DON’T WORRY PLAYLIST: ITALIAN CLASSICS

It was while on vacation in Tokyo that Aldo Sersale discovered the world of Japanese listening bars. These are spaces where the music is as important as the cocktails and the conversation, if not more so. The classic ongaku kissa or ‘listening café’ is dedicated to vinyl records reproduced on top-quality sound equipment.

Aldo had long wanted to give the original indoor bar at the centre of Le Sirenuse in Positano a new energy while respecting its history as one of the original rooms of what, before his family opened the hotel in 1951, had been one of the living rooms of the Sersales’ seaside villa, where family and friends would meet to chat, play cards… and listen to music. With its celebration of old-school, analogue audio pleasures, a listening bar, he realised, was the perfect solution. It would also give guests of Le Sirenuse a convivial place to relax and enjoy a nightcap after dinner. Aldo’s desire, he explains to the Journal, was to offer a soundtrack of “high-quality, amazing music on vinyl, reproduced as faithfully as possible, curated by someone who knows what they're doing”.

For the state-of-the-art sound system, Aldo turned to audio consultant Stefano Menicagli, whose first contact with Le Sirenuse had come when Franco Sersale, the grandfather of Aldo and Francesco, asked him to install a Linn Sondek vinyl HiFi system in his house in Rome. Stefano has since masterminded all of Le Sirenuse's audio requirements. “We gave him carte-blanche”, Aldo remarks. Stefano installed a system based around speakers by British firm ATC, a legend within the professional sound industry.

Finding a DJ with the right sensibility was proving to be more problematic until someone mentioned Sciabu, a positanese born and bred who had worked the turntables in a couple of the Amalfi Coast resort’s dance bars in the 1990s. He was hired on the basis of a test playlist he made for Aldo. “Being a true analogue”, Aldo recounts, “Paolo gave me a USB stick with the playlist he created after our discusson on what the ambience should feel like. He distilled my vision and clarified it, blending 60s, 70s and 80s rock and roll with some of the best Italian Pop Classics – I knew immediately I had found the right man for the job!”.

Leading the ‘most-ordered cocktail’ hit parade of Italian Pop Classics over the 2024 season were refreshing tequila,  lime and watermelon pick-me-up Parole parole, named after pop diva Mina’s trenchant song from 1972 about the empty words she’s hearing from her two-timing lover, and Tu vuò fà l’americano, a bitter, fresh and fruity bourbon, campari, raspberry and lemon concoction that pays homage to the acerbically witty classic by Neapolitan singer Renato Carosone about an Italian who affects a cool ‘whisky and soda’ American image even though he still lives at home with mamma and papà.

“So Paolo”, the Journal asked provocatively, “could you take us from Parole parole to Tu vuò fà l’americano in a twenty-song mix consisting entirely of vintage Italian pop classics?” We’d hardly finished speaking when he started rifling through his vinyl collection. See below for the playlist he came up with, which you can listen to on Spotify here. If you would like to try your hand at mixing your own version of these two Don’t Worry cocktail stalwarts, the recipes are given below. If you would rather sample them with live musical soundtrack in Positano, we would love to see you. The Don’t Worry Bar is open every evening from 8:30pm until late.

Cocktail Recipes

Parole parole

50ml chilli-spiced Tequila Blanco

20ml fresh lime juice

25ml fresh watermelon juice

5ml pine liquor

90ml soda water

Mix with ice in a shaker, pour into a tumbler. At the Don’t Worry Bar, this is served with a ginger and lemon foam topping.

Tu vuò fà l’americano

50ml bourbon

25 ml fresh lemon juice

20 ml raspberry reduction

20 ml Campari

Mix with ice in a shaker, pour into a tumbler.

Photos © Roberto Salomone