Wednesday, March 22, 2000 | 9:39 a.m.
Las Vegas is blessed to have a wide array of outstanding professionals in the food and beverage industry. Barman extrordinaire Francesco Lafranconi is one of the newer additions to this list. He also has a story that richly deserves to be told.
Lafranconi is a suave young fellow who bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Cruise in the movie "Cocktail," in which the actor played a confidently charming bartender. Two years ago Lafranconi won the Bacardi-Martini Grand Prix, a world championship for barmen between the ages of 18 and 28.
In this case, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. His dad owned a bar and, at 14, he decided to go to the local hotel school in his hometown of Aviano, Italy. That is also where he learned his excellent English, which he improved gradually by talking with Americans stationed at the local NATO base, as he served them in a local hot spot.
For the competition, Lafranconi demonstrated foreign language proficiency, cultural knowledge and the ability to mix a mean drink while standing on a stage in front of a panel of judges. As you've already guessed, he is much more than just a bartender, as will shortly be evidenced.
None of this would mean much to us locally were it not for a lucky accident and the sharp eye of Larry Ruvo, senior managing director of Southern Wine and Spirits. Lafranconi had just finished his regular afternoon shift at San Giorgio, a bar in the Cipriani Hotel in Venice. But he stayed on to fill in for a friend, and Ruvo happened to walk in.
Cipriani is famous for bitter chocolate ice cream. Ruvo ordered one from the young man, striking up a conversation in the process. Soon after they were discussing mutual passions such as cigars and single malt scotches, and Ruvo realized he was onto something. A job offer followed, and after one long winter of deliberation, Lafranconi accepted.
Today his title at Southern Wine and Spirits is beverage specialist, but the job description is multifaceted. Among other things, he invents special drinks for event parties, writes cocktail menus for various properties, trains bartenders and cocktail waitresses, conducts seminars on spirits and promotes various products.
At an interview (at the upstairs bar in a local restaurant, which he has reserved for this demonstration), he is dressed in a stylish dark blue suit, carrying along a cloth bag and a steel case. The bag and case contain his tools of the trade: various liqueurs and fruits, a sterling silver shaker even James Bond would look twice at, and various bar implements. Later he will take them out, carefully, to mix a few of his prize-winning drinks.
But first he shows a little of his recent history.
He points to an award for being the best student at an I.B.A. (International Bartender's Association) seminar in Singapore. Then there are glowing letters of recommendation from the various places he has worked, such as the Palace Hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland, and the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Wow. He's only 28, but brother, has he been around.
"I never liked to study much," he says, "but then I discovered that you don't travel if you don't win competitions." While he is talking, he busies himself preparing ingredients for the drink that helped him win his world championship. The drink is, somewhat appropriately, named the Gambler.
The Gambler is a beautiful drink. Lafranconi purees fresh peaches in a blender, mixes in pineapple juice, sweet vermouth and Bacardi Citron Rum.
The mixture is strained into a highball glass and topped off with champagne, before being garnished with a lime wheel and a sprig of fresh mint. It is at once fruity, refreshing and mildly sweet, the pale pink color of a neon flamingo.
Now he talks about a dinner he worked at Aureole in Mandalay Bay, where he prepared 360 special drinks using Don Julio tequila, from scratch. As he does so, he makes another one of his creations, called Sydney 2000.
This drink uses the juice from a fresh-squeezed lime, an ounce of Cinzano sweet vermouth, an ounce of rum called Flor de Cana and a drop of Blue Curacao. The mixture is shaken, and a mixer is added. "In Italy, where the customers like a tart drink, I use Schweppes Bitter Lemon," he says, "but here in the States, 7-Up."
The result is a blue drink that at first makes me think of Aqua Velva, but is devilishly refreshing and delicious. And as if the drink doesn't have enough exotic charm, Lafranconi garnishes the drink with a wedge of starfruit.
It packs a refreshingly sneaky wallop. "In the sun, you can drink three or four of them before you know what hits you."
Finally he mixes something called an Aztec Manhattan, and tells something about his wife, Patrizia, and 8-year-old daughter Elissa, who came here to join him last month.
"Neither of them speak English yet," he says, "although my daughter is in school and will probably speak it better than me soon. My wife really misses Italy and the whole Italian environment," he continues, "but she believes in me, and that's the most important thing. And besides, she is tired of moving around."
Now the Aztec Manhattan is ready. To make it, he has mixed Don Julio Anejo tequila with a splash of cranberry juice and a jigger of the world's first vermouth (Carpano, which Lafranconi explains was first made in 1786).
The drink has a nut-like, botanical quality, and a dry, mild bite. It is a nearly perfect aperitif, and you have to wonder how Lafranconi could possibly improve on it.
Somehow, he'll probably find a way.
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