E148 Kate Boushel

This week we are joined by Kate Bushhill from Montreal Comeback. Kate is currently a partner, beverage and education director and bartender for the Baroque Group. Several of the businesses under this ownership group include Atwater Cocktail Club, No-QA Cocktail Club, and Bondelier Bar. Kate originally left the restaurant and bar industry for a successful public and government relations career, but approximately a decade ago returned to the industry as what brought her back was her true passion for local flavors, spirits and cocktails, as well as her natural inclination toward the art of hospitality.

In her role as director of beverage and education for the Baroque Group in Montreal, Kate strives to lead by example, help build a stronger and healthier community, and give back along the way through mentorship and knowledge sharing. We had a terrific interview with Kate. Enjoy the show. Okay, we are back with another episode of the Industry Podcast.

My name is Kip. This is Dan. How's it going? So awesome.

We'll change there. Great to hear. Great. Just great.

Yeah. Nice. Up to my ass with the AVCO is once again, it's always fun times. Yes, well, you know, our illustrious premier, the honorable Doug Ford, you know, it's always...

I can't even start with this organization. I haven't even started dealing with the city yet. So, yeah. But if that ever happens, there will be a new bar open in Cambridge.

You should get ready for that. The Argya Arms. We have two bars. We have Sugar Run, Downtown Kitchener at Sugar Run Bar on Instagram for all of the upcoming events.

We've had a burlesque show doing a lot of live music and DJs recently. So stay tuned to our page. That's where you'll hear all of the news. And then up down Babylon Sisters, Wine and Cocktail Bar, that is up down Waterloo.

And also at Babylon Sisters Bar on Instagram, you can check out what's happening there. Palomage on the Rum Runners playing a couple shows in April. You'll want to check that out. We have Alex Price once a month Sunday afternoons.

So, you'll want to check out our Instagram page to see what's happening. Wonderful. And as always, I'd like to all of that in the show notes as well. Great.

We should also mention that if you like what we're doing here on the show, you should subscribe, rate and review. It helps a great deal. And we can also mention that if you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can email us directly at the industry podcast on Instagram, or you can email info at the industrypodcast.club. And finally, Zach Hanna does the artwork for the Instagram.

So, we should give him a shout out that's at the ad-tacana.co.uk, H-A-W-N-A-H. Check out all the graphic work he's doing and hit him up for your own graphic arts needs. Mm-hmm. There's some cool stuff on Instagram all the time.

Yeah. So, that's enough about us. We have Kate Bushwell with us here coming to us from Montreal. How are you?

Not too bad. Thanks. Okay. Good.

Perfect. Thanks for joining us. Yeah. Thanks for doing the show.

Thanks for having me. Yes. And apparently you just had a big birthday. So, that's exciting news.

Yeah. Always. Yeah. I'm super excited.

Just turned 40 and oddly enough, really comfortable with that. Yeah. I'm going to try and do that again. Yeah.

That's true. I wish I could turn 41 more times. Just a couple more times. Yeah.

Okay, Kate, let's talk a little bit about what you're doing there, Montreal. You are the director of Beverage and Education for the Baroque Group. Am I pressing that properly? Yeah.

No, I'm nailing this. So, talk to us a little bit about what your responsibilities are there and what the Baroque Group is exactly. So, I'm actually director of Beverage and Education partner, kind of, I guess, like, oversea of our head bartenders in three cocktail bars, three restaurants. And, yeah, just a day of the life is very busy hopping from bar to bar, restaurant restaurant, making sure that everything's been smoothly for inventory, for staff, for knowledge, cocktail menus.

Yeah. Are they generally close together? Okay. Actually fairly, fairly close.

So, thank goodness for that. Yeah. We have a rasporny-dole metriole Baroque. That's been around for actually 15 years this summer.

So, they celebration there. Yeah. We have then seven years ago this summer, we opened Atwater Cocktail Club and Flugwap. So, they are in St.

Henry on probably the most transient corner in Long Island, Montreal. So, Atwater in the Todam, right next to the Atwater Market. And then, in January 2019, we opened Milky Way Cocktail Bar, as well as Fujaisi Pizza. So, it's a simple time style pizza.

