Unlocking Hospitality Success: Selma’s Journey
Cross-Continental Passion
Selma’s hospitality journey, from washing dishes in Denmark at 12 to managing Michelin-star establishments in NYC, reflects her relentless dedication. Her artistic background fueled her mixology passion, aiming to create memorable, heritage-rooted experiences.
Cultural Contrasts: USA vs. Denmark
Selma navigates tipping culture in the US versus hourly wages in Denmark, and differing guest expectations. She brings American hospitality warmth to Copenhagen, aiming to elevate its cocktail scene.
Tackling Industry Challenges
As a female leader, Selma confronts sexism, emphasizing mentorship and empowerment. She takes pride in mentoring others to success, highlighting the impact of support.
Heritage and Craft: A Unique Vision
Selma’s Nordic heritage shapes her craft, showcased in her book, “Spirit of the North.” She blends folklore and foraging with cocktails, encouraging others to incorporate their heritage into their work.
Lessons for Professionals
- Work Your Way Up: Start with entry-level roles to understand the industry.
- Passion is Key: Find genuine love for the craft.
- Embrace Mentorship: Learn and then mentor others.
- Keep It Fun: Prioritize creativity and playfulness.
- Elevate the Experience: Create connections through storytelling.
Selma’s Vision for Denmark
Returning to Denmark, Selma aims to introduce tiki and tropical cocktails, redefining Copenhagen’s bar scene and empowering female leadership. Her story inspires dedication, creativity, and community in hospitality.
Transcript
Different Cultures – How is it to be a female in a male dominated industry- With Selma Slabiak
Auto-generated transcript; it may contain small transcription errors.
have you ever wondered what it's like to combine arts history and Hospitality into a career that expands within two continents we dive into a fascinating world of bartending and Hospitality exploring a cultural contrast and how is it to be a female in a male dominated industry joining us today it's Selma a Danish American Hospitality professional whose career has taken her from die bars in New York to managing Michelin star establishment and writing a book that blends Nordic Heritage with cocktail culture with the passion for history
sustainability and mentorship Selma has worked with some of the most prestigious bars and restaurants including Ace Hotel Michelin star Asa and hotel Chelsea thank you so much for accepting my invitation here I'm actually honored that you are joining us because taking into consideration all of the things that you've done probably not many people in Copenhagen got to know you yet so please let us know Enlighten us why you actually chose to come back to Copenhagen I mean I was born in Denmark and I am considering
myself at least half Danish uh and having spent the majority of my at least adult life in the in the United States I really wanted to come back and and be a part of my culture and my Heritage but also because I think that it was very exciting for me to think that I can do some things here that I've done in the states that maybe not are the same here and I have something to add to the table if that makes sense absolutely it does
and it actually leads to to one of the questions that I wanted always to ask you what kind of cultural differences you see between America and Denmark because in my view as an forer as an outsider I believe there's a huge difference but I never been to USA so maybe you can elaborate a bit more about this I mean specifically on the bar scene or just in general specifically on the bar scene and Hospitality let's say maybe a broader audience cuz we might have somebody who
is in the kitchen who is a waiter and they they want to know is that American Dream real that you go to America and everything it's different or well it's very different in the way that um we don't have the same Security in the States you rely on tips uh that means that you can go in on a slow shift on a Monday night and spend 10 hours behind the bar and make $40 which is you know 300 Crona or something like that you can also
work a shift where you make $1,500 which is you know what 10,000 Corona yeah um so but but you work your way up so in America you usually start as um brunch bartender which is annoying cuz you're really busy and you just make the same three drinks and it sucks uh then maybe you get a Monday night or Tuesday night when it's super slow and you sort of w work your way up and then once you are really good and been at a place for a
while you get the good shifts and I mean at the end of my time over there I work three days a week and made an insane amount of money I would make between a th and 2,000 at night so that meant that I could work less and have a better work life balance where here in Denmark it's different in a way where it's you're hourly and you get the same amount whether it's busy or slow so obviously there's good sides to both of them I don't
know which one I prefer because it's still quite new obviously the Danish version where I get vacation if I'm sick I'm not you know going to lose my apartment so that's very very good and I do believe that the Danish version is better for sure I will say another big difference and for me that was a huge shock is the guests okay uh Danes are not used to going out in the same way that Americans are American go American people go out if not once a
week than twice in New York City it's even more you go out almost every night because you eat out you have you meet your friends at a bar after work on on Monday Tuesday Wednesday not just Thursday and Friday and um that means that I feel like Americans are a lot better at being guests where in Denmark um we're not quite used to it yet where it's it's very new to go out and be social in public settings and that means that the Danes don't really
have the manners yet um and I'm hoping that that will change because that that that has been like the negative experience for me coming here it's just people are very entitled um and can be very rude because they have this the customer is always right Mantra that you know because we go out so rarely you are used to it being a very special occasion and you expect a lot and of course you should expect a lot but the customer is not always right as everyone in
