E122 Alfonso Esquivias

This week's guest is Alfonso Esquiles, who joins us from Long Beach, California. Alfonso got to start the industry over a decade ago when he started working at a small Mexican restaurant named Taco Surf in Seal Beach, California. Back in early 2021, Alfonso started getting into craft cocktails at home, started buying books and bottles, and just let him down the path of a never-ending hobby. In the summer of 2021, Alfonso launched his mobile bar business, drinks with fonts, LLC, and is enjoying a successful run.

Make sure you check him out online at drinkswithfons.com and on Instagram at drinks.with.fons, or check the show notes for all the links. Also, we're taking a week or two off to enjoy the summer, so we'll be back in a few weeks. Enjoy the show. We're back with another episode of the industry podcast.

I'm your host, Kip Saunders. This is the producer extraordinaire Dan Saretta. What is happening with you? I know, same nonsense as always.

Just hanging out with all the stuff is inconsequential life. Enjoy the nice weather. Well, by the time our fans have been listening to this, you and I will both be coming back from trips that make it less. Yeah, that's true.

That's very true. We're going after this. By the time you hear this, I'll have hopefully returned from Tails of the Cocktail in New Orleans with an attack liver in theory. And we'll start to hearing some of the interviews that I've done while I'm down there.

We've already made a few connections with that. The lovely in town that you'll be joining us with some of that should be down there. And I got it at the end of the other day that the amazing Aubrey Slater is going to be there. That should be fun.

I'm sitting in the moo-shag. Yeah, and so you can go back into our archives and listen to her episodes. It was a two-parter and it's a banana. Yeah.

So it'll be interesting to connect with her. Yeah, so you will be coming back from Amsterdam. Right, good luck. Yes, thank you.

It's actually a work trip. So the last half, well, the last two thirds of the trip are work related. You're never going to see that half. No, that's true.

I'm flying in by myself for a couple of days. So, I'll clearly get in by myself. Good luck. That's what I can say.

Good luck. Well, we should mention that if you are in town and you're listening with a new in town being Kitchener in Waterloo, Ontario, of course, you're going to want to hit up Sugar Run Bar. We have a bunch of events coming up there. Sugar Run is a speaking in downtown Kitchener.

We have a new weekly comedy night, a stand-up comedy from professional comics from all over Ontario and the rest of the country. That's every Wednesday night at Sugar Run. In addition, we have Blue Fest coming up August 6th and 7th or 5th and 6th. What are the Fridays I already is that week?

Yes. So you should check that out. And also a potential another Brown man show coming up as well. Brown man and Lee have you missed any of those.

And then there's Babylon Sisters in Uptown Waterloo. Every Friday night we have DJ Bain spinning R&B and we have new hours open Sunday in the daytime now with sangria specials. So you want to check that out Wednesday to Sunday at both spots. So check those bars out and do me a favor.

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And I think that's about it with us again. Stay tuned to some of the interviews that are going to be coming up live remote interviews from the 20th anniversary of Tales of the Cocktail. If I make it and whatever I do, we have Alfonso Esquivias. He is joining us from Los Angeles.

Correct? Long Beach. Long Beach. The personal is Angeles.

Yeah. I should be honest before we start a recording. I'm a little out of it. We're recording a little earlier so Alfonso can still make it to work and I don't think my brain turned all the way on yet.

That's an half and 48 years. I'm fine now. I start now. Thanks for having me guys.

I'm excited. Thanks for joining the show. Appreciate it. Okay.

So let's talk about Long Beach in general. Let's actually just back it up a little further and talk about how you first got into the service industry and where that was. So my first job at service industry was a restaurant called TalkServe. I actually started off as a host and I moved up to Food Runner Expo server.

You know, did all that. I never wanted to bartend ever because I didn't want to deal with anybody. I was like, no, I don't want to deal with anybody. People feel I always felt entitled to the bar top and I was like, I don't want to deal with that.

So not to interrupt you, but I'd like to flesh that out a little bit. We have lots of people who worked in the back house in the front house. And I've always been my contention that people who gravitate towards the kitchen in the back of the house is because they really don't want the social aspect that goes with it. And so at what point did you decide that you felt like you could deal with the people who are actually in the restaurant because that's a big difference in the service industry, between the people who tend to go back to house or front of house.

