About

Mètafora is a hospitality consultancy dedicated to transforming venues into refined, multisensory environments that elevate culture, values, and the guest experience. Rooted in philosophy, creativity, and sustainability, Mètafora helps teams and venues build meaningful foundations and a strong service identity.

With a deep focus on bar service and cocktail design, Mètafora specialises in developing high-performing teams in high-end environments, creating innovative beverage programmes, and delivering luxury beverage experiences. From concept development to tailored trainings and bespoke events, Mètafora empowers both businesses and private clients to reach new levels of excellence and luxury.

A set of bar utensils and glasses on a black surface in front of a lush green ivy-covered wall.
Man sitting on a chair in an empty, industrial-style room with large windows, wearing a green jumpsuit, with a small wooden table holding a cocktails mixing tin in front of him.
A bartender mixing a drink at a bar in a well-lit, modern restaurant. The bartender is smiling and wearing a dark suit and watch, pouring liquid from a metal shaker into a glass.

Meet the Founder

Denis Pisano is a creative beverage leader and consultant whose career spans some of the world’s most respected luxury hotels and cocktail institutions across the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Australia. His work sits at the intersection of high-end hospitality, cultural awareness, and modern experiential design. With over a decade of experience, Denis began his journey in Italy, training in Michelin-level and high-end hotels, including Borgo Egnazia, a Leading Hotel of the World known for its elevated service standards, before moving into the international luxury bar scene.

  • He built his foundation in London’s elite bar and hotel scene spending formative years at the  famous Gong Bar at Shangri-La, perched above the city and recognised globally for its  innovation, and later the Pine Bar at The Biltmore Mayfair, part of Hilton’s prestigious LXR  collection. He continued refining his craft and gained foundational experience in service  excellence at The Connaught, one of the world’s most awarded hotels, where he absorbed  the precision, culture, and expectations of global luxury hospitality as well as the most  sophisticated steps of service.  

    These experiences shaped his understanding of technical excellence, emotional intelligence,  and the power of details in luxury service.  

    Returning to Italy, Denis continued his progression in boutique and high-end hotels. Places  such as Palazzo Daniele, have been his focus to express his creative spark and keeping 

    evolving his beverage program proposal. Here, he strengthened his technical craft, creativity,  and understanding of the guest experience in a Mediterranean luxury context.  

    His career later expanded to Sweden, where he studied a seasoned program of psychology at  Umeå University—an academic path that now informs his approach to hospitality. This  massively deepened his understanding of perception, memory, and emotional response became central to how he designs beverages and guest journeys.  

    Driven by a deep sense of curiosity and a longing for more knowledge, he relocated to  Australia, where he evolved into a modern hospitality leader. His positions at Park Hyatt  Sydney, Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas, and ultimately Aster Bar at InterContinental Sydney, strengthened his identity as both a strategist and creative innovator and positioned him as a  strong creative force behind each beverage Programme that he boldly created or worked on.  

    At Aster, he successfully led the venue to international recognition with 1 PIN from The  Pinnacle Guide, placing it among only 31 bars worldwide awarded for excellence and  cementing its reputation as one of Australia’s most forward-thinking hotel bars.  

    His Philosophical vision continues to influence his approach to beverage design—exploring  how flavour, symbolism, and experience affect perception, memory, and emotion. For him,  hospitality is not only service; it is a form of communication and a way to craft moments that  feel meaningful and memorable.  

    Today, Denis works as a consultant and creative director, collaborating with luxury hotels,  brands, and venues seeking to elevate their beverage identity. His style blends structure with  imagination, discipline with creativity, and innovation with timeless elegance. From concept  development to multisensory menu creation to luxury event experiences, his work reflects a  balance of technical knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and philosophical depth.  

    Mètafora—his independent consulting project—is the natural evolution of this journey: a  space where his international background, creative approach, and experiential thinking come  together. It represents his vision of hospitality with a Philosophical and artistic form, where  ideas and Powerful Metaphors take shape through flavour, storytelling, and emotion to  evoke the unseen dimensions of the craft.  

    Denis’s mission is simple: Highlighting unseen actions through the power of metaphors and  sustainable evolution to create beverage experiences that feel unforgettable in their  impact.

A man with curly hair and a beard, dressed in a green jumpsuit, is pouring a liquid from a metal container onto another container while standing in an industrial or warehouse setting with brick walls and large windows.

Our Mission

The first purpose of Mètafora is to shift how people understand luxury. Luxury in today’s world should not be defined by wealth, excess, or rare objects — but by  meaningful actions performed to elevate others, enrich environments, and inspire  communities.  For Métafora, luxury is not excess — it is intention. True luxury today lies in sustainability,  intention, and the responsibility to use knowledge, resources, and creativity to uplift those  around us.  Mètafora exists to guide people toward this new form of luxury: one rooted in conscience,  craft, and culture.  

Through its work, Mètafora empowers venues and individuals to create exceptional  experiences using thoughtful design rather than limitless resources. By embracing  sustainability, locality, and intelligent simplicity, Mètafora proves that luxury can be created  anywhere — from a world-class hotel to a remote regional venue — when guided by  purpose.  

The second purpose of Mètafora is to remind people that every action, when approached  consciously, carries a deeper meaning. Whether hosting a guest, designing a beverage, or  building a creative project, there is always an unseen dimension to explore — a lesson, a  connection, a story. This perspective transforms hospitality into a field of growth, reflection,  and human understanding. Through this lens, creativity becomes a form of self-discovery, and service becomes an act of  wisdom.  In essence, Mètafora stands for: Conscious environmental awareness, Purpose-driven  hospitality, Sustainable, forward-thinking creativity.