Monkey Bars Bar Consultancy

Hayley  .   Rach  .   Clare

'Kino, Managed by Rachel who makes the best vodkatini's ever'
Cocktail Girl aka Polly Vernon, observer food monthly 2003

Rachel began her career at Kino as a cocktail waitress, but soon set her sights on making the drinks instead of just delivering them.

She was trained in the basics by Chris Lacey (Met Bar Manager) and soon excelled in the art of Mixology. She was then promoted to bar supervisor and was responsible for staff training and writing the cocktail lists in 2002.

Then in August 2003 she had the opportunity to work as a relief manager at the brand new Black & White bar in Brighton (also part of the Alias group) during this time Black & White won 'Theme' best new bar in the south east, and Rachel came 2nd in Flavour magazine's Bartender of the South East. She was then offered the post of Bar Manager back at Kino and so returned to Exeter. She conceived and organised the first south west cocktail competition in Feb. 2004 in an effort to kick start bar culture in the West Country, the competition received national press attention. In October 2004 she was promoted to general manager of Kino and during 2005 Kino won a series of awards, including being voted one of the top 50 cocktail bars in the U.K by The Independent and bar of the southwest by The Observer.

During 2005 she was approached by Suzy Atkins, the well known wine expert, to contribute to the cocktail section of her most recent book 'Party Drinks' and in 2006 started teaching master classes to the public, one of these was featured on west country T.V as a feature on changing drink culture in the southwest. She also organised the southwest cocktail competition in 2005 and 2006.

In August 2006 she was in need of a new challenge and Monkey Bars was born.

Rachel’s Competitions

• Wyborowa Nationals, Birmingham 2002
• Flavour Magazine, Brighton: bartender of the south east 2003 - 2nd place
• Diageo, Bristol 'Bartender of the southwest 2003' - 1st place
• Havana club Summer comp, Torquay 'Bartender of the southwest 2003' - 1st Place.
• Havana Club, Bristol 'Bartender of the southwest 2004' - 2nd Place
• Havana Club, Plymouth 'Bartender of the southwest 2005' - 2nd place.
• Kino, Southwest regional cocktail comp 'Bar of the southwest 2006' - 1st Place.