And, this glorious, I guess Miami meets Tropical Cocktail Bar upstairs, above. And then, the most recent and newest baby to our collection is Baudelay, which we opened a little bit further into St. Henry. And, that one is a dive cocktail bar.

So, we opened a month ago. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. So, when you're talking about being like director of food and education, does the education mostly refer into staff training or are there the responsibilities there?

Yeah. So, staff training, I also help essentially, like, I manage all of the bar teams. So, that includes like the whole staff for bars, specifically, and then bar teams specifically for restaurants. Make sure that cocktail knowledge is up to par, spirit knowledge as well.

I help coordinate all of our, all of our Psalms for wines. So, that one's mostly like for inventory and everything, and definitely take the lead on that. And then education is always like, you know, I make sure that the kitchen is partly coordinating with all of our staff so that everyone has all the information, because there's food, a food component in all of our bars, in addition to the restaurants as well. Right, yeah.

That sounds like a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. Not solo.

Thank God. Right. I mean, as with everything, everything takes a village. So, it's a very large role, but obviously, like, of all of the partners, there's also another one that helps more so with restaurants, one more so with bars, and then in the, and then I also have a coordinator with me, and obviously, all of the lead managers and all of the head bartenders I work very closely with.

So, it's, it's sort of a massive coordination job, I'd say, and just making sure that, that everyone has what the tools they need in order to perform at their high level. Right. So, actually we had the head bartender from the out ladder on the show years ago. That would be like Thomas.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Thomas is actually, he's no longer a head bartender at Watercock.

So, he is now a partner in the new project, all day. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Well, tell him we say, hey, he was a super nice guy.

I remember that. So, how many partners are involved in the whole group? A lot. Yeah.

So, the group itself is, it's a bit of a puzzle issue. So, there are three original owners for Boroka restaurant, and to which a fourth was added our essentially our head manager there. He's also a partner at U and he's our somebody over there. And then when we opened up in Atwater in Kachukla and Vwagwa, there are, I think, four that added on.

So, it's a lot of partners. And then, so those are like the original ownership, if you will. And then we have associate partners like myself, our head of human relations and our, I guess, with her title, we have an interview is not like, I wouldn't say what it was, just like, operations, essentially. So, everything that has to do with reservations, groups, the financial aspects of like, you know, weekly caches and everything.

So, that's her, as well as my equivalent on the restaurant, like on the kitchen side, everything food related and our head of security, tell me. So, we've all been there. The five of us have been there since Atwater and Vwagwa opened. And so, that was a really great way of bringing us on and elevating us beyond just our regular 95.

That's crazy. That's a, yeah, it must be hard to keep it all straight. Yeah, no, exactly. So, it's like, it really is proof that no matter how business oriented you are bringing on new partners and allowing that development to happen organically is actually very truthful.

And it's good to get like the people who are already, have been working at the individual bars or restaurants involved in ownership, because they already, like, they're already invested, right? Like emotionally invested. Well, all of the original owners are very much hands-on. They all have a very functioning role.

So, like, our, we have two executive chefs who are part of it. And we have that person, like, our original song, Kogbato Baez, who he is now essentially in charge of everything, restaurant, marketing, and like design. And then we also have some minority partners who have like our architect and design firm. So, they're involved with us on every single project, right?

So, they're not only invested in their own name, but also in making sure that our places are really not just beautiful, but also don't break down. Which sounds weird, but you know what I mean? Like, you both know how everything breaks. So, it's great.

To have everyone so invested like that. If there's repairs to be brought, there's someone specifically for it, and everyone has their own stake in it. So, it's very much like a community now, rather than just like seeing if you want to look at it that way more than a traditional business ownership model. And how involved do you get in like, for instance, cocktail menu development, that sort of thing?

Because obviously you had an illustrious career as a bartender before you took on this role. So, I'm sure part of you still miss is being involved in the behind the bar stuff. I still love taking part in all of the development. I do more so for, I guess, the restaurants, just we stand, just because the bar scenes are a little different.

