This is Fabian Lepe, from Guadalajara, bar manager at Alcalde restaurant.
Fabian has been bartending for almost ten years. He started when he was 17 years old and learnt most of his bartending foundations when he moved to Cancun for a year. In reality, Fabian never really imagined that he would make a career in hospitality. What started as a way to make ends meet eventually turned into a passion. And then came a turning point in his life when he realized the depth of everything that could be learnt in the world of cocktails, spirits and hospitality. Nothing special happened in that turning point, if not only a true desire to learn more combined with a deep appreciation of the craft. Fabian has now been managing the bar program at one of Mexico’s best restaurants for the past three years and least to say, his pursuit of knowledge is still going strong.
Q&A
- What makes your city special? "Tequila."
- Why is tequila special for you? "It’s something you grow up with. It’s something that’s in your life since forever, there is always tequila around. In the movies, in the house, you see your aunties and uncles drinking tequila… It’s something that you understand really as a part of life here. And it’s pretty cool that tequila also represents us, represents Jalisco and Mexico in other parts of the world."
- What’s the biggest lesson that working in hospitality taught you ? "I think it’s a community. The support and the family that exists between bartender friends and colleagues. It’s really nice. The sense of community and hospitality between people in general."
- If you were a cocktail, which cocktail would you be? "A negroni. Sometimes its sweeter, sometimes it’s more bitter, is sometimes more dry, sometimes it’s stronger, sometimes it’s more balanced, a bit of a chameleon."