the service industry will tell you and it's funny because this quote is it's very old some people attributed to Harry srid who was the department store owner and it's actually just part of a quote and I think the original quote is something like the customer is always right in the manner of taste yes so we are talking about oh if nobody buys this then we shouldn't sell it versus you can just walk into any place and act like a little brat and that's not what the
quote is about so I'm hoping that you know in Copenhagen it's a little different it's a little more Metropolitan and people are a lot better but you know absolutely there is definitely a difference there and um actually I know you have a big big big history with uh with hospitality but I also actually discovered that you studied something else you you studied the Arts right yes I I started I went to Art School you went to Art School I went to art school and I thought
I was going to be an artist or a curator or an art teacher and I actually before I moved to the states for a little while I worked as an uh like a second and third grade art teacher in public school and I really thought oh okay how did this shift happening from the art to the hospitality was it something that you planned was it something that you actually went there to USA got the job and say oh I really like to do this more than
that or it's something that you you just got in there well I I started working in restaurants when I was very young my uncle had a restaurant where when I was 12 years old is super illegal but we don't care cuz it was the the early '90s and family business it was family business so I started doing dishes and clearing table and you know as a lot of young people I would work in in my holidays I would work in restaurants and my family comes from
a long line of service industry um we worked at castles kind of like downtown appy as to help in Generations so I always it always came natural to me but then you know you are being told in Danish Society you need an education you need to do this and when I came to America I couldn't work for the first three months and back then you could work under the table just for cash so I just got a job at a restaurant and enjoyed it so much
I had so much fun and even though it was insanely hard work I just like immediately F found friends that to this day like 18 years later are still my best friends because there was this camaraderie and I decided that I really L doing it and just decided that okay if I want to do this I want to be the best so just nerded out completely and did everything I could to okay yeah so once you got into the industry basically you went with the whole
mentality I want to perform I want to go there so you you kind of had this goal from the first moments as you as you mentioned well I I don't know if it was a goal I I definitely felt like very incompass in it like it there one of my favorite things in the world my biggest hobby is history and there's so much history to the restaurant industry to different cocktails different styles of cocktails and for me it was just so easy to to apply that
and it it just became a huge passion of mine it never felt like work to me because I got to nerd out about things and I worked with people that felt the same way and we would you know tell each other things oh have you heard about this cocktail I found it this weird old book and it became this like organism of just baby bartenders that just got so into it that we kept topping each other and and egging each other on in this like whole
industry okay it's actually fascinating how you say that taking the history as your hobby and transposing that into hospitality and how much it affected you in the in the end yeah while also I see a bit of a connection with the art school because everything is connected in a in a way do you actually have when you started you said you started from a very very low position as everybody else I guess in this industry or most of us in the industry or at least you
should or at least you should that's definitely the the belief how did you exceed I mean I've seen you going in a in a lot of places a lot of famous places starting probably you climb the leather was it a smooth path was it a hard path path when did you when it was more like a straight line or it was just jungle no I mean it was all over the place and again it was about you know making connections and and being in the right
groups it was very much about working very very hard I remember going to job interviews and like memorizing cocktails the entire menu I would go into a boot camp with my myself for weeks before and I would be so nervous like throwing up on the way cuz I really really wanted to I wanted it so badly and and it it was definitely not easy and especially you know being a woman in a male dominated industry is never super easy but luckily I'm so incredibly lucky because
I have a career that doesn't feel like work to me I love everything that I do every aspect of it and I feel so lucky because I don't think I could have been a teacher or a bank teller or something else I could have done that but I wouldn't it would be a job for me it wouldn't be something that that I get to do and I feel lucky that I get to do it okay I so definitely be be passionate about it and if you
can find that passion then you should find something that you're passionate about and do that instead all right talking about passions I actually I've read your book and I got your book I have it in here with me today that's so funny how did you find it I can't even find a copy I have my source oh very nice that's a that's not the problem and in the book you said one person that actually inspired you it was your grandmother my grandmother yes and I guess
