wanted to do something with all the

cocktail pubs. And then we're like, okay, why we

don't do it with more bars?

>> Susan Schwartz: Who comes to these?

>> Susan Schwartz: Who attends them?

>> Susan Schwartz: Um, are they geared towards on trade or also

consumers? Do any consumers come as well?

>> Speaker C: It's open to everyone for the education part and

even the guest shift. Really, it's really fueled

by the industry part. So we have a lot of

bartenders, chefs, waiters, et cetera coming. But

we try to open it to Pakta schools as well. So we

try to have a lot.

>> Susan Schwartz: Of students coming because I find, uh, you all in

the industry are just so conscious of it. So Hyper

conscious. I always tell people I think you guys

are really doing the most that I've ever seen in

any industry. Of course, I only know this

industry, but so much for sustainability. And I

wish that everyone could attend. These are, uh,

people not in the industry to hear and to be

influenced by you guys. And obviously that's why

I'm interviewing you, is that I also want to get

that word out because I find it so important. Do

you find that this is getting disseminated as much

as you would like to the greater world at large?

>> Speaker C: I think it's just the right amount. Now we don't

want to stream it as a thing. We're really

conscious about greenwashing, social washing. So

everything we do is for us and the community. And

we have all the information on our website. If

people want to know more about it, we're happy to

share. If people want to know more about it. But

we don't want to put it in people's face and be

like, hey, listen, we are the first big. That's

what we. This is not really us. We try to be

humble about it.

>> Susan Schwartz: Oh, gosh. Well, I'm going to shout it out, let me

tell you. Hopefully people like me do. Now you

brought it up, but I would love to talk a little

bit about your B Core status and what that process

was like and why you decided to take those steps.

Because a lot of people might not even know really

what a B Core is, of course.

>> Speaker C: Well, B Corp is the certification that is all

about all the scopes of sustainability. So not

necessarily just the planet, but also community

and guests and, um, transparency, governance. So

it's all the parts of the company are taking into

consideration, which is why it was really

interesting to us because we had a motto, because

we always say, like, be nice in the planet, but

don't forget the people on the way. We're very

close to our community and we really want to push

this. So BICOP was a good structure for us to go

through and that's what we needed. The way Hugo

works as well, uh, it's always about trying to

find some structure to get better. So, um, the

goal was not to achieve it, but when we looked

through different structures and there was like

the Paris Agreement or the Sustainable Development

Goals of the United nations, we looked at all

these things and BCOP gave us, you have 200

questions to or 200 reports to do. And for us it

was 200 opportunity to get better in different

ways. So we just took them one by one.

>> Susan Schwartz: Can you give us an Example of one or two of them.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. Somewhere really simple uh, is to do like

transparency meetings with your, with your

employees and staff. It's something we do, we have

always done, we always meet every week. But we uh,

don't have any report, we don't have any, we don't

really follow up. We do it, we have a small team

and we go on. But bcorp, uh, say oh no, you need

to have this report and structure. You need to be

uh, organized about it. So this kind of

organization really helped us to get better. It

was also some simple thing with like maybe uh, the

data of your guests, like how do you treat the

data of your guests? Or we went through a website,

we didn't know about this and went through a

website. Okay, this maybe we need to change

because you will be more secure for, for the

people that go through our website or with the

banks with the credit card details, et cetera. So

you have a lot of different things that you don't

actually know about. And some are very simple,

some are um, not that simple. It's definitely not

something that's easy for a small business and a

small team to accomplish but it's really rewarding

at the end.

>> Susan Schwartz: And how do you feel that it's changed you? Was

there something on the list where you thought oh

gosh, I've never even thought of that and now I do

it completely differently. There may not be

because you may have been doing everything but I

was just wondering if there was something that it

just awakened in you to do more of.

>> Speaker C: Well here's something really eye opening and

something that's ah, really hard for us to

improve. Like there's some categories with like

um, we sell alcohol so uh, with big copies like

not nice because you don't sell a nice product to

your guests. So this is really challenging. So

maybe we have to push more of a non alcoholic

offer or there's something we can try to do. We

also been doing our uh, carbon footprint audit so

to know exactly where we spend the most of our

footprint and this is really high opening because

we realize some small decision can actually have a

big impact. We knew beef was bad for m the planet

when you actually see the. But your spending is

incredible. And from one day to another we changed

chicken and we saved about 8% of our footprint. So

something like this, yeah, you can always get

better. And that's the nice thing we have about B

Corp. I don't want to preach about because I'm not

here for that but uh, you always have to get

better. Like, we have three years to, in three

years we have to redo the audit and we don't have

to go through the initial score, but we have to

get better than our score. So that's what's

interesting is that you, they always push you to

get better.

