Welcome to this SL Man podcast in which some of the biggest names in business, fitness,

fashion and more tell us about their careers, their style, their routines, their mental health,

and much more.

Welcome to the SL Man podcast with me, Charlotte Collins.

This week I'm joined by Heather Steele and Ryan Chettyiawadana.

Mr. Lyon, as he's otherwise known, is at the forefront of innovation within the drinks industry and has been involved in opening several of the UK's best bars for over a decade, as well as launching in the US and Amsterdam.

It all began with his first bar, White Lion, in Hoxton in 2013. The bar was voted world's best new international bar in 2014 at Tales of the Cocktail

and was included in the world's 50 best bars list in 2014 and 2015.

He has since been named UK Bartender of the Year twice and in 2015 was named International Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail.

Most recently, Ryan opened a cool new space, Seed Library and 100 Shorlet Charlotte Hotel in March 2022, where the drinks

focus around the heritage of certain cocktails. I'm sorry, Ryan, I'm nearly done as well as bars.

The Mr. Lyme brand includes a retail range of five bottled cocktails available to buy from

Selfages and Master of Mort. Welcome.

Thank you. That is quite a CV you've got there.

It's a lengthy bit that you've included. It's very nice to hear some of those bits back. Yes. Remembering those heavy days of 2013. Can you give us a bit of background? How does one become best bartender in the UK? Well, I mean, that's a specific point that was, I suppose, much later in the career, actually, I think the journey into that,

I always talk about the fact for most people in food and drink, it's a bit of a roller coaster and you end up kind of falling into the industry. And it was no different for me. I didn't really intend on being in food and drink. It was something I loved. I've grown up around food a lot and I actually trained as a chef, but I was originally, I was coming down to London, I was going to art college,

and I kind of as a chef, but I was originally, I was coming down to London,

I was going to art college and I kind of got bitten by the idea of being in the industry.

You know, it was something I did while I was just trying to fund studies, but it was really infectious. It felt something that, you know, could be an output for my interest in both arts

and sciences because I went on from studying fine art to do biology and then I did philosophy and I jumped around. You know, could be an output for my interest in both arts and sciences, because I went on from studying fine art to do biology and then I did philosophy and I jumped around.

You know, it was just the constant output of not only being able to kind of work with amazing people and hear amazing stories, but I got to be creative and I got to apply the kind of same rigor in thinking that I wanted to do from kind of my science world.

So I ended up just loving the food and drink kind of side of things.

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