now that I have a bit more understanding on uh your family and running the family business it makes a lot much more sense of what you are debating in the book about all of the natural like ingredients that you can Source yourself from surrounding and um how did the how the book was perceived in USA because in Denmark I believe it's something nowadays at least it's something more common or it's something more trendy to Source yourself all of the ingredients how was it the perception of
the USA it's a very Scandinavian approach and it's something that I definitely felt that I could add and bring to the American uh approach for sure and it's it's become a little bigger but it's still very niche in Denmark we are very used to having nature right outside of our door and um sort of live with the seasons and and use seasonal ingredients very very much whereas in the states it's one big melting puddle and I I see a lot of places do this more and
more definitely U when I started writing this book I was working at a really amazing Cocktail Club cocktail bar called Donna Cocktail Club and um I had been trying for like two years to put an aquab cocktail on the menu and they were just like no oh it's too weird people are not going to buy it what are you doing and now kind of like mcal at some point was like the hip thing to drink like now aquabid has like its moment in the states very
very much and I think that's really really fun nice I I'm happy to hear that and I'm happy to hear that people over there still are more willing to to go into different approaches so and definitely sustainability is becoming very very big in the bar world over there I think it's it is very big in in Denmark in general or Scandinavia or in Europe because we have the European Union and they help us sort our things and you know having a return system for our bottles
we don't have that in the States and it's it's so sad or not really in the same way as here but you know there are there are places like Maz in New York which I really love that are super sustainable and do a lot of that little red door in Paris is another amazing example and it is becoming more and more normal but when this book came out in 2018 it was definitely you know a little different but also this is as you said a very
grandmotherly book it's very uh you know I mean I loved it I I read most of the the recipes in there and I'm looking forward to try some of them at home it might require a bit more patience for my side to go and uh find all of the ingredients but definitely I want to try some of them and then um how is it actually how was this transition did you perceive it as a transition from let's say being behind the bar to going managing a
bar to writing a book to do all of this journey yes very much and I'm still you know my true passion is bartending and I still bartend as often as I can because I think it's the best ever managing is sort of like the necessary next step and because I've had so many amazing mentors in my career I want to do that for someone else as well it's very important for me um recently and this is something you know I sound like a grandmother myself but
it brings me so much joy I have two prior barbs that I trained and they became bartenders under my wing and now one of them is the GM at mace and the other one just won the uh speed rack which is insane okay and these were little babies that I took under my wings and it makes me so proud so although I would prefer to be a bartender the rest of my life and just keep my head down and do my thing then I think it's
really important that if you have the opportunity to give someone else that knowledge or that push or that interest or that passion then it's it's definitely something that you should do that's interesting and I believe it's a fulfilling as well now I actually have some questions that are not let's uh let's say you you met new people in the industry what advices would you give them to to excel in this career my big one is that everything is a every task is an opportunity to learn
you have to really want it and always remember it's just drinks that's it and that's actually something that I see a little bit that is now a thing in the states that is moving to here or hopefully moving to here is that we can't take ourselves too seriously it is just drinks you know the whole uh you look like an accountant from the 1890s and you know it's to a certain point you can't take yourself so serious and you can't take the drink so serious you
know it is so you need that room to you have to have fun it is it is the main thing and it's like something I do a lot is I love making my cocktails fun and colorful and throw some candle candy in there and light it on fire and the more fun you can have the better and that's like it it's become I I feel like the the bar industry like has become very like stiff in a way where it's like oh we have to be
so serious and you got to stir this way and yes the technique is important but if you don't have fun with it it becomes very stagnated and it becomes very boring and it becomes exclusive in a way where people don't feel like they can be included in it and that's like that's really dangerous because then it just becomes this little niche of like people that are like you're not in the club and one of the things that is very normal in the states is everyday people
that are not bartenders drink cocktails and are excited about cocktails will when they have friends over they make cocktails for them where in Denmark you go out and you drink a cocktail because you want to try something but it's not something that we share with everyone like people don't really have a home bar they don't get excited about making a specific drink unless it's GL for Christmas but that's about it I think so that's something that I think is really fun and something that I think
we can see in Denmark be more normalized cocktails because if you have friends over you drink wine or if you're 25 you drink shimo Vice but having someone like buy a cocktail book and want to make drinks for your friends kind of like learning a new dish and want to make it for your friends that's that's super interesting all right so when you when you wrote this book yeah you you wrote it with that thing into your mind right I definitely wanted people to um have
