(Drinks International) On a mission to share Brazil’s biodiversity, Fabio La Pietra at Sub Astor bar is concentrating on a menu that does that.

Fabio La Pietra has long had a nose for adventure, first as a 19 year old fresh out of Puglia and straight into Notting Hill’s Montgomery Place, then – in the pursuit of love – to Brazil. The Italian bartender has headed up Sub Astor in the buzzing Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo for the past 10 years, where each night he brings the South American country’s biodiversity to life. It’s that same drive and passion that has twice taken the bar to rank in the top 100 of World’s 50 Best Bars and, earlier this year, La Pietra sat on the World Class jury when his adopted city hosted the bartending competition.

Fabio’s trajectory speaks for itself: after following in his brother Mario’s footsteps into the world of hospitality as a teenager, he later trained under Agostino Perrone and Erik Lorincz at Montgomery Place where his London experience at the temple of modern mixology equipped him with a broad array of behind-the-bar wizardry to lead Sub Astor when the opportunity arose in 2013.

For the rest of this please visit Drinks International, February 2024.