This week's guest is Megan Wed, who joins us from Austin, Texas. Currently, Megan is a bartender, as well as the ambassador for Bo Degas' style. Megan initially got her start in the industry when she landed a job in a craft beer spot where she eventually discovered her passion for spirits and cocktails. In our discussion with Megan, we talk about her move and experiences in Melbourne, Australia, and then later New Zealand, and we focus on the differences in bar culture and hospitality.
We talk about the bar and restaurant scene across major cities in Texas. We also discuss Megan's current role as a brand ambassador and some of the challenges of promoting a specific type of drink like Sherry and the importance of finding the right palate for different spirits. And of course, we cover a host of other topics as well. Megan was a terrific guest and you'll enjoy the conversation.
And enjoy the show! Alright, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast. Keep and Dan with you as always. What's happening, man?
Oh, you're just hanging up with us, always. Yeah, you. Awesome. Wonderful.
That's good to hear. That's the weekend when I signed on Saturday. Yeah, it's slow. I'll be very pleased when this month of February is over.
We get back to some regular business again. Yeah. Business up and down? It's not the...it's mostly plateauing or going down.
Sure. We'll see how we survive all this. But no, it's just dry January has become like a real serious thing and it's not great for bars. No, no, no.
I think it was a comedian Lewis Black making fun of January. You were drinks. Yeah, let's do that. Well, the funny thing I find about the dry whole day January is that these people take four weeks without having a drink and then just go back to their usual parting like crazy the second that January is over that somehow that's got some health benefits for them.
But hey, everyone's got to do their own thing. Yeah. So if now that you're dry January is over and if you're ready to get back into the bars, you should come check out mine. Sugar Run Downtown Kitchener at Sugar Run Bar on Instagram.
Babylon Sisters of Townwater Loo at Babylon Sisters Bar on Instagram for everything that's going on in those places. Yeah. And if we have to start a trade war with the US, it looks like we got a month reprieve. Oh, yeah.
We're recording on January or sorry, February 3rd and apparently we have 30 day reprieve on this trade war with the Americans. But yeah, they were threatening to yank all of the American liquor off the shelves at the LCBO. Yeah, it's great as that. I'm liquor.
Hit me up at hip at Babylon Sisters dot C A that's K Y P P and I am your go to source for all spirits from the Lord is stealing company that is made right here in Ontario, Canada. And also Malaguar Winery right here in Ontario, Canada. And the amazing wine from Terroir Wine Imports, which basically is all Portuguese and Spanish wine. So we can circumvent any trade wars.
If you want to support a local, that's the way to go. Hip at Babylon Sisters dot C A. We should also shout out our good friend Ali at alchemist dot Ali on Instagram for all of your. So just like all your liquor based need everything from you need a bartender for a special private event such as a wedding anniversary birthday party just like hang out with your friends or someone help you with your liquor program at a bar restaurant or if you're looking for cocktail classes, you can also do that as well.
If you want to fun night out your friends come over teach you how to make a bunch of cocktails. That is always a bonus. There you go. And if you're trying to maybe learn about cocktails on your own or if you need a healthy tool, if you're actually a professional bartender, let me recommend our good friends at ambiblia.
Yes. Is ambiblia. Check it out. It is your go to tool for cocktail creation.
The app is fantastic. Yeah. Especially the visual flavor profile wheel is something else. You can think of the flavors you'd like at certain ratios and it'll come up with concoctions that meet that requirement.
Yeah. Pretty solid. John Mark, thanks. Yes.
ambiblia. Check it out. Yeah, we have links on the show notes and thank you to John Mark, thanks for our website, the industry podcast dot club. Yeah.
Hit us up there. Check out the website. Check out the Instagram profile at the industry podcast and also you can email us info at the industrypodcast.club to support the show or if you'd like to be a guest on the show, check out the great artwork from Zack Hanna at Zack Hanna dot CO on our Instagram page. And you know, if you're checking out the podcast already, just subscribe, follow, rate, review, help the great deal.
Or just tell one other friend. That's the easiest thing to do. It takes about half a minute. Send them a link and increases the numbers.
Makes it better for us. Right. Show notes for all of these available when you're checking out the podcast. So that the key words there, Alchemist Ali and Biblia, Zack Hanna and then allord is stilling.