fun making drinks at home but at this point I I was working at a place called ASA which is a new Nordic restaurant one of the first in in New York and it started as a popup where I was a bartender at a place called Kinfolk Studios that was I mean it was insane it was not a cool bartending place but it was I could work two days a week okay making vodka Red Bull and I my my best friend and I had an apartment in
Brooklyn that we shared and then we had a house Upstate so we would work Friday and Saturday go upstate and just live the country life and I mean you made so much money it was stupid I would have a tote back and just carry like a whole thing of cash home it was it was I made so much money there but it wasn't fulfilling because you just dealt with junk on drugs till 7 in the morning but it was definitely fun to do so it was
this really cool whole Space where these F guys were friends and they're super into bicycles and they moved to Japan together open a bicycle shop there that they turned into a coffee shop bicycle shop and then they moved to Brooklyn and made one there as well and then they made a little bar and they started doing popups so um this guy Frederick basilius who's a Swedish Chef uh did a popup and this was in 2012 and him and I just we have the same background Grand
parents that took us foraging um the folklore in Scandinavia making everything from scratch immediately we just clicked and had so much fun those three months where I would make all the drinks and he would make all the all the food and we sort of worked really well together like we we took all the food ingredients into the cocktails and so when he opened his brg and mortar restaurant uh in Williamsburg in 2016 I came on as the beverage director and it was really really fun it
was like super Noma esque um and it was amazing because it was one of the first restaurants in New York that sort of had that feel and it became super super super fancy and popular we got two Michelin stars uh immediately off the bat which was amazing and so I was in that mindset at that point when the book was written um I was also working uh as a beverage director at the Ace Hotel in in New York City where I was doing the cocktails for
the brein restaurant which is the opposite of new Nordic it's like you know Scotch eggs and and pork roast and very like new American um so it was like two very different places but and that's the thing you evolve over the years you become super into at some point I was really into all the old timey cocktails I had the seavo cocktail book and I just nerd out about all these 1920s and 1930s cocktails and then I was obviously super into the new Nordic there and
I I really found a voice also because I was from Scandinavia and I didn't know any other Scandinavian people in the industry uh so that was really really fun I sort of had like my little niche that I could Excel on and I I just dove into that and with the book you know it's a love letter to my grandmother who was a huge part of my life and she was very you know I'm old I was born before the internet you know kind of stuff
so we had a whole different way you know I grew up with her like we made everything from scratch we butchered our own animals we grew own vegetables we went foraging in the woods for mushrooms or herbs or anything like that and bringing your heritage into your passion is like absolutely the best advice I can give to anyone because I don't think that you could have the same passion for uh Danish flavors as I can because it's something that I have a personal relationship with but
I you know you have something that you can bring to the table and this book um it's a lot of cocktails uh there's also some food recipes and uh a thing with this is that and it's always been my mentor that every single drink I make it tells the story it references a time or a place or a smell that's super important to me and so all these cocktails come with a little backstory um mostly for the guests because they also like that they're not just
getting something it's not just a cold exchange of me making a drink for you here's some money boom I tell the story of okay this cocktail is named after this old Legend from this Danish words and that that makes it even more real it makes it even more personable and again you get an experience in something memorable not just a transaction AB booze AB boo no it's a quite interesting you mentioned something about the different cultures and also I remember from one of our discussions before
what how is it to work with this cultural different background on on a large scale oh it's amazing because you know it's it's like traveling constantly I have worked with people from all over the world and I've been so lucky because I was in in New York which is just such a Melting Pot and learned because I would bring um aquab cocktail to rain's law room or deer Irving and be very passionate about it and tell about the ingredients and why they go so well together
and what's the story behind the name or something like that and equally you know my American Co worker or my Mexican coworker or anything they would have the same passion so I would learn some things that I I wouldn't learn just reading a book or going on vacation and even more so you also get to meet people and nerd out in a different way we've had we we've had menus that was entirely Star Wars inspired we had a Spice Girl menu at some point so you
really get to have fun with people and ner nerd out we we've had you know every once a month we had a a bartender Dungeons and Dragons for years which is really fun because then you see people not just at work you see them nerd out about different things that aren't necessarily cocktails but you can bring that into the cocktails and it's so much fun if you make I don't think I've ever had a cocktail menu at a bar where there wasn't at least one Star
Wars reference and it's so fun because then when people get it they're like wait is this or a song or something so that's another way for you to to interact with someone with when they get a song reference or a movie reference or something and and if you have someone get excited about something the way you're excited about it you can talk about it and it becomes a whole part of the experience as well how um how about uh when you have different nationalities into into
