1. How and where did you get started in bartending?
In Brownsville, TX, at a restaurant called Terra’s. I had just left a long time job feeling pretty down and jumping between jobs. Eventually landed a gig at a liquor store and got to meet the bar manager through there. We quickly hit it off, and he invited me out to his restaurant. I walked in one night, solo, and he treated me to my first ever cocktails and a wonderful meal. From then on I was hooked. I knew I wanted to create that experience for people for the rest of my life.
2. What aspects of your trade do you find the most interesting? The most challenging?
The people. Meeting someone for the first time and finding out exactly what kind of experience and then what kind of drink they want is incredibly interesting to me. Suiting a cocktail exactly to their tastes. I love playing that game and “figuring out” that puzzle night after night, guest after guest. It does become exhausting of course and managing that with your own personal life and emotions is the greatest challenge, I suppose. It’s very easy to burn out when you are the life of everyone’s party night after night, but with the years I’ve found a happy medium of external and internal happiness.
3. Do you have a favorite cocktail?
Haha. I’d like to say no. I’ll say there’s always a perfect cocktail for the moment and that cocktail is always different. But, my trusty go to is always scotch and soda. Crisp, refreshing, perfect every time.
4. What trends do you find to be really taking off in the industry?
Non-alcoholic/low ABV, of course. There's a big movement to be overall healthier and more mindful, and I have a huge amount of respect for it. I don’t think the industry has got a great answer yet, but they’re getting there. Most people worry too much about having a good spirit substitute and forget to make something delicious along the way. I personally have designed a few NA offerings for our menu, and I am always happy to chat about NA options. Some cocktails can be very plug-and-play with NA spirits, some not so much. For me, the NA movement has made think much more about raw ingredients and how to extract their flavor as opposed to “I like this bottle of whiskey so I’m gonna make a drink with it.”
5. What is your favorite perk you like to use to treat a special guest?
My favorite thing to do for someone is treat them to something they’ve never had before. For some people, that’s a whiskey sour with egg white. For some people that’s a clarified cocktail. For some people that’s an obscure cocktail from the 1930s. I’ll typically make a little baby cocktail version of something and drop it off after their check is dropped. Like an unexpected encore at a concert.
7. What is one ingredient you can't live without, or one you love experimenting with?
Can't live without fresh lime juice. I mean really fresh. Truly a bottle of lime juice is optimal like 3-4 hours after juicing, and it’s all downhill from there. Nothing else compares to fresh citrus. Most bars logistically can’t serve you really fresh citrus juice and it’s a shame. It’s why I mostly order stirred and built drinks when I’m out.
8. Who has influenced your craft the most--inside or outside the bar world?
Ah. I’ve had 3-4 great mentors in my life. 2 of them in this industry. Really I could name any of them. But I’ll go with the OG since I spoke about him earlier. My first bar manager Juan. He just had insane hospitality and charisma. Made everyone feel like a king or queen at the bar. He also had insanely high standards for everything we served. Throughout many shifts together he taught me what it was to be a bartender. To truly tend the bar and make everyone feel seen and heard while making the best drinks around.
9. What's your proudest moment so far as a bartender?
Seattle 2024 at the Giffard west cup regionals. Their competition is a fun one, the prompt that year was presenting something about yourself that brought balance to your life behind the bar. As I mentioned earlier, balancing those two personas is the hardest thing. I went onstage with a killer presentation, nailed it, had a blast and won the thing. It felt like such a culmination of my experiences and like I had grown as a person and gotten rewarded for it. Those “level-up” moments in life are the most rewarding for me and I felt incredibly proud.
10. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the cocktail world?
There's two things I find myself repeating a lot to newer bartenders (1) People first. If the guest isn’t having a good time, you’ve lost the plot. (2) Always make it delicious, if your drink isn’t delicious then why did you make it? I find most bartenders can be really good at one or the other, but are rarely good at both the hospitality and the technique aspects.