E123 Tales Of The Cocktail - The Interviews

This week is a collection of short interviews that can manage to capture while he was at the Tales of the Cottetail in New Orleans in late July. You'll hear from the following people. Vicki Diaz of Britney Sales, Jacob Salazar of Broken Shaker and Ellen Slots, who runs her own hospitality consulting business. Ingrid Rodriguez of Whistle Pig Rye Whiskey, Seth Miller of the Spotted Cat, George Rolle of La Fee Absinthe, Matthew and Lori Westfall of Archipelago Gin and Full Circle Crafted Stillers.

Elyssa Dunn, a former guest of the podcast, you can find her on Instagram at the.badass.bartender. Vicki and Henry Price of Price Imports, Janai Williams of PrettyMagicCocktails.com, Danny Posey, bartender manager at the Abendment in Faithville, Arkansas, and we finish off with the Elena Enter and a team of Maddie and Eunice of Cocktail Vision. For more information on all the guests interviewed, check the show notes for all the links. Enjoy the show.

Okay, this is a live interview from Tales of the Cocktail. Your host has always kept Saunders. This is Vicki Diaz. She is here at Tales of the Cocktail from Florida.

And tell us about your experience of Farticky. So it's been great. I got in at like 10 in the morning. I checked into my town.

My room wasn't ready. So I think I've hit like six events. My room was ready and I've also done that. Oh, well, yeah.

So I have no excuse. So my bag is still at the concierge. I still haven't even made it back to my hotel room yet. Also, you were telling me this is like your fourth tale?

Correct. Yeah. So this is my fourth tale. So obviously, so I've been 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021.

There was no in-person tales. It was virtual. And then I'm back for 2022. And have you noticed any differences post-play or has it seen?

I know you just got in today, but what can you tell me to just demo at the same time? You know, I got to say, well, you're right. I just got in today, but it seems like there's less debauchery on the streets. I feel like even in years past when I would get in the morning and you know, there was a lot more drunken bodies walking, this, you know, verven street or the streets of French quarter, not any at all times, like zombies.

And I haven't really seen that much this time. I feel like the people that are actually here are more engaged in the brands. They're more interested in the content that the seminars are providing and more interested in. Yeah, like the experience that the brands are providing too.

So I feel like this time around, people are a bit more buttoned up, which is funny. You would think that two years of not having it, it would be madness. But no, I think for the most part, people have been pretty self-contained. Granted, I have no idea what went on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, which I know there were some pretty big events that went on.

And unfortunately, I miss those. That's interesting though. Like it's interesting to hear that like, it's kind of, because I would have expected the same things. Like, oh my God, we're finally fucking allowed to come out again and come to this cool event that it would be nonsense.

But you're saying it seems a little bit more pared down? Yeah, I mean, I might sound silly saying that knowing who knows? We'll see what happens on the weekend. Right, yeah.

But also, I'm from Florida. The state has been open pretty much throughout the entire pandemic. Yeah, you guys don't give a fuck. Yeah, you know, we're kind of like the renegades out there.

So I don't know. And I feel like for the most part, there's a lot of people from all over, but the US has been fairly open. I know it's not really the case in Canada. Not so much, unfortunately.

Okay, so tell us the place that you work and the job that you do and why you're in the service industry. And then tell me why you're rocking a bottle of plantation ram. Okay, so I worked for a beverage broker called Britney Sales in Florida. We're one of the oldest brokers out there.

We're actually the broker for Maison Ferrand. I'm actually here because Maison Ferrand owns Citadel Gin, which is one of the spirits that's nominated for a spirited award. They're in the top four. I just went to that event today.

It was awesome. The Citadel Gin, I can back it up. It's amazing. Yeah, the Chardonnite is our new SKU.

It's our new item. And that's the one that's nominated for Best New Spirit for the spirited awards. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this on the spot at Bacchanel Wine Bar.

And like, where was this? This is the North end of New Orleans? Ninth wordish? Sure.

I just put it in the Hoover and I magically appeared here. I know it's right around the corner from Bonne's, which is like the best live music spot in the city. So yeah, but this place is awesome, right? Yeah.

Anyway, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Great to meet you. Likewise, thank you so much.

Okay, I'm here with Jacob and Ellen at the Bacchanel Wine Bar in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail. This bar is fucking awesome. I think we all can understand that. Thank you for reminding us.

Yeah. Perfect. Thank you. You are in Miami now by way of Chicago.

Where do you work in Miami? Broken Shaker. Broken Shaker? Tell me a little bit about that bar.

It was the first of its first of actually the whole chain. I started in Miami, moved to New York, from Chicago, LA, outdoor bar, nice little pool. It's in a hostile, tiki bar style. Joe will actually back.

Sounds perfectly Miami and awesome. And same question to you. So I used to be the beverage watcher at Fainan. I'm five star for the hotel.

