This week's guest is Gabby Yellowholzer, who joins us from Cleveland, Ohio. Gabby grew up in New Jersey and attended college in Ann Arbor, Michigan before making a move to Cleveland in 2017, which is where she began her journey in the cocktail world. In our conversation with Gabby, we talk about her journey from studying art to pursuing a career in the service industry when Gabby landed her first bartending gig at a German restaurant. Gabby eventually discovered her passion for craft cocktails, working at a beer bar where she learned to develop cocktail menus and expand beyond beer offerings.
Gabby discusses Cleveland's evolving cocktail scene, her time-entering various cocktail competitions, and the launch of her latest project, which is named Hereafter, a 32-seat cocktail bar and restaurant in Cleveland. Gabby talks about the processes involved in opening her first spot, such as finding the right location, getting permits, hiring staff, plus all the other tasks required on opening a new business. Gabby is currently the lead bartender at Time Table in Cleveland, but her time there is slowly winding down as she anticipates opening here after later this calendar year. Make sure you check out Hereafter on Instagram at HereafterBar and that is spelled H-E-R-E-A-F-T-E-R-B-A-R or on the webpage at HereafterBar.com or check the show notes as always for all the links.
We want to thank Gabby again for a great interview and enjoy the show. Alright, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast. My name is Kip, this is Dan. Hey, that's me.
How's it going? I'm good, how are you? That's awesome. That's pretty good to be here.
The weather's nice. I get to work from home all the time, so I just sit around, work on my can. Yes, it is. Look out the window.
It's like jail. It's like jail. But now that's alright. How do things go with you?
How's the summer so far? Everything's good. No complaints at all. Yeah, we've been recording this.
It is Monday, July, and so a couple of weeks before the event before this goes live. So the weather's been great. No complaints. So it's been pretty sweet.
Yeah, exciting stuff. Yeah. And if you're in the area in the Kitchener and Waterloo area, you should come check out my bar. It's called Sugar Run.
It's in downtown Kitchener at Sugar Run Bar to find out everything's going on there. If you're looking for wine spirits or now, Porzefoats, you can email me Kipzonders at gmail.com kypsaunders at gmail.com. That is wine from Malawar Winery and Terawar Winen ports. Spirits from allure is a stealing company and Porzefoats from PurePore.
Right. All available at Kipzonders.com. If you like what we're doing here on the show, the best way to support us is to subscribe, follow, rate, review, or you can just tell a friend or rent a billboard. Yes.
Or Zeppelin, you know. Yeah. Excuse me. But you know, a telefriend is the easiest thing to do.
It takes about a minute just to show the podcast with someone that's an easy way to spread the word and it's free. That's right. And if you'd like to be a guest on the show or provide support for the show, email address is info with industrypodcast.club or you can DM us at the industry podcast on Instagram where you will find the delightful artwork from our good friends, Zacana, at zacana.co for all of your graphic arts needs. And for all of your bartending consulting teaching, whether that's a backyard barbecue party, wedding anniversary birthday party or just a Friday night out, that's alchemistally at alchemist.ally on Instagram.
It's easiest way to hit her up DM or for all of your bartending needs, whether you just need someone to host your party or teach a cocktail class or consult on a bar opening. She does it all. And speaking of people who do it all as long as all you're looking for is a good sandwich. How about our good friends at Harper's Deli in the new location on Davenport Road in up town, not up town, sorry, in Waterloo.
Northfield and Davenport is the closest major cross-free for the new Harper's Deli location. Find Italian subs down the right way. Yeah, Major Landmark, right? There's the Lee Valley, which is in the same plaza as he is.
So just kind of go around the corner beside the F45 and find Harper's Deli open for lunch Monday through Friday. Yeah. And maybe you're a bartender looking for a tool to help you with your classic cocktails or you're trying to get into home bartending and wanting to learn more about cocktails. What is the best tool for that DM?
Well, that would be in Bibliia. And today's episode is in partnership with Bibliia, the visual cocktail app built by bartenders for bartenders. Bibliia guest who loves paper planes about five similar cocktails they've never tried with completely different ingredients. Bibliia's flavor mapping technology analyzes sweet, sour, bitter, herbal, smoky, and seven other taste dimensions for every cocktail.
