Bing

London's first ever sparkling pop-up bar

25.08.17

content@jascots.co.uk

According to our latest research, sparkling wine is the fastest growing category in the on-trade with sales being up by 37% in the last year. So we met with Barnaby Lewis, the founder of Fiz BarHe tells us about how he fell in love with the concept of Barcelona’s Cava Bars and was determined to bring it to London.

 

When did you catch the wine bug? 
I’m from a family of hoteliers and my parents are big entertainers so I learned from them. Growing up in a hospitality home it was always about being happy and entertaining. In my home I was always around wine and it stuck with me.

What inspired you to open a sparkling wine bar? 
I was standing in a Barcelona cava bar (Xampanyeria) about 8 years ago thinking that sparkling wine as a category was drastically misrepresented by champagne, because the category is so much bigger than champagne.

Tell me about the concept behind Fiz?
To create something that is the antithesis to the champagne bar. Because even though it encompasses sparkling it doesn’t say pretention, expensive or exclusive. We made the wine list short so people don’t get confused. We describe the wine in a normal, down to earth description, that’s easily understood. We don’t use wine words and we cut all the fancy wine chat. It’s a down to earth concept that celebrates the depth and breath of sparkling wine.

What percentage of your wine list is by the glass? 
Accessibility is close to our heart, being able to offer a variety that is affordable is equally important. 66% of our wine list is by the glass and English wine sells more by the glass than any other.

 

A glass of English sparkling wine

 

What is the percentage of turnover of your sparkling wine sales? 
Sparkling wine sales are approximately 60% of our sales. Food is 30% and other drinks account for 10%.

How did you design your wine list? 
Our wine list is broken down in easy to understand categories – starting with the classics which are the most affordable and recognisable, then we work our way down to rosé. Our pink Prosecco is doing really well, it’s Provence style with a light fizz for just £6.40 a glass. Next, we move to English sparkling through to something a little different.

What’s the most interesting bubbly on your list? 
The Black Queen. It’s from legendary winemaker Peter Lehman and is an Australian Shiraz from the Barossa Valley. It’s named after the Queen of Sheba and sells very well by the glass.

Black Queen Shiraz 2011, Australia

 

Do you offer food & wine pairings? 
We don’t call it pairings as we didn’t want it to be prescriptive. The idea is all about eating by the hand where possible we use English suppliers. Our signature dish are our buns or our offering of our artisan cheese board and a bottle of our house Fiz for £29.

What next? 
Fiz will be open for 10 weeks in total and then…hopefully a permanent site.

To stay tuned with Fiz’s next location, follow them @fizbar on instagram

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