Yeah, it's pretty fancy. And COVID happened. I was a little eliminated by the physicians who I started at my own business. So I created hospitality groups.

And I am now in work to do something more with the industry, but to be the chairman. Awesome. I know you guys actually a couple. It's not really not about business, but yes.

Yes. Okay. So it's all about who says a quick group here. It was a fucking race.

But, okay, so let's talk about a little bit about why you're here. Why you come to Tales of the Cocktail. Is it your first time here? Or have you been here multiple times?

Second time? Second time? Second period. Yeah.

And you get to know a little bit more people are networking, but also let's be real. No, education in the fun way. Yeah, it's a drinking. 100%.

No, but like it's education in the way that's related to the industry. Right? So like you do education in terms of conference seminars in corporate America, that are corporate America structure. But like how do you educate people who drink and serve drinks for a living?

Not in the same format as one place seminar is if there's a one-point-point-point. I think you guys agree that that's probably literally the story of our industry in general. Is that nobody really under-its it's very different? I think there's nothing like it.

And my favorite all time is that people who are like, oh I like to drink a bar. So I should probably just open one. Yes. How well does those work?

Oh my god, you got to break. You see those on the kitchen nightmares. Yeah. Bar rescue.

Right. Don't have to do that for you. Yeah. So one thing I did want to ask you guys is you've been here before.

I assumed the first time you went was pre-plag. Yes. Right. Okay.

So have you noticed any differences? Yeah. Okay. Tell me about the music.

The socialization and education are very disparate. So, they're separate. Right. So, which is interesting and there's a more appropriate timeline, I would say, speaking for myself though, but of like when things actually happen and when socialization networking happens, but that does it not everything coincides.

It's not all, it's not cohesive in the same way as if someone outside of the industry is creating a conference for the industry. That's interesting. Wow. That's like, and again, I would like to just be able to record this as my first tale and then in New Orleans a bunch of times.

I've interviewed a bunch of people obviously all over the world for this show, but that's good insight because I would not have known that. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. Yeah.

It's definitely, it's more focused on like the overall retail with owners, all that stuff instead of actually focusing more on like the bar, tender and bar perspective. Like USBG and Tales of the Cocktail and USBG being the organization that encourages education, encourages networking on a whole across the country. It like coalesces with this event to some degree. And so this is like supposed to be that time in which people can culminate in their experiences.

Does it neglect bartenders, servers, barbacks, front of house, all in general? Like the regular person who might be on the ground floor actually experiencing the interaction with customers that like you can't put them out of this conversation because those people who are involved. And you guys feel like that's what sort of changes become more of brands and ownership than you today? Yeah.

Okay, interesting. Well guys, I really appreciate you giving me this little amount of time. Like I just ran into you at the bar. It was very nice of you to do this.

Thank you very much. And hopefully we'll meet down the road for a full episode. Yeah, would you guys like to do that? Okay, awesome.

Thanks guys. Okay, I'm here with Ingrid Rodriguez at Tales of the Cocktail. You can hear the music. We're on the street and she's been lovely enough to give me a brief interview.

Ingrid, tell me about yourself. So I work for WhistleBigRi with you. This will be my night Tales of the Cocktail. So we're really glad to be here.

I'm the US brand educator for the East Coast and I love giving away free whiskey. That's terrible. It sounds awful. So one thing I've been asking people on this interview, have you obviously done a bunch of these?

Have you noticed any difference pre and post plague? Oh, absolutely. It's actually a lot more professional, obviously the change of venue has helped. But what I find the best is that everybody who's come before are now paying attention to the moments in between events.

And there's not as much foam because people are sitting at the bars and they're just really getting to know each other. It's what we keep calling the first time in real life in two years. And it's really nice to see all the camaraderie. Oh, that's a beautiful way to put it.

So nice to hear. Okay, so tell us how people can get in touch with you. And also I'm already hitting you up for a full length interview. Like listeners is happening.

She doesn't have a choice anymore. She's super interesting and fun. Okay, tell us how people can get in touch with you. Tell us about Whistlepig.

Tell us about the Whistlepig events in New Orleans. So the best way to get home to me is I'm on social media, Instagram, Facebook as traveling whiskey ferry or as Whistlepig in grid. Whistlepig is on a couple of events right now. We're going to be hosting a band here and then tonight we're doing something at DBA with Nickel City.

And then tomorrow morning we're actually doing a pop up where you can get a beautiful sparkly maple little fashion with a mini waffle. It's a very important breakfast after a long night. Let's do that. And then Whistlepig has been around.

We're celebrating our 10 year anniversary. We're known as the Rye Company, but our goal is to be the best premium whiskey brand on and for the planet. So hopefully by next year we'll have some more spirits for everybody to try. Awesome.

And thank you for doing this. Thank you for what I say at the end. This is thank you for not taking my creep. Who's coming up to you with the phone in your face.