Search by flavor profile instead of just ingredients or tap any recipe to find its nearest neighbors. Cocktails that taste similar despite having totally different specs. This is an industry first to know other app even attempts this. The free version includes five complimentary flavor searches and subscribers get unlimited access to revolutionize how you recommend drinks.
Here are all the details on episode 216 of the industry podcast. See why it was featured by Bon Appetit and hit number one on the app store when it launched. The free download gets you 500 plus recipes and all core features with subscription options for individuals and businesses to unlock advanced tools and connect entire teams. Visit www.inbibliia.com for more or check the show notes as always for all the links.
I used Bibliia just the other day when we were watching a TV program, someone ordered a cocktail that I never heard of and I was like, is this cocktail real or made up? Is it a Roman Coke? Yeah, it's a Roman Coke. I never heard of it.
And I searched Bibliia for the cocktail. It wasn't on there. And that's how I knew it was fake. Because if it's a real cocktail, it's in the Bibliia.
That's for sure. And Bibliia. Check it out. Yeah.
And Jean-Marc Dyck is a great guy. He helped us with their website. So we got to thank him again for that as well. So Jean-Marc Dyck is a Jack-O-Mole trades.
Check out in Bibliia. Okay, enough of our praddling on. Let's get to our guests for this week's episode. It's Gabby Holzer joining us from Cleveland, Ohio.
How are you? Doing great. How are you doing? Doing very well.
Thank you very much for joining us on this Monday. Thank you so much for having me. So let's talk a little bit about how you got into the service industry. You're originally from New Jersey area, is that accurate?
That's right. Yeah. And so where were you when you got your first service, John? I was in Ann Arbor.
I went to school there. And Michigan? Yeah. Yeah, I graduated with an art degree and was like, man, I can't wait to get my first real art job.
And we all know how that goes. But yeah, I landed on, there's actually a bartender gig, believe it or not, at the local German restaurant side bar. And just kind of like looking to learn about hospitality is one of those things that I always wanted to learn how to do, how to take care of people and make some drinks, whatnot. And I ended up kind of loving it as many people learn when they just get their interim job, waiting for their big boy job or big girl job.
Yeah. Yeah. I kind of fell into that one. I had an extra job, and the next one, and then I kept learning things and loving it.
And here we are now. So you obviously were in the arts program, so you obviously have a creative side view, which you found has helped you in craft cocktailing as well. Quite a bit. Yeah, they definitely go hand in hand.
And I think once I fell into the cocktail side of bartending, that's where things really clicked for me. And I found that it got to scratch all of the inches, both the hospitality and social bit of being able to take care of people and influence how they experience their evening, whether it's an restaurant or just in general. But also to get to creatively express myself through making cocktails and have more of a say, I'm saying like the things that they taste and the way they experience. What was the first part that you were at that where you first learned about craft cocktail and discovered it and then maybe also what was the first one where you were most involved in the process of creating cocktail list?