Malabar, Winery, Terroir, Wine Imports, Sugar Run Bar, Babylon, Sistor Bar, anything else we'd like to promote? I think I covered the most. Yeah, that's it. So let's get to our guest joining us right now from Austin, Texas.
It is Megan Webb. How are you Megan? Hi guys. It's Megan.
Thank you. You're amazing. Take a plane. Light the great martini in the end.
So there you go. More than that. Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Cool. Yeah, of course. Currently, you're the ambassador for Bodega Lestau. Yes, I am for the state of Texas.
And I'm also still... Because I have ranked consultant or 1099 job, I still have to supplement my income full time by being a full time bartender. Right, so you're still part of the Anasan? Yeah.
Yeah, out of the beautiful, nickel city. Oh, nice. So how did you get started in this industry? Just, yeah.
As a lot of us, you know, you start going to college, you realize, books, they're really expensive. architecture supplies. And I started working at a craft beer spot called buying saucer. I'm by Janin Nguyen, original one was in Fort Worth, Texas.
And they just had a really lovely educational program that a like 20 year old like me could understand. I got to taste all these incredible craft beers, bottle beers, like I'm in Browning Lake Stone and like old chub as being like some of my first years that I ever tasted. And I just like immediately maybe realized like cool I can go to school during semester and then at night I can make $200. It's 20 year old.
I'm gonna do that. From there I can take my architecture degree but I never actually practiced. I fell in love with the industry as we do. Just a little band of misfits.
You're all kind of searching and ADHD, deep diving into different subjects which led me to moving from the craft beer industry and deep diving into spirits. I quickly fell into the cocktail craft hotel world and I worked at a really awesome bar in John Tom Portworth that is still there but not quite the same. You know, it's peak easy so you know 2011 at this time so that was all the hype then. And then I quickly after that fell into this idea that I wanted to live overseas and expand my market beyond Texas.
It's very common text and culture to kind of grow up and live in the same area that you always lived in. And so I really wanted to kind of break that mold and discover what was out there. And I found myself after we did Austin Perpet. I found myself living in Melbourne, Australia.
Following my passion and whiskey at the time working for a bar called O2V which had an amazing like scotch list. Before that I only really like tasted like Canadian whiskey, American whiskey. That was like as far as my whiskey knowledge went and fell into this world of scotch which was incredible. COVID happened of course two years later so I found myself after working at O2V and Everly in Melbourne.
Two great bars. They both have books. They're awesome. I saw myself in New Zealand because at the time my partner was a Kiwi and we just saw that the world like closing down closing down closing down and we were like where do we want to be?
We always joked about if the world went up in flames where would we end up and we were like New Zealand. Small as I like there's more sheep than people. Let's go. So we ended up in the South Island of New Zealand at that time.
You know just end up really locked the country down. We could leave if we wanted but getting back would be really hard. So we decided to kind of set roots there and here's a smelly aye I needed work a lot of the bars where close for short time now as I was one of those places. A little different COVID experience there but I found myself in the time of the bars being closed down helping out winemakers and people raised and we're like doing punch downs in the vineyard which I probably shouldn't have been doing but Kiwis don't care about getting sued so it was cool.
Which then in turn kind of led me into the fortified wine sector that I'm in now. My love of scotch and whiskey and then working for Wine for a bit kind of led me to fortified wines and to the world that I'm in now working for a buddy that goes down with Caballero Brands. It's a very specific thing though. How do you find an investor?
I know you're not technically a sales rep so you're not responsible for like selling it but you are responsible for promoting it. How are you finding people like Sherry is a very specific sort of like it's not for everybody let's just say that and if you're not drinking it regularly it's not like something that I personally don't know that many people are just sitting on Sherry every night but Sherry is delicious and if you're into it like how do you get it across that this is like a great operative or a late night sitting drink. I think you know tiki culture really helps with that. A lot of tiki cocktails have some form of Sherry in it.
It goes down with just tasting people on it too and getting them to try it. A lot of people think Sherry is the Piet Sherry, the Pedro Minas Sherry which is that super raisin like dark Sherry or they're thinking of like an amatyado cooking Sherry that you throw in a meat dish or that your grandmother had intercovered. So just really getting out there and showcasing the full range of the whole portfolio like how it can range from super super dry and like Chris Apples into a state of sweet nutty dates and affying that to cocktail culture. Luckily for me I started working like cocktail bartender so it was me talking about Sherry was very easy and then having people try to be in a clauda but then having them try up in a clauda giving it a nutty backbone and just seeing the difference there.