There's an actual podcast involved. We will tag you and we appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I'm here with Seth Miller. He works at the Spotify Cat in New Orleans. One of the all-time great live music venues in what, Planner? Yeah, Rob.

Okay. So Seth was nice enough to set that. The Allian talked to me about the difference between working at the Spotify Cat during regular New Orleans hours and then tells us the cocktail hours. So, for me, the easiest difference is the especially for tells of the cocktail.

Customers are understanding the patient. They're service industry members so they get it. They understand that you're in the weeds. You're not deliberately ignoring people.

You're doing your job and you don't get that every time in normal hours. You have the tourists, people who are impatient that want to hang over the bar, yell bartender, and they're the most important person in the world. It's cool during tells of the cocktails. Everybody's super friendly too.

Good conversation. Somebody from New York sitting with a person from San Francisco who may work for Buffalo Trace and one for someone else. It doesn't matter. They're not competing.

They're sitting there and enjoying the music and just talking about the industry, which is cool because it's the only industry where it's no people's service, in my opinion. It's important for us to all take care of each other and that's what's cool. And what's your regular crowd though? For the most part in the Spotify Cat, I have no complaints.

I can have an 80-year-old conservative sitting next to a 21-year-old, far left liberal, none of that will come up. People are here for the music, they're here for a good time. And for the most part, people really enjoy being on French because they feel like they're at local. Because this is the local scene in my opinion.

This is where we hang out. Yeah, and it's a one spot. I don't come here all the time. I come here as much as I can because it's the best city in the world.

But I come here and I know if I walk down French, I'm going to see a great live music no matter where I go. Absolutely. I'm not even from here. I'm not in the world.

I'm a military crowd. This is my adopted home. They'll make you feel like you've been here 25 years. It's a cool feeling.

Where are you from? Originally born in Jersey and then I bounced around my entire life. I did five years in my service my time. And then I came down here after having left.

Nice. And why are you staying in the service industry? I was actually just having this conversation earlier. It is, like I said, the last remaining, in a sense campfire where you can still talk to people from all over the world and all the political barriers.

It's all gone. They're just a person sitting at the bar drinking. And for me, that's fun. I like being able to converse.

And if somebody leaves New Orleans and goes back up to Boston, their friends coming down, and go, you gotta go meet Seth. You gotta meet him at the spot. That's a cool feeling. And I love that.

That's my biggest thing. Yes, thank you so much. Thanks for doing this, man. Nice meeting you guys.

I'm going to go to the cafe with LaFey Absinthe. He's going to tell you the story about how he came to create this wonderful Absinthe. Hi, my name's George. Basically, the Absinthe festival was created back in 1998.

That was done from work that I did by legalizing it by doing the first test on Fuzhou on commercial Absinthe. That was achieved by bringing the Fuzhou elements from America, shifting gifted to the Prague University that was a recognised laboratory. They upgraded their equipment there so the spectral analysis so they could scan for Fuzhou. And the first test on commercial Absinthe carried out.

That allowed the category to be opened again. And then we launched our first product, the Groucho Club in Soho, in November 1998. And my first ever client was actually Johnny Depp. He was filming Sleepy Hollow in Hertzshire in my office.

They sent a white stretch, numerous, as it collects parts of bottles because we didn't have the whole bottle. We said we'd be panting to create the bottle. Lucky a courier arrived with some backpacks, so we were able to give him the whole bottle. And we said, well, what's the urgency that it has to be by the end of today for tomorrow?

And he said, oh, that's quite simple. Getting on a private jet from Hatville, flying back to America, and he's going to drink that bottle with Hunter S. Tossen. And he said, well, what's they just give, discuss fear in loading Las Vegas?

And that's exactly what happened. You couldn't even write it, could you? It was like that. That was literally the start of Absinthe.

Then moving on from there, we wanted to try and get the actual element of what his real Absinthe write. Because historically proper Absinthe never came from the Czech Republic. Pre-Bann Absinthe never existed. It only came from France, so Switzerland.

So I then travelled to, in 1999, I travelled to France with my Grazé who speaks for French in our wife, Jane. And between the service we petitioned the French Absinthe's here, which is the event of what? And the owner and curator is Mary Cawdell Hay, who has written a little cochius book for some subjects of Absinthe. And she's a doctorate as well, so she's a very, very smart lady.

And I put a proposition to it, because at the time Absinthe was Todie Bann in France. And I said, well, if we can find a former producer of Absinthe, Pre-Bann, if we can get around the French Bann, would you the museum be the source of our recipe? So we could guarantee it, and they were actually getting a Pre-Bann French real Absinthe. And that was the birthday of the play, which we have here.

And basically what happened was, I discovered with the people we were working with in France, that the French Bann was actually designed to protect the distilleries that were having to stop producing. And it wasn't about the distilling, the Bann was actually set up, that they were told they couldn't sell Absinthe in France. And everyone assumed it was a blanket Bann. So we were able to get permission, reluctantly, from the authorities, to stop producing, because they couldn't say we couldn't do it.

