Q&A WITH Shaun Parkinson
Beverage Service Manager Titanic Hotel
The Rum Bar, overlooking the waters of Stanley Dock, is one of Titanic Hotel’s most popular spots from morning coffee to late night cocktails.
Shaun Parkinson was part of the Titanic team when we opened in 2014, and he is now beverage service manager, looking after all the hotel’s bars – the main lobby bar, The Rum Bar; Stanley’s restaurant bar, the West Bay bar and two bars in our Rum Warehouse.
Liverpool-born Shaun, 32, is responsible for making sure day-to-day service in every bar runs smoothly and that guests get the same high level of service from morning to night, as well as re-stocking and training staff.
Navigator asked Shaun what makes Rum Bar stand out from the crowd …
Titanic’s cocktails are amazing, who comes up with the mixes?
I like to encourage staff to suggest ideas and get involved so it’s not just me. If they think certain ingredients might go well together, I’ll ask them to come up with a name, tell me what’s in the cocktail, we’ll taste it and see if it needs tweaking or any extra flavours. Once it tastes just right, and we’re sure guests will like it, we’ll add it to the menu.
The Rum Bar has an incredible range of rum, tell us more about why that’s important
We have about 60-70 different varieties and I make sure all the team knows some of the backstory to them all so they can share that with guests. We’ve split the different rums into families, so you’ve got groups like Havana, Eldorado, Bacardi, then we get information on all those brands and we can give people interesting facts about them, even if it’s just a bit about the ways that they’re made.
Is the Rum Bar sometimes guests’ first experience of rum?
People will often say to us that they don’t like rum, or they’ve never tasted it before, but there are so many different types so there’s usually one which will suit their taste. For instance, in our mojitos, we’ll use Havana 3 which is a little off-white. Certain rums can be really easy to drink on their own because they’re very smooth and soft, you drink them just over ice. If someone says they’re not really a rum drinker but they want to try it, I’ll usually start them off on a sweeter one so they get the flavour of caramel, banana and vanilla, then you can go to more of a medium one, just so their palate gets used to the flavours.
What’s new in terms of cocktails for summer?
At the moment we’ve got Grey Goose essence spritzes which have just launched and will go through the whole of summer. Grey Goose have three new flavour-based vodkas, strawberry and lemongrass, watermelon and basil, and white peach and rosemary, so we’re making spritzes with those. We’ve also created a new signature cocktail, the Titanic Garden, which is really refreshing.
What’s the most popular cocktail you serve in summer at the Rum Bar?
It’s got to be an Aperol Spritz, it’s been that for a few years, as soon as people see one going out then we get everyone ordering them! I think the Grey Goose ones will be really popular too because they don’t just taste great, they look really nice with a garnish of mint or strawberries or watermelon so when you see it you want it. And the new Titanic Garden cocktail because the lime and elderflower liqueur make it a really easy one to drink - a couple of those on the Colonnades would be so nice.