This week's guest is Lex Ward, who joins us from South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Lex putters start in the industry while still in high school when she went in her first job at a coffee shop. This sparked Lex's interest in the industry as she eventually moved on to Waitress St. Ann Bard-Tending and has a look back since.
We talked about the local scene in the beach town of South Kingstown and the surrounding towns in City's Rhode Island. We talked about the time Lex spent several years attending Ole Miss and her experiences working for a packed and busy college bar. Lex is currently working for Horizon Beverage, a wholesale liquor distributor and more specifically, in her current role, Lex is repping for Bacardi. Make sure you check out Lex on Instagram at thealcohollex and that is spelled T-H-E-A-L-C-O-L-L-E-X.
Or check the show notes for the link. Enjoy the show. Alright, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast. My name is Kip, this is Dan.
How are things going? All right, all right. No complaints. What about yourself?
How are you? How was your birthday week? It was basically what it was. Yes, I turned 50 and as a result, all my friends tried to destroy my liver.
So we just got back from New Orleans as we were recording this last night. So that was super fun. A couple of industry friends down there as well. Yeah, it was a good time.
But Lex came back alive, so that's good to see. And that's where we're talking to came back good. That's a good point. Thanks.
Yeah, so it was lots of fun to have by all. And I'd like to say I was going to take a break from drinking as a result of it, but that's not going to happen. So we have a great guest that's always coming your way in just a second. Lex Ward will be joining us.
Before we get to her, we should mention that if you are a fan of the show, the best way to help us out is to subscribe, rate and review. And if you want to be a guest on the show, just DM us at the industry podcast on Instagram or you can email us directly at info at the industrypodcast.club. That is correct. I think I should have it by now.
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How are you? I'm good. Thanks. How are you guys doing?
Doing well. Doing well. I'm on the show. Thank you for having me.
So what's the name of the city that you're in in and roll down again? South King Sound. South King Sound. So what kind of a I don't know anything about that place.
Let's start there. What's South King sound like as far as the bar scene? Bar scene, it's mostly restaurants down here and like I guess nightlife isn't like it's more busy during the summer. It's very seasonal over here.
Because we're right on the water. So I'm like five minute drive from the beach, not even. Yeah, so we're called the ocean state. So we have the most coastline and we're the smallest state in the US.
So everywhere around us is water. So we're very seasonal and rely on tourism. But so most of the restaurants are waterfront, which is pretty awesome. Like where we are.
And they're definitely becoming more crafty before there wasn't like wasn't too many like cocktail places. It was just like basic things. And now they're definitely becoming more crafty and people are caring more about their menus and what they're putting out. So it's definitely growing like everywhere around us, which is nice to see.
But providence is our capital. And I say that's where you're going to find the most cocktail bars. But so when you see like how long you live there? My entire life.
So it's kind of neat to see sort of the development of what you're talking about a morgue. Like this whole scene becoming more about craft cocktails. And so how do you adjust as a bartender's been doing for what even a dozen plus years now, right? Yeah, just about 12 years.
And so honestly, when I first started, I didn't care to learn much past Margarita and Bloody Mary and like because I was also working at dive bars. And so there really wasn't a calling for martinis or any, any classic cocktails. Like you're kind of an idiot for ordering a martini as I have bar. Like usually the best place to order one.
But then it got to a point like over COVID. That's when I started to get requests for drinks like that at the dive bar and that I still work at the pub in Matunik. And I decided I wanted to learn them. And so over COVID, everything was shut down, of course, and bully boy distillers.
One of our suppliers with rise and beverage was offering cocktail classes every week. And so I started taking them every week just because I was bored and wanted to learn. And that's when I just started to dive into the cocktail world. And I just wanted to learn and adjust and grow with the trends.
And I'm thankful for it because now it's, I don't know, it's helped me. It's opened up a lot of doors and I'm just very thankful for where I'm at. And it's kind of cool to be sort of at the forefront of bringing that sort of style of bartending to your community, right? Yeah, no, it definitely is.
Because when I started at Plum Point, Bistro in April, it's just been nice to work a service bar and help them with their program and like slowly but surely we're growing it. And I know it's just fun to be a part of. And also it's just nice to see like craft cocktail spots pop up around in South County area, which is where I'm at. And I don't know, it's really enjoyable to watch it unfold.
Yeah. And so is that how you got to drive at Horizon then? Through that because you hooked up with them through this sort of cocktail class? No, so I started working for Horizon before then.
And that's how I was able to take the classes and that's how I knew about bully boy. So I actually one of my best friends, husbands, he works for Horizon Beverage as well. And he still does he let me know about position that was opening because that's when I started applying for sales reps jobs, but I was applying in Boston and everywhere in Boston, they required you to live in Massachusetts, even though I was willing to do the commute, they wanted you to live in Boston. So that was just super frustrating because Rhode Island is so small.