It's like, what do you want to deal with the fucking guests? I think they decided for me. Oh, no. Because they just tell me, hey, I don't remember exactly what happened, but I think it was a bartender for the morning shifts had an emergency was gone for about a week and they're like, well, you're the only one that can be there.

You're just serving and you're just learning how to make a couple drinks because it wasn't like anything crafty. This was back in 2011. So it was pretty, pretty easy. Everything was simple, vodka soda, stuff like that.

And they just kind of like progressed to doing it more and more. And then that restaurant closed down. They got bought out. It closed down and I moved into a restaurant called where I'm at now is called mama's comfort food and cocktails.

And then that's where I kind of just stuck as a bartender after all. And but I still even then I really, really didn't enjoy it or like it was until the pandemic that I really, you know, we all picked up hobbies. And I really started getting into it, making a cocktail for my wife at home and you know, just trying to make it nicer and better kind of just to a presser or whoever came over. Right.

And then it all leads to, you know, you look up for books and we all picked up the, you know, death and company book and then you just are like, Oh, wow, they guys are crazy. It's kind of cool. And then they just left to that and buying bottles as you guys know, you know, it's never ending. You buy one liquor, you buy one tomorrow and then you're, you back over here with over 100 bottles at home.

So that's just kind of how it has began. And then that led to an opportunity to do a event for a private event, you know, a house party and a friend of mine introduced me to that it's actually a whole business for him. I kind of just decided to go that around. It has been a very successful year so far.

Yeah. And that's kind of what I'm trying to push towards. I'm still working at a restaurant. It's a very fast, like volume place, not as crafty as I would like, but whatever pays the bills.

And you're sort of getting your creative juices going through the new business where you're doing the private event. So you kind of have both worlds right now trying to build up the new business where you get to do what you really want to be doing. Meanwhile, you're still making good money at a fast-paced bar. So that's kind of the perfect scenario in the interim until your business gets like full of lease, independent.

Yeah. Definitely. I wish to get a relationship with where I'm at. And you know, they respect like not a lot of bartenders get to all of them.

Yeah, I can't work Saturdays or night or Saturday nights or you know. So they respect that. And then all I do is just request a lot of people book their events way ahead of time. So I can request that through an app that like I'm not going to be able to speak.

And they just respect that and they work with me. Nice. Go back to that restaurant. I do like the day my mom was comfort-fooded cocktails got a pretty good idea where you'd be getting there.

What the... At least I'm having for the most part that. Well, nothing healthy for sure. I'm going to have to keep frying cheese.

I'm guessing. Yeah, a lot of the fry. Yeah. First one, I want to come to mind is called Lord of Biscuits.

You know, three biscuits, smuttered and gravy, fried chicken on top of eggs. It's like, yeah, it's like a... Some of our... Yeah, heart attack.

So some of our items on the menu have like a little... I'm going to call it any moji because I can't think of anything else. It's like a heartbreak, you know. It's just like NASA.

Yeah. It's just like NASA. Not the healthiest, but it's really good. So when people coming to that restaurant, like you said, they're not maybe ordering this sort of craft cocktail drinks, but what kind of drinks are you're mostly making there?

A super basic stuff. I'm like, it's super basic that I don't even think it should be on the menu. And if anyone were to listen to this, they know I'll tell them. Like we have a...

The Moscow Mule, Margarita, Katalak Margarita, just a Mai Tai. You know, stuff that if you order it, a bartender should know, it doesn't necessarily have to be on the menu. But it works for them. You know, and I do try to give input and they do take into consideration, but you know, they are the owners.

Sure. They do what they want. Everything I know about our owners is there pieces of shit, so... 100%.

Yeah, if you thought about like pitching them like sort of a list of your own craft cocktails that maybe they could... And I'm just saying this because what would work with me is if you came to me and pitched me like, okay, this is a list, why don't we run this list as a feature for the weekend, see how it does, and if it makes you guys a lot of money, then all of a sudden we might have a new list. Have you thought about it? I've thought about it and I'm getting closer to...