Luckily I am not having to do a lot of sales. It does happen of course in any type of role. Any brand ambassador job you're promoting and sales have come along with it. We're also just such a small brand even though we are a global brand that us pushing cases would not really work towards the amount of juice that we create.
So it is very specific like less consumer focus more trade focus is what we do and that is very helpful too. So that's sort of your angle to get in though is like letting people know that Sherry takes great in cocktails or during the craft cocktails see is that sort of a brand focused attack on on sales like sort of pushing the craft called craft cocktail culture or like from the does that come from sort of high rep in the company is like let's use this as a sort of marketing initiative or is that just because you personally come from a craft cocktail background that's just easiest for you to push it that way. Yeah great question. I think it comes from both sides.
I would say the brand itself Doug spoke is more of a hybrid role like let's push cheese and wine pairings and you know remember that we have one of the best winemakers in the world who is one of these you know awards for us and he is an amazing winemaker as well as you know we have got a great brandy blender. So it's like we do it from their aspects yes they do focus on tasting it by itself and pairing it with food or just having it with some tapas or you know on your patio whereas we also have a massive cocktail educational program on our website that you can access with all different types of recipes on our national ambassador Stephen has really worked hard at that from him being a console bartender as well but I do see it more myself yes being a cocktail focused bartender moving into this role that I find the best way to share it is by applying it to cocktails. Yeah it's a good one. And having fun with it makes you very fun like do have a like cherry bomb you know like some cherry bomb music in the background.
Amatiato and apple is delicious. Well it's a good one though right because like I said cherry is a very specific thing and a lot of people don't think about drinking it but if you have bartenders sort of playing around with it and getting them to use it in cocktails then they're by like they're gonna have to try it and then you can kind of open the door to people just trying it on its own through that sort of avenue. Yeah absolutely it's just really fun to watch people's face who have never had cherry before. Yeah see the different range of emotions they go through as you give them a full taste and they're like okay here and I'll have some brandy on top of that.
Yeah well it's funny too because it's like you mentioned like how you got into scotch when you were in Australia that scotch is very similar to that it's kind of a like it or hate it type thing and especially at first and you can develop your palate so you really start to appreciate different type of scotch but like it's the same thing if you hand someone like a really peaty scotch who's not used to drinking whiskey that's the same kind of reaction you're gonna get. Oh absolutely I believe that there is a whiskey out there for everybody and I believe there also is a cherry out there for everyone. It's just finding a palate. Right so let's talk a little bit about your bartending career.
You had mentioned before we started recording that you have sort of done the whole gamut of big cities in Texas so maybe you can tell us can you describe any differences that are between like bartending in Dallas and Houston and Austin like are the differences in the bar and restaurant culture in those places? Oh absolutely I think each city has its own attitude. Texas is a market is just wild on its own. I mean there's a reason that people like refer to it as it's like own country or its own entities.
I don't know if that's like a self-proclaimed thing more than just the back of the massive like size of the state. You also find cities in the state that are very like locally brought out through oil and gas or through agriculture or you have a city that has become a big melting pot for different cultures. Austin is a good example of that. It's Houston used to be in the fourth largest city in the states.
It's you know really interesting to see those are say like an old world town like Fort Worth which is built on cattle ranching and agriculture and seeing like the difference in attitudes as well as drinking culture with those. You know Dallas and Houston really enjoy fast-paced really flashy cocktails. They want presentation. They feel cheated if they haven't gotten a massive presentation.
You know and so that UC bar is really acclimating to that and you know hitting that more of like I hate to say like social media worthy game but it is in a way people want to like have a flashy cocktail something that they can showcase and feel really cool for having and then you fall into more like the melting pot of Austin which is really great craft cocktails but also a slew of dive bars. Austin loves a good dive bar so too thin but you would see like less dive bars I think and you know Dallas talking about the dive bar game and Dallas is some amazing dive bars out there but Austin I swear if there's one more with panel bar open up here like if you're going to drown with panel bars. So yeah it's really interesting to see the difference. I definitely notice that Fort Worth Dallas Austin are massive on the bourbon drinking scale.
