Nikos Bakoulis

Nikos Bakoulis has felt most alive behind a bar for the past 15 years. He believes he’s been doing the world’s most creative job since starting out in Thessaloniki and ending up in Athens, which has become the anchor point in his globe-trotting professional career.

He was proclaimed Bartender of the Year at World Class Greece in 2011 and his bartending odyssey since then has led to him being one of the founders of internationally acclaimed The Clumsies Bar and being behind the Otto’s Athens Vermouth project as well as The Clumsies Original Cocktails (mixed and bottled to be enjoyed anywhere).

In its opening year, The Clumsies Bar gained a place in the top four of the Tales of the Cocktail best new international bars awards and it reached number 22 in the World’s 50 Best Bars competition, 2015.

In 2016, The Clumsies were placed in the final four of the Tales of the Cocktail Best International High Volume Bars and climbed to the 9th spot in the World’s 50 Best Bars competition.

The bar has now consistently been placed in the top ten of the prestigious World’s 50 Best Bars for the past four consecutive years, twice reaching 6th place (2017 and 2019). In 2018 the flourishing bar was named The Best International High Volume Bar by Tales of the Cocktail.

In the meantime, Nikos continues to derive inspiration from a wide range of sources, creating innovative recipes to mix for the customers at The Clumsies Bar and traveling worldwide thanks to what he calls the most stimulating job on the planet.