The first craft cocktail I actually consumed and really thought was like wow this is really interesting was at this place called The Last Word in In Arbor. Fantastic cocktail bar and I used to go there because on Wednesdays it was half-off boards of whiskey so I got to try different kinds of whiskey I didn't even know if I liked whiskey yet but I like that it was half-off so you know. To get to know some cool whiskey that way I loved to smokey scratch that way actually. But then I tried this like it was I don't even know what it actually was but in my mind it was kind of like a Remus Gin Fizz style cocktail made with matcha and I just didn't know that you could put flavors in a glass that way and it was the coolest thing and it also said something about having one awards it's like how do you win a word for a cocktail in a menu in a place like I don't understand how this works but anyways super cool fast forward to being in Cleveland have moved from Everett Cleveland and I'm working at a beer bar because the majority of my experience until 2017 2018 was all just learning about beer and really loving craft beer and getting to talk about it and I started to be more curious about this little section of our menu that was sort of forgotten at the very end that had just a couple of beer cocktails and regular cocktails just for those who didn't want beer and I asked my co-worker my manager of the time to teach me how to make them so she brought me on and taught me how to develop a menu you know or other rudimentary one but I took it a couple steps further than I guess the place was used to but it was really fun I was like I don't want to stop doing this a couple questions about Cleveland in general what prompted your move from Ann Arbor to Cleveland a couple of social related moves it was there was a relationship involved there was a desire to move away from Ann Arbor because I was still in my college town I felt like I was sort of waiting on life to begin a little bit and just a change in scenery it wasn't too far from Michigan and it's life that I learned to love there I love them and people are so friendly and I love that as a change from the past pace a little bit more aggressive stylist person you find on the east coast so it felt like a good fit no I thought Cleveland I loved it said okay let's do it yeah well before we started recording I was telling you I've been to I've been to Ann Arbor several times and it's a very fun time but very college oriented I had been to that last word bar and that's definitely feels like a bar that's removed from the college scene it's like a little oasis in the middle of a college party time but then Cleveland I my experience of drinking in Cleveland was like a sort of blue collar beer and sports type of but maybe that was just where I was hanging out so I'm sort of interested in like what is the cocktail scene in Cleveland totally yeah well that is a huge part of our drinking culture for sure but cocktails exist too again I moved in 2017 so I think I missed a little bit of a first Renaissance of finer cocktails and dining but it is still present we have a handful of really wonderful bars and restaurants that are sort of scattered around different neighborhoods for the most well no they're kind of all over Cleveland is very much a driving city so I think you also mentioned before we started recording that nothing felt like it was really close by yeah still kind of the case there's a lot of driving between a saddle strength because it's kind of like jumping from neighborhoods to neighborhoods and just the nature of Cleveland being on a lake it's very much East West yeah but I think especially right now I'm seeing a crop of places that are just opening up left and right that are doing really cool things a lot of independently owned places and just really talented folks that are putting a mark on the Cleveland food and beverage that's good because it seems like Cleveland's or at least from an outside perspective sort of has that the other kind of idea that it's kind of gone through a lot of ups and downs economically when I was there was definitely a down time economically LeBron it just gone to Miami and you could decimated the downtown area because of all the bar like there was probably six to seven bars that when we were there that like either closed down entirely or we're in the process of closing down because business had gotten so rough and then there was like I think at the time it was one of the top three American cities for people leaving but yeah I know so it's good to know that it's sort of but I think it's like it's kind of it's either up or it's down at all times it or at least I have to buy it well downtown's also a little bit different it's a very much event based as you mentioned yeah so you've got a lot of places that are built to take on huge amounts of crowds because say there's a huge concert going on or a big game and everybody's out at the exact same time at big parties and things like that they're huge and they're really full sometimes and they're totally dead other things so downtown's kind of a funny place to work like that yeah pretty hit miss the Browns Cleveland Browns existing stadium is right downtown right yes okay so not initially years right yeah that's what they say well some prime landable open up so anyway that was a long way of saying that it's good to hear that like there are some cool spots opening and like and and people are still interested in investing in businesses in the downtown core and or all of these other little pockets absolutely it is okay so when you what's the name of the bar that you've been working at over the last few years so I work at a restaurant called timetable it's out way on the West side it's a suburb of Cleveland called Bay Village okay and it's a fantastic neighborhood style restaurant with a great part program and really good food kind of become both a neighborhood hang for people that live around town but also the place to celebrate birthdays and anniversary people proposed to their partners there it's a special case in place as well kind of what you make it nice not how long we're gonna have four and a half years oh wow so you obviously like it yeah that's a lot of time in our industry it's feels like a lifetime but in a good way that's good so at some point during your career you start to get involved in cocktail competitions and tells of the cocktail and sort