>> Susan Schwartz: Uh, you're not preaching at all. No, it's really

interesting. And also I'm hoping that if any other

bars or anyone in the industry who may be

listening might want to do it, they can hear from

you that it is absolutely achievable. And it's

something maybe to have a goal for because it's,

uh, a really wonderful thing that you've been able

to achieve with this and it's really important for

the world. You should be so proud of yourselves.

There are a couple other things as well. I know

you started something called Shaken Leaf and I was

wondering if you could tell everyone what that is.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, of course. It came from, um, from something.

We have something called the Community Plan within

the team, the Cambridge, where everybody, every

single person from the team works into either like

some team, um, sorry, education, part, environment

focus, uh, topics. And it was the goal of one of

our, uh, teammates called Julien. He was like,

okay, I want to share information and to collect

information and share to the world. So the first

goal was to interview pioneers from the world of

sustainability and responsibility. So we were in

art and interview people like Luke Worthy and Matt

Wiley and Agun from penicillin. And he was to have

this interview and put into poor advices. So you

can go on the website and go into like, um, I want

to improve my electricity, uh, spending on my

water concentration. So you can go through water

and you can find some tips and maybe they will

apply to your market, maybe they won't. But it's

to have all this thing really simplified for

everybody around the world to, to get some ideas

and to, to get better. Because sometimes you

don't, you don't know where to start. And people

want to get better, but there's also some pressure

to be like, oh, I want to, I want to be zero waste

or I want to, to be sustainable. It's a really

like step by step process. And the thing is to get

better every day or every week and not

necessarily, you can't, you can't get there in one

day or so. Simple devices. Yeah, of course, all

collected in a single platform. We also ask

people, anybody in the world to go and put the

information. There's like a form where you can,

you can share your story, you can share Some tips,

and then we will, we will go through it and put it

on the website as well. So it's a new project you

just started. Hopefully it will get bigger.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah, it just shows how, um, after three years of

doing the um series, a lot changes within that

world. And it's great to have something that makes

it completely up to date. Now I would love to talk

about some of the things that you do in the bar.

You alluded to the fact that it was really tough

for your first year a few minutes ago. Why do you

think that was and why do you think things

changed? Is it just people became more aware of

what you were doing or what the world was doing in

cocktails?

>> Speaker C: I think there was a lot of different factors.

Also. We struggle because we make some mistakes.

We are here like too much stuff. The stuff. Um,

rates in Paris are really high. You have a lot of

taxes. And because we really care for our staff,

it took a long time for us to, to, to restructure

the team and to let people go. So it affected a

lot of the money we had. But also in Paris it's

people like novelty. So over the first two months

we're doing really well. And then after you have a

big, big crash, which is pretty hard to, to deal

with. We didn't really have any money for PR or

communication. So it just, it just takes some

times. I think it's, it's a normal thing in Paris

to wait a year, year and a half, two years before,

uh, you actually see some, some improvement. Lingo

also was really hard for us that we've been

getting some awards right away. So we wear, wear

Smith pudding. So we won like best bar. And then

you win this award and you're like. But nobody's

there in the box. It's really frustrating. But

that after one year we had Covid. And so, oh yes,

for us in France, it was really, really easy. We

had some good help from the government. All the

staff were taken care of. We didn't struggle as

much as the communities or countries, but, um,

also give us a lot of time to reassess and to, to,

to take a step back and see our, uh, mistakes and

what we can do better. And yeah, we were seeing

some improvement before COVID but after that we

really. It's really when it started, uh, for us to

get busy. And of course three years ago we had

the. Or two years ago we had the first appearance

in the 50 Best World list. So that gave us a big

push. But also it changed a lot of the guests. We

have in the bar. So we used to be. Maybe we lose a

little bit of regulars. We sell more cocktails

definitely. But uh, we also had to adapt to this.

So I give way long answers. But you can.

>> Susan Schwartz: Sometimes people speak for an hour and a half. So

don't. No, we want to hear you. It's all about

your bar. Also you had the Olympics, so that.

Sure, I'm sure uh brought some other people in.

But I love the fact that you're doing something so

new in the oldest part of Paris and Le Marais. Was

there a reason why you picked there, Sammy?

