At 22 Kian Jabour has big dreams like so many other young men but instead of sitting and allowing his big ideas to float around he has taken the giant step and moved into a relatively new business in Guyana–a mobile bar.
But it is not just any bar, this is a bar that can give you anything you want and he is not just talking about alcohol but if you want plan an event with all the trimmings, then just pick up the phone and call the Shakers Cocktail Bar.
Okay, certainly another bar is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea–some feel that the country already has too many–but Shaker’s is one with a difference and according to the owner it brings “a touch of class”.
Kian could be described as young man with what we would call “a good head on his shoulders”. While he knows alcohol will always sell, he wants to provide a service that is of such high standard that people are not only going to hire him, over and over but which sets the trend that others can follow by raising the service bar.
The Scene recently caught up with this young entrepreneur–who seems way older than his age–and if his words are to be taken as gospel just over four months after the bar was established he has been doing so well that he has had to hire more staff.
He describes his bar as a “high end, liquor… and wine bar in which we make very exotic cocktails mostly for high end functions.
“We do complete events, like planning of food, catering, decorating, music, lighting everything.”
The name of the bar says it all–it takes a lot of shaking to make the cocktails–but Kian said he chose the name because he wanted something to appeal to all crowds, both young and old.
He does not want to be hired for “any old event” but he wants to be at events that would have tongues wagging long after they would have been over. However, but to develop a reputation Kian said he started with public events and catering for public events.
“I came up with this cocktail bar because I trained for about seven years in Toronto where I went to school and I lived and as a part-time job I used to be a bartender over there,” the young man revealed.
He said he worked in a very high end hotel which did all the mixtures and taught the proper techniques “basically a full-on food and beverage course.”
He actually studied construction engineering and has only worked briefly in his area of study.
According to Kian, he pushed to open the cocktail bar because he enjoys doing it and it is his firm belief that “you have to have a passion for something if you are going to do well at it.”
The bar was opened in September last year, two months after he moved back to Guyana and he said he came back with the idea as it is something he always wanted to do but he did not want to just sell alcohol but rather couple this with events planning.
“I looked and asked where is Guyana lacking as far as entertainment goes and the service industry?” It did not take him long to figure out what was lacking; he saw the need to add a touch of class to service.
Not only does he train his employees–he has seven on staff and others he would call out if there is work–how to make cocktails but his twice a week training also entails “full out as far as serving goes, how to dress, hygiene and I also do courses on the different types of alcohol”.
So if someone approaches one of his staff, or rather his “mixocologists” as he calls them, they “are educated and they are capable of answering any questions.”
Interestingly, Kian said he does all of the training himself even though he has plans to invite some experts from Toronto to come to Guyana, not only to train his staff but also others in the business.
Kian boasted that his bar his bar has worked with ninety percent of all the promoters in Guyana and he also sets up his bar at various events which is a form of advertisement.
“One of our best events was the King’s Jewellery World cocktail, which I was very happy with,” Kian said adding that they do quite a few private functions.
He also did the Mario concert at the Hotel Tower and Digicel’s staff party.
And is he happy with the way his business is going?
“I think this is what every businessman in Guyana would want, my business has exploded within the past two months from time the Christmas hit to now it has been non-stop… In the beginning it was one event a weekend or maybe two on a Friday and Saturday now it has turned out to be like three events per day.”
To handle the rush, the young businessman said he has had to hire new staff and do some major training.
And as from January 29 Kian said they are fully booked until Easter even though he does have some competition in the business from Melissa Piggott who owns a mobile bar called Bartenda.
But he likes competition as it forces him to up his ante and he respects his competitor.
“I believe she has a wonderful set up and we have spoken a little bit and she is very knowledgeable at what she does,” Kian said of Piggott.
He said he encourages competition as where cocktails are in Guyana it needs to be more explored and the public needs to become more educated on the topic so that they can have more options.
“We can mix cocktails with any alcohol…everything you can think about there is a drink we can come up with.”
And they try to give the drinks local names such as ‘Bartica Breeze’ and ‘Stay at Home Darling’, but some of the popular world renowned names must remain the same.
“We try to name our drinks for the events, so for example we went to race meets in November and we named a drink the Goose Neck.”
Too much alcohol?
Kian is aware that some persons might not be too keen on his business due to the fact that alcoholism is seen as a major problem in Guyana and he says he can more than understand why people may feel that way.
He noted that in Toronto there is a very high standard for intoxication–meaning that “there is no toleration for it.
“There are systems put in place that determine whether someone is drunk, whether someone is capable of driving and I try, again it is very hard, but I try my hardest and this is another thing I do educate my staff about.
“You know we are not here to get people drunk. We are here to sell drinks yes, we are here to make money this is our business, but at the same time we don’t want to be liable or responsible for someone losing his/her life.”
He said in Toronto if someone enters a bar and drinks and if the bartender lets that person leave to drive home and the person crashes then it is the bartender’s fault.
Kian said he has found that people need to drink to have a good time and that does not need to be the case if the environment that is being made available “promotes comfort and a desire to be there.
“I can count the amount of times on my hand that I have had somebody very drunk at my bar. I mean some people just can’t handle alcohol. But in my case if we find somebody getting too drunk it is also going to take away from the experience of my other customers at the bar.”
He said if customers have drunk people knocking into them and spilling their drinks then they are no longer having a good time.
Kian’s bar is available to persons who might want to have a non-alcohol event but he did admit that he has not been hired for such a job as yet. Kian himself is not a “big drinker” and many times he just drinks juice.
“Our main focus is to raise the standards of the industry, right now we have a lot of problems because if you go into a club and you have to wait half an hour for a drink or you have to deal with employees giving you attitude or with poor hygiene, it is not good.”
He pointed out that at the Toronto Hotel where he learned the trade, they were very specific on everything and employees could not work if they were not clean shaven or did not smell good; and they could not even touch their faces while working.
Kian said he tries not to hire persons who are already in the business as they would be set in their ways. Instead he hires rookies and “people just out of UG that are educated and can think for themselves and I train them on everything.”
Kian was born in Canada but he lived in Guyana for 15 years and returned to Canada for seven years to complete his schooling.
He can be reached at telephone number 687-2666 or 9 Lamaha Street, Alberttown. (samantha_alleyne2000@yahoo.com)
