Portrait: Best Newcomer Bar 2020

Asino il Bar: The "Donkey" is the best newcomer bar 2020

Shortly after Christmas, on 26 December 2019, Asino il Bar will open in Bern. Simply, quietly and secretly, because the two operators are not in the habit of making a big splash. "With a soft opening for invited guests, they celebrated for two days". The two trained chefs look back.
A touch of Italianità in Bern at Asino il Bar on Casinoplatz.

The people of Bern quickly know about the new bar, because no one passes it by. The architecture alone screams for attention. This year, the Bernese architecture firm Aebi & Vincent even won the Best Architect Award for interior design. Located on Casinoplatz, the small bar is in the centre of the capital.

Close to the government building and Bellevue Palace Bern, the quarters of many political guests who have already acquired a taste for the donkey.

Best Newcomer Bar 2020

In 2020, Asino il Bar won the SWISS BAR AWARD in the category "Best Newcomer Bar". This category honours bars whose new opening or re-opening took place on 1 January 2019 or later. More info at www.swissbarawards.ch

A touch of Italianità

The Asino bar has a visually Italian touch and exudes an Italian atmosphere of life. The almost floor-to-ceiling glass front curving around the corner is inviting and allows a glimpse of the interior with its rounded counter.

Attractive like an Italian espresso bar where you take café standing up, the new bar, however, entices with exquisite drink offerings, own creations, espresso and plain coffee. There is no café latte or cappuccino.

The Asino il Bar on Casinoplatz in Bern

The boutique becomes the bar

Where leather goods were previously sold, cocktail culture is now growing in the Bear City. "The boutique was filled from top to bottom with hats, belts, bags, purses. You never saw how nice the place actually was," says Elio Barraza. Italy's atmosphere obligates, and so the bar team also accommodates this in terms of design as well as name.

Asino, the donkey in German, "symbolises the cliché Bernese: defiant, cosy and slow", says Silvan Hug. Behind this, however, is just a word joke intended to achieve: "It would be nice if people said they go to the Esel, not the Asino," says the bar duet. Like in the past at the history-steeped football ground Wankdorf aka Stade de Suisse. But since there are two operators, guests could well say they go to the Donkeys ... Hug and Barraza take it with humour.

"It would be nice if people said they were going to the Donkey, not the Asino".

Silvan Hug

The architect Bernhard Aebi is part of the donkey gang. "His heart's project," says Hug. Normally they did "huge things in Switzerland". Aebi's original idea is actually a café. But then, through Silvan's girlfriend who takes taster days at Aebi's agency, Silvan comes into the architect's office's sights. "They approached me because they heard about my desire for a bar," he recalls. One meeting, several meetings are arranged. And soon the basic idea of a café is thrown overboard and turned into a bar.

Now the planning of a bar begins. Elio Barraza, whom Silvan met at the nightclub Kapitel, has been on board since September. "We know each other! We even worked together briefly at Kapitel or Taube," says Barraza. The two passionate chefs are opening a new chapter together at Asino il Bar.

The brains behind the "Donkey": Silvan Hug (left) and Elio Barraza

From the kitchen to the bar

In addition to his training as a chef, Silvan has also completed a commercial apprenticeship. "A means to an end", because he never wanted to work in an office. His passion has always lain dormant in gastronomy. Starting at Volver, landing at Abflugbar for three years, a short stopover at Zurich's Widder Bar. Soon back and off to Bern's Taube Bar. Now he's a jackass, and with Elio he's not alone in that.

Silvan Hug appreciates the connection with and closeness to people, likes the personal. That is also the reason why he did not work as a chef. "The kitchen interests me more than the bar, and I still like to cook. But the contact with the guest is missing when you work alone in your kitchen," he explains.

Contact with people - his important professional pillar, he would do everything the same way again. The vision for the next life is therefore: a bar with food, preferably coordinated. "Maybe it's still enough in this life". He is fascinated by food because you can go much further than in the bar.

Tinkerer and inventor

But the kitchen has not been completely lost in him. On the contrary. The heart of the bar is in a cellar laboratory where the small bar could fit in a few times. A rotary evaporator stands there. "Our centrepiece," the two are pleased to say. A device that originally comes from the pharmaceutical industry for the production of medicines and has long since found its way into the molecular kitchen.

A lot of redistilling goes on there to capture concentrated essences, aromas and flavours and to bring them visually and tastefully into the specially created drinks: Four sections with five signature cocktails, often inspired by classic drinks.

Releasing a new menu every other month is the internal goal. The Negroni is quality-tapped, so it always tastes the same, no matter who makes it.

They do not focus on spirits. They prefer to present a nice selection. They emphasise the aperitif character with amari, vermouths, drinks with lots of flavour and less alcohol. The low ABV and aperitif offer is especially worthwhile with an outdoor area for 60 seats and 16 inside.