You'll see more Scott and Dallas and Houston Fort Worth is coming along to Scott but they're good old boys that love their love their their bourbon. So Fort Worth is basically just like a sister city of Dallas though right? Yeah I mean you wouldn't say that to Fort Worth the end you would be like Dallas are the same that might satisfy. They are 45 minutes away from each other with the TFW airport and the Cowboys stadium in between.
So they're kind of their own cities but they are so wildly different which is which is fun to see too. Yeah because I visited there I was we were going to game at the Cowboys stadium and so we were like oh you got to stay in Fort Worth but then we realized oh like the night scene sort of like the night life scene was more in Dallas. So yeah absolutely. Yeah Fort Worth is very it's a lot of art going on a lot of families a lot of money.
Dallas is a lot of new money you know you got a lot of really awesome athletes staying there when their teams are you know in season so you've you see a lot of like more like flashy cars more and more nightlife and that way that that funds the nightlife it's the drinking areas too of Dallas are a little bit more spread out or it's like you've got like two places that you're going to drink like two areas at the town you're going to drink in there versus like having multiple neighborhoods and then Houston you just have wild vast neighborhoods with crazy zoning laws there or not really like lack of in the way of like you can be in this beautiful gorgeous neighborhood with 4.5 million homes and there's just crazy die bar like in the middle of that neighborhood which is like so much fun. Now what about San Antonio to figure out much into like fun part of Texas and all of they just got it too far away from everything. Well they're only an hour from Austin so they really deserve love too. They refer to themselves I've heard before as Lamentonio so they do get down on the drinks down there.
We definitely as I know like my friends and I that are in the brand world we always try to make a point to show them some more love because I do feel like they get overlooked just being smaller and when you're thinking about market visits Austin is always kind of kind of Trump San Antonio is always like a bigger older brother that everyone wants to go to and you know I think that I think San Antonio is a sleeper they've got some good culture out there. Yeah Austin is like obviously known to be a huge tourist city now because of the music scene but back in the day like before it sort of became famous as a place to go for like hipster bars and music it was known as a place that was mostly dive bars right. Yeah absolutely you had a lot of dive bars then they get a lot of work on the Riverwalk and of course a lot of tourism came from that but there's still some amazing pockets of industry professionals out there that are doing some really cool stuff. I highly recommend going to Modernist if you're out there just checking out the random dive bars they have too they're gonna mix and I find the Mexican food there is top match the text max and Mexican food there incredible but then you're like running to like a random like fried fish shack and it's like some of the best like fried fish you've nice yeah it's definitely not going to be fun yeah Austin is like really sort of developed especially over like the last decade or so it's like it's like a go-to spot for anyone visiting the US now almost yeah absolutely I remember even just being overseas and telling people that's the last place I live there like Austin I've always wanted to go there or like we'll be here and we have a like crazy amount of like UK people coming over and just being like this was on our list of US and I'm like the top of your list yeah I'm like I'm not hate I love this city but that's just you know a little surprising to me.
It's a place so it's a good job of promoting your city like it's we get a lot of info for an up here even in Canada all the time over the last like 10 15 20 years so it's a good promo for the city and it really feeds the economy here it breathes life into the city because it's not just it's not like Austin City when it's where it's just in Zilker Park and you're like gated into this one combined area it was all over the city so the whole city reached the benefits of South by Southwest and it you know it's a long a long festival too so it's not just like a quick short weekend and done we definitely as bartenders and business owners have to like hanker down and make sure to get your vitamins before that week or two because uh it's gonna be yeah but yeah Franklin's barbecue doesn't hurt either the reach that that guy's had in his uh in his his food global domination yeah he's right down the street from knickl city um so there's a really amazing relationship there we actually the other day during our pop-up season um they felt so bad for us like in our uh sipping Santa like line out the door like we're just getting slammed the whole time um the Franklin guys will always kind of bring out some leftover barbecue after the day and uh when we had like a snow in um some places had to close uh early so there's a lot of barbecue on that day and we were very excited for that. A lot of it's good a lot of and no line. With all this uh being said about like sort of the die bar culture barbecue culture there you still find that there's like a burgeoning craft cocktail culture in Austin as well. Yeah absolutely we've got some really amazing um cocktail bar kept up and coming um I mean we've had a lot of cocktail bars that have been here that haven't really gotten as much love as you know on the big awards list uh they should but that's you know that's part of it not Dossa Austin wasn't a destination city for a long time but now it is you see a lot of kind of um European style coming here um we've got a lot of immigrants a lot of our ex hats as a bar word for that ex hats that come and choose Austin as their city to take a crack at opening our own bars.
