My Life
Growing up in a bakery, hard manual labor came somewhat naturally to me. My parents opened the business a year after my birth, so it was basically part of my DNA since day one. In many ways it is very similar to the hospitality industry. My parents were mainly working at night and sometimes also throughout the day. Christmas and the weekends were a very busy time; when everybody else was off, they were working the hardest. This influenced my entrepreneurial spirit immensely.
Around the same time my father sold his bakery, I opened my bar l’Antiquaire. It is not a place for me to do business that brings in big money. It is a passion project for me that hopefully will pass the test of time. Who knows, maybe I will hand over this bar to my son one day. I am very old school when it comes to working in the bar. The roots run deep and true. But I have to first rewind a little to be able to tell the story of how I ended up a bartender.
“Bartending is my hobby, passion and job at the same time”
Marc Bonneton
Like so many, I was out for money when I was in my teens and my parents put it simply when they said “work like we do and you will make money.” So I started waiting tables in a restaurant and switched from there into bartending. In 2003 I started at Vatel, a culinary school. My parents thought it was the right way to go, but it was difficult to reconcile school and work and I decided to dedicate all my time to the bar business. I told myself that bartending is a respectable job but owning a bar is much better, so at 23 I opened my first bar and left school behind. The bar still exists today and is called Soda Bar. Since then much has happened and today I am the owner of l’Antiquaire, the co-owner of l’officine and the creator and co-owner of Cockorico, a bottled cocktail company that I recently founded. I love my life. Bartending is my hobby, passion and job at the same time. Becoming an entrepreneur was in my blood and I did not really need schooling for that. I learned everything there is by pursuing my passion.
L’Antiquaire
When I opened l’Antiquaire in 2010, I was living upstairs where the Jockey Club is located now. On Fridays and Saturdays we open the upstairs bar. It has an elegant finish with lots of wooden elements, a classic jazz-era bar with a 1950s style. Downstairs we also have lots of wooden finishes and it has an elegant flair to it too, but it is more laid back and louder and we have a terrace which is open from March to October. A good place to feel at ease and cozy the whole evening.
Best Bars and Restaurants in Lyon
Lyon Bar Recommendations
🍸 Soda Bar
🍸 L’Officine
🍸 Le Passage
Lyon Restaurant Recommendations
🍸 Restaurant Paul Bocuse
🍸 Brasserie Georges
🍸 Restaurant Thomas
The Future
The original business model of a cocktail bar that serves 95 percent cocktails is on the brink of extinction at the moment in my opinion. And due to COVID there will be even fewer cocktail bars in the future. Places like Tayer & Elementary could be a good model for the future: food and cocktails, but not as formal as a restaurant. I also think we will move towards more sustainable and eco-friendlier bars.
Profile
Year Born: 1983
Special Skills: Good generalist and entrepreneur—consistent and persevering.
Free Time: Being with my friends, drinking good spirits and smoking some cigars, besides boxing, running, an interest in cars and entrepreneurship.
Bartender Since: 2002
Biggest Fail: Doing what I don’t know and opening a restaurant.
Most Significant Career Step: Winning Bacardi Legacy
Favourite Cocktail: Negroni / Old Fashioned—lots of taste and almost no dilution. A classic and a true cocktail: spirit, bitter, water, sugar.
Check out Marc’s cocktail recipe: Marco’s Bacardi Fizz
Favourite Bar: Milk & Honey in NYC will always be my best experience. I was younger, new to bartending, and easy to impress but this bar has stayed in my memory since.
Lyon: A small city that wants to look big.
Images: ©The Pouring Tales
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