And then for the bars, specifically, it's a lot more coaching. So, obviously, we now, again, I'll add in an extra cocktail or whatever. But we do it as a team, really. We come together.

We sit down. I coach them also on cocktail presentation, not just visually, but also the verbal skills and everything on how to present, in order to help them maybe start competing as well, if that's something that interests them, so that they can kind of do it in a comfortable setting with their peers. And then we kind of just go on that. And then we do tweaks together or suggest tweaks, and then they come back.

And then we just kind of all sit down together to develop menus. That's how we've been functioning for all the bars. Yeah, that's good. It's great to have full staff involvement in all of that.

I mean, the more palace you have involved in a cocktail development situation, the better. Right. So, yeah, that and also we approach all of our bars as great schools. Right.

So, most of our bartenders started out with us as barbacks. And so, we like to know that they're getting really knowledge on every single level, right? They're able to bust, they're able to barback, they're able to bartend, they're able to serve, and they can kind of do everything. And it means also, if they're creatively inclined, they can participate that much more in menus.

And if they're a bit more on the execution side or management side, if that's what's their vote, then they don't need to necessarily always send cocktails, right? So, they get involved to the level that they want to be involved in. No, that's perfect. Yeah.

So, talking a little bit about your career previous to this gig that you have, you've done quite a few things, but like on the bartending side, obviously you were nominated for a bartender of the year, it tells you the cocktail, which is pretty amazing. Not just about this cocktail that you had named as one of the best cocktails or whatever. I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact distinction it had, but please tell us about that. Are you talking about the Canadian thing?

I think so, yeah. Let me just. I don't know. It's funny.

So, it was like all root and lot 40. Five years ago? Yeah, I think. Yeah, the Dominion.

Yeah. So, it was really funny. It was just like, lot 40 and on root got together and did a project for Canada's 150. And it was like Canada's next great cocktail.

And so, we were five bartenders that were flown with Dave Mitten to Fogo Island. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, wow.

It was incredible. So, it was like the last few days of February, first few days of March, it was winter, you know, stuck in a snowstorm. I know, but we all, all five of us, it was a shame being in from Halifax and I self-gored Hannah from Toronto. Sam, because we got back when she lived in Alberta before in Calgary, before moving to onto New York and then Rabbit and now Temple Barn, you know, her great career and Amber Bruce from T for Barn, Vancouver.

So, it was like the five of us, we just flew out there and we each presented a cocktail. And then the five of us together kind of decided which would best represent an easy, delicious cocktail that represented our great cocktail, like our great country. And so, the Dominion, it was like, what was in it? It was a lot for you.

There was Saskatoon berries. I grew up in, I grew up in Saskatchewan. So, that was like my little hometown right there. It was a little salinity for our coasts.

There was ginger, also, because we pretty sought a ginger in this country. I'm not so sad. There was like apple cider and that's pretty Canadian. I think, yeah, it was, yeah, it was like very much okay.

A little maple syrup to speed it up. Yeah, there you go, right? No, oh, there was a cherry brandy. Oh, nice.

Yeah, cherry brandy as well. It was super tasty. And it was just funny. It was like, I think gourd presented something that was inspired by a tinny's double double.

Yeah, it wasn't like a great big competition. I see, yeah. Like a diagio or anything of the form. But it was a great opportunity for bartenders from our coast to come together and to share on their experience.

And we just had a great time. And one of the most, one of the most beautiful and jaw-dropping parts of our country. I don't think I would have ever made it out to Fogo Island. Right.

Oh my god. Yeah. I was supposed to be able to afford it. Yeah.

Yeah. I never checked out the room rates. I was like, no. Yeah, one of our friends and a former guest on the show was this on there for a bit.

And she was telling us a little bit about the pricing there. It was pretty crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty incredible.

You know, I definitely, the five of us are so grateful for that opportunity. It was, it was very much very unique. Oh, once in a lifetime thing, Dave is also, you know, we talk about it every year, every year on the anniversary. We were like, this is where we were.

And no, so that was really great. And then obviously that project we were in on Air Canada flights from coast to coast, right? Yeah. Actually around the world for like six months or something.

