STAN ANDRUSKEVIC
Beverage Manager, Kimpton Maa-lai Bangkok
Although his lineage is half-polish and half-russian, Stan Andruskevic was born and raised in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. He began his hospitality industry career at 16, working as a waiter while in school, and quickly realised this was the path he wanted to pursue. He moved to London at 19 and landed a job at The Gilbert Scott, at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel. “I started as junior bartender and spent almost two years there,” he recalls fondly. “We had a lot of celebrities come in. It was a fantastic bar with a big selection of spirits.” As his passion for mixology grew so did his CV, and while working at the prestigious Annabel’s private members club in Mayfair he mingled with even more celebrity clientele. “We had Jay-z, Beyonce, Rihanna… even the Queen came. She liked to drink a gin martini with a twist.”
Stan’s Asian sojourn began when he relocated to Bangkok to begin work as Head Mixologist and Bar Manager at lebua, concocting drinks inspired by the solar system at Sky Bar, and later overseeing the property’s Champagne-focused Pink Bar. He had spent almost a year-and-a-half in Bangkok before the pandemic upset the world’s apple cart, although after leaving lebua he decided to remain in Thailand while contemplating his next career move. “I travelled a lot and had the opportunity to see the beauty of Thailand. And I wanted to bring that culture to life in cocktails.”
In the final months of 2021, the now 28-year-old stepped into his new role as Beverage Manager at the Kimpton Maa-lai Bangkok hotel. Here he oversees the beverage programme at all the property’s F&B outlets, including Bar.yard, Stock.room, Craft, and Ms.jigger, the latter of which he calls his “place to experiment”.
“I see potential here,” he remarks. “We are missing a bit of flair in [Ms.jigger] because now it is more of a restaurant. But I want to bring alive the bar!” With this idea in mind, he and his team have created a new “narrative” cocktail menu, entitled Tales of Thailand, where each signature creation has an intriguing backstory. In addition, the new cicchetti snack menu allows guests at the bar a choice of eight delicious Italian style tapas to accompany the drinks.