#94 Giorgio Bargiani - Connaught, Reflections off Ago, Gucci's Martini, and the Glass Built for Two

<p>Giorgio Bargiani is Assistant Director of Mixology at The Connaught Bar in Mayfair, where he has spent close to twelve years working alongside Agostino Perrone — starting as a bar back in September 2014, promoted to Head Mixologist in 2019, and now recognised in his own right, including the peer-voted Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award at Europe's 50 Best Bars in 2026. His route there was anything but direct: raised in Pisa around his family's restaurant and an 1884 perfumery boutique that once sold soap, essential oils and colognes by the litre, he studied Communications at university while working nights as a nightclub promoter, before a chance conversation sent him to Hotel Splendido in Portofino, then to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire, and back to Portofino again — a journey from nightclub floors to near-military fine-dining discipline that eventually led him, on the 8th of August 2014, to a trial shift with Ago at the Connaught.</p><p>On the episode we get into what that twelve-year partnership has actually been like from the inside — the moment he stopped framing himself as living in Ago's shadow and started seeing himself as lifted by his light, and exactly where their philosophies, palates and styles genuinely diverge. We talk about the 2018 crossroads when two job offers in Asia nearly pulled him away for good, the decision he and Ago made to build their own social media presence rather than hand it to a PR agency, and the unlikely creative surge Covid became for the bar. We get into his Gucci collaboration — born from a chance conversation about his Tuscan accent — and the thinking behind his own glassware collection with NUDE, including a double-pour Martini mixing glass built to solve a very specific problem: how to make two drinks at once without losing any of the theatre. And we talk about where he draws the line between innovation that means something and innovation that's just showing off.</p><p><br /></p><p>With thanks to our sponsors:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://fever-tree.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fever-Tree Mixers</a> for the best fizzy liquids going</p><p><a href="https://www.belvederevodka.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Belvedere</a> for additive free, organic Polish vodka</p><p>Get 15% off Algebra's dry coffee liqueur at algebradrinks.com with code CURIOUS15.</p>