We got here north air which is a fantastic cocktail bar um owned by some Irish lads um they do such a great job and promoting themselves and doing pop-ups with different bars throughout the city. Same thing as Travis Tober with Nickel City Bar um you know the neighborhood cocktail bar that um does have really fun cocktails that are all back to be um fast-paced doing pop-ups with other bars across the city are in the world which is amazing and now we've got even like a new bar that I want to mention called Papercut um which is a bar tender bar. Bar tender bar. Bar tender's own you know their own bar and they're all focused on you know molecular processes that are bookable like for instance their bestseller cocktails um so far is basically a plan of like the rueble but made with a tapache.
Oh cool yeah um yeah so like hey we're wondering but we have fun too. Right I like the day with that place Papercut. Yeah because everyone goes oh yeah. Cool.
I'm between my total and everything here is a different story. Well the thing about those awards um too is that you almost have to become a destination city in order to get on those lists at all right like you're not you until you become the destination city part has to come first then the then these publications start visiting and then there's oh they recognize all these bars that maybe have been great for so long right? Yeah absolutely and you know they have many years and an influx of talented people trial and error to get these things you know down or to get recognized so it's really fun to see where the like the awards system is going to definitely feel like these subsidies are going to start popping up. That's a hope you know it's like following your favorite bubble tea and that sounds like it's not such a bit just never like I don't know complete the play.
It's like okay next year we got this um well us toxins will keep showing up at Delta cocktail and doing our Texas toast and dominating and that's all we can do. Back up a little bit you found that like you really started to get into craft cocktailing and spirits when you were in Australia correct? I said before then a little bit but yeah yeah about two and a half years before that but I really do feel that I refined myself and got my my butt kicked in Australia. I was called at this danger age where you know you were got a couple really cool notable bars and you get you know get all your cocktail books and you got like a good base of knowledge and you got this like young 20 year old attitude and you just think that you know everything and no one can tell you anything.
I call that the danger zone. Yeah I definitely was entering the danger zone around 28 I'm 34 now so six years ago. Not that long ago but yeah it was in that kind of danger zone of feeling like I was at the top of my game and then I moved to Australia and they're like hey can you pour mills for me and I'm like what's the mill leader by me? What's happening now?
It's right now? Yeah. I don't know what else is. Yeah.
Oh shit. And how many completely re-drained your brain and your service style? American is Americans are you know what I'm in Canada a little bit I know you guys look at base rate too but you do have a big tipping culture in these two countries. We have two countries.
We have two countries. Yeah they do chip there but it's gonna be like five percent to ten percent. The hourly is so good there. The benefits are so good that you don't really need the tipping culture too.
Yeah. Some of it may be but it is very helpful to buy those $24 cocktails that you really want. Right. So was there already a big cocktail scene when you went to Melbourne then?
Because I'm quite a bit old than you but when I was in Melbourne there was nothing. It was just like everybody just drank beer. Yeah I can see that too because of the costs on like spirits and cocktails. I can see why it maybe took a little time for them to get to that point.
I know that Michael Madison and and um Senn and um and Greg Anderson were like a big leading part of bringing the cocktail culture to Melbourne. They all like launched their own books. You have the O2V, CQC book and you have like a spot at the bar and they opened up like O2V and then like more like a like restaurant group empire and then that's how they kind of got into your cocktail culture. These are two separate hospitality groups that kind of were on the forefront of this.
Um this would have been like starting in 2008 really rewearing up the cocktail culture in like 2016 and then when I got there in 2018 it was some amazing like bars that are hitting that top 100 list for world-class. I mean bartenders who were having like rotovats on the back of their bar and that's totally normal. Yeah you like the Luke Luke we they're now are we treat their now owns birdie who is just doing some amazing like co-g fungus cocktails and like you know it's incredible. They build their own brand and then they they launch from that which I've seen being very amazing.
I definitely see more of a lean towards like new up and coming bars in Sydney. Australia and I think that's because Sydney Australia was underneath like this lockout law for again for exactly four years where you couldn't even take shots at any of the bars and if you were in a bar before midnight you could not leave that bar and re-enter after. Really. So they had some really crazy like lockout laws and it was because there was just some like public injury and incidents that were happening in the city repeatedly that the government went ahead and like issued some really like crazy laws on them.