So like there were hardly any openings, but this position opened up and I applied for it. And I had my interview got asked for a second interview and then started from there. And it was cold calling. So I was Telcel and selling the entire portfolio, so beer, wine, spirits and not out.
And I had about 400 small volume accounts. That I had to call every week. So I was making like a hundred phone calls a day and then Fridays, I would have to go make deliveries, like drop, you know, like coasters or printed menus, whatever they needed. So Friday was my day for errands.
But we also have Friday meetings at the office. So suppliers will come in and present new products or, you know, stuff like that. And then we'll have under walkabouts where you can do tastings as well. So those are probably like, like two or three a quarter.
But so yeah, then started with that. And that's how I got my foot in the door. And I applied for this position through for Bacardi last spring. And it's through Horizon Beverage because Bacardi is one of our suppliers.
OK, so you still you still work for Horizon, but now you also work for Bacardi? Is that kind of? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So yeah, because it's kind of confusing, like because, but I just focus specifically on Bacardi's portfolio now instead of Horizon's entire portfolio. And so I work in the on premise with bars and restaurants and work on events and promos and cocktail menus and pricing stuff like that. So how big is your territory?
Do you have to cover all the Rhode Island or? Yeah. Yeah. So you're on the road a lot.
Yeah, every day. But I mean, it's a small state. So you're like, it is. Yeah, no, it is a small state.
Like you can get from one end to the other in 45 minutes. I would say like there are places in Rhode Island that are just a bitch to get to that. Like it can take me an hour to get to from my house. One like either because of traffic or just because it's in the middle of nowhere.
And you're like, I just hate going to those places. I hate like it takes like an hour to get there. I'm like, I don't want to go. But then like one specific area, it's like a super tourist spot and very seasonal.
It's just like right on the water, all of like the whole strip, but it's just a bitch to get to. And even though it's a small state, like some parts of it can just take forever. And especially if you forget something at the office and you have to go back. So being like right on the water, obviously, and being a tourist destination, is it like, I'm just trying to figure out what the bar scene is generally.
Is it like kind of like the beach style bar for most of those places? Yes. Like you have both. So I'm a tunic where I work.
Both places are beach bars, dive bars, ones and Irish pub. One is a beach bar where a lot of bands play. It's always like live music. I want to say like almost every single day of the year, just about.
And they're known for their concerts. But then there's also a fine dining place in a tunic that's an oyster bar. And it's like white tablecloth. And then, but Providence, I say like Providence is a city and that's north of here.
And it's like obviously like a smaller New York, but it's very clean. It's very artsy and it's a small like knit community. And like that place is really cool. And you can like bar hop and walk everywhere, but you can get everything.
In Providence, you can get the dive bar. You can get the super crafty cocktail bar, the white tablecloth, the casual Mexican, Asian, like everything you name it. In Providence, like a federal hill is really cool spot. That's like all old school Italian.
And so everywhere is pretty much Italian. And they also have a mix of like kookabars in their two into car bars. So that's like a really cool strip. And in the nicer months, they will shut down the entire street and have El fresco dining.
Oh, cool. But the food here is pretty good. Yeah. Like if you want Italian, go to the hill.
So you're covering all this territory all week long, but then you're also trying to maintain like working the bars at night. And then the one bar you work at, I know you said it's only seasonal, but you're doing like a 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift.
So how are you? So what do you do? How do you get time off? I make sure to plan like all my days off for the summer on Sundays.
So I just plan everything because usually like weddings and that kind of shit, like you get noticed for. But it's not easy because I'm working like 85, 90 hours a week, but I'm trying to pay off my student loans by next October. So that's why I'm just like tunnel vision, ball civil working right now. It's tough.
Don't get me wrong, but I just have to plan things in advance and like, kind of make sure to get those days off, but it's not many days off. Right. And then fall and winter obviously is the down season for you in that area. So what's the scene like when it's not summer?
It's nice and quiet. I'll say that. But then there's also URI students too. So like things are busy because of students, but it's definitely not as bad as summer time.
But it's like, it's usually it uses to know a lot more when I was younger. It doesn't snow that much anymore. I don't know. We'll usually get like at least one good storm per winter, but it's pretty great.
We usually go like my fiance and I will go up to Vermont a lot and go to Melbourne, go to Killing to Mountain. But yeah, it's pretty quiet. And then like the nice thing about going out though is you don't need to fight for a drink because it's not busy anymore. Like Providence definitely gets busier in the winter just because all the college kids, there's a lot of colleges, universities and Providence.
