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Tres Monos is a cocktail bar that was founded four years ago in Buenos Aires. In the midst of the pandemic, it grew until it became one of the best in the country with international recognition. It has just reached 11th place in the UK's prestigious '50 Best Bar 2023' list, which also awarded it the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award.
The project by friends Sebastián Atienza, Gus Vocke and Charly Aguinsky is located in Palermo, the most popular area for tourists visiting the city. Tres Monos was neither satisfied with the awards nor with the economic success. “We believe that everything you do in the bar has an impact beyond its borders. “We wanted to share our work and create change in our community,” Atienza says in the middle of a busy evening at the bar.
The first step was to set up a cocktail school on the upper floor of the bar. During the pandemic, the opportunity arose to expand this training beyond Palermo. In collaboration with the Center for Entrepreneurship and Labor Development (CeDEL) of the City of Buenos Aires, Tres Monos began training boys and girls from the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood, a popular neighborhood victim to territorial stigmatization; an authentic city within the city [con 72 hectáreas, 50.000 habitantes], with great cultural and of course gastronomic wealth. The latter is a product of the various migration flows that arrived over his more than 90-year life.
“In the first calls, 100 people signed up. We thought: “There is great potential here.” It is gratifying to go to class, but at the same time there is a huge shortage of staff in the city's bars and restaurants. We like to think about the idea of human sustainability. We find a need, the children learn a new profession and we teach something we love,” adds Atienza, who grew up in Pompeya, a proletarian neighborhood of the city.
Sebastián Atienza, professional bartender at Tres Monos bar, one of the best in the country. Ivan Jarazo
The courses are free and are aimed at people between 18 and 28 years old. However, applicants must go through a selection process conducted by CeDEL, which offers many other training courses. “Classes take place twice a week. The course is intensive: it lasts a month and there are only ten places. We don't give a person who just wants to learn cocktails, for example, space to make drinks at home. We accompany the process with workshops on career advice, CV creation, mock interviews and master classes on the knowledge learned,” says Katerine Labrador, CeDEL consultant.
The arrival of Tres Monos in the Mugica district triggered a healthy domino effect that brought more specialists in cocktails and other professions related to gastronomy to the place. “It made more people in the industry want to join the project. “The neighbor is interested and is asking about training and cocktail events,” Labrador added.
How do you make a good mojito? What are the secrets of a Caipirinha? The key to a Pisco Sour. Drinks and the basic principles of alcohol management are the first steps, but the learning goes beyond mixing drinks and ingredients. Atienza says that several course graduates have completed Tres Monos and that they have all learned basic tools for managing the world of work.
Young people during the cocktail class at Tres Monos Bar in the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood, Buenos Aires.Martín Carelli
“It’s training to become a skilled craftsman. It's one thing to tear down a wall on a construction site and quite another to work in a bar. I'm referring to soft skills, service and the day-to-day changes of a formal job where you have to show up on time and interact with lots of colleagues. I can teach you how to make a hundred drinks, but just as important is taking good care of a person; Maybe you need to speak to him in English or at least understand what he is saying to you. We are in the hospitality industry. Learning to welcome people and make them feel good can help you in life. It doesn’t matter if you have a bar or a shop that sells sneakers,” explains Atienza about Tres Monos’ training, which has also expanded into the world of wine and coffee.
Fede Cuco is a teacher at Tres Monos in Palermo and the Mugica district, lover of the history of cocktails and the ancient seal of the world and has been in the business for almost 40 years. He started collecting glasses in a nightclub. One day a bartender went missing – although he likes to be called “bartender” – and he started making drinks. In his courses he always says: “If I, who knew nothing, could do it, you all could do it too…” He took the first notes to put together the courses, which are taught using the same tools as the bartenders in Tres Monos and in individual stations with ice, bottles and all the materials necessary for work. He says they are shy in the early grades, but the ice breaks quickly.
“Everyone can have a drink. Over the course of the course, they eventually learn to prepare for around twenty people. The point is to do it professionally. I want them to know how to beat, stir and understand why they do it. I like it because I feel that children can improve lives and open a door with cocktails. And that they are part of a longer tradition that is 200 years old. For example, I'll tell you that I teach classes in something called cocktail making because one day Madonna took Cosmopolitan and made it famous,” Cuco says.
Federico Cuco teaches a cocktail class at Tres Monos bar in the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood of Buenos Aires.Martín Carelli
Be constant. Smile. Lose the fear. These are some tips from the teacher to his students. And attempts are also being made to break down some prejudices. “The customer doesn't know whether you come from the Mugica district or from another district. You are a professional bartender. He will notice if you are confident in your movements. You are a host and have to enjoy being with people. Probably no one will remember what you gave them to drink, but they will remember how they drank it. Maybe you can't tell me about the bar floor, but you can tell me about the bathroom. You have to be neat. Everything is service. I try to instill passion,” Cuco says of his classes.
Alcides Damián Mendoza is one of the boys who completed the Tres Monos course in the Mugica district in 2022 and was then selected to work in the bar in Palermo. When he signed up, he didn't have a job and didn't know anything about cocktails, although he had gone to fast food restaurants. He has learned and now works the morning shift, calibrating the machines, preparing the juices for the drinks and setting up the bar, among other things. He has already mixed the first cocktails at the multi-award-winning bar.
“This job is wonderful. You can grow a lot and the environment is excellent. As a sophisticated bar you have to be prepared for that. When I made the first few drinks I felt a little pressure because the customer is demanding. “You have to be clear about things before you go to the bar,” says Alcides.
“El Chino,” as they affectionately call him, left Mugica and moved to another area of the city. In addition to working at Tres Monos, consider starting a business with a friend. He looks back and says the course marked him with fire. “Before, I didn’t know what to do with my professional life. My economic reality changed with work, but that wasn't the only good thing. I am constantly learning new things and dealing with different people. It changed my life.”
Sebastián Atienza teaches a cocktail class at Tres Monos bar in the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Ivan Jarazo