Mood Therapist

Mood Therapist Not feeling your best? See Mood Therapist for fine Modernist Cocktails & all manner of antifogmatics.

Rich McDonough is The Mood Therapist, focusing on Modernist techniques to create unique and compelling cocktails. He has worked with a number of The World’s 50 Best Bars and Asia’s 50 Best Bars including 69 Colebrooke Row in London, Jose Andres’ BarMini in Washington DC and Quinary in Hong Kong as well as some of the world’s finest hotels including the Sofitel Legend Metropole, Aman Resorts, JW Ma

rriott, Park Hyatt, Zannier Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels. He has conducted numerous events for luxury brands including Christian Dior and Vietnam’s own Marou Chocolate as well as alcohol brands including Sông Cái Gin, Sampan Rhum, Moet et Chandon Champagne, Tanqueray Gin, Johnnie Walker Whisky, Hennessy Cognac, Flor de Cana Rum, Belvedere Vodka, Zacapa Rum, Bulleit Bourbon and Glenmorangie Whisky. Rich has been the Chief Intoxicologist at every Luang Prabang Film Festival since 2015, in addition to other festivals including the ASEAN Pride Festival and Vietnam’s first ever Gin Festival. In 2019, Rich brought a team from London’s Drink Factory on a cocktail tour of Vietnam. Rich was honored to be be on the judging panels for cocktail competitions including the World Class Vietnam Finals in both 2021 & 2022 and the Flor de Cana Rum Frontiers Challenge in 2017 and to be invited to present two sessions for Bar Convent Berlin 2021 on vacuum distillation. Rich is also a Social Media Influencer for Buchi, building on his experience in vacuum distillation using a Buchi Rotovapor. Rich has recently joined the TUNG Group of companies, behind TUNG Dining and Å by Tung, where his first project will be the beverage programme at a new bar called Kuusi by Tung, located in Hanoi.

25/08/2025

This is Rich McDonough. the Hanoi-based 'Mood Therapist' who's Co-Founder and Beverage Director of .hanoi
which became Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025 Campari One To Watch while ascending to No.83 on the list.

Since opening in late December ’24, Workshop14 has quietly redefined Hanoi’s cocktail scene with its minimally nostalgic interiors and decadent, cheekily named drinks like their Captcha In The Rye and their Barry Galdi, typical Richard who previously made cocktails with names like Goggles For A One-Eyed Man (the inspiration for which he explains here).

All of this helped Workshop14 win over locals, travelers, and, as it turns out, our editor-in-chief too who just penned a piece on the bar for 50 Best.

Get ready for ‘The Good, The Bad, And The Weird’ with Richard McDonough. It's weird...but good.

24/07/2025

Anyone travelling from Saigon to Hanoi soon who would be willing to mule a small package from D2 please?

Thanks to Nguyễn Minh Khánh and the team at PK Maltroom, Vietnam’s Whisky destination for a super fun night! 🙏
19/07/2025

Thanks to Nguyễn Minh Khánh and the team at PK Maltroom, Vietnam’s Whisky destination for a super fun night! 🙏

18/07/2025

This really happened, right?

There wasn’t some grand creative strategy behind founding .hanoi—it was more a matter of survival following the worst ye...
17/07/2025

There wasn’t some grand creative strategy behind founding .hanoi—it was more a matter of survival following the worst year of my life. Frankly, I was just grateful to make rent and find some sense of stability again.