But we promised, and told them we would export the product out of France. And that's how French real Absinthe returned to France with La Fé. You can always tell that there's the first brand in the market, mainly because of the name. The historical nickname going back, 150 odd years, is La Fé Bert, which is the Green Faire.

Well in about 1998, 1999, I applied for the trademark for La Fé Bert, and it was granted to me on the basis it hadn't been used for over 100 years. So I decided to shop off of that, because I didn't want to be generic to the category. We then filed the trademark for La Fé, which means La Faire, and that now sells in over 20 to 26 to 30 different countries around the world, which we exported. We just do it in the Roen Alps, it's eight separate distillations, we blend the recipe, and then there's a separate process of maceration that brings in not just the natural colour, but also changes the balance of flavour profile.

So natural colour in Absinthe is very important, because it also affects the whole flavour profile, the drink itself. We then have a sample, correct to the French Absinthe is here, and to myself in England, or to Paris depending where Maricord de la Heres. And for the last 22 years, she has tasted and sampled every single production to be produced with herself, prior to organising to be bopied. And then we've got to be in Paris, hence its for the Fé, Absinthe's superior, Parisian, which is where it's produced.

Amazing, that's an amazing story, thanks so much for sharing it, and now I'm going to try some of this. Alright, talking now with Archipelago Gin co-founders from the Philippines, and we're just having a quick interview here at the Cigar Factory event in New Orleans. So tell us a little bit about your product, and what made you decide to distill some gin out in the Philippines. First I'll tell you about our product, it's Archipelago Botanical Gin, we're based in the Philippines, 40 minutes south of Manila.

We make a Botanical Gin made of 28 botanicals, 22 are local sources from my country, the Philippines. Archipelago, it's called Archipelago because there are 7,400 plus plus islands, and we've tried to take a representation of different botanicals from all the islands, not all, but the main islands of the Philippines. And we hope that we transport it, we hope that it transports you to our country, which is a beautiful beach, beachy tropical country. So we got out of the gate 4 years ago, in 2018, and the idea really was very simple.

Fully authentic, transparent craft distilling and really trying to change the narrative in the Philippines about the product and quality of spirits, and really put the Philippines on the craft's sphere. So we picked up by Henry Price, we're in the US now, we're just starting to roll out at a very exciting time for the brand and for the Philippines. So we're gonna have these lovely people on a regular episode soon, and we're gonna try and get them some Canadian distribution, which is much needed. So thanks so much for doing this guys, your product is amazing, and it was quite a million.

Great, thank you so much. Alright, so pleased to be here, in New Orleans, in person finally with Elise the Badass bartender, Elise, how are you? I'm great, how are you? I'm so happy to finally meet you in person!

Oh, it's crazy, this has been an awesome event for that, so yeah. Yeah, I got to meet, you know, being a social media person, most of my interactions with people in the industry are always through social media, so it's so important. So it's so nice to have one place that we all get to come together and meet all these cool people that I've talked to but never really gotten to meet. Right, so you were on our show a long time ago now.

And so I was saying before we started recording that since that time, I feel like you've blown up to be one of the most important women in the service industry, so congratulations for that. I ended up taking credit because I think that our show launched your whole career. I think that's how it happened, I think if anyone's on your show, then it'll happen, I'll go on your show. Pay attention people.

No, but it's been truly amazing, you must be thrilled and it seems like a bit of a whirlwind. It has been quite a whirlwind, I mean I'm super thrilled, this is, I didn't, you do things hoping that they're gonna take off, but you don't always count on them too. And so just the fact that it is starting to gain traction and this is starting to become a thing, I couldn't do more than it. Awesome, and you were on a panel at the, at the tales this year, so tell us about that.

Yeah, so this is my first tales and I got asked to be on a panel, it was called Virtual is a Vibe, so it was me and three other social media influencers that also do cocktail classes virtually. So it was kind of talking all about that and how, you know, that is very much the future and can continue to be the future. Is that true? Absolutely, I mean I've been able to leave my full time bartending job because I've been able to do the classes, the nextology classes virtually from my apartment barefoot.

You know, it's an hour long class, really easy and then doing the social media thing, working with different brands and doing content for them. Yeah, so now I only have to work part-time as a bartender. Oh, that's a, I won't have to. Not at all, that's, it's therapy at this point for me.

Right, well that's amazing, I'm like honestly, I feel so proud of you. Thank you. But no, tell us a little bit about your experience, your first tales experience. I've talked to a bunch of people who have been here pre and post-pandemic and how it's changed, but you and I are doing it for the first time, so.

This is your first time too? Yeah, this is my first time. So tell me about your experience so far and outside of obviously doing the panel. Yeah, I mean, it's been a little overwhelming, I won't lie, it's so, there's just so many cool events going on.