>> Speaker C: We had a few areas in mind. The biggest thing was

to be in the area that were open to having a pub

of course, but also where there's the ratio of

consumers between 25 and 40 years old. Some

locals, both, some tourists, a mix of everything.

But finding that this bar in Marais was really

great because it was also in this little cocktail

hub of this little red dog on the layer like

Celeste. Everything is like five minutes walk. And

so it really helped us to be in this cocktail

world rather than just being like a pub in the

neighborhood.

>> Susan Schwartz: So what are you doing going forward now? Now that

the global series I know just ended well with the

Cambridge.

>> Speaker C: I think now we're looking for more stability. As I

mentioned we had this thing called community plan.

So we really try to push the team to work within

the field, uh arts in the bar, but outside of the

bar towards education, environment, some social

aspect. We haven't done as much as we wanted the

past year because we really got busy and we hired

new positions. So the team got bigger. We also

purchased um, a uh, Little Red Door last year. So

we went through a company of 8 to a company of 29.

So there were some big changes for us. I think we

were looking for more stability in order to grow

and to start doing again to community feels that

really matter to us.

>> Susan Schwartz: And as you brought up you took over Little Red

Door. How did that come about?

>> Speaker C: So Little Red Door was going through some. They

were under administration so not getting to

bankruptcy but looking for some state uh of France

or looking for some new owners. So we found it was

honestly a good opportunity for us. When does the

one of the best buy in the world next? 300 meters

from your embarclass. So it was not a good

opportunity uh, financially and to grow as a

company. But also we didn't really want to see

Little Red Door going to bigger groups or to be

just bola for the. For the image or for the brand

and not really after legacy it deserves. There was

a mix of these things that led us for. To just go

through it and to go for it. So we won the bid and

we had the keys, and in two weeks, we had to, uh,

was. Was still the sixth best Buy in the world at

the time. So a lot of pressure, uh, on the team

and from the guests. Like, I guess maybe 95% of

the of our customers weren't aware that actually

been a change. So we had to step into some

pictures.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah, yeah, I'm, um. You are their angels. I mean,

if anyone should take over how fabulous that it

was you guys, because you certainly have the same

vision and ethos and missions, and so it's great

to see. So, um, thank you. I think, you know,

that's a great place to stop. Um, thank you. Um,

obviously you've got a great website where anyone

can find anything, and I'll have all the links on

the show notes. So, you know, everyone head to

Paris and go to the pub. I know that sounds funny,

but I.

>> Speaker C: Think our website is also very interesting because

we are the. Every year we do an ESG report. I

think it's. It's nice to go through it as a

bartender, as a business owner, because you can

find a lot of tips, and we're very transparent and

we love data. There's a lot of information in

there that can be useful or not. But, uh, really

interested to see us. If you're a little bit

nerdy, Uh, I think it's nice to go.

>> Susan Schwartz: Definitely. It is. I am a little nerdy, and I've

been through it, and it's fantastic. But thank you

so much for being on the show. It's great to hear

your story. It makes me want to get on your show

right now and come out and have a drink with you,

even though it's only, uh, 8:30 in the morning

here.

>> Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. It was great.

>> Susan Schwartz: Sure.

>> Susan Schwartz: It was great for me too. So, um, thanks and

abiento.

>> Speaker C: Bye. Bye.

>> Susan Schwartz: I so want to thank Yasen for.

>> Susan Schwartz: Joining me on the program.

>> Susan Schwartz: I must admit it, this may be the cocktail of the

week that might have my favorite name. Our

cocktail of the week is the cigarette after sex.

How French is that?

>> Susan Schwartz: First you need a wine glass.

>> Susan Schwartz: Then wet the side of it and dip it into some

lapsang souchong tea. Then fill that glass with

ice and pour in all the ingredients. 25 mils of

siete mistieros mezcal, 15 mils of sloe jam, 90

milliliters of agua uh, de Jamaica and 10

milliliters of verju and then stir well. Then add

more ice if necessary and serve. You'll find this

recipe and all the cocktails of the

week@alushlifemanual uh.com thanks for everyone's

patience. Seems like scheduling can be really

tough at this time of year. If you live for Lush

Life, then make sure you head out to the bars you

love and order a drink. Theme music for Lush Life

is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission. And

Lush Life is always and will be forever produced

by Evo, Terra and Simpler Media Productions. Which

leads me to say the wise words of Oscar Wilde all

things in moderation, including moderation, and

always drink responsibly. Next time we head from

Paris to Cinzi. Until then, bottoms.

>> Susan Schwartz: Um.