your team nowadays it's a bit more common to have this Multicultural team how do you deal it as a manager or how do you make it work take into consideration you have completely different cultures let's say you have argentinians and then you have pains where the relationships between the between the workers I think I'm a little hard on that because this is work and you know you just got to make it work and that's up to them you know if you're here you're here to work
and make the best of it and if you can't do that then you shouldn't be here but I think if you something like the United States is it's very uh very set up where all the bars I worked at every single bar back has always been a super hardworking Mexican or Hispanic guy and that's just something that they always get hired for I don't know why because I have been lucky enough to have some of them involve under my my tuition or my co-workers tuition where
they actually became bartenders and that's super important too that that you don't get locked into these like National or gender roles where it's like no just because most places have Hispanic bar backs doesn't mean that you cannot become a bartender or the other way around like if it's you know yeah so that's super important I think it is and uh you mention you had a lot of people under your your Wing let's say like that are you intending to do something in Denmark as well to
push let's say a bit more more females into the world or not necessarily females are you intending to open something like that in here it is my dream 100% to open a place here in Denmark and although it's always on on Merit and talent of course I I think that it's important that that I as a woman want to give back to the community I I think that it's important that we see a little more diversity whether it's gender or um culture if you will and
that there is space for that um and that's something that is very important to me so I think I would be biased and definitely absolutely I mean taking into consideration all of the experience that you've had I mean I know a side of it but I'm pretty sure you had a lot more experiences in the USA so if you can give us a bit of a briefly description how did you went from one place to another and what are some places that you really really want
to to mention and uh meant something for you a bit more into your career yeah I mean I think that I I have worked in some crazy places meaning just a DIY as dirty as Dive Bar as you can imagine where you know open beer and por shots and then one day you get a job at a restaurant and that's when you start learning cocktails and work your way up and I think it's important to know that you have to put in that work you have
to accept that you can't just buy some expensive bar tools and take a a bartending course somewhere certificate it is hard work and it's sort of like you know if you want to be a a carpenter you have to be an apprentice first and that's how I see the service industry it is you can't just go in and become a bartender because if you haven't Barbed or waited tables or done any of those things or work that really really shitty or hard places MH one I
don't think you earned your place in the same way but you also don't know uh sort of all the hard work that goes behind like I have been managers at places where I have clean bathrooms and gone and gotten ice and and it's important that if you've done these things you know everything that that builds up to the perfect experience the most important person in the entire bar is the one who does the dishes and gets the ice I mean the barback is the backbone of
the whole thing um I have I mean I started just working in dive bars and I actually throughout my entire career kept an open shift at a at a dive bar bar I think it's so important uh there was a place called um there a couple of die bars that a lot of bartend is go to but um I mean when I think about it it's so fun cuz I we had all these high-end bartenders who did all this amazing stuff and then once a month
you go and work a shift at your old die bar because it's just back to your roots and remember who you are and all these things so that's really fun I worked at a place that I kept a a job at for almost 17 years called bushw Country Club and it is the most amazing dirty old bar you can imagine with jukebox and there's a raccoon that lives in the backyard and just really really fun and whenever I'm back in the States I take a shift
there and even when I worked at high-end places I would come back every once in a while and be like can I do a shift John and he's like yeah can you do Monday happy hour I'm like absolutely and then you tell all your friends and they come hang out was the craziest story that you've had into that specific place oh my God I don't think I can say that on actually I have some crazy stories but those are not something that you can say in
public but I mean seeing drunk people go absolutely crazy or having to lock the doors because there's someone with a gun outside or you know drunk people trying to steal stuff there's it's just endless crazy endless endless but I mean yeah I can't even think of one there's just so many crazy people people that get mad because they get kicked out and end up you know breaking the front window or stuff like that but I think there's also good things because you have regulars and you
get to become friends with these regulars and you befriend a raccoon that lives in the backyard and give him little cheesy puffs and all of a sudden you have a pet raccoon which is really fun so yeah you meet characters which is very important for your career as a bartender because you meet all kinds of people from all kinds of walks of life now I actually have some questions that are not not so let's say bright cuz we've both been in the industry for quite long
