There’s a symbiotic relationship between Twilight Sky Bar and its youthful mixologist Le Anh Viet. Both representing Hanoi’s growth. Viet, starting as a cleaner, then progressing to a receptionist at the Intercontinental Hanoi, and progressing from there, up the barman’s ranks. The bar itself rises from the streets of Hoan Kiem to become a lookout in the Old Quarter’s skyline.
You could consider Viet Le as the second generation of Hanoi’s emerging cocktail scene. His life as a mixologist began at Sunset Bar, under the close supervision of some of Hanoi’s most acclaimed mixologists.
Viet explains that Sky Bar wasn’t your average five-star hotel bar, where classic cocktails are often the order of the day. Instead Viet’s imagination was allowed to run wild, especially when it came to decorations and unique ingredients. “Sky Bar wasn’t just catering for tourists,” Viet explains. “They encouraged local and regular customers looking for something new, something lively and of high quality.”
Working in a bar that was leading and developing drinking trends in Hanoi allowed him to grow as a mixologist. Viet tells us that one major defining moment in his career came when he met Pham Tien Tiep, the inventor of the complex and overtly Hanoian ‘pho cocktail’, and a mixologist who is considered to be within the world’s top 50 bartenders.
Following in his footsteps, Viet struck his own chord with Vietnam’s cocktail community, destroying the competition at the 2016 Vietnam Campari Bartender with his Sticky Rice cocktail. Viet explains, “I’m Vietnamese, so it was important for me to invent a cocktail in a Vietnamese style.”
Viet continues, “When Asian people come to my bar, they’re into the smells and flavours, but when Western people come, they’re mostly into the idea of trying something new before thinking about the decoration and the flavours. By making Vietnamese cocktails, I cannot only surprise my customers, but give them a thorough understanding of Vietnamese tastes and people.”
As Viet proudly shakes a bottle on Son Tinh Passion Fruit, he explains that, as a traditional Vietnamese liquor made with Vietnamese ingredients, he felt that he had stumbled upon a local treasure when he found Son Tinh in Sunset Bar. Shaking away, he begins walking us through his signature Son Tinh and Twilight Sky Bar cocktails. “I pair Son Tinh Passion Fruit with Son Tinh Nep Phu Loc, to make his Twilight Sunshine cocktail,” Viet Le explains.
Twilight Sunshine, Viet tells us, “was created for the summer, when we had a rush of people running in from the 50-degree heat outside. They were sitting on the terrace, showering in the rays of the sun from the other side of the river bank.”
When inventing cocktails like the Twilight Sunshine, rather than spending his time dabbling in the cocktail lab, Viet will often take his inspiration from the moment, creating cocktails inspired by events or scenes. Cocktails like Ta Van Sapa, or Nep Cam, take inspiration from the lush Vietnamese countryside – Ta Van Sapa, with its sweeping vistas and undisturbed mountains, and Nep Cam, like the rice grown in Vietnam’s mountainous rice paddies.
Then there’s Hanoi Skyfall, that draws inspiration from typical Hanoian foods like salted dry apricots, or their plumper, juicier counterparts. “It’s inspired by autumnal scenes of dampened sunlight and cloud penetrating sunsets, bringing together special Hanoian dishes,” he tells us.
While combining Vietnam’s distinct flavours with cocktails may have helped establish the scene, to progress on an international level, Vietnamese bars will have to stay on top of international trends to continue to grow. Viet’s been doing just that. Sky Bar has been mixing up some home-made treats, distilling herbs into ruou and creatively mixing drinks to unique formulas.
Never willing to settle for the ordinary, Viet has been striving to give modern twists to classic cocktails, though he admits, “there’s not always a lot of room for mixologists to perform and get creative with the classics.”
With a lot of imagination, and a great deal of tampering, distilling and marinating, however, Viet and Twilight Sky Bar (with Son Tinh in tow) are establishing the new generation of Vietnamese cocktails, with some ambitious predictions for future cocktail trends. Drawing inspiration from his predecessors, Viet is showing initiative and readying himself, and Hanoi, for the international mixologist’s stage.
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