Really? That's crazy. I mean but it was pretty crazy when I was in Australia. Sydney specifically and I went out in Perth and there was a pretty crazy drinking scene there too so I kind of get it like like people getting like seriously fucked up myself included.
But yeah like it's like no one like here in Ontario for instance we I mean people get fucked up in all our bars as well don't get me wrong but like we have very strict laws about service like an overservice so if the liquor inspector did walk into your bar and somebody was drunk you would have needed to get fined like we're not supposed to. We're technically not allowed to serve anyone to the point of intoxication at all in Ontario so I don't know where it's like you go to the US and I always forget that every time I go to the US like your version of a shot is like three ounces. Oh gosh yeah if you're Portland yeah for sure yeah like every time the first shot when I get there I forget oh shit that's like actually two gulps but where it's here if you order shot is one out. Right yeah so that doesn't really surprise me that much about Sydney but I didn't realize they had gotten that strict with the law the law goes that's crazy so what's the reasoning behind the leaving of our not being able to get in like it's just like oh we're not gonna keep serving you.
I think the idea is to I think it was to keep people from bar hopping maybe you know because when you bar hop you quickly consume so you get to the next spot there's like eliminated from that. I guess also the other thing would be that the bartender at the next bar would have no idea how much you've already consumed. Yeah exactly that as well like you're not in looking eyes on the situation. Interesting is that done now?
Yeah that's they've lifted that up and lifted for I think maybe three years now so now you see all these amazing bars popping up in Sydney got like a matte white lee bar called Ree you got the Mavicini group who are just they're opening bar after bar they did cantino okay which is completely mess-able focus where they traveled you know around outside that's a different group my pledge cantino okay not like maybe say not that's a group but they traveled around Oaxaca and tasted all these mess-ables and then brought that to Sydney Australia because they're agave portfolio in Australia is really hard to maintain and get so it's really cool that they're bringing that education here. I always think it's funny like I would say about Australians they're super super fun to party with when you want a party but they're also going to be super problematic when you don't want a party and you just want to chill. Yeah take it to the next level. Oh yeah and all over the world like if you run into Australians in Europe it's the same thing it's like they're definitely going to be the loudest people in any bar you know.
They're basically British Texans that's not the biggest trouble for that but like I get you know you know rallies but what you're saying about the you know how much you could pour it was 30 mils there per shot which is an ounce I think almost a cocktails didn't go over two ounces or 60 mils whereas here you go to states like Louisiana or Oregon and they don't really have like a cap of what they can pour for you. They just keep pouring if they like you they just keep pouring and it's like you almost need a shot buddy you just take a shot you're like I'll take one shot or two glasses thank you and then you have a get friend over. Yeah did you notice a big difference in bar culture between Australia and New Zealand? Absolutely yeah 100 percent I think even just in like work culture between these two countries is widely varying like Kiwis are very laid back they don't really like when you meet them in a bar they're not like hey what do you do for work they're like hey what do you do and when they ask that they mean like what's your hobbies like are you in a parasailing?
Are you a server? Like what do you sport do you do? Not like not uh you know what you do for work you know the thing about that. I think accessibility to to spirits too and like in poor sex and export culture is a big play in that.
New Zealand is definitely got to many new bars out there um a lot of incredible wine and there's even some distilleries out of them popping up there is a great whiskey they just are a little bit further behind Australia and the fact that they just haven't had all the resources that Australia has they have to work with seasonally you know it's a tiny tiny island with crazy weather um so there's certain crops that grow there and that's what they work with. Amazing fruit though. Ambrids. Yeah it's hard like you kind of almost when you're that isolated, Australia and New Zealand to a certain extent is like you kind of have to work with what's already on the island for a lot of what you're doing right because it's so expensive to import stuff there.
Yeah absolutely and even spirits are simply spirits that are mainstream throughout the whole world are proofed down to a certain proof for Australia and New Zealand to make their importing less for them. Oh another yeah certain distilleries will proof down just specifically for Australia market so they don't have to pay as much on taxes just so you can get a product in there and it yeah be accessible and not lose not lose that whole market because the market there is amazing and large and beautiful and gotta work around these you know certain obstacles to keep them forward. Yeah it's interesting I was like in my sort of side sales hustles we were just talking to somebody at a Costa Rica and they was the same issue like for them to import any of our products they had to think about what they would end up having to market up for once they got there because the import tax was so huge on anything they brought in. It's like it's stuff you don't think about when you're in North America and everything so easy to get right?
