Dubbed Popolare, BOBO’s collaboration with the ‘World’s No. 1 Bar’ gives home mixologists a quartet of glassware that mixes industry-grade quality with vintage Italianate design.
Fresh from its recognition as the “Best Bar in Hong Kong”, at the annual ‘Asia’s 50 Best’ sweepstakes, Bar Leone has announced it will be releasing a new capsule of cocktail glasses with Stockholm-based BOBO later this year.
A specialist in high-quality bar glasses and stemware — already noted for its partnership with Sweden’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurant — BOBO’s team-up with Bar Leone marks the first time that the award-winning cocktail lounge has dabbled in a range of co-branded drinking vessels.
Inspired by Italy’s “traditional neighbourhood bar culture of the 1980s”, colloquially referred to as popolare, the eponymous range consists of four glass shapes named for the beverages they’re best-suited to serving. Fans of renowned Italian institutions, like Milan’s Camparino in Galleria, can probably surmise what those are.
In keeping with Leone’s own reputation for serving unfussy, classically styled cocktails, home mixologists will find a ‘Highball’, ‘Spritz’, and ‘Martini’ glass to choose from. A ‘Rock’ glass completes the quartet — arguably the most versatile of the bunch, as ideally suited to water or dark spirits over ice as it is a Yuzu Negroni.
Speaking on the genesis of the collaboration, Lorenzo Antinori, Bar Leone’s co-founder, said that the underlying goal was to craft “a glass made for the [everyday], without losing the craft.”
“To us, casualness and elegance have always been able to live in the same place. Popolare is built in the same spirit.”
Vintage Roman inspirations aside, the team at BOBO leaned on their existent expertise to build an array of shapes and volumes that would perform well in the “high-volume environment of professional bars” — even if the only setting you’ll be busting them out in is the annual Christmas luncheon.
“That comes with its own set of challenges,” says Fredrik Blom, BOBO’s founder. “[It’s] a robust design that still has to feel refined and balanced.”
In practice? The team at BOBO managed this balance by utilising lead-free, mouthblown crystal — known for its visual delicacy yet highly robust handle. Best of all: every design is dishwasher-safe, meaning that after the requisite aperitivos, one can set these glasses aside without worrying about taking up excess space.
The BOBO x Bar Leone ‘Popolare’ range launches this November. For additional information, or to register your interest, email hello@bobo.store.
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