Until about two years ago, Victor Topart was still a virtually blank slate in the entire Swiss bar scene and world of competitions. In the meantime, the native Parisian, who grew up in Quimper, Brittany, is no longer an unknown quantity. Last year, he was able to win the Barkeeper of the year competition and bring this trophy back to French-speaking Switzerland for the first time in a long time.
Now another award joins the same place called Crapule Club, which is also a cocktail bar. The club's bar manager and his team take the winning spot in the Best Bar Menu category. The Crapule team beat out Zurich competitors Bar am Wasser and no idea.
A lot of teamwork for the bar menu
"It's crazy," Victor Topart is pleased with the honor. "We really didn't expect this. We had great competitors with super cards. The award means a lot to us. Also because it represents the first award that the whole team has worked for and earned. Our bar menu really came about as a team effort," Topart explains. For example, the entire bar team racked their brains for months to create the drinks in the bar menu, simply titled "La Carte." Even the club's owners and F+F Studio, which ultimately fabricated the menu, were involved in the entire development process.
It was as much about the selection of spirits and liquors as it was about the combination and history of drinks. The goal behind the new and sleek menu was to change out the entire drink repertoire and the menu itself. "We wanted to achieve that the bar menu is easier and more pleasant to read. But that it also shows who we really are. F+F Studio, with whom we work, understood us very well and simply made our menu more attractive," says Topart.
Ideas for the future bar menu
In the future, the card, whose drinking genres can also be distinguished by color pages, will be changed every season. The biggest challenge in the card design, he said, was choosing those colors that also reflect the interior of the Crapule Club. "At the same time, we wanted it to be fun, as we are. Durability was also important to us, so it would last through as many crazy nights as possible," explains the bar manager.
"La Carte" appears in book form and is encased in the transparent cover. In the opening prelude, one encounters words of welcome and a small table of contents, and then jumps right into the current drink selection. The chapter "Our Cocktails and Current Folly" represents signature cocktails and a few classics like the Penicilline or Mai Tai. In addition, the graphic drink breakdown includes their classification by drink genre, flavor profile or drink strength. Bar snacks such as local terrines round off the range.
Shrill, colorful and bright
The bar menu, with around 17 pages, was to be structured like a cocktail in which different colors and textures come to the fore. "Since music plays a big role in our house, we use a dazzling cover as the cover. It's bright, and when the lights reflect on it, it also looks like the surface of a music CD," explains the bar manager.
"Our bar menu is truly a team effort!"
Victor Topart
So the Crapule Club has a new business card, Victor Topart and his team have another award. Remains to be seen what' drumbeat will be heard at the next SWISS BAR AWARDS from French-speaking Switzerland to eastern Switzerland.
This article appeared in
Issue 5-2022
BAR NEWS magazine as single issue