You, I think as a, as a newbie, I want to hit all of them, I just get really over excited. But it's been great, everyone's been super welcoming and super friendly and it's just been nice to meet everyone. Yeah, yeah, that's been the same experience for me and we were talking about the sort of before we started recording as well. Like, all these people who you kind of know, but not really.

Right. Well, awesomely, it's just great to meet you in person, thanks for doing this. And you should come back on the show soon and do a real one. Yeah, anytime.

Okay, we're gonna get a drink. Okay, we're talking about Nikki Price from Price Imports here in New Orleans. Nikki, how are you? Good, we just came from your event at the cigar factory.

It seemed like a one-one. Yes, I'm a successful event every year. Yeah. By word of mail.

And how many times have you done Tesla Carto? Personally, or? Company. The company and personally.

The company 10 years. Oh, wow. And, well, that's not true. Backtrack.

Two years of the 10 years, there wasn't really much of a tale. So eight years. Right. And then personally, I believe this is my fifth or sixth.

Talk to us a little bit about your company and the kind of brands we're bringing in. Yeah, so we are an importer. I'm personally a third generation. This is a newer company because every generation seems to like to sell.

We're not doing that anymore. We have successfully sold and got our name back three times. So here we are, price and price, we reinvented for the third time. And we focus on international products that are eclectic, unique, and niche.

We try to have some of the most unique high-quality secrets across the world. And, okay, so let's talk about that a little bit. Have you noticed, like, what's the difference in sales, for instance, pre and post-play? Pre, for us, having small brands, really more guerrilla marketing grassroots.

You know, we really had to thrive off of restaurants and on-prem to have people that love our brands want to push and educate about them. It was really hard to do off-prem. And so I think why the pandemic did as pretty much anybody of any size in this industry will say is that retail went off the charts and off-prem became a shift for every single company. And I don't, can't say statistically, but I'm pretty sure people were like, you know what?

I can actually make a cocktail. And decided to go start out unique ingredients and it's just been amazing for us, so. I know those people are killing my business. Just kidding.

No, making my grow. Well, at least one of us is happy. Awesome. Thanks, thank you.

Appreciate you doing this. And best of luck going forward. Thank you. And now we're here with Henry Price, the founder of Price and Poor's and the, well, we'll call you the head honcho.

That's what I'm talking about. They call me the crazy guy that brings in every spirit that he could think of. Alright, well that's kind of what I want to talk to you about, like, obviously our podcast runs out of Canada. We have to deal with the LCBO in Ontario, which is a big pain in the eyes.

You are a little more open here. How do you find it is bringing like such small amazing these products in to the US and moving around the country? Well, it's of course very, very different from a liquor control board because we could go looking for customers. With the control board, you're totally dependent on the control board saying, yeah sure, we're interested, you know, do the paperwork, bring it in.

We bring in what we like. Right. So we've got kind of a really simple rule. We like the supplier.

If we like the supplier enough, there's a synergy, then we go look at the product. We love the product. We love the supplier. And that's what we look for.

We're also about adding great products from different parts of the world. Right. So we want to be a go-to because what happens is that different restaurants, different bars, different themes, we want to have products that could fit into bigger brands that otherwise won't. And so that kind of makes us go to.

And it works. It takes a long time. We're not defined distributors, but we're not tied down except for 18 states, where it is a control state situation a lot like Canada. Some are easier than others.

Some will do special orders. And actually in Canada, the British Columbia Board will be special orders, but generally speaking, it's difficult in Canada. So that's the big difference is that we can bring it in and we can start looking at our distributors. We have 57 distributors around the US.

But they all take on everything, but slowly it grows because we start with one product and then they find another one that works. Or we pick up an account and we say, hey look, we've got a big account. Are you interested? And sort of how it rolls for us.

And how many brands do you currently represent? I think it's probably about 40 suppliers and we probably have about 300 products to those suppliers. It's amazing. Well, thanks very much.

I appreciate you giving us a little time here and we'd love to have you on for a full episode sometime. Just funny. Alright, thanks, Henry. Great event today and great one yesterday as well.

Great meeting you. Thank you. Alright, so I'm here with Janae Williams, that's the cocktail and was super excited to talk to her because she's such a big part of what goes on here. That's the cocktail.

Born and raised in New Orleans and she's done on some panels, many panels that seems like. How many panels did you do this week? Oh gosh, I only did one panel but I've done so many events. I think I've done 10 events this week.

I think it must be too exclusive. Yeah, I know I'm definitely exclusive. This is my very last thing of the week so I'm just going to go see the thing now. Well, thank you so much for doing it.

Okay, so a couple of things I want to ask you about, Tails. In general, how many Tails will cocktail have you done now? And the other thing I'm sort of interested in knowing is if you know any difference, Korean post-pandemic. Okay, so I've been in the cocktail space since about 2017.

That was my first foray with Tails. I didn't really know what to expect. I heard about this conference that happened every year. I wasn't aware of how big it was.

