Visit Deco at Hostel Tevere in Warren on any given Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evening and expect to find the bar filled up early with a crowd of people enjoying a cocktail and hors d’oeuvres or enjoying unusual, imported beers and wines before and during their meals.
People are flocking to the place for the bonhomie, but also for the retro cocktails served up by Justin Lefebvre. Hostel owner Ryan Donnelley purchased the business in April 2019 and Lefebvre, a longtime friend, joined him in November 2019 to help him get organized.
“Initially I was really focused on the hostel and helping him run that. When COVID hit, it shifted our focus to the restaurant. I looked at what I could do, to offer assistance, to grow the business and centered around the bar. We looked at expanding the cocktails and once that was in place, we moved on to beer and wine varieties,” Lefebvre said.
BOLD MOVE
It was a bold move for Lefebvre who had no experience in bartending or restaurants. He’d had a long career in wholesale sales including a 12-year run with Ralph Lauren clothing representing the brand and selling to department stores. He did that in NYC and remotely as well working in multiple divisions. He left that career in 2012, travelled in Latin and South America off and on until 2019 when he went into wholesale horticultural sales which he did until moving to Warren in 2019.
He came to help with the hostel, but ended up, ultimately, becoming a bartender par excellence, whose patrons seek him out for the convivial atmosphere he and Donnelly have created at Deco at Hostel Tevere.
“COVID changed everything a lot. We were reinventing our customer demographic substantially. My challenge was ‘what do I do to give these new guests a different experience?’” he said.
“In talking to Ryan, we decided to pivot in a totally different direction. My own interest was in presenting a more historical take on cocktails and drinking culture -- making it more of an education for consumers. Meanwhile COVID restrictions had us all bound in the same place. We couldn’t travel internationally and were discouraged to even travel domestically. People were craving that worldly experience and we wondered how we could blend that into our focus here,” he continued.
“That was my goal, to create more of a European vibe in a time when we couldn’t travel. And it really resonated. We found that there was no turning back once the pandemic was behind us. Our portfolio expanded and we’re really seeking out some of the most unusual spirits from Europe and other places around the world,” Lefebvre said.
SEATING CONFIGURATIONS
Beyond the drinks served, he and Donnelly have changed seating configurations to be more congregate than separate and are finding that it fosters connections. They utilize the small space in the bar so that people are sitting face to face vs shoulder to shoulder as one might recall from the sitcom “Cheers.”
“I'm trying to change that culture, at least here in this building where we're offering them an opportunity to sit face to face, look a person in the eye, and create a connection. And I find that this resonates nine times out of 10. Some people, you know, certainly don't want that degree of intimacy with someone they're not familiar with. But others do, tenfold,” he said.
In terms of what tools, he, a self-taught bartender, used to accomplish what he has at Deco, he said it started with his ability to make a Pisco Sour, something he learned to do in Peru, visiting a friend.
“The first signature cocktail we really took on as our own was the Pisco Sour in October 2020. And it resonated. I learned how to make an egg white cocktail and make it well and make it to this day. I think there’s a beauty to combining a handful of ingredients and having this synergistic balance that was achieved back in the early 20th century. I really just jumped right into classics, learning everything about it, seeking out historical cocktail books, making them exactly as they're written in the 1880s, or the 1940s. And then spinning it to where you achieve a better modern balance. So, it’s appealing to the modern drinker and not the one who wanted something that might have been super sweet in the 1940s,” Lefebvre explained.
And on a final note, glassware makes a different.
“If we can’t take the time to seek out glassware that really pops the cocktail or ingredients that elevate the drinking experience, why are we doing this? If you’re going to spend $12 on the cocktail, it should taste like a $12 cocktail,” he pointed out.
To that end, they’ve moved to branded glassware where they can and nine times out of 10 it is crystal.
“It simply tastes better,” he added.