They like to use the rotary evaporator for new flavours. That's why most of the work they put into the cocktail happens in the cellar, so they can spend time as hosts at the bar. Tapped beers alternate between different ones from Italy, Germany, the Valais, craft or simply accessible beer. But always only 2 in number.

The kitchen in the bar

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Mint that no longer looks pretty they don't want to just throw away. They put the asini into the sinfully expensive purchase and create a distilled mint rum, for example. "There are things that don't make much sense to distil for the bar because you can also lose a lot of aromas," Hug says.

Leaving almost no waste is an important credo for both. Straws are banned because no one needs them. Fruit that has been cut off is pressed, and when the mint is not rotating, it is syruped. Raspberries and gooseberries are enchanted into berry dust and find their way into a cocktail as a colour and flavour nuance.

Fresh lime or lemon juices are distilled and never drained away. Animal products are almost never used. Instead of egg white, the two creatives rely on a tasteless powder alternative that is made to foam with distilled water.

The idea of sustainability is very important to Hug and Barraza. Even if it cannot always be maintained. "Whisky from Scotland, gin from England. Sustainable doesn't always work," they point out. There is also Swiss rum, whisky and gin, but the
Swiss editions have not influenced cocktail culture as much as the original rum.

The kitchen is wider than the bar

When they develop drinks, the root is usually not in liquids, but in food. They first think of salmon, avocado or the dessert pear and port. They are convinced that this also fits as a drink, you just have to prepare it differently. At Asino il Bar, they make Bellini from port pears with sugar and spices. "The kitchen is much further along than the bar. Also in the perception and appreciation of the guests," he is convinced.

As in New Nordic Cuisine, where "the maximum is extracted from a minimum", he says. From this perspective, potatoes could run through a menu and be offered in umpteen variations in a very special form. "And taste better than all the products in the whole world," says the bar operator with a Chilean name.

At the cocktail bar of the Kapitel nightclub, he helped shape Bern's nightlife for a long time and also got to know Silvan. He even wanted to gain experience in construction. "It was a long and intense time. But at some point I had to return to my roots, cooking and drinks," Barraza says, pouncing on the pigeon and landing on the donkey.

Elio Barraza mixes new creations

The donkey's balancing act

Since then, the two-person team has been trying to create a balance between drinking culture and modernity with a permanent staff quartet and regular temporary staff during the summer months. Their focus: the way they prepare their cocktails. Since the taste of a drink should speak for itself, it is not labelled by name, but numbered.

The Rum Cocktail No 1 finds its further development and formation in continued numerical series. "The guest should not remember the name, but the taste," is how they explain the listing in the bar menu. Because the basis remains the same. The aim is to offer alternatives and create new cocktails.

Another aspiration in the donkey's house is to move away from constant availability of all products. "We have fermented gooseberries now, but if they are no longer available, they simply aren't". They do not want to be understood as moralists, nor do they want to make a philosophy out of it. Instead of lemon and acid, they like to use verjus or tartaric acid, for example.

But since a daiquiri really calls for lime, this drink should also be made with it. "A guest who wants a daiquiri should also have it. Without 25 ingredients or in an alternative preparation. Then we'd rather create a new cocktail. It's important to manage the balancing act so as not to lose yourself," Elio describes from experience. "Or change the daiquiri and call it Daiquiri 2.0," Silvan adds.

A lot of work and heart and soul

In principle, the Asino Bar welcomes a broad public. In detail, however, the pleasure and cocktail drinker. They don't see any competition within the Bernese bar scene. "All the bars have their own style and have paved the way for us to be where we are now. We appreciate that," Hug and Barraza say.

For their Asino il Bar, they hold the title of Best Newcomer Bar of the SWISS BAR AWARDS 2020. "The award is a confirmation of the heap of work and our lifeblood that still flows. For our concept, which we implement for pleasure drinkers and the city of Bern," the two hosts are pleased to say.

Asino's Signature Drinks

Cosmopolitan 1934 2.0

4 clNasturtium Gin*
2 cl Raspberry Chocolate Pepper Cocchi Americano*
1 clCardamom syrup*
2 clVerjus
2 clFoam*
Raspberry dust*

Preparation: Shake all ingredients except raspberry dust first with, then without ice. Strain into tumblers over ice and garnish with raspberry dust.
* These ingredients have all been refined or made in-house.

Cherry and thyme

6 cl Freshly squeezed cherry juice
3 cl water
1 cl verjus
1 gram spice mix*

Preparation: Stir all ingredients cold in a mixing glass and strain through a fine sieve into a wine glass. Garnish with fresh borage
flower.
* Heady thyme, cloves, borage, salt, pink pepper, sugar, orange peel. Process everything into a spice powder

Asino il Bar

Casinoplatz 2
3011 Bern
asinoilbar.be

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