Yeah, they don't change those magazines too often. I know that. So no, but on video, like on the video thing, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So you know, like there are all those commercials, like, you can be or whatever. There was like a four minute video or something. Or something like that.

Oh, cool. wrecking with. And now you got that 15 minutes of six months of fame there. Now you've like brought it all home with a guest appearance on the industry podcast.

So. Exactly. Up and up. Yeah.

I do have to ask one question. Since you mentioned Saskatchewan, I've been to Saskatchewan a few times, but not for a couple of decades. So I did up in Montreal. So my father used to work for international harsters around a lot.

Okay. So selling big farming with it. So we, like I have two sisters and we were each born in, I will actually call my middle sister and I were both born in Winnipeg, but two upon two different stays in Winnipeg. Oh, please.

With Winnipeg twice. Oh, sorry. I'd say the first time. Yeah.

Yeah. No. But I spent a lot of summers in Saskatchewan. And then after that, I'll be moved to Montreal.

That's the time to spend in Saskatchewan. It's definitely summer. Definitely. So one of the things I want to ask you about, like, you know, you're opening up all these bars and restaurants in Montreal and like a lot of them are cocktail focused.

I talked to a loud news. How do you like, what's the secret of standing out for a cocktail lounge in a city like Montreal that's like known for it? Because for instance, like when I opened my first cocktail bar here in Kitchener, Ontario, like there really wasn't any fucking competition, right? There wasn't a whole lot of others.

So it was an easier, like it's a little easier. It's two ways. Like one thing, one party is that you got to get people's heads around the whole concept of you as kind of the first person that can be a struggle. But I think it's even more of a struggle on your end when like Montreal is known for great cocktail badges, right?

And like, that's sort of European feel. So talk to us a little bit about how you get yours to stand out in a few ways, actually. So I think the first one is that there is not a high concentration of cocktail bars in each borough, in each area. And each area in which there are multiple bars, themes and styles are sufficiently unique and different in their own right that you want to do the trek and you want to make it, you want to make it a destination, right?

So, Hot Water Cocktail Club is next to a really great restaurant. We do brunches on weekends, so you can do like your little brunch, you can go out and then like go and walk around and then come back and talk for an early cocktail and then move on to dinner, right? If you're traveling in the city. It's near Joe Beef, like that Pyeong.

It's near a lot of great restaurants that are really well known. So people make that a stop within their evening out. Milk and make cocktail bar is solo in its area and it was the first bar in a really long time. We took over an old pub that had been closed for a few years.

And so it's that one's a rejuvenating area of the city right now. There are like since we've opened there's now a beer store that became a bit of a beer-focused cocktail bar, but it remains a place where you can just like go in and buy beer. So that's great. That adds to it as well.

And like, we opened up in between a super dive bar, like a classic dive bar that has like live music twice a week. Quarter to 50. Yeah, exactly. But we also have them.

Yeah, good for you. That's not so much real thing. Yeah. That's what we call them the goals key.

Yeah, I love it. The first thing I do when I go to Montreal is give one of those dive bars. Exactly, right? So it's like really well known.

And Dickel said it's one of our favorite dive bars, like our group. All of us, we always end up there. But the halfway between that and another bar, that's kind of like a wine bar earlier in the night. And that becomes a bit more clubby.

Call the way we have our cocktail dive bar. So it's like, we're actually able now to keep people in the area because we're close to another like we're in between the Atlanta restaurant and Tuck Shop and Baja. They're all more like wide focused. And then there are people have three choices that are unique and different enough from another that you might actually even walk to get up all three and one night.

Right. And I think that's kind of like our thing. Yeah. And that's important because like people tend to look at, well, we talked about this a bunch on the show.

I preach about it all the time in town. Like people having more bars in your areas, not competition is exactly what you need because people don't want to hang out in one spot all night anymore. Right? They want to bounce around a different spot.

So if you're solo and you're like, they make me way was originally them, if that makes it even harder. Like it was actually 100% right. It was actually a bit more difficult because people would leave earlier and then the bar would be a bit more empty late at night or it would take a few hours at the beginning of the evening for people to make their way to that area. So it becomes more the destination bar, right?