It's a little nervous to come at you. I'm just an employee. I've never managed the bar or any of that. So it's kind of like, you know, it's a little nervous, but I do want to talk to my general manager and I do kind of have a plan like, hey, give me three cocktails to put on the menu.

Let's see how they do for a... Yeah, just even run it as a feature for one weekend. I see how it does. It sounds like a type of place that has regulars.

So if they come in and all of a sudden there's new shit to drink. I don't know. I'm just telling you from my angle as one of those people's share of ones bar that if somebody came to me with that, I would welcome it. As long as the drinks come correct, I'm sure they'd want to try them.

But anyway, it's just an idea. But let's talk about what you've been doing with your own business and with doing these private events. You obviously said you started reading up a lot and trying a lot of stuff during the plague lockdowns because what else are you going to do? So what made you decide, was it just one party that you booked that made you decide, fuck, maybe I can just do this?

Or have you already had the plan before you booked that first party? So one thing I forgot to mention, I'm backing up a little bit how I started. Everything is on Instagram now. So I started, I used to be a personal trainer and I would post a lot about the cocktails I was making at home and drinking.

And I just kind of like, I realized it didn't go with personal training and alcohol. Yes, I'm like, you know what? That's the rumor. Yes.

So I started a new page of just alcohol and that's what I call the drinks with fonts. And so that kind of led to me making cocktails, people asking about it. And in Long Beach, everyone has a mayor and a buddy of mine where I worked at, he knew the mayor of Long Beach and he was looking for a bartender for his Fourth of July party. So my first party I did was for the mayor of the city I lived in.

So that was pretty cool. And that was instantly like a, you know, people in the city were like, oh, this is cool. They also, they started recommending me and just kind of like, it kind of took off. It took off faster than I thought it would.

I thought it was going to be one, one gig a month or so. And it's been, I think in July, July 4th was a year and I have been booked over 50 times and throughout the year. Yeah. So it's almost a weekly or sometimes I've had my brother work in the event for me as well.

I trained him to Bartson for me and we worked together and then they took him as a bartender I trained him. I was like, oh, like Dan, now I can't use you. That's amazing though. So that's pretty rapid growth.

Now are there a lot of other people or or companies doing the same thing you're doing in Long Beach or do you feel like you're, so you're sort of standing alone or like what? But obviously working for the mayor and like your first event obviously helped spread the word about you. Do you think that was just good fortune or is there not as many of you or like what do you attribute your success to that particular one was a good fortune? The gym I was working at his personal trainer was the owner of the gym.

So he connected me through there. But everything else is I don't I think there's a fair amount of Long Beach. There's a lot more than I thought there was mobile Bart's hinders before I even searched it up. There's like a lot of it and there's a lot of need for it.

Now I think there's just enough business for everyone and everyone has been very friendly. Like my friend, his name is Victor. He has his own business and he actually just shared all his knowledge to me. Like he was not, you know, he didn't see me as competition.

He just wanted he kind of like supported me and told me to do this, do that. This is what's gonna happen. This is how I do it and just kind of like really, really guided me. That's good.

It's good to have that kind of support. And it's also like we just comes up constantly on this show because it's something I believe in like to my core, which is that it's not competition. Like we should all be working together to build a community. If more people know about mobile bartenders, then they're more likely to use one than try and I think if I'm a wealthy person having a party, why wouldn't I want someone to come and do that shit for me?

Right? Like why do I want to do it? Yeah, definitely. And I feel like part of like you said, supporting each other would benefit everyone a lot more because one of the problems I find, you know, giving a quote is people think you're gonna show up and do it for $25 an hour.

Right. And why would I do that if I could show up to my bar and not take anything? Make 300 bucks an hour, you know, five hours. Why would I do it for anything less than that?

When I have to take my mobile bar, you got to take all the eyes, all the mixers, I got to make you a menu and I'm like, why would I do it for that amount? The thing is, that's one thing I would want to do with that. All the eyes of the paper. And you got to keep it.

You got to keep it, you know, cool. Yeah. So the coolers do the job. The coolers work great.

But it's a pain for 50 guests. I take at least 110 pounds of advice, you know, clients or sometimes customers that are, they don't really think about it. They're like, oh, we could do that. You know, we'll grab the eyes.