No yeah definitely Amazon and New Zealand is not really a thing. Yeah you can have the off shop and you buy something used like that's how you do that. I swear the car is there run forever I don't know how they do it they just got like crazy crazy skills and fixing things that they just don't break down. I had like a 1994 Subaru legacy and drove that thing up and down the mountain and it was like rusty on the outside but mint condition on the inside.
Yeah we bought one of those cars that like the Sydney car market you know that one the car market there where like travelers come in they just buy you buy a car there you drive the fuck out of it all over the country and then you come back and sell it to the next person who's just coming into it and those but those cars are forever. We never had one issue with it it was nuts. Yeah like is it just got a chain belt cool. Yeah exactly.
So what do you think were there any specific things that you brought back from your experience in Australia and New Zealand to bar culture when you got back to Texas? Yeah absolutely. I started getting into competitions while I was over there which is you know the United States is very competition competition every. I definitely felt like being female over there as well as in the States at that time when I first started Cocktail World.
I really needed to like step up my competition game to kind of get my name out there and learn to and you know better connect with different individuals throughout the world. So my take away from it was like definitely getting more refined and competition but also having fun like Australians and New Zealanders have so much fun and whatever they do and so that's really important to me and what I do now you know American culture is very much working here 75 hours a week even though oh it's a full work week at 50 hours there it's like you hit 38 hours and you're like get off the clock like go have fun. That'd be awesome. So that's interesting because like when I sort of was a friend of the question I was thinking maybe you were gonna bring something back about like cocktails or whatever but that's way more important is like the attitude that you brought back from there and how you now transfer it to working back in the US and just trying to make sure you're having fun while you're working.
Yeah it says a girl who has two jobs but you know I'm having fun doing both and I think that really of course I brought back a lot of like different cocktail techniques and flavor profiles and just the next to what I'm doing and coffee building and culture but for me personally the biggest thing to take away from it was the lifestyle attributes and how I could apply that to my American lifestyle which I've been back for two years and it's felt so much longer than that I was only way for four years and I've been back for two and I feel like I'm deprogramming myself. Yeah. Who I was before and who I am now and how I apply that to you know my work ethic to where my employers are upset at me because I'm saying you well you know overseas they have fun but I'm not gonna do this right now. How many hours a week do you find that you dedicate to the your sort of ambassador role?
You know it's all about the part time. I really would say that part time is hard to say that. I'm lucky that it's flexible so like during December when I was in the middle of pop-up season in Franicle City where we're doing like $15,000 a day in sales and working 14-hour shifts like I wasn't doing much brand work at the time and my job allows me to be flexible that way which is amazing. I would say it still feels like at least 35 40 not feels that way but like probably tracking about 35 40 hours a week so doing it but it doesn't feel that because it's fine and it's just really like helping out my friends bar to put on an event or bring up this you know cocktail bartender that really wants to go do a pop-up but they don't have the fun to do it and getting the brand back to do that.
Like that's to be fun. That's natural to what I do anyways other person so it doesn't feel like work. It feels just like an extension of me with a brand backing it. Yeah I can see that but it is still like that's the fair amount of hours you're putting in every week on top of like trying to pretend.
I definitely have iPhone finger which I did not have when I was overseas. I felt the iPhone finger where you get the end into your like hand because you're like constantly on your phone. That was something I acquired within like six months of being back and I was like wow we really do spend a lot of time. And I think that that dates back to COVID and what happened during COVID like we all became more connected via media and we do a lot of our work remotely now.
Yeah well it's also a concept like that it's like when you're in sort of that sales world like I know you're not technically in sales but the ambassador role is not that far removed from it. You're doing events and all this stuff and like you're on your phone constantly like and I find the same thing like the worst thing I like I hate that thing where they tell me how much time I spend on my phone on average every week. I don't want to know. I'm doing business.
I'm working. I swear to God. But that scares me a little bit too. Like fuck man I got I almost started getting like that carpal tunnel of like being on like this.