But having more places over and keeping people within that area, that center. I think like the same thing, the same thing was for like cold-room. Folkroom is downtown. They have really good, I'm going to say happy hour because not everyone knows what a second set is.

Like for context, like I said, is the hours of between five and seven because the concept of happy hour is so weird. I'm like, no, we don't have better price saying it's not like that kind of happy hour. But yeah, so just like that right after work period, they get nice and full and then people say they go out for dinner and then they come back but it's downtown. Downtown needs out after 5 p.m.

Right? Like a lot of downtown courts. That being said, they're now a destination and they're close to a lot of hotels. So that allows people to go and be a part of that sector a bit more insane thing for say like Piccanyo and and cold-room and Montreal.

They're in and around a lot more places and you can start out there in the back of bar. That's more of a club after if you want. You know, like so as you're saying, yeah, like keep people in and they'll stay in your area and you're always going to be full but just with a different clientele depending on the hour. Right.

Yeah, no, it's perfect. The other thing I want to talk to you a little bit about the rule of the year bio is that you took a little hiatus from the bar industry for a while. Talk to us about what you were doing during that little period. Yeah, so actually, yeah, I spent a great number of years in restaurants and bars when I was younger and I studied political science.

Oh, I still don't know where scientists are. Exactly. We're scientists. That just allows us to pitch a bit more about Darfuridans.

There you go. And the AGC over the SAQ in our case too. Yeah, yeah. Brutal both of you.

Right. So I did that and obviously I had a big plan. I was like, I was going to become prime minister. I was going to know what I wanted to do.

That's funny. And as I got older, though, I didn't want to be in that kind of politics. I was kind of wanting to be more so on the community organizing side of it. And everyone in my family always was like, you should be PR.

PR is so you. So what did I do? I said come to family pressure and I kind of stuck it out and I was doing public relations for a while. And I think after about eight years of doing all of that suffering from one burnout at one point earlier on, I kind of realized that that wasn't really what I wanted to do.

I had been approached by a friend of mine who, like a high school friend of mine who organized competitions and was looking for someone to help with their PR. And I started helping him. And I was like, this is what the cocktail world became. Like, I was so happy.

My last job making cocktails was like at this bar and I was like, you know, old 90s style martinis. Right. It was just not the same, right? So I was like, this is very cool.

This also showed me and brought me back to the reality that what we do behind bars is PR. 100%. Yes, a completely different type that we never really talk about when you study PR. Right.

It's community relations. It is that kind of like direct PR one on one with people. One of my favorite things to do when I'm behind the bar is spot people who are kind of like low energy, maybe solo and or, you know, couples or people that are too bad to you, but kind of like not really talking about that much or they seem to be having a little bit more of a chill night than I at the end of the night get everyone talking and everyone meets and that person who was solo and I ended up having great chats with like, it should be my coworkers, myself, other people around them, and then it just becomes one big party. And I love doing that because at the end of day, those people have met someone new.

They've been put in a context that maybe they were a little uncomfortable at first, but got them out of their shell and all around a really great cocktail. So their experience becomes really memorable. And so that's what really coming through me back in. So I said, I'll keep you here.

And I let everything go. And I think my parents at first, I almost gave them a heart attack. Yeah, that's a big move. Yeah.

And I was like, just trust, trust. And yeah, within like the first year of my getting back by the word, I started doing competitions and I just had so much fun. And kind of just never looked back. Did you mind me asking how old you were when you decided to get back into where I was today?

I was 30. 30. So yeah, so you did like this whole threat to NPR and you're like mid to late 20s. Yeah.

And so yeah, no doubt your family thought that was the path you're taking this one as a world move. At least you were still really young though. Like it's a lot harder to do the older you get, right? Yeah.

Change your passive. It was also like a really big period of change in my life at that exact moment too. Like I had plans, you know, moving up to San Francisco, I got there and I got my heart broken in back. And I was like, what am I doing?

You know, I'm not being period. Yeah. Questioning yourself after a meter of heartbreak. And so I think it's just every vector was pointing in that same direction.

