We have found ourselves in a strange situation. Not long ago, people across Slovakia thought that a virus problem somewhere in China had nothing to do with us. Shortly after the virus appeared in Italy, our government introduced the necessary measures. What initially felt almost like a holiday suddenly gave way to the realisation that this was something very different, and far more serious. Something that might affect all of us for many months.
We are anxiously following a situation that changes and develops every day. Our favourite events, planned for the coming weeks, are being postponed because of the spread of coronavirus, and some are being cancelled altogether. For example, Whisky Fest in Bratislava, which we take part in every year, has been moved to 18–19 June 2020, while the Slovak specialty coffee association @sca_slovakia has announced that the Slovak BARISTA2020 Championships in Košice, originally scheduled for 27–28 March 2020, have been postponed indefinitely. And that is before we even mention the congresses, weddings and conferences where you would normally find us making and serving cocktails…
We do not want to dwell on regret or frustration, or write long paragraphs of uncertain predictions about what things will look like in a month or two. Still, on behalf of everyone at Dream Cocktail & Academy, we feel a need to express our position and, above all, our empathy for the hospitality industry, which is perhaps the hardest hit. At times like these, we feel particularly connected to it: many of the bartenders, baristas, waiters and home coffee and cocktail enthusiasts we have trained are now forced to stay at home, just as we are.
As government measures closed one venue after another, owners responded in very different ways. Some decided to cut their business costs by reducing staff and began mass layoffs. Here I would like to quote a thought shared by a member of the lovely Café Datěl team in České Budějovice: “When an owner does this, it automatically tells an employee that they mean nothing to their employer and are completely replaceable.” Given that hospitality depends above all on people — its employees — this is neither fair nor right. Even today, fair treatment by employers is often considered something exceptional. Employees frequently overlook these risks, and even when they do think about them, cash paid straight into their hands can silence their concerns.
Perhaps this pandemic could become a reminder for employees to recognise this risk and learn from it. In the future, it could help create a healthier market with better working conditions in hospitality. Other owners have offered their premises as temporary workshops for sewing face masks or as storage for disinfectants. Gradually, owners are realising that this situation will last longer than two weeks or a month. They have introduced measures to secure at least a little income to cover rent and the staff wages mentioned above. The first step was takeaway windows. With venues already holding stocks, deliveries of coffee, sourdough bread and other food quickly took off. Within days, many businesses had arranged contactless payment platforms or online ordering through their websites.
One of the first people in Slovakia to respond to the needs of coffee drinkers at home was Adrián Krišák from @needforespressoground in collaboration with @coffeeholics. From the outset, he took on deliveries of coffee and coffee equipment in Bratislava and the surrounding area. Shortly afterwards, the café @bombabarista in Bratislava’s Dúbravka district joined in, along with many others. Several bars began bottling cocktails and delivering them straight to people’s doors. We would also like to highlight a wonderful idea from young Slovaks Dalibor Slávik and Juliana Gubišová, designed to support favourite venues and help them survive in the long term. The #neviemzitbezkavy project is about solidarity and togetherness, especially within the coffee community. It creates a virtual space where people can support their favourite business by subscribing to a coffee drink or a bag of coffee.
Our work is about educating people and encouraging better working habits. Unfortunately, the current situation prevents us from continuing what we love in the coming days: organising courses and meeting you at training sessions. We have therefore postponed all courses and workshops planned for March through June, and will keep the dates updated on these pages as the situation develops.
While we are all sitting at home, scrolling aimlessly through Facebook and wondering what to do after cleaning the windows and baking bread, we have finally got around to the books we bought at Bar Convent in Berlin seven years ago, and older issues of Standartmagazine that we always “had no time for”… We are revising and updating our teaching materials, looking for fresh inspiration, learning and working on ourselves, so that we can return better and stronger than ever.
Our advice to bartenders, baristas and home enthusiasts is the same: spend time with your family, then use your remaining free time to work on yourself. Practise your mixing technique, fine-tune your V60 recipe or deepen your theoretical knowledge. Look through the references at the back of the teaching materials you received on your course, follow your role models on social media, find inspiration and prepare as well as you can for a fresh start.
PS: Here is an inspiring article about keeping yourself moving forward, written by Ľuboš Rácz, owner of Záhir bar and @barkultur.