The eyes, backs have been laying there for a summer and a cooler with an open cooler and it's all like, yeah, or they get like three little tiny bags of ice and I, that, that ought to fucking do it. Yeah. That was one of my first events. They told me I'll provide everything and I show up and there was 320 pound, uh, backs of ice.

Okay. So that's, yeah, that's interesting. Actually, if, if that happens in the future, have you now put together a list of like, okay, this is what's necessary for me to do, to, to, like, to an acoparty? Or so if you're saying you're taking care of us, this is what I need.

Have you got like a sort of writer almost now? Yeah. So now before, you know, when, when you're starting to miss, you kind of just want business. So you're going to take whatever the people would be like, okay, I don't provide alcohol ever.

So that's, that's by law. I can't provide alcohol. Okay. Kind of by California.

There are some states that allow you to get a license for it, but it's special. It's a patient permit. Yeah. All that crap.

Yeah. Not in California. Cause everything is hard in California. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Especially specifically in Ontario. Like, yeah, there's rules for everything. So now I, uh, I sent them a template, quote, everything I include, which is everything needed except the alcohol.

Now before people would be like, you know, if I provide all this, will you do it for less than that, I would take a job and there was always stuff missing. Or there was like, they think something is, they don't really need it. And you're just like, well, I do need it or. So I put it on the list.

Yeah. Yeah. So now I just, I just had an inquiry like two weeks ago that there was a, a gentleman that said, you know, we'll provide everything. And then I thought about it.

And I was like, no, you know what? I don't want to show up to that. Cause I don't know what I'm showing up to. So honestly, I, it's fine.

I know I could, if I'm not going to get hired, I know I could show up at my job, you know, just make a little bit less than I would have there, but I'm just going to show up. Yeah. And so I'm just like that's smart because like we've all been there like Dan and I used to both DJ. I was like, you show up and they go, oh, we got everything you need to plug in and start.

And then you get there and like, there's no bass in the one speaker and they have, they have two turntables, but the one doesn't have a stylus like so. And then you just panic mode, right? Like you plan your whole evening about around doing this and then you got to go on the fly and just make the best of him. And nobody's blaming the host of the party.

Like if something goes wrong, like if you, if you can't make the drinks that you wanted to make or don't have enough ice to, to enact your cocktail list, then who they're not. The guests aren't coming to the people who hosted the party. Look at this fucking shit part-tending service. Yeah, definitely, yeah.

And a lot of the times the hosts, they have no parts and experience, so they don't know what to expect, because of, or they'll say, you know, we have a set up and I mean, I'm sure you guys have a specific way you like certain things or you would like it. And then if you're gonna work through it, you want it to be the way you want it, or to have your tools or everything your way. So that's kind of like, now I'm a little more selective and I was just like, all right, I provide everything or I just, you know, I won't take that job, which is fine with me now. And how do you find the guests at these parties in general?

Are you getting all different kinds of parties or is it mostly like sort of what people are super well off? Kind of everything, a little in between. I find my prices are kind of in the middle. There's like a really like luxury end that they kind of call them some of the luxury barters.

And I'm kind of in the middle. So not like cheap, not expensive, just kind of like a safe ground. And I'm happy with that for now. Obviously we all want to be in the high end of service.

Yeah, sure, but there's something about serving like middle class people, right? Like the parties are probably more fun. And you know, and it's like, I don't know, like you can, I think it opens your world a little bit more to doing different kinds of drinks as well. Yeah, sometimes, one cool thing about these events is that they name the drinks and the names are always hilarious.

Especially for whatever it is, some people get really creative and wild with it. And I'm fine with it as long as it's not like, disrespecting anyone or anything. It's pretty funny. So wait, you make the cocktail and then you say you guys can name this cocktail for the night?

Is that how it works? Yeah, so most of the time the cocktails they choose are pretty, you know, one spirit because the crafter they are, the more they have to spend on the drinks and for the most part that, or sometimes they have, they buy the liquor and what you guys know, some liquids are only used a quarter of an ounce. And sometimes you won't make those, one bottle will have an ounce. That's 50 drinks you only make, like 15 drinks maybe.