And it was just like a very cataclysmic moment in my life. Well, that's it. So I'm talking a little bit about San Francisco. You were moving out there for a relationship and you were planning like, yeah, yeah, and you didn't get to know what you were going to do when you got there.

Did you have like, well, I was working on like, I was working on PR campaigns here. I was essentially doing them remote. Oh, okay. So yeah, pretty easy to do.

Right. Yeah. Most clients were always just like, I just want you to get me some media coverage. So just a time on the phone, sending out emails, press releases.

Get caught with the hooker. But it is easy. And I first like, I was already really, I've always loved whining spirits beer as well, though I no longer am able to drink beer, but I always loved whining spirits. So for me, it was like a moment when like in that transition and that attempt in San Francisco, I was like, oh, maybe I'll just like, I'll work for an agency that specializes in bars and restaurants.

Right. And so that was like my first, my first thoughts of that kind of switch back into this industry. And then when I had to come back to Montreal, I was approached by that friend who was doing cocktail competitions. And I was like, Oh, so I'm just going to do it here instead.

And then the more I started doing it, I started working with a few friends who owned a restaurant in River down at the time called Trebs and Caviar. And so I mean, I knew a man who was behind the wood and John Mike Dibell, who was the owner and chef, they allowed me like I did, I helped them with PR. I did events with them and Mel kind of brought me up to speed on what had changed in the industry. And that's how I kind of found my good thing.

And I was like, you know, I am done with the PR aspects. And I just kind of done trading. Yeah. And like, did you find it a steep learning curve at that point when you're like, because you said the industry had changed quite a bit in the time you were gone.

And now it's like probably more back to like classic cocktails and everybody doing their own signature cocktails and like all the molecular molecular, wow, that was tough for me to say this time. Influence on cocktail making as well, or was it kind of like easy for you? Fairly easy. I remember my ratios fairly well from all the classics.

I always kind of knew them. And I guess it was kind of easy, but I mean, what because I'm sure like most people recognize that when you take classic recipes and put them side by side, it's all pretty much the exact same thing. You're just swapping out ingredients here and there, but your ratios remain pretty golden. Right.

That's right. That's why you got a golden ratio. So as soon as you kind of understand that, and with great tools like the flavor Bible that you're supposed to know or chefs, you know, and kind of having those chats, you kind of, and if you're mildly furious in terms of culinary world, you know, you're going to be interested in integrating bold new flavors or seek out methods. If I always loved chemistry and physics, I just always knew that I didn't really want to do that for a living.

Well, you are scientists. Here I am. I'm doing my chemistry and physics. I'm going to be a big sense just in a completely different way.

So it's like, I love talking with like Thomas and I always talk about clarification and let's talk about kegging and we got super geeky and my friend Jonathan from the four seasons of Montreal where it's just constantly like, we'll sit down. We'll do these evenings where we, you know, in my apartment because I have a lot of booze and I'm far more central living as well than he is. And we'll just kind of sit down and always be talking about our favorite espresso margaritini ratios. And then we'll be like, let's test them out and see which one's better.

We'll talk about so and so and their theory on the best like the on the best liquor nut sour, you know, like we'll be like, okay, let's do it with the Amaretto sour. Let's try with like the orange lemon. Let's just do lemon. Let's do the well, we'll geek out on our own time.

And then yeah, I just spend way too much time doing this. But it's good that you still have the passion for it, right? Because like, they come to you, you can spend tons of time in the service industry. Sometimes you can get a little jaded and stop caring, but you clearly still have the passion for making the drinks and trying new things.

I was, I'm just in asking you in your time, what you think one of the biggest changes has been like, for instance, for me, in my, like, I'm holding you, but like the biggest development in my lifetime of being behind a bar in what changed how cocktails are made was the introduction of like the culinary side of it, where now we're like dealing like so many of us, if you have a chef background, it's such an advantage now. And if you don't, then you better fucking get to be good friends with a chef. But if you agree with that, or if there's another sort of trend that you've noticed that develop over your time in the industry. There are many.

I think what the biggest change for me, especially in fact, was that clean break and return so many years later, it was like the use of fresh ingredients. So kind of, I guess that culinary aspect. You don't need the fresh ingredients so much in those multi-colored martinis. I mean, what's the sour mix?

Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, it's hilarious because it's all these assets that we all love playing with now. Right. Yeah.

We look at it and we're like, well, we're creating just a better sour mix than what we were using. Yeah. I mean, Thomas and I would definitely argue about that one because we use a lot of Oleo's citrates in our kid cocktails, especially for the new cocktail bar, the Diet Cocktail bar. But I think that the pendulum went over the last, I guess the 20 years went super far into old school, classics, everything needs to be so perfect and well thought out.

And now it's swinging back towards how can we take all those learnings and start having fun again. And I think that that it's so fun and entertaining that now we have three bars under our umbrella and all three bars represent that perfectly. So it's like that order content club, you're more chilled, like it's, you think it's a speakeasy and it starts off as that when you walk in at five o'clock, at 11 o'clock, you realize, no, like this gets loud, this gets fun, but the cocktails are very, very serious and like there are a few fun ones. Yes, but the style is a bit more like that kind of serious note and elevated really well thought out and then milky, the cocktail bar, though, very well thought out is starts becoming a bit more fun, like reintroducing blue curacao and having that kind of tropical, but like really well balanced and representative of kind of the space.

And then a diet cocktail bar where we're like, well, we've got a cocktail called Make It Strong, which is essentially just a better long island I see on town. And I'm not even joking, it's our actually, it's our most popular cocktail right now. But it's like a really well made mojito on top or a French 75 on top. So that's the thing with us, I mean, I'm gonna interrupt you, but the thing with like the new spot is like you're doing mostly tapped cocktails.

Yeah, so we have 15 taps, 12 of which are cocktails. Yeah, it's great, honestly, it's execution. It's a lot of work on the back end. But like, yeah, the guests don't see that.

They're just like, I'm using this fucking bartending job. It's like, oh my god, I got my great cocktail in like three minutes between ordering and reception. Yeah, I'd be shit faced constantly. I was at a place like that.

There's a leopard print full table everywhere. There's the top cocktails at any point of the night, someone from behind the bar might put a weird hat, party hat on you. And you'd be surprised how many people just go with the phone, keep it on. I'll be on the phone.

Yeah, seriously. I absolutely it's wonderful. It's I it's a phone. Yeah.

I want to do the other day for the same. I know I want to do the other day and like someone grabbed it put on this iron and all of a sudden they were like swinging bags of balloons on my head. But yeah, so I think that's one of the biggest changes. And then I think the other one is staff and just employment on that side.

So it's like, I love that people. I feel like maybe the majority but close enough to the majority of people in our industry now really are approaching it as a career. And that to me is golden, right? Because you have the ability to work longer with those individuals, make sure that you're bringing them up and that you're providing those opportunities for growth.

And and you're investing in them as much as they're investing in you. And then those who are not necessarily taking it as a career are still done taking it seriously, that they're investing whatever time they are lauding to you and giving you there all during that time. And I think a bit more than before. And I think we can all agree that the return post pandemic was really difficult in that respect.

Like staffing was horrendous last year. And we were a force into a situation where we were hiring very much, much younger, very green servers, bartenders, and even in the kitchens. But just within a year, those people have stuck around a lot of them. And I think that we're rebuilding that very well and very consciously and spontaneously.

And we have better work ethics. I remember bosses like from 20 years ago were far more difficult to work with than today. Yeah. I don't think that there are as many shitty ass bar and restaurant owners.

Just this one. Yeah. Just you. Definitely.

No, I know. I agree with you. And it's funny with the during the pandemic, there was that stretch where we were hiring people who were not really qualified to work at the level that we were trying to deliver service. Yeah.

And but the ones that stuck around and stuck it out have become a lot of them have become good, right? And that's just it's just it was just normally we would be hiring at a level that they already had that level of experience. And it's just kind of a different game now where you got to train them up a little bit more. Yeah.

And I mean, at the same time, it's great because that allowed a lot of career servers from bartenders to kind of turn around be like, you know what? I'm going to try my hand at something else because they had not necessarily had that opportunity to change careers at some point, right? Like I made a conscious decision to come back to it. As I'm sure at one point, you made that conscious decision that when you're going to start owning a bar, you're in it.