and there are times where you are not so happy MH what were sometimes for instance through your career working in that many places what are some bad habits that you somehow picked and got rid of or might not got rid of as a bartender or as a waiter or another position like a front house position let's say like that I mean I definitely think that when you're in this industry you can drink too much and that's something that is just is so normalized especially in the
states where you drink together where and and that's something that as I got older was like oh I'm not going to live forever I cannot do shots a whole night and it's something that you know that I see in the industry more and more I have definitely seen in in America I don't know if it's made it its way here but being a healthy bartender is super super important and in the states we've started doing uh bartender yoga and bartender mindfulness and all these things and
it's something that because it's such a hard job physically and M M mentally it's something that you have to make an effort to remember because you can lose yourself in a very whether it's the physical part of working too hard and not getting enough sleep and maybe drinking a little too much or letting things that are out of your control like an angry guest or rude guest and and just don't let it get to you because the the mental strain is just as as hard as
the physical strain I think do you have any good practices for inance if you have a very very rude rude guest it might be one in America it might be one in in Denmark what are your ways of getting out of that anger you know in front of the guest we are always smiling but when you go in the back what are your ways of saying okay it's just a a matter of time until I will going to be back do you have a small trips
into tricks into your sleeve that you go in the back and then yeah I mean I go in the back but for me I used to get really upset about it and it used to really bother me especially if I was right and my sense of justice just I was like how dare you and I've learned to just laugh about it definitely I laugh about it but my biggest thing and something that I learned as I got older is the joy of if you can turn
that experience around because if you end up having this guest actually have a good time despite them being a dingdong then it gives you so much more and you know that's what I always try to do and I think it's really fun if you can turn the situation around that's uh that's amazing and I I he a lot I mean I hear people that saying I'm going in the back yeah I'm inhaling two times I'm going out and I'm going with the approach that you just
uh mentioned but uh it's actually amazing to see that you can you got to a point where you do it naturally after after a couple after a couple of years so and that is you know you can you can choose how the outcome is you know it's very important for you to know that you are in control you can't control their emotions but you can control how it affects you and that's a super important thing whether you need to go and scream into a pillow in
the back or you just make the best of it but it's up it's up to you how the situation affects you and that's how you take care of yourself also how did you see the industry evolving through the years like through through the years since you started and correct me if I'm uh I wrong I believe you had your own bar in the US right how do you how have you seen it from this perspective of bar owner a bartender and also how did you manage
to to have time to do it I don't know because when it's something that you're really passionate about you don't work a set set amount of hours and then you go home and you sleep and watch TV and do something when when your hobby is also your job it's just like one one big I I'm it sounds really tacky but I live and breathe cocktails and Hospital hospitality and for me it's something that just makes me so happy and I'm always thinking about something like that
always always thinking about new dreams or ideas for something or how I can apply certain situations in a Hospitality sense um so yeah I I it's definitely hard work for sure absolutely it doesn't feel as hard when you really love doing it I have a question for you regarding the the bars CU many barart ters are dreaming having their own bar yeah how is it to have your own bar how do you go from bartending to the bar what do you need actually to be a
bar owner what are the the steps aside of obviously probably money money for sure for sure but you need money but you also definitely need like um Community you can't do it by yourself you need someone you really really trust who can help you with it because there is no way that you can just open a bar yourself and hire people to do certain things for you because those people don't care about you and they don't care about your bar but if you have a community
community around you or you do it with someone then it it becomes so much more and it becomes a lot easier but definitely uh having your own bar puts a lot more pressure on you because all of a sudden you're you know you're you have to make it work you can't just you know my shift's over I'm going to go home yeah get some sleep there's always something all right were there any times when you said I had enough of bartending I had enough of the
hospitality industry and then I want to do something else completely change career change industry no not really I mean I've had experiences where I was like oh my God this done but five minutes after I'm like no you're not I I just think obviously sometimes you daydream about having a 9 to5 and never working weekends and you know can just leave it and you go home and then there's nothing else but then I don't think I would be as happy as I am now all right
sounds uh sounds quite uh quite interesting I mean it's the same thing when you transform the passion into your your career then I believe is not uh not that as demanding or at least you don't see it as demanding as the other the other jobs that that you do so 100% And and for me it's also just so much more than making a really good drink uh it's the community there is around it and the camaraderie behind the bar but also the interactions that you have