I worked almost every day. We have people come from all around the country, all around the world really. I just asked questions like, what are you doing here? I'm hosting a panel.

I own three bars in New York City. I'm like, wow, okay, that's cool. We were talking to a bartender one time and he said, yeah, I won the short-truist competition and they blew up Tails. I'm like, oh, they do that?

Yeah, so that's honestly a good credit Tails to kind of teaching me what was out there for bartenders. Because all these people come into town and you never know the different job title settings. So the different opportunities that exist unless you work with Tails and you don't have these people who do these things. 2018 was the first time that I actually attended the Tanden.

I feel like this year the attendance wasn't as big, but also I wasn't doing it for the time. So I didn't see the crowd, but I do remember it was a motelion stove. It was a really good opportunity. There were still so many parties.

I do remember going to a lot more panels and a lot more talks. I feel like there was more intimate and I don't know because it was a hotel space, but it felt a lot more intimate. Just a few more opportunities than post-pandemic. I mean, in the last year, I didn't do anything 2019 or 2020, which went on at a host of the awards, which was digital art.

I hosted a security project. Because conference was digital. Everything was on camera. Of course, it was really weird.

I did attend some panels then. It felt personal. Like, I felt maybe because there were only the panelists on the Zoom screen. It felt personal, but less tangible, of course.

That's what happened when you do virtual things. I feel like there was a less opportunity for questions doing that and just based on space time. Because I feel like one of the most important things about sales is just getting out there and being able to handle people and tell them who you are and what you do. And then of course this year it's come back and I think the biggest kind of feeling that everyone has is just everybody's happy to see everybody.

So that's I think a lot, and specifically a bunch of the liquor companies and their big parties and things. They want to create a family member. For example, Diagio did a family reunion and they had a big warehouse piece with all their brands doing different things around where everybody could just mingle in the middle. Which was really great.

I appreciate them for that because that's definitely how I felt. It was good seeing all the people I haven't seen in years, but also learning and networking with people. So you mentioned the space. The hotel that was in a hotel previously as well, which is a smaller one?

Is that what you mean by more? I'm not sure if I'm telling them it's smaller, but the Montillion was a hotel that I always did it in. And because I feel like it might be an older hotel as well. So the rooms were, you know, had architecture and they were smaller and the acoustics were worse.

So yeah, it just felt like you, the panels you were talking to someone you knew. You know what I mean? It felt closer compared to the Ritz, which has these conference rooms. And it's, they're so far away.

You know what I mean? It felt like more of a personal connection because the Montillion kind of gives you the vibe of intimate B&B hotel, where the Ritz is really nice. And they make it really nice for professional conferences that aren't sales. So you've also sort of based your career on the social media realm right now.

So talk to us a little bit about that. I know that was kind of the focus of the panel you were on this year. So maybe you can give our listeners a little idea of like what's available to bartenders. As I, honestly, as I decide, this fucking sucks for me because I own bars and now people want to do bartending over social media instead of just coming to work for me.

But I'm not blaming you. I will say that there's nothing, nothing compares to being an actual bartender. That's what I want to go. Yeah, nothing compares because you really need, and I've had people ask me recently to be their mentor.

And it's usually people who have never bartended before because most of my audience on social media, besides, you know, my friends who know me through the industry are home bartenders or begin a bartender. So we must make it with my content. Yeah, you know, I want to do social media and I want to bartend for the camera and I'm like, do you actually know how to bartenders? Right.

You actually don't realize that you actually need to do the work and build up that rubber farm. So there's nothing like being an actual bartender because it's going to go away. And you know, you do have to progress at some point. You know, it's not a right hand, you have to press it forever.

Some people can. I just have something with my knees appreciate. Oh, that's what I'm so glad you said that because that's exactly why I kind of had to move into. I realized at the point I was bartending for like fucking, I don't know, almost 30 years.

I was like, okay, I can feel the, like, I would wake up in the morning and I would like getting out of bed and I would like, rice, crispy. And so then I was like, I got it. So I started moving into ownership. But now there's, so this is kind of interesting to talk about.

Now there's so many more avenues you can get into, still staying in the service industry, but not, you used to be before. It was like, either you moved into ownership or you just got the fuck out. So talk to us a little bit about some of the avenues that are available for some people. Yeah, absolutely.

So me personally, I see myself as a brand ambassador for home. So you could absolutely work with brands and just be a brand ambassador or help distribute for sure. You can help sell products, you can help create events and kind of like activations. That's definitely a thing.

In terms of social media, I knew that the influencer world for the beverage industry was coming. There just isn't like a kind of like algorithm for it. You know what I'm saying? There's no like, for beauty influencers.

Oh, they'll get, you know, mascara and foundation and all these things. I needed to figure out how to translate that to liquor because it was always something that I wanted to. It was always something that I was interested in doing. I just knew that I wanted to do it before I turned it.

