Daniele Cancellara – Rasputin

About

Daniele was born in 1984 in Florence. His mother is from Tuscany and his father was born in Southern Italy. He has one brother, who was also a bartender but has changed his profession in the meantime. After finishing school, Daniele studied art history in his hometown and got into bartending to support his student life. He started out in a small Italian snack bar, which served coffee and sandwiches and did very few cocktails. A few Negroni’s a day or a Spritz was all he made in this small place called Migliorni. He loved the job though and wanted to explore what it means to do this line of work full time, moving closer to the center of Florence and quitting his studies completely as a result. Daniele then did stints at Rivalta Café, FUK, and Golden View Open Bar. During that time, he met Lucca Picchi—a famous Italian bartender from Florence—while attending a course at a bartender school to deepen his knowledge of mixology. After the first course he did with Lucca, Daniele was approached by Lucca and asked if he would also consider teaching at AIBES (Italian Barguild). Lucca was like a mentor to Daniele, and after teaching at AIBES, he also went on to teach classes at Shaker Club. In summer 2016 he was offered a bar manager position at the newly opened Rasputin and took the opportunity to run the most famous cocktail bar in Florence—which he continues to do today. At present, Daniele only teaches special whisky classes at a local hospitality college. He is fully dedicated to his bar manager position at Rasputin.

Rasputin

Rasputin is THE secret cocktail bar in Florence. Its focus lies on classic cocktail with a twist. The bar has forty-five seats and there is a strict seating-only policy. The crowd is made up of roughly 50 percent tourists and 50 percent locals. It is open every day from 8 pm until 2 am. The team consists of only five bartenders and they all function as waiters too. They rotate and by doing so can go into detail with guests in regards to their tastes and preferences. The menu changes twice a year; its selection consists of twenty-eight cocktails divided into seven sections—each dedicated to one deadly sin. Another focus of the bar is its broad selection of over 150 whiskies.

Inspiration

Daniele normally starts out with a concept. For Jiro (see the cocktail recipes), for example, he saw the documentary Jiro, Dreams of Sushi and wanted to create an homage to the revered sushi chef Jiro Ono. On other occasions, he takes one interesting ingredient and starts from there. Classics are always a good source of inspiration, since today most cocktails derive from a classic recipe. Food and travel provide further inspiration. At the moment, Daniele is delving into the Szechuan kitchen—not actually cooking, but solely studying it. Florence is a very international city and despite the outstanding Italian cuisine, one can find excellent ethnical restaurants all over the city.

Favorite cocktail

Daniele usually drinks whisky neat, but for the sake of mentioning a cocktail here, it is easy to choose—a classic Dry Martini is a drink that is perfect at any time of the day. Why is it his favorite cocktail? The answer is simple: because Martini is Martini.

Check out Daniele’s recipes: Even Angels Like Whisky and Dedicated to Jiro

Favorite bar

Benfiddich in Tokyo. Its classic hospitality combined with Japanese bartending is why Daniele loves it so much. It is very intimate—there is no menu and the space is very small. The cocktails are modern and the bartenders dress in white jackets. A concept like this is only possible in small Japanese Bars.

The future of the bar world

The trending of different cocktail styles moves in a cycle. Five years ago, Hanky Panky and Aviation were very “en vogue,” but now they no longer are. Cocktails come and go, even the classic ones. The drinks are important and they change, but hospitality doesn’t. The quality of bars in terms of hospitality will hopefully improve over the next years. Bars should focus more on this important element.

Craziest customer experience

It is a curious experience rather than a crazy one. At one point the sink in the restroom was clogged and the bar team thought that somebody must have thrown up into it. Which was indeed the case, but what they found was that one guest had apparently been eating a whole candle. Until today, nobody is sure why the guest did it, but the team thinks it was a Japanese tourist who got terribly drunk.

Florence

Florence is Daniele’s home. He is very happy here, since only five to six years ago, it would not have been possible to work in a place like Rasputin due to the high cost of living in the city. Moreover, the local bartenders support each other as they have founded a group. Instead of being rivals, they are more like a big family of friends helping each other out.

Goal in life

Daniele has no greater goals in life. He loves his work, and making people happy is his goal. He wishes to taste all the whiskies in the world, but that is more of a dream than a goal.