you're a part of someone's big day sometimes people just go out to have a drink and hang out with people but I've also been part of proposals and weddings and all kinds of things and yeah you you just get to have a a view into other people's lives and have something to do with how they feel in that moment and it's like that's really exciting great to hear also how was it for you when you came back you are Danish but how was it for you
when you came back to the position that you you did in here in Copenhagen with the board that you were in charge for and the place definitely different I had to learn the robes for sure uh it's it's run differently of course and I I obviously had to do learn the Danish way of ordering things and making relationships with with vendors and with you know producers or Brands and that's definitely very different here um I feel like in the states a lot of the brands are
for the sake of bartenders because they have learned what I'm hoping that the brands in in Europe or at least Denmark is learning as well is that the best way to the consumer is through the bartenders where here is much more buyer or consumer um approach they they think more about how many bottles of this can I sell to a guest or how many can you use we want the guest to like this brand where it's like no if the bartender is excited about your brand
you're going to sell so much so you need to get the bartenders excited and then the rest will follow all right so you say that the brands over there they invest a lot more into bartenders than they they do in here definitely or the industry in in in a whole they you know the industry here in in Denmark and I'm still quite new to it of course there's many aspects but it's it's very much in smaller groups I don't see it as like one big Copenhagen
scene it's it's very much like in in in smaller groups there's these bars and there's these bars um and I think that I can see Copenhagen being uh cocktail bar or a cocktail City in the next couple of years but it also means that I think us as bartenders or or people that run bars have to do something to get get everyone excited about it and how how do they do it in there because for instance in here they they started recently for a couple of
years ago they they started to push a bit more into bartenders doing industry events doing small tastings master classes and stuff like that how do they do it in uh in US definitely with master classes but also doing bartender events uh and a lot about yeah definitely bartender events where they take bartenders and trips you know I've been to gu laara and help make uh Miss Kel and I've been you know to France to the conak re region and help me conac all these things where
it's like they understand that the more they do for the industry the more the industry gives back to them and I I don't see that as much in cagen yet maybe they throw a couple of bottles if you put their name on the lower end of the menu but that's as far as it has gone and you know there's there's some sort of prestige also in being in these things I've been I've been doing conferences in the states for a long time we've done bartender getaways
where we go um it's called igy by the Sea it's really fun where you go a bunch of bartenders and just immense yourself in a cheeky culture for three days and have fun um we have The Hil Lao in Florida which is the one of the biggest tiki conventions and it's like ComiCon but for cocktail and then of course tales of the cocktail you know if you had something like that in Europe it would be insane yeah I'm actually had a discussion with a couple of
friends a while ago there is top 50 Asia mhm and there's top 50 but there's nothing alike in Europe no there's not and I feel like it's a little lazy because I feel like it's just the same three bars or three places that are like now we have decided that these are the good places and then that can change and then there's there's not enough like curiosity and playfulness in it where it's just it's very stagnated it's very um emperor New Groove in a way all
right that's uh that's interesting and hopefully they will come hopefully with the years I think I think so with the years and the more involvement into Brands as you said into the industry I hope as well they they will come then I have a a question that is uh more like a personal question for for you what is going to happen next if you want to to sh into your life where do you want to go where is the next place career yeah position what uh
what's your dream let's say like that well my dream is I I have sort of like of course the History part um I'm working on uh a a new book uh and just baby stages but I really want to do something about the cockell history in Scandinavia and the history of the bars that we have here I think it would be very very interesting um I could see myself continue in the hotel industry uh I've done quite a few hotels in the last five years I
helped reopen the Chelsea Hotel uh first female bartender at the Chelsea Hotel ever which was really really cool uh I've done the Ace Hotel and recently I was at the plaza here in Copenhagen and and there is something about the hotel bar that's always like I really love all the way from you know the Raffles in Singapore to the seavoy or every time I'm in New York I always go to the net King Co bar at the or the King Cole bar sorry at the reges
it's one of my favorite places there's something about a hotel bar that's different than a standalone bar and I've always been drawn to that for some reason but I think that one of the things things that I'm very passionate about is the whole tropical culture in the states I majority of what I did was cheeky and tropical and I've always been very passionate about it and there's sort of like a a dead Market here it's not really something that's that's big in Denmark and I can
see it be very big in Denmark if it's done proper absolutely not not as a a gimmick but actually with with a big passion so my my uh my near goal is to to bring two TI to Denmark bring to tiet that's a that's a very interesting goal and um you mentioned Hotel Bars as well and uh I have a question I hope some of the listeners or viewers they were going to be females and I take the opportunity in here and you represent the females
