A drink with Wilso

“For me when I go to a bar, I like to try something I haven’t seen before and find out a bit of info about it”.

Now in it’s 4th year, The Koutetsu has become known for its personable service, intimate atmosphere and damn good cocktails.

 As a Global Brands customer and friend, Wilso explains, “Sabian was the first person to give me credit, like when I first opened, he was the first person to give me a call and go “hey man, what can we do for you?” I understand that it is a big risk for companies to take on a new start up…”.

 Was opening your own bar always the plan?

“Not originally, but I am a hard worker, I had like 3 jobs at a time and I felt that I could definitely make it. It’s a pretty cut-throat industry, you can have the best product but if you don’t have the people in the place it doesn’t work”.

Why do you think The Koutetsu has worked?

“We didn’t start off with all these spirits, we had maybe 40 bottles and it’s just grown from there. We have developed and adapted and learnt along the way so that’s it as well, we didn’t just open a bar with 300 spirits, it was a growing thing”.

 How do you select what products you have?

“Just with our team, we taste it all together…and just have a conversation about it.

“This is also a place where [customers] have the opportunity to try something different and say “well the one that really works for me is this” and then they can go and purchase a bottle. It is a bit of a stepping stone for home drinkers as well as people who go around and drink lots of stuff and can try something that they can’t buy in retail or they haven’t seen it elsewhere in another bar.

 “With Global Brands, as soon as a new product comes in they tell me straight away because they know we are pretty open to taking new stuff if it’s quality, and you guys don’t give me stuff that isn’t or that wouldn’t fit our business”.