So they're busier during the winter months, just because of the students. But South County near where I live is quiet in the winter months. And so you were saying that you were willing to commute to Boston if they had a wrap job for you there. Like how long would you meet with this from around?
From where I am, it's about like hour, hour and a half drive. And it's like traffic. It could be a lot longer. Like one time last summer, I had to go up to Boston for a tourist luncheon and on my way home, it should have been an hour drive and it took me three hours.
It was a nightmare. Like that traffic is no joke. Plus you're wasted on scotch. So like, do you ever consider to maybe try bartending in Boston as well?
Because I'm sure it would be pretty lucrative. To be honest, no. Because before I used to have a 45 minute commute to the pub, and I was only there once a week and I didn't like the commute. And I guess also because I used to live 20 minutes to it.
And so then having to be farther away was a pain in the ass. But yeah, if I lived in Boston, I probably would. But I don't think I would commute first, because I'm dead-ass tired afterwards. I barely have one 10 minutes.
Yeah, well, you're working a lot. So what was your sort of first experience getting into the service industry? So I was 14. I started working at a coffee shop.
I actually had to get my parents' signature, my best friend and I at the time. We were going there all the time just because we loved their chai and these cookies. And we wanted to work there. And so our parents signed off and let us work there.
And so that's how I started in the food industry and hospitality and stuff. But then once I transferred to schools and I moved to Mississippi, I went to Ole Miss. And I started working in restaurants there. And one place, I actually got fired from one place.
And I was like, fuck that. And my roommate at the time, she was like, oh, come work with me at the ribcage. And I was like, the what? She goes to the ribcage.
Like, come work with me. You can like, I'll teach you how to teach you how to waitress and maybe you can bar back or something. And so I started there with her and it's SEC football. And so that's how I learned everything.
She's the one who taught me how to make margarita and bloody Mary cooks. Those were the two most requested things on game days. And it was either that with like, jacking cokes and bug lights and shots of yayger. And yayger problems.
And so like, the cozy is enough to learn. Right. And then I wanted to bar attend there. But no one would give up their bar shifts.
And one day someone called out and I just happened to be there. And our boss was like, yeah, you can go in. And he called me the cranky Yankee. So I went in and it was a Sunday football was on.
And then I got a shift there. And that's how I started bartending. Just back home. That must be a crazy difference going from Rhode Island to Mississippi.
Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah. So like, what's the scene like in the Mississippi?
Obviously, like big football, cultural ball area. So just lots of sports bars and is that sort of the scene? Yeah. So I say, so Ole Miss is an Oxford and it's very like Southern classy kind of place.
But it's definitely like football forward. Like everywhere you go is Ole Miss, Ole Miss, Ole Miss, Walmart. It's Ole Miss paper towels, Ole Miss toilet paper, Ole Miss everything. And but there they have sports bars like barbecue places, like a lot of fast food joints.
But they also have, there's a handful of like super fine dining, like white tablecloth places. There's one place called City Grocery. They are very like craft cocktails. And that was probably like my first taste of craft cocktails was there.
And I didn't really, I didn't appreciate it for what it was when I was down there. Now if I were to go back and visit the campus, I would definitely go there first and like, have a new appreciation for it. Because before I would just go to like, I guess like the college, more college bars and stuff like where people would go out and show like that. And also I would say at the ribcage because you could drink for free.
Right. Was that like it? Is that like just like a crazy scene though and like football on the weekends? Like Saturday, Sunday, Sunday, Saturday.
Oh my God. I got a bad one. It was fucking nuts. Like working was just unreal because it was so busy.
I never worked that so busy before in my life. Like it was just insane. The amount of people that came through there and then attending them was a different story. Like when we played at Bama, we lost like you didn't have cell phone service.
There were so many people on campus and we just couldn't contact anybody. And it's called the Grove where you're tailgating and everyone like they have tents and the sororities and frats like they get them all catered and families will get them catered too. And they'll have like chandeliers and their tents catered food, TVs with cable to watch the other SEC games and then like their chairs like radio, like I don't know everything you name it like they have it and there'd be thousands like over a hundred thousand people there to watch the game and the stadium was massive. I think it felt like 70,000 people and it was a small stadium in the SEC.
That's busy. Yeah. Yeah. So in what years were you working at?
I think it was 2012 or 13 to 2016, I think end of 2016. And then yeah, and then I moved back on to Rhode Island in winter, January 2017. You hear this whole story about Michael Orr and like this? I was so shocked.
Yeah, I know right? I couldn't believe it. Well, I don't want to believe it. I was such a good story, right?
Yeah. But like even like for anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, like that's not what this show's about but like you should look up this story. But the fact that like I can't even really tell who's telling the truth in this. Right.
Yeah. It's crazy. Anyway, anyway, let's check that out. It's all about the book and the movie, The Blind Side.