My career path has been anything but conventional. From writing horoscopes as Madame Zaza for the Phnom Penh Post and distributing Rizla papers in Cambodia in the 1990s when w**d was still legal, to founding and managing Design Group (an advertising and design agency), I’ve actually only worked in two cocktail bars in my life—including Workshop14. It still feels weird to see myself described as a “seasoned bartender” in writing. If only they knew! 😆. Making the extended Asia’s 50 Best Bars list was an unexpected and surreal experience, so receiving the Campari One to Watch award feels totally surreal.
My deepest thanks and appreciation go to and , my amazing partners, for their trust in me and all their hard work. Also to .drinks and our fabulous bar team, without whom none of this would be possible. Thanks to , , and everyone who voted for us and supported my crazy ideas along the way. And most of all, to every single one of our beloved drinkers—without whom we would simply be an empty room.
Let’s see what the next year brings. Thank you! 🙏

Thank you to my partners, our team and all our drinkers - both past and future!
03/07/2025

Thank you to my partners, our team and all our drinkers - both past and future!

📣 No.83 — Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025

This still feels unreal — Workshop14 has been ranked No.83 in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025.
And yes, we’re only six months old!

From day one, we opened our doors with more dreams than answers. We simply believed in flavours worth chasing, stories worth telling, and people worth gathering around the bar. To see our name already among Asia’s best feels truly surreal.

To every guest who’s pulled up a chair, every friend who’s believed in us, and every teammate who’s poured their heart into this space — this moment belongs to all of us.

We’ll be in Macao this July 15, standing proudly among Asia’s finest, taking it all in with wide eyes and full hearts.

This is just the beginning.
____________________________

✨WORKSHOP14 VỪA LỌT TOP 100 CHÂU Á✨
No.83 – Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025!

Chúng tôi vẫn còn choáng ngợp khi viết những dòng này: Workshop14 – quán bar nhỏ mới cửa đón khách chỉ 6 tháng trước – đã được xướng tên ở vị trí thứ 83 trong bảng xếp hạng danh giá Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025.
Workshop14 xin được dành lời cảm ơn sâu sắc đến những người bạn, những vị khách hàng đã luôn yêu quý và ủng hộ, và đặc biệt là những người thợ thủ công tâm huyết của "Làng Nghề thứ 14"!
Chúng tôi sẽ góp mặt tại Macao vào ngày 15/7 để gặp gỡ những cái tên xuất sắc nhất châu Á trong lễ trao giải Asia’s 50 Best Bars.
Hẹn gặp mọi người trên hành trình tiếp theo — vì đây chỉ mới là bắt đầu!
________________________

Workshop14
Crafting A New Tradition - Modern Cocktails & Flavours
Mon - Sun: From 16:00 til 00:00
Tel: 0934446669
🥃 DM us to book your seat

Before the sun sets is glorious at .hanoi and we’re open from 4pm every day so you can enjoy it too. See you soon!
19/04/2025

Before the sun sets is glorious at .hanoi and we’re open from 4pm every day so you can enjoy it too. See you soon!

Address

Hanoi

Telephone

+84 93 454 1970

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mood Therapist posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Mood Therapist:

Shortcuts

Share

The Mood Therapist

Starting as a keen home cook, the Mood Therapist developed an interest in Modernist Cuisine – contemporary techniques utilising equipment more commonly found in a laboratory than a kitchen. Unable to satisfy the demand for invitations to his increasingly extravagant dinner parties, the Mood Therapist looked to making cocktails as a way to deliver pleasure to a larger numbers of guests while still focusing on modernist techniques. As his passion grew over time, so his equipment got more serious and the variety of techniques employed increased. The amount of cooking went down and the number of cocktails went up... Numerous requests to cater parties and events lead to the Mood Therapist offering his services professionally.

In 2017, he was accepted into the highly respected Stage Programme at the Drink Factory in London, run by International Bartender of the Year 2009, Tony Conigliaro. The Drink Factory own and operate 5 bars in London have had 9 listings in the ‘50 Best Bars in the World’ list in the last 7 years.

In addition to working with hotels and bars to create unique cocktail evenings, the Mood Therapist also works with brands, organisations and individuals to tailor custom events and promotions.

Clients and partners include Aman Resorts, JW Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts, The Luang Prabang Film Festival, Moet Hennessy, Marou Chocolate, Heart of Darkness Craft Brewery and Christian Dior.