About
Daniele was born in 1984 in Florence. His mother is from Tuscany and his father was born in Southern Italy. He has one brother, who was also a bartender but has changed his profession in the meantime. After finishing school, Daniele studied art history in his hometown and got into bartending to support his student life. He started out in a small Italian snack bar, which served coffee and sandwiches and did very few cocktails. A few Negroni’s a day or a Spritz was all he made in this small place called Migliorni. He loved the job though and wanted to explore what it means to do this line of work full time, moving closer to the center of Florence and quitting his studies completely as a result. Daniele then did stints at Rivalta Café, FUK, and Golden View Open Bar. During that time, he met Lucca Picchi—a famous Italian bartender from Florence—while attending a course at a bartender school to deepen his knowledge of mixology. After the first course he did with Lucca, Daniele was approached by Lucca and asked if he would also consider teaching at AIBES (Italian Barguild). Lucca was like a mentor to Daniele, and after teaching at AIBES, he also went on to teach classes at Shaker Club. In summer 2016 he was offered a bar manager position at the newly opened Rasputin and took the opportunity to run the most famous cocktail bar in Florence—which he continues to do today. At present, Daniele only teaches special whisky classes at a local hospitality college. He is fully dedicated to his bar manager position at Rasputin.