So most of the time the drinks are margaritas, different type of margaritas, some sort of a mosque amiels in almost every single one, old fashions, stuff like that. And then they name them whatever they want. And that's kinda cool in another ways that I like kind of upsell them on as old fashioned ice cubes while purchase them from a company called Penny Poundice. I don't know if you guys know that.

We have to have these like that with those little like the blood, they're the big cubes, yeah. And people love it because they just love those big cubes for everything. Well, I fucking love them. They're the perfect way to drink.

I have a funny story about like a party work where, where either something hilarious happened or there was like a total asshole, something in that range. I don't wanna get too many assholes because I'm kind of an asshole back man. I'm like, I don't let the, I told my part of going back to the, I didn't wanna bar it's in the, because people feel inside of it. If I'm back there, I'm entitled as well, if you're gonna be an asshole too.

So no, but I was at a mansion. It was a job we had for some people that owned a wine company from like, I think, what is it, the Netherlands, because I remember them talking about that. Yeah, anyways, they were in Laguna Beach for like an annual celebration or something like that. And a server, the caters were walking with a big cake and they dropped it in the pool, like in the pool, just in front of everybody.

They're in front of the bar, the cake in the pool. And then you just see the caters come and say, that's a, that was like a $15,000 drop of cake that just cost us. Yeah, for all the cleaning. And this house was a mansion.

It was like, we walked half a mile to get from the loading area to the setup. It was insane. And you can just see, the people were so rich, they laughed at it. They didn't care the guests, you know?

They didn't even care about the cake. They kind of laughed and they just, you're like, well, you know. Yeah, but they're also not the ones paying for the cleaning, and that's an interesting thing to talk about. Cause we've had a lot of people on the show do mobile budget and bartending or do catered events, right?

So when you're just sort of covering the bar, what are you responsible for like the next day or after the party's over, like as far as cleaning or removing your ship? So just my area and I put that on the contract. We're just responsible for cleaning the bar area. I'll leave it the way I got there.

And that's it. I think that's the best thing to do. Cause then if you try to help out sometimes, you know, how it's helping out sometimes backfires on you or some responsibility comes on you. And you're like, I really don't want any responsibility.

No, I'll give, I'll tell you a story on my end. We outsource our kitchen at my bars to a catering company. And one of the women who works for that catering company just I wanted to help us move some furniture one day. And like, I wasn't there, but they were like, she insisted and then she fell and broke her ankle.

And it's like, it's just a fucking night there. Cause like, who's responsible for this? Like she doesn't work for me, but she was helping at my spot, right? This is the fucking, yeah.

So that's smart man. Keep it. Keep it. Yeah.

You gotta work harder too for nothing sometimes, you know? Well, that's the thing. And some of that shit is gonna happen no matter what, especially when you're in the, like in the business of serving alcohol to people, right? Like sometimes it's just gonna happen.

It's gonna come back on you. Now when you're doing these mobile sites, so basically the responsibility I'm assuming in state law there in California, it falls on the people hosting the party, not you, right? I mean, I still care. It could, it could come down on me.

So that's why sometimes these events are a little nervous. And people, because it's open bar, you can imagine, you know, they go or cause we use plastic cups. They think the drinks are smaller. I mean, they're still nine ounces and 10 ounces.

I'm using the same counts as they are. When you go to a restaurant, you get a glass that, you know, it's one inch of glass. That's why it looks so much bigger. And it's like, they just pounded four drinks and an hour and they think it's their half size or a quarter size.

So they do get hammered and it does get a little nervous, but you know, you just tell people, you know, I still gotta watch out for my business. I tell the clients, you know, I gotta cut off anyone I will. I carry a general liability and liquor liability insurance. Yeah, because most venues will ask you anyways and it's better to do it just to be safe.

Oh, you gotta come here on Asman like that's for sure. They speak to the drunk cast. You have to cut a lot of people off at all of these events or as you try to kind of just say, hey man, just take it a little bit easy, have a drink of water or what do you do? It sounds to take it easy.

Never had a, I can't remember cutting anyone off at all, but I just end up pouring like, you know, a two-count or something like that. And they don't even realize it. It's a splash of booze. Yeah, a lot of co- yeah.