So most of my time is just spent as a brand, like a regular influence. So much of the brands sell them how much I like the brand and you know, asking them if they like to sponsor this content or sponsor a cocktail box or something like that. So that's definitely something you could do. You just need to figure out who to ask.

Okay, so I'm sort of interested in this as well because, like, message is just cold-dolling brands and stuff like that. You obviously have to have some sort of social media presence already. Did you find it? Like, how many say, quote-unquote followers?

You're not going to find a number, but like, like a round of them out before you were able to just cold-call brands and say why don't you sponsor me? Honestly, I don't think that amount of followers is as important as your content quality. I think, any fact, so I only have 4,000 followers or maybe like 40, 300 followers. And I make a living.

I'll have 4,400 followers. It's possible to make a living with 1,000 followers. And then the patient I use now is technically my personal page, but I mostly use it for liquor content. But I think it's just, do you have to do it before you get paid for it, right?

So you can't just say, oh, I want to make videos and wait for somebody to give you the opportunity to create them for yourselves. So I've been doing videos since I've been doing it, and I've been doing it, and that's how most of my opportunities can't use some of my videos. And I'm like, well, you can do this, can you do this? Or can you do the same thing for me?

So in order to get people to ask you to do it, you have to do it yourself already. So if you are considering doing social media content or trying to get paid for something, anything, just start doing it. And then once you are ready to ask people to pay you for it, then you have this nice little resume, and these are all the other things I've done. Do you have any other ideas about sort of, should I say, other phrases properly, but like, because of the pandemic and how people are shifting and people are moving away from working in physical bars and restaurants, like, what are some of the other ways to monetize the job of a bartender or a server outside of just doing cocktail creation on social media?

I would say teaching cocktail classes is definitely one. You can have something that you can do yourself. If you want to teach virtual classes, you can basically just create an event rate and give people to pay for it and watch and make cocktails. You can also partner with brands like Shake Your Spoon, who do cocktail boxes for bartenders and their classes.

I think the cocktail group might do it too. Also the Maccalejur, so boxes as well. If you want to kind of buy the boxes and sell them yourself, you'll be like, hey, let's do a box and see, you know, whatever class. So there's definitely that.

Like, a brand ambassador ship. Also, there is opportunity to move into distillation. If you ever, you know, like, just spirit enough to want to start making it. You can definitely do that.

I know there's a video considering going back to school, or you would consider going back to school. It's a great hospitality program, but it can be learned about whiskey, learned about distillation, even with McDonald's. I feel like in terms of bartending, a lot of bartenders transition to mobile bartending and work events. I know people making six figures doing that.

That was one of my motivators for going on my own. Yeah, we've talked to a few people recently, actually, on the show who have been doing the mobile bartender thing. It's just exploded. It's kind of like the new way to open your own business without a whole lot of money going out, which I wish someone would have told me about a lot of time ago.

But that is kind of a new space for. So talking about you were born and raised in New Orleans. You don't have to tell me the answer if you don't want to, but how old are you? I'm 31.

Okay, so you've been obviously able to drink lately for a long time. Obviously New Orleans is one of the greatest cities in the world to come drinking. How has that all changed since the pandemic? Because I know in so many places in the world, legendary bars closing down and not enough people to staff it.

Do you feel like the same thing is happening here or not so much? I absolutely do. During that pandemic, pretty much everybody closed down just since they did a remediation and a lot of our tenders had to pivot so they found other jobs. Meeting on social media was my pivot.

So we lost a lot of staff. And then also because we're living or because we're into Orleans, we were already used to the Togokan. So a lot of bars were able to steal, but we didn't really have that many closures because of that fact. Our community is so cognitive centric that people wanted to drink.

It was just kind of transitioning from Togokan to Togokan to your house. So that was kind of like our transition. So we didn't really lose that much in terms of business. But in terms of workforce, we did.

When I first started on an entrepreneurship, I was just kind of picking up shifts everywhere. I want to say wherever I could literally already ask, but yeah, just in fact. They were so short staff and I still had a situation. Not as much anymore, but if you weren't a high level career bartender, you probably found something else to do.

But yeah, I think the city is slowly coming back. Things like Teal, Cocktail, and Modi-Gra have helped us kind of see, okay, we can do this now. And I feel like a lot of our tenders are coming into the city. I've met a couple of participants just in New Orleans.

So it's building up, but it's not there yet. And then there's also the fact that these companies have to make working at their bars. They have to make people want to work at the bars. I feel like they're not paying enough.

That's the reason. That's the main reason why I don't want to have a lot of long-term jobs because I'm not going to make money and just taking away from me and investing in myself. They don't want to pay. And they think it was okay.

They don't want to provide health insurance. They don't want to take money. Not saying that's everybody. But Louisiana is notorious for not paying for the pandemic, the lowest unemployment.

Yeah, so that's interesting. I'm keeping it a little longer than I meant to. Okay, good. Okay, well, you're just interesting.