You're going to put it on run. It's not a transitional phase. No, not anymore. Yeah.

It was transitional for the first 30 years. I mean, I think that those are those are two of the two main things that I am happy changed. It's good to get some fresh voices too, right? Because like I always say, as soon as you have decided you figured everything out, you're fucked, right?

So like having like people who have a completely green perspective coming in, I mean, sometimes that is not a good thing. But sometimes they come with some ideas as well that you just would never have thought of. 100%. 100%.

Especially if they worked elsewhere, right? Like, I mean, I had a lot of corporate backgrounds. I understood what it was like to work in top heavy organizations and that had a lot of red tape and whatever. And so that gave me a different approach to how to manage employees as well.

Because I actually had a background in working with HR and I worked under managers who trained like properly trained to be managers. Instead of just like, oh yeah, you've been here long enough. Yeah. I'm a community manager and it works so well.

Yeah, it should be good. Exactly. I mean, you know, actually, this, I kind of really want to say that one of the best changes for evolutions in our industry is the development of community. Because more than ever, like we have Canadians and every other international community walking to the tales of the cocktail or walking to Barre-Convain-Berclin and Barre-Convain-Berclin and all of these like, or even Toronto cocktail conference, right?

Like, which I heard is coming back, which I'm super excited about. I heard that too. But I haven't seen any details yet. Right now, Josh, just give us these tales.

Yeah. But yeah, so I mean, those and all of these podcasts and books, everything is allowing us to deep dive better into all of it. And our answer and a lot of questions that we didn't like, I'm gathering you and my younger self would have never had access to you. And so that is allowing us to develop a community.

Like, we're our group, we're always bringing up bartenders from bars from around the world, right? Like, I mean, on April 4th, we have the clumsy, sorry, April 5th, we have the clumsies coming into town. And then after that, we're going to Toronto during restaurant's Canada show and doing an event at Barre-Mordicai. Like, we are, Christina, Vere and I are going down to Colombia to Al-Kimiko and in Quefahina.

And we're bringing them back up after, in the middle of the summer. You know, like, we're doing all of these things and bringing people to that bartenders who are local, get to meet people that often times they will look up to or never met or wish they met. And not everyone has the chance to travel to certain countries. So, you know, by doing that, we're just building and developing a stronger community.

And I find that really impressive. I agree. And that's like a perfect spot to leave it. So, thanks very much.

Kate. Yeah, it was perfect. Yeah. The letter list is now where they can follow you and the whole group.

So, you can buy me at Kate Bussell, all in one, Kate Bussell on Instagram on pretty much every single platform, though Instagram is a better one. Barreco group on Instagram as well. And from there, you will find links to all of our establishments. That's amazing.

And yeah, let it shoot us an email and let us know when you're coming to do this thing at Barre-Mordicai. We'll come up and see you. Yeah, well, that's an easy trip for us. Yes, exactly.

Yeah. Yes, for Canada show. So, April 10th, 11th and 12th. Okay.

I'm going to go to Columbia myself. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

He won't make it back. It may dear me today. So, yeah, no, we're going to be there April 10th, 11th and 12th. April 10th, we're doing an event during the afternoon at our C-show for Atwater Coctelet.

And then in the evening, Bolda Eligia is going to be slinging some draft cocktails while all the clumsies make there some delicious signatures of theirs at Barre-Mordicai in the evening. And then on, I think it's also a fundraiser. I'll give you all the details. Great.

Yeah. And then on the 11th, I'm giving a topic for Hannah and Bistina Vera on Barre culture in the morning at our C-show. And then in the afternoon, I think there's the Beyond the Rail competition, which should be really fun as well. Awesome.

And I'm having just probably some from Kitchener there. Yeah, I would imagine. I don't know who would be, but I'll try and figure that out. Yeah.

Okay. Thanks again, Kate. We really appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.

And yeah, she does an email with those details and we'll see if we can meet you in person. Sounds great. Okay. Thanks again.

Thanks again.