Chiara Degl’Innocenti is a professional journalist and writes for the most important national newspapers. He is co-founder with Penelope Vaglini, food & beverage editor and Academy Chair for Italy for The World’s 50 Best Bars, by Coqtail – for fine drinkersan international quarterly magazine with insights dedicated to the world of mixology and hospitality.
6 am
Clear: «I’m a very light sleeper, I get up and drink a coffee with a fruit. Maybe I go out for a walk or steal an hour for Pilates. When I go out I already have my cell phone in my hand: bartenders and bar managers work and write to me in the evening and at night, for them it’s as if it were daytime.”
Penelope: «My life is often in a different time zone. If I’m in Italy I wake up very early and take advantage of the quieter hours to write and do strategic and financial planning, before the phone starts ringing and the emails start arriving. When travelling, often on the other side of the world, it becomes a game of fits between local and Italian times.”
Penelope Vaglini (left) and Chiara Degl’Innocenti (right)
9 am
C.: «We both take care of everything. I travel less and am more involved in editorial work, I write texts on cocktail bars, on their drink lists, on the characters that animate this world. In just a few years the work has increased tenfold. We started in 2019 with the “Coqtail Milano” site, then our boundaries expanded with the quarterly, Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Contacts, calls and live meetings have increased.”
P.: «Abroad I meet local partners, make appointments with bartenders for interviews, visit locations for events and look for new addresses. Often the trip is aimed at supervising shootings, with our photographers and videomakers, taking photos for the magazine or recording videos for online and social channels”.
A view of Barcelona, one of the cities where Penelope goes most often for its top bars.
1pm
C.: «In Milan we’ll see each other at Beppe’s, at Mugs & Co, in front of a perfectly made club sandwich, here it’s more pleasant to share ideas».
P.: «We talk to Chiara very often, we send each other messages and if we can’t call each other we write emails».
3pm
C.: «The bulk of the day is after lunch, I finish what I have to write and read the newspapers, even the political and financial part, which gives us a gauge of how the food & beverage sector will work and the trends of the moment. The presentations of our magazine, then, are an important moment to network with the professionals in front and behind the counter.”
P.: «Part of my job is to organize events. I contact the sites a month before, we decide the date, the time frame of the event and the evening’s activities. I contact the bar managers to structure the drink list by choosing the spirits from our partners’ products; I coordinate with the companies for the logistical part, giving the bar team the opportunity to try the recipes. Then there is the graphic part: visuals, IG posts and stories and the invitation list, which changes from time to time. Before the event I coordinate the shooting, photos and videos and the live coverage of the event.”
A drink list by Chiara and Penelope, the key point of their events.
7.30pm
C.: «Sometimes I try “incognito” bars, alone, because I’m less exposed than Penelope. They come alive late, and the atmosphere is part of the experience. It’s difficult to get home before midnight. Then, I close with a yellow clike those of Osman».
P.: «I don’t have much free time. Things even come to mind while I’m taking a shower. When I’m at home I enjoy the tranquility and my husband, who prepares splendid dinners for me.”