do you believe it's much easier to Fe to be a female bartend their manager into a hotel world or a bar world like Standalone bar which one I think it's in a regular a standalone bar because Hotel guests at a standard Standalone bar people kind of know the concept of what they're coming into and you don't have as many expectations where in Hotel Bars people are coming from all over the world and they're not coming there for the bar the bar is just something that's there
that is an amenity and so you will get a little more sexism on you plate for sure um unfortunately and and it's something where in Denmark I don't see a lot of female bartenders which is something that I'm hoping to change a little bit with mentoring or hiring at my next place um and I don't know why it is most most girls girls are waitresses or if anything their bottle a shot girls there's not really a lot of like empowerment for women in the in the
Danish bar industry yet do you believe it's more because of the hard work environment do you believe is more about sexism or where where do you see it as personal opinion it could be the the problem and where where can be a bit more focused into focusing on the solution I think it it is just a mentality more than anything like it's very U died up where it's like boys are bartenders girls are waitresses and we need to get out of that mindset and if you're
a girl and you are in that mindset as well because that's everyone everyone else is saying that if you apply somewhere and they're looking for girls as waitresses or something like that it's a it's a communal mindset that needs to be changed because I you know as I said I've had the majority of my mentors have been incredibly amazing cool cool women that have built their way up and and really paved the way for a lot of other girls and I think once you see cool
female bartenders as a woman you're like oh I want to do that as well because when I was a little baby bartender I was looking up to some of of of the guys and then all of a sudden I started meeting all these amazing female bartenders I was like oh I want to be like them so it's also very much about the industry embracing women and giving them a platform very very much for sure how do you see the just adaptability to to the female bartenders
cuz I have some some experiences when we were two bartenders and one female bartender and into my view correct me if I'm wrong the females are more willing to go to the female bartenders than to us as a as a man's bartender they feel more secure into it how do you see it from your perspective well it goes the other way as well where I have stood at a bar and the male bartender is making a drink and I'm not and the guys will just go
to the mail it's like oh I can make that for you oh no it's okay I'll wait for the bartender you're like I'm a bartender uh so I think I don't know I think it's just normalizing it and and giving each other space and supporting each other very very much um but yeah it's a mentality on both behind and in front of the bar that that needs to change little by little but you know I don't think there is a a Sol a a straightforward solution
because then we would do it I hope it will come with the with time where more more and more female bartenders will also join behind but I see a good good opportunity with all of the competitions and some some Brands pushing a bit more the female bartenders in front which is a very good thing so we are not only a bunch of dudes behind exactly exactly so that's a that's quite cool then uh I have uh two of my last questions for for you which one
of them is a question that I have it for every single guest in here and one question Taylor Made uh for you the one that it's static for everybody is like what motivated you to keep going being behind the bar every night every day every second of your your timeing there well the money helped uh but I will say the camaraderie very much um being part of a family and that's what we've always I've been so lucky to work in places where you know we would
hang out outside of work we'd spend holidays together and it's sort of like a band of brother this thing where you are in the trenches when you look up and far as five people deep no one else can understand that feeling you can't go home and and explain it to someone who is a teacher like how that specifically is hard it's like it's it's a camaraderie and a an understanding that brings you together so it's very much like the friendships you build and being part of
a community that's that's really the biggest thing for me and the question that I have actually Taylor Made only for you cuz you've been to absolutely fantastic places with absolutely fantastic people what advice would you give to younger Selma I would say believe in yourself more because I have always uh been a perfectionist and I think that I don't really have that Gene where a lot of people will move up faster because they're just like here am I I'm the best I can do this I
don't care you need to pick me because I'm the best person in the room where I'm more like oh man what if I'm not good enough and so I would say definitely know your worth and trust your talents and yeah and keep working hard that's great so without further Ado thank you so much Selma and thank you for your time being here apprciate it oh yeah oh I do have one last thing I want to say and it's a quote that I have lived by people
will never remember what you said or did they will remember how it make them feel abs and I think that's so important it's so important it's actually such a great uh way to to sum up what we we discuss in here M so thank you thank you it's fun appreciate it thank you for joining us for this episode of Baro the podcast to check out Selma's book Spirit of the north please visit the links in our description this episode was produced by Mi Paul and me
Manuel Li with thanks to Mid Media Company please find us on YouTube and whatever you are getting your podcast be sure you subscribe and rate US