Every bartender loves the one where you're, you just kind of give them a glass of complete alcohol-free liquid and you know, they're drunk when they don't know the difference, right? Yeah, that's one thing about these events, especially like with, you know, with how much you're serving them at the, towards the party, they just kind of want to drink or think they're drinking even with garnishes, you know, after the first couple of which ones they're like, you know, I just give you the drinker. You don't really worry about the presentation or stuff like that. Now do you guys offer like a list of mocktails as well?

No, getting a little bit more, actually, mocktails are a little more expensive on my end. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Because, you know, if clients listen to this, when I charge, hopefully they don't, because then it's out. But when I charge, you know, when I quote, you know, you say I'm taking mixers and you know, you take soda as juices and all that, and you don't really use as much as you think.

You know, it's a lot less, but you get to kind of like price it as, you know, taking a lot, you know, taking what they don't want to take. Then mocktails, you can't do that because you're going to use at least like probably two ounces of some sort of juices or stuff like that. But if they ask and they say, we have a mocktail, I'll definitely do it. Right, because I was just thinking like in California, there's a pretty heavy, like non-drinking culture that people who would still want to be carrying around a drink at a party, I would imagine.

Yeah, and I've just started to realize that over the last like three months, how it's, you know, a lot of restaurants now even have like a non-alcoholic or mocktail. Yeah, yeah, like even here in Ontario, it's becoming more and more prevalent. And I'm like, the thing is, I just find like, you just, like, it's different when you're offering, this is my rate for the night for an open bar. That's one thing, right?

Where it is like at a bar, like my bar, like putting them on a list of mocktails together is a good thing. Like we can charge more for them and they often cost out less. Yeah, definitely. I used to piss me off, people coming into the bar and they want to drink it now that the mocktail revolution happened, it's like, I can sell them a mocktail instead of like a glass of Pepsi.

When you get 10 refills. Yeah, exactly. Now they're ordering like three mocktails that are like 14, 15 bucks a pop, it's great. I'm about it now.

Most of the time, I'm like, this is better, don't drink. I don't have to worry about my liability because you're not getting drunk. I'm not making the same amount of money. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that.

Yeah, that's true. It's different for you because you're doing a set price with the whole thing, obviously. Yeah, but I mean, it's good to know, because eventually it always kind of want your own spot. So it's good to learn and think about these things beforehand.

Yeah. So is that sort of the goal in the long run for you is to try and maybe open your own place one day? You know, I would like to, but I'm not sure what I want to play off right now. Because kind of getting in over this last week that I've gotten more into the industry, you kind of know like there's a lot of routes you could take.

You know, you kind of meet some people or you interact more with people that are either, you know, distributors or I'm a huge tequila guy. You know, I'm really into tequila. I've met a lot of people that are in the industry and you're just like, maybe I want to go that route. Maybe I just want to focus.

I feel like the business is always going to be there. And I feel like that one is always having kind of set. I don't have to, unless I want to expand like really, really, like a lot, but I feel like that would happen organically or I don't know, you would know when the time is for that. Yeah.

And it's like, you bring up a good point there, like especially since the advent of social media and then the way that social media took over during the pandemic, there are a litany of new jobs in the service industry now that like there's so many different ways that you can monetize what used to be. The only way you can monetize it was be to open a bar or restaurant. Yeah, and or work it. Yeah.

So even I've met tequila owners at the bar top that I would have never, you know, if I didn't get in, if I just was a guy that showed up in the bar, the bar soda or the simple kind of like margarita and didn't care about anything else, I wouldn't know he was a tequila owner because I didn't want to interact with him as he was talking about tequila. But because I chose to interact and learn, I met him and I've met other people that are in the industry and it's always good to know people because you never know if they might need barts in there, if they might need you or stuff like that. Right. Yeah.

And the businesses about all businesses about connections and networking. But like artists, it's always been that way but it's become even more so since like, there's so much going on over social media with brand ambassadors and like, if you build up a great social media page of your own personal cocktails, next thing you know, you can get like brand support, you know, it's crazy. It's amazing, in life in general, but specifically in our industry, it's amazing the different avenues for monetization now. Yeah, I think it was, I was listening back to some part because I think it was where the, I want to say it was Alex Jump, I think, from Deafico.