But now things have gone horribly wrong between that family and the guy that they took it. Yeah, without the real one. One hell of a way. Yeah.
Right. So you like Manning still has a place down in Oxford. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
He was a lot of money. So I dig what was the craziest story based on a patron from working at that rib cage bar? Oh, God. There are so many crazy stories there.
I guess in patron, I don't know. There are so many things I'm trying to think. But I just remember we had one wild employee. He was probably the craziest fucking person I've ever met in my entire life.
And like he actually got banned from Ole Miss. But because he shoved a, couldn't. Like a vending machine? Yeah, vending machine.
I don't know how I can think of that. That's right. It's an elevator in the dorm room and got banned from campus. He was fucking ridiculous.
So he, I just remember like mostly him just like being a menace and fucking shit up. And like he was why we just had like a lot of crazy customers, like a lot of fights, a lot of bar fights. I remember one was just like someone saying this kid was just like gushing blood and blood was just all over the downstairs. And we were like fuck, fuck, fuck what do we do?
And we just like threw him in the office down there because like he, I don't know, like he was the one who got in the fight and he was kind of in the wrong. But a guy that we worked with and we were like fuck. Yeah. So yeah.
So like how many people would roll through that bar on like a Saturday afternoon, I'd have a game day. I had to be like almost a thousand like in and out or maybe more. Yeah, like the turnover was unreal because like the barbecue, the food like you smoke it in such large quantities. So you can turn over a table so quickly.
And there, I think there was like 36 tables upstairs. And then there was a bar that probably fit about 10 barstools. And so like people would be eating there, but also standing behind like watching the TVs and just drinking. And then downstairs, we would have probably about 10 high tops and then probably about like 20 bar seats and then another little ledge with other bar seats, probably about 10 more where people could eat.
So you could just turn over so quickly. We had so many people, it was the same. And then we would always have a line too because it was also the fastest turnover that we would just naturally get a line. It was the same.
And like a lot of people would get catering orders through us and bring it to the grove. And so we would like one of the cooks, he would get there Friday mornings and he would sleep there and not leave until Sunday morning after brunch. Oh, wow. That's crazy.
Like he would wake up at like 2am, like tending to the smoker and like switching the ribs and stuff and like getting all the catering orders ready. That's what it's licensed to print money though. Yeah. Like that fucking place.
So it must have been crazy for you to like experience that for what were you there for like three, four years? Yeah, just about, yeah, just it, yeah, ribcage. And it was, it was so much fun. There was one really, really cool shift.
Actually, so Saturday it was a bi-weekend for Ole Miss and all the football coaches, they went to the ribcage and I've attended for them. And the basement was closed, but it was just the coaches and my boss down there. And because they were just like watching all of the other games going on, like each TV had a different screen and game playing. And they were just like scouting, watching film, preparing for next week.
But I don't know, that was pretty wild. So crazy to go from that and then to come back to Rhode Island where things were just like so much more mellow and sleepier in the bars that you're working at it. Yes. It's like night and day.
Oh my god, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ole Miss was crazy. Just like, it was so busy all the time between football season and then baseball season. And here, like I will say, like in the summer at the pub, it gets wicked busy. Like there it can get friggin insane, but it's definitely, it's not like Oxford.
That's crazy. Well, it's kind of cool that you've had both of these experiences and that you're still interested in staying in the industry at this point. And hopefully you get these student loans paid off sooner than later so that you can calm the fuck down. Yeah.
Yeah. My God, I am over Sally Mae. I'm ready to pick up. Yeah.
Amazing. Okay. Well, thanks so much for doing this. And we appreciate you coming on the show and best of luck with getting the loans paid off and with your upcoming marriage when you get married.
I have no idea. Perfect. That's the best. That's all right.
You don't have a fucking time for it anyway. But I know, no kidding. That's what my mom keeps asking me. And I'm like, mom, I'm just trying to get through today.
Yeah. Now before you go, there's anything you want to promote on social media and all or anything like that? Just so I might Instagram the alcoholics. Follow would be nice.
Team Follow Back. Yeah. Like, yeah. All right.
Well, best of luck. Any big events coming up through Bacardi? Oh, yeah. At least I had meeting with the hotel biking because we're doing a betrone El Ciello launch because that just landed in the Rhode Island market.
New product by betrone El Ciello, which means heaven. It's a tall sin bottle. It's a new silver tequila that's distilled four times. So pretty excited to launch that and obviously share pictures of that event with you guys.
So that's, I don't know, I think like two weeks from now. So I'm excited for that. Awesome. Well, again, thanks for everything likes to be appreciate coming on the show.
And yeah, best of luck with everything. Thank you guys. Have a good one. Yeah, that's you too.