I have a couple questions about that. One is, they're not willing to pay a living wage to help people stay in the industry. And how do you feel about work conditions, A, in general for people in the service industry in New Orleans and B, for women? So I'm not super connected with club bars or sports bars.

I'm more connected with the cocktail bars. And I think their work environments have gotten better actually over the pandemic because they realize we can't lose our people because then we lose our quality. Yeah, and you can't even put those types of bars. You need good staff.

Like I just think you can't just have anybody trying to make high-end tacos. Yeah, absolutely. So they kind of pivoted, but still they'll take opportunities. I was picking up at a restaurant that I will not name who lowered their minimum wage or their pay by a dollar.

And it wasn't that much money to begin with. And then I go to events and I realize that my friends in New York, my friends in Canada are making $10-$15 an hour. And it's like, well, I can't work for $5 an hour down here. You know what I mean?

Yeah, and that was $5 an hour. Some people are paying at all. Yeah, because obviously, I guess we're just like Toronto, it's $15 an hour for all of our employees there, which is, they finally move the server minimum wage to the same as regular minimum wage. Yeah, and I feel like people think that servers are not servers, some are times not worth it.

But when you pay them, they will, I feel like their productivity will increase. Because they're making that money, their life, their enjoyment increases because they can afford the things that they need, which is basically necessities. You can't afford basic necessities. Wow.

How can you be in the correct mindset to work when you're worried about bills and child care and things like that? I'm just like a smart person too. Yeah, well, it seems like just fucking common sense. Okay, well thanks so much for doing this and I really appreciate it.

I know you're tired at the end of a long week. So I really appreciate giving me the time tell our listeners where they can find you on social media. So I am on Instagram at jane.onjaldishj and as a Nancy, as an Apple, I got a n g e l l e. You can also follow my business page pretty much cocktails.

I'm going to start doing classes every week, hopefully in a month. So stay tuned for that. Thanks so much. Okay, and now we're here with Danny Posey, the industry podcast where we're trying to set some cocktails at pay shows in just out for the street.

Danny, how you doing? Good. Good. Good.

Good. Good. So you have been here for a lot longer than me this week. You've been here since Sunday.

Tell me first how your liver is doing and then secondly, like how your time's been. Right. Man's been good. Digitalized how it's all so to be.

I ended up taking yesterday off just kind of like relaxed and covered, taking it day away from drinking and being around people. But overall, it's been good for a first experience and a good experience. Very good. And so you're from Arkansas?

Yes. Fatal. So tell me about the scene. I know nothing about Arkansas.

So tell me about the bar scene there. What kind of are you working with the general clientele? Are there crap cocktail bars in Arkansas? Tell me everything.

Very cool. So Fatal is actually university town. So we're in a major college town. So primary clientele is going to be your 21-20 year old college student, most of the more trans-wants.

Like university of Arkansas? Yeah, so university of Arkansas. Yeah, I mean my bar is two blocks on campus. So I'm running the hard job town.

That sounds dangerous. Yeah. It's fun. It's a nightmare.

But yeah, it's my bar time in district hybrid. I have a two-story bar. I have a rooftop open air patio. So I'm just here as most as a speed bar where your forever is going to get your bot directly.

I'm just here as much as your cell-tors. Downstairs is more than a craft cocktail bar. So I took over as an intro, you're gonna have to go and try to regain the cocktail program. That was not existed before I was there.

So we had, you know, we're from a $5 more of a scale to a $500-6 more scale up. Likewise with scale up with whiskey. So nice. Awesome.

Well, that's it. And so your general clientele is 10-speed university students. You're trying to sell them a ton of those $560. You know, I have a weird spot.

So if you're not familiar with the Wal-Mart corporate headquarters, it's about 20 miles from the Wal-Mart. Okay. So the Walt money added all of their investors and then all of their vendors are required at an office there. So again, I get everything from pressure to 20-year-old students to multi-billion-year Wal-Mart executives.

Right. Okay. So let's pivot to like what we're doing right now. This is your first sales of the cocktails.

My first sales of the cocktail. How have you enjoyed it? Oh, tell us been great. I think the biggest thing was the fear of missing out and I overbooked myself and then realizing that I don't have to do it all.

Yeah, I think we all do that. You just sign up for everything and then you realize, okay, fuck, I can't get everything. So I think the vibe here is like if you're having fun at a spot, don't rush it, right? Yeah.

The other thing is I've done two other things this year. This is so much different than what I've seen. Because it's more to just like drop in, hang out, have a good time to leave. And less of an education workshop, gender-focused center.

Right, right, right. Yeah, like the meat distillers today was a little bit different because you're kind of like, it's almost like the, we had time at earlier, like the bar and restaurant, because I was showing Vegas where it's like lots of distilling vendors, just like a little sip here, a little sip there, a little sip there. But in general, that whole scene at the rent has been a little bit more casual than what you generally find at these shows. Yeah, yeah.