I think she said something like someone turns 21 every year. So you got all these new people coming in all the time. So it's never going to die or end. It's going to continue to grow and grow or the customers will never end.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true.

It's true that now it's just like, what are they looking for is the key, right? Cause I think I often worry about it. I'm like, now that I've moved on to them over the ownership side, it's been very much easier for me to turn it over to people who are higher or talented because like, I'm sort of out with a loop of like what the new crop for here is 19 year olds, the new crop of 19 year olds who are coming in and what they're looking to drink, right? Like I'm not qualified to make those decisions anymore.

You know, like I'm too far out of the game. I'm too old, but you see, I sort of have a finite level amount of time then too where you're kind of like, I don't know what the age range is, but like I don't know when you're 10 years older than the people that are the new crop. I don't know. Yeah.

No, even like, now you said that not knowing, for example, we have a drink that just came up with that. I'm calling it a TikTok drink. Am I just trying to target TikTok or Instagram? And I'm like, well, I don't think that's what we should be going for, but you know, whatever.

But I feel like that's what it is. Now you just kind of have to try to target through the social networks with everything. And that's kind of good and bad. And I don't know, you got to take it for what it is.

Right. Yeah. I'm happy doing your mobile bartending, you like the place you work at. When you were reading all these books through the pandemic and coming up with your own craft, with their thoughts that you would eventually integrate some of your own signature cocktails more into your business.

Or do you find that it's still best to stick with the classics when you're doing the mobile bartending? You like for the mobile bartending, it's best to stick with the simpler drinks. It all depends on the guest size. For example, the other day, I had one that was for 12 people.

I got a lot of crafter there. You're not going to have a line. You could take your time. You could garnish it nicely.

But if you're doing a wedding with 200 guests, we have two bars for that. But you still have a line of 15, 20 people. That kind of just want to drink in and out. So you got to kind of get pretty simple, not like a bar, not like a club, I mean, but just kind of like a little quicker, a little faster, and just keep the line moving because it could be tough to do like really nice stuff.

Yeah. No, I think you're probably right about that. And it would be interesting. It'll be cool if the more you sort of develop your own cocktailing skills and develop your own signature cocktails, if you get the smaller parties, that's one of those are going to be nice creative times for you.

Yeah, ideally what I would love to do is smaller into the parties. 25 people were echoing through glassware, the homemade simple stirrups, or I could or even do, I like to host tequila tastings. I would love to do those kind of more intimate events where you can really lay your work shine or impress some of that kind of stuff. Actually knowing that now that how much you know about tequila, not to plug around to show here, but you should listen to the Miss Agave episode.

You would really. I did. Oh, you did. Yeah, I did.

I messaged her. I didn't know her name was Ashley. Yeah. I only know her as Miss Agave.

Yeah. That's good. Well, this is a good guest. I'll founto listens to the show actually.

So thanks, man. And thanks for reaching out. It was a great conversation. I know you got to get to work and we appreciate you accommodating us on short notice.

This is just a small rant that I'm going to leave at the end of the show, which is that if you're if you want to be on a show, great, we would love to have anybody who wants to be on the show. But don't say you want to be on the show and then goes to this when it's time to actually come for the interview. Like we work hard at this. We're booked like months in advance and it's the scheduling.

We don't have any help. It's just Dan and I doing this. Dan does all the producing and engineering. I do all the yapping, but I also book all the guests and it's it's like a full time second job.

So you know, if you want to be on the show, we would love to have you. Don't say you want to be on the show and then decide to last second. You don't feel like it anymore because that really fucks us over. But we luckily have great people like Alfonso who came on under moments notice to do the show is a super great conversation.

Man, thanks again. It was great meeting you and before you go, what's the best way to find you online on your website and Instagram? Yes, on on Instagram, I am at at drinks.with.fons and then my business website is drinkswithfons.com. Perfect.

I'll have links to both of those in the show notes as always. Drinks with fans. Great meeting you Alfonso. Thanks again.

We really appreciate you coming on short notice. Have a good shift tonight. Thanks guys. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate you.