ON-TRADE / RAOUL’S: The Raoul Mccoy

Despite its policy of ‘no happy hours’ and ‘no Long Island Iced Teas’, Raoul’s has become the destination bar in Oxford. Or maybe it’s precisely because of this approach that it has succeeded, says Penny Boothman

There are, unfortunately, two problems with finding a stylish independent bar with an award-winningly excellent drinks menu outside London: 1) there aren’t very many of them, and 2) you have to know where to look. And one of the places you wouldn’t necessarily think to investigate is a largely residential area in one of Britain’s most historic cities. But Oxford’s Jericho is where you’d find Raoul’s bar.

Raoul’s is one of those places that you stumble across halfway through a fairly lengthy night out and then spend the next six months trying to find your way back to. The half-ground level, half-basement bar in fact has a maximum capacity of just 110, and the small size adds to its air of being a bit of a private drinking den for those who are wise enough to know it’s there. There is, however, nothing small about its cocktail list, the latest edition of which was launched earlier this year.

Expanding menu
“When I joined, the menu was really simple, just a bit of card with a paper insert, with about 30 drinks on it,” explains general manager, Tim Fitz-Gibbon. “But each menu has just got bigger and bigger. Some people say that there’s too much choice, but for us it comes out once a year and it’s got to last a year. You know, I’ve never actually counted how many drinks are on it, I think it’s around 100.”  I started counting, but got bored. It’s considerably more than 100.

But size, as we all know, isn’t everything, and the thing that makes this particular menu so interesting is the way in which the drinks have been organised. Traditional cocktail categories such as long drinks and short drinks have been abandoned in favour of drinking occasion and style groups such as Saloon, Underground and Distinguished. “I think we felt that the last few menus were a bit too obvious, but with this one we really thought about it,” says Fitz-Gibbon.

And seeing as they’ve spent so much time thinking about their new menu, the Raoul’s team would like their customers to do the same. “We encourage people to ask us questions and to talk to us, and we really try to push our table service to get people to have a seat and take their time looking through the menu. Because for me people are so fussy about their food, we say, ‘Please be fussy about what you drink’. We’re still not quite there in this industry,” says Fitz-Gibbon. And he’s right; the modern consumer will pay a premium for finest, hand-cut, sea salt and cracked black pepper dusted organic potato wedges and then wash them down with just about any old booze.

Extra spice
“We’ve made boring old drinks like strawberry Daiquiris a bit more interesting with things like fig and spiced mango Daiquiri to encourage people to try new flavours, rather than coming in and asking for a Long Island Iced Tea – which we actually have a house policy of not serving! There’s so much more out there than a load of spirits and a bit of coke and lemon juice. Okay, so we are cocktail anoraks I suppose, but we can have a laugh at the same time.” And so they can: the first drink listed under the Function category? The Wrong Island Spiced Tree.

And it seems their new approach has got them noticed as Raoul’s has just been awarded second place in the Best Cocktail Menu category of The American Cocktail Awards, an international competition being held by The Museum of the American Cocktail and the US Bartenders’ Guild to celebrate the fact that 2006 is the 200th anniversary of the word “cocktail” first appearing in print. “They looked at the whole creativity and philosophy behind our menu, and at how it was set out. So we’re quite chuffed with that,” says Fitz-Gibbon.

In fact, the bartenders at Raoul’s have chalked up a fair few competition accolades between them this year. Most recently, Fitz-Gibbon has been shortlisted for the Belvedere Vodka final to be held this November, and bartenders Sam and Rob both made it to the finals of the Miller’s Gin Competition last month. “I think it’s good to develop our image, to show that we are actually quite serious, and also it’s good for the guys’ careers. We encourage them to do it.”

Apart from his stance on boring cocktails, Fitz-Gibbon is also on a mission against that thorn in the side of cocktail bars and pubs alike, the happy hour. “We don’t have a happy hour, and we never will. The trouble with places that do is that people have cocktails in happy hour but then go straight back to beer, and spirits and mixers, as soon as it’s over, which doesn’t really say much for their cocktails,” he says. Another bonus of being happy hour-free in a city such as Oxford is that Raoul’s is not reliant on the vast but notoriously drunken and fickle student population for its daily income.

As with most cocktail bars, the 25 to 35-year-old age group dominates, but Fitz-Gibbon assures me his customers really do range from 18 to 80. “We have this elderly couple who come in once a week for the cocktail hour at 4 o’clock and they just go through the list. And she’s always asking if we can get her a bottle of limoncello and things like that, which is great. We have a lot of regulars who come in and it just makes it a much better place to be in – for the staff and the customer.”

The staff obviously enjoy it as well, as Raoul’s has a particularly slow staff turnover rate for the on-trade. Fitz-Gibbon has been there for almost four years, joining just a year after owner Matt Davies set the bar up. Even the newest recruit has been there a year and the majority of the team has been there for more than two. “In this sort of industry that’s really unusual, you don’t really get that at all,” he confirms.

“We try to invest in our staff a lot because they’re really our shop window. Training’s all pretty much in-house but it’s really quite intensive. They’re not allowed to go on the bar until they know every single drink as well as all the presentation and service. Not a lot of people notice it maybe, but it makes a difference.”

It obviously does make a difference as Raoul’s is able to rely on its reputation to tempt customers out of the city centre. And, as Fitz-Gibbon explains, Oxford isn’t the easiest place in the world to run a small independent cocktail bar at the moment. “They’ve just opened the Oxford Castle Heritage Project down the road which has got bars like The Living Room and a huge Malmaison, which is actually a really cool place,” he concedes. “But the council just don’t help our industry at all, from licensing to parking they’re just not interested, especially in independent, small, well-run establishments. It’s all these big chains like Pizza Express and Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen. You can go to any city but there’s always one area where it’s just all the same.”

As true as this is, and with large bar groups making the on-trade landscape look ever more like the chain-store dominated retail sector, it’s good to know that there are still a few independent places left outside London where you can go to be offered a decent choice of well-made drinks. Even if you can’t get a Long Island Iced Tea.

© db October 2006

Raoul’s, 32 Walton St, Jericho, Oxford
www.raoulsbar.co.uk