I mean I guess before you be stuck in front of a desk typing on your keyboard which maybe is not that much better for you but the way you have to grip the phone and typing on your phone all the time it's like oh my god what's happening to me. Yeah yeah I definitely the way I kind of combat that is like and if we're getting more fun and to what I'm doing is like I really try to like have more face to face meetings with people if I can. But it's hard with busy settles you know. Yeah so we're gonna let you go soon because you've given us a lot of time here and we appreciate it.
But I just before you go how would you what would you like our listeners to know about list now and like the products that they offer and maybe like sort of like a like a pitch that get people into drinking more fortified wine. Serious school kids drink it. I would just say always be tasting you know apply that to everything in your life. Always be tasting.
If you have any questions please reach out to me on my Instagram handle Megan Luzdalian which I'm gonna leave in. I apply it to cocktails. There is great resources on our webpage on how you can apply these fortified wine to your cocktails. There's great recipes you know try them at home.
Chase them by themselves and we've got even like cheese scariings treat yourself to a nice like sherry and cheese dinner like who doesn't like cheese. And you know don't be scared of fortified wines they're not what your grandmother cooks with. They are so much more than that they don't have to be complicated you can have them with soda. There's you know in Spain people drink red wine with coca cola it's amazing.
You know just get out there explore have fun. Taste things if you have any questions you know reach out to to any of the loose out ambassadors or to our webpage you can find some great information on there. Next time you get a martini set up a driver move maybe put some Finohermians in it. Mm that's a good idea.
Do you find that that's sort of one of the roadblocks. It's like I don't know. Again I'm from an older generation but I would imagine it would be even more so with the younger generation now is that like I grew up like sherry was like that drink that you saw like very old rich women drinking on TV and in movies like that was like yeah yeah so like getting that point across that like it is cool for like a drink for someone who's in their 20s and in their 80s. Yeah I mean it's also moving to like low A.B.
movements that are now happening you know damn January is a great example of that like maybe don't stop completely drinking maybe just cut your A.B. down. So have a margarita split it with a Fino and you're already having a lower A.B. cocktail.
You're drinking margarita anyways like with a bustle cocktail out there. Just like you know cut that cut that base down with a little bit of sherry and see how that about it pairs well with you know we're ending a sherry and already it's down you're gonna have a way longer night like it's gonna be great. Usually you're at night starts at seven ends around 7.45. I don't want beer and he's out.
I got a power drink as much as I get a battery for you. That's a really good idea though. I'm gonna check that out. I think that sherry isn't underrated beverage to mix with cocktails but also just on its own especially if you really explore different kinds of like you said get away from the ones that people use for cooking or like the really sort of dry bitter ones that people are like the cheap sherry that people are used to maybe trying like the one bottle of sherry that was on the back bar of the bar he used to drink at for 45 years and still the same bottle.
But if you're cooking sherry for us it's been some sort of a stew or whatever that little bit of sherry to it. Yeah well that was never been a forever drinker. Yeah. Yeah.
No I know right. But people didn't know any better at least when I was growing up through the bar industry there was like it was like that bottle of galliano that sat on your fucking back bar forever. It was just like no one's ever gonna order it the air of the Harvey Wellbangers over and so it just sat there forever and then there would be a bottle of sherry beside it. It's like why is it and then you didn't even know and then you start learning about it's like why is this not the fridge.
Now we know. If we go back. If we go back unfortunately we can't but thanks so much for spending time with us today Megan that was really a cool conversation and yeah I think the main message here is drink more sherry. Yeah even if it's sherry red bull I'm not gonna let me go put that up with that out there.
Who's down the brand's gonna come back on me like are you doing sherry red bull right now? No no. I'm definitely gonna try that now. I'm not giado specifically.
Yeah. Oh and then one more time I'm gonna be just covered down your social your Instagram profile. What's your profile one more time? Megan Luzdallian.
So M-E-G-H-A-N. Luzdall is a brand and an L-L-I-O-N. Perfect wonderful. I'll put links to that in the show notes.
I'm not a rapper though. I'm sorry guys. Well thanks again Megan this was super fun and best of luck with the whole empastlership and bartending. Yeah what's the name of your bar is nickel?
Nickel City. Yeah so go see Megan if you're ever in the Austin area and she will not pour you a sherry and red bull. Yeah not do that. I definitely not do that.
Thanks again Megan have a great night. Alright thank you. Bye.