The Company
Sebastien Bonnefoi, first bar manager of Bar Rouge Shanghai, opened Urban Bar in 2008 with his cousin and partner Geoffrey Gayton.
Urban Bar is the only consulting company in the food and beverage industry in China offering a full range of services to the bars, restaurants, night-clubs, hotels as well as to the events companies, and other companies from the F&B industry.
Our head office in Shanghai, with its own bar and a dedicated area for the trainings enable us to organize the consulting properly.
Meet the Staff
Our team consists of experienced bartender who develop the projects starting with a sketch and following it up to complete implementation of intended ideas.
SEBASTIEN BONNEFOI
Managing Director – Sebastien Bonnefoi is the founder and director of Urban Bar. He started his career in 1998 in VIP Room Saint-Tropez, famous jet-set club and village in South of France. He then developed his techniques and knowledge in London for a few years while working as bartender for well-known establishments in the industry such as Ego, Saint and Propaganda. In 2003 he moved back to France and became bar manager of summer establishments in South of France, first at La Plage des Bikinis and then at La Compagnie des Comptoir Effet Mer. He moved to China in 2004 for the opening of Bar Rouge Shanghai, where he became the first bar manager of this finest establishment, now worldly known. Over his years at Bar Rouge, he was the China Champion of the Wyborowa Worldwide Cocktail Club Bartender Competition in 2005 and Shanghai Champion of the Belvedere Luxury Competition in 2007. He was also Stolichnaya Asia Ambassador in 2007 and Grand Marnier Asia Ambassador in 2008. With all he had learned and experienced over the years, and also because of his wish to share his passion and knowledge for the bar industry, he decided to have his own company and opened Urban Bar in 2008. He also participated to the Shanghai Expo as a partner in the French Pavillon. Since the creation of Urban Bar, Sebastien and his staff were solicited by many premium establishments in Asia for tailored consulting such as Rock Bar Bali, W hotels, Le Royal Meridien Shanghai, Club Med, Bar Rouge Shanghai and Mr & Mrs Bund, among many others. In 2012, along with his cousin Geoffrey Gayton and his new partner Thomas Gauthier, he founded Revolucion Cocktail Bar on Yongkang Road, Shanghai. The Revolucion has since spread to Guangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Bangkok and we are planning on opening many other shops in the coming years. Last but not least, Sebastien is the co-writer with the 2-stars Michelin executive chefs Jacques & Laurent Pourcel of the luxurious cooking & cocktail book “In’sense” which offers a taste of the sparkling world of the night, presenting 30 original cocktails recipes and 60 snacking recipes (bilingual Solar Editions).GEOFFREY GAYTON
Mixologist – Geoffrey Gayton is along Sebastien the founder of Urban Bar and Revolucion Cocktail by Urban Bar. His interest for the bar industry started at quite a young age, while he was passing a school certificate in Food and Beverage. He trained a lot on his free time in order to excel at flairing and at mixing drinks. Once he passed his certificate in 2006, he joined Sebastien at Bar Rouge Shanghai as Bartender and Assistant Bar Manager. In 2008, he decided to explore the bar industry in the rest of the world. First he became Bar Manager of Le Carré Blanc in South of France, private beach owned by the Pourcel brothers. Then he became bar supervisor of the Pacha Club in Marrakech, Morocco. The same year, he competed at World Cup Havana Mixology & Flair competition in Cuba where he placed 6th. In 2009, he joined Mint Leaf in London, UK, as bartender. During his time in London, he participated in the Beefeater Training, and the Flair Motion Training by Nicolas Saint-Jean. In 2010 he came back to Shanghai to work with Sebastien at Urban Bar as Master bartender and trainer. Since then, he is our expert on cocktail creations and trainings for Urban Bar and all the Revolucion Cocktail establishments.
DAVID MA
Bartender – David Ma started his bartending career in 2005 at the bar Park 97 in Shanghai. His fast evolution allowed him to start working for Le Bar Rouge one year later in 2006. During the 5 following years working at this iconic place, his passion for bartending led him to continually improve his training until becoming the bar manager. In 2012, David decided to join Urban Bar and Revolucion Cocktail team and has been master bartender and trainer since then. Despite his heavy workload, he had the opportunity to take part to the 2014 Havana Grand Prix cocktail competition, which gave him the great opportunity to represent China for the finals in La Havana Cuba, and finish in the 3rd place among many competitors from all around the world. Thanks to his dedicated hard work and great knowledge he was chosen as one of the judges for the 2016 Havana Grand Prix cocktail competition.
JAY T
Bartender – Jay T started his bartender career at the Alpine Bar in Liverpool, UK, in 2010. For two years, he developed his knowledge and skills on cocktail service and design. In 2011, he also joined Escapades Events & Consultation, which led him to participate in many events over the UK and Spain, including a royal wedding reception. In 2012, he became Bar Manager of Neighbourhood in Manchester. He also competed in the world flair competition for the first time and ranked 15th. In 2013, he moved to Liverpool, where he was Bar Manager of Maloney’s for a few months. Then he moved to Dubai and joined Cirque Le Soir, which finally led him to become Bar Manager of Cirque Le Soir in Shanghai the same year. Then in 2015, he joined the famous Bar Rouge Shanghai and mastered at the flair and fire shows. He joined Revolucion Cocktail Shanghai and Urban Bar team over the summer of 2016. His passion for cocktail creation and bartending also led him to judge a number of mixology competitions.
MATT FLINT
Bartender – Matt Flint started his career 15 years ago with TGI Fridays in the UK. He then joined the Living Room Group, high-end restaurants and cocktail quickly progressed from head bartender to bar manager, and that’s also when he started his flair career. Rising up the ranks very fast, he secured a job at Roadhouse in Convent Garden, London, in 2010 which he represented in the Roadhouse World Flair Finals 2012 where he placed 2nd in the UK and stayed in the top25 in the world for the 5 following years. Appealed by the cocktail industry in the world, he decided to join Mahiki Dubai in 2013 where he worked as manager, handling all the staff trainings and managing the place. Matt also had the great opportunity to manage the Mahiki VIP Party of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2013. His talent and passion for flair bartending led him to judge some famous flair competitions. He joined Urban Bar & Revolucion Cocktail Shanghai in November 2016.
JACKIE DMITRIEV
Bartender – Jackie Dmitriev started his bartending career in Russia while he worked at Asia 5 Star Hotel in 2008 and at C2 Night Club in 2009. Very passionate about bartending and mixology, as well as very interested by the Chinese bar scene, he moved to Shanghai in 2010 and started to work at Grand Night Club while he was studying International Business at the East China Normal University. He focused on his studies for a few years but still practiced bartending whenever he could and started to learn flair bartending in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, he joined the Shanghai Rainbow Bartenders School, teaching classic mixology and flair bartending. In 2015 he was a teacher at Shanghai Kingdom Coffee Center on bartending techniques. The same year, he ranked 1st place in the Jameson Competition Russia Far East region. He joined the team of Revolucion Cocktail Shanghai and Urban Bar in October 2016.