of become more involved in sort of the global cocktail scene so what prompted that and what was like your first your first competition and how did you do etc yeah so that started because I started working at this bar called Orco luncheon TQ which is a wonderful cocktail TQ style cocktail bar that is close to downtown on the West side of Cleveland and they have lots of wonderful connections there and are big fans of taking care of their bar staff and making sure that everybody's learning and opening up opportunities which I didn't even know what I was saying I just wanted to learn about cocktails and run sound it cool and it was a fun environment and it was a smaller place you know so one day this person comes in who works for Clement and for spirit on and says hey like we're doing a cocktail competition I hope you're all playing I was like I don't know what that means but a bunch of us kind of put together an application we all worked on cocktails together I think it was like four or five of us but things together and mine got chosen as a finally so I got to actually compete and that happened in New Orleans during sales of cocktails 2019 so yeah yeah so all kind of wraps up and win that experience yeah that's a little overwhelming yeah I was already planning on going to tales and I had all these seminars books and at that point you had to purchase individual tickets to seminars so of course like two of the seminars I spoke to the people who were in conflict with the competition so I didn't get to go to those which is bummer but I also opened up like a whole new facet of bartending that was so fascinating and educational and I ended up getting in third for the East Coast which was definitely motivating to continue doing it and to keep trying yeah it's crazy like I talked to a lot of people who've been through these competitions and the people have done well and people have done not so well and I think you almost need some sort of some sort of reward structure for like the hard work you put in would be very easy to not do one again because it's not like they're easy to do it's hard work coming up with a cocktail and yeah and then if the competition involves any of like a performance aspect as well that's difficult like it's not it's a lot of work so if you don't receive some sort of positive feedback from your experience then it would be easy just to do it again totally well I'm lucky that my first one was it was this Clemente punch cup because it was a super friendly atmosphere everybody was awesome to work with it put together a wonderful competition really all the competitors were super nice and the people that I continue talking to and seen when there are bartending inventions or events and things like that so I'm really grateful for that but speaking of hard work I mean that one that was hard because I had to get over quite a bit of safe I feel like I had to relearn how to bartend to do it because I've never bartended thinking people are watching me in that way yeah I know it's funny even though they're watching the whole time obviously but yeah but you but you it's just your job at that point so you know even think yeah well I was that and I'm still pretty new to this like I'm learning how to cocktail bartend at this point at work oh so I had somebody literally reteached me how to hold my tool because I was like I don't know I'm doing maybe I'm doing all wrong I'm gonna find out on stage so you like ran through like okay this is where you put your finger on this trainer oh yeah like really like brought it way back so confident from like baseline and then how to do that plus figure out how to talk about stuff and make a cocktail for five cocktails in a matter of like six or seven minutes so yeah that was challenging but also I think set me up for success for the future it's so funny like it'd be because it is more of like a stage shows you feel like more of a it's more of a performance meanwhile your whole job is performance all the time and you're just making drinks that's part of your job and performing but you don't the mental you don't mentally feel like you're performing you feel like you're working and even though you are kind of always performing in a way like you have to chat up the guests and be social at the same time you're doing it but it's a little different than that sort of this is almost directly like a stage performance well I know I think this experience actually catapulted the way I think about bartending now which is more I guess more performative than a way where I'm more aware of my movements I think about them a lot more I see people watching me so I want to do things correctly and slowly and intentionally and that sort of came from being on a stage and knowing that I have a panel of judges watching my every move because technique is one of the points on the rubric so it does feel I mean not performative in a stressful way but something you're aware of that's interesting I don't think we've had anyone put it quite that way that the competitions then sort of carried on over into their actual work performance but it doesn't make sense when you think about it that way because it's not something you ever had to think about before you're just making the drinks and not putting that much thought that's behind how you're making them right right right and as you as I learned about different techniques and different styles of cocktail bartending and I'm watching other bartenders who had been bartending for at that point you know ten plus years and I was still five fish years into bartending and only maybe one or so years into cocktail bartending I'm watching the way they move and the way they manipulate the tools and talk about their craft and and move so effortlessly and I thought wow what a beautiful thing you know I want to be that I want to look that confident feel that confident in my movements and in my style so that's something I've worked on since then oh yeah and so how many competitions did you enter a post this first one I couldn't tell you I should have a number I have a list of them somewhere quite a bit yeah I have a list that you sent me but I don't like I could probably can't tell you but that's not very interesting podcasting but it's me counting a list but obviously it's been quite a few so you like enjoyed the experience and after you wanted to keep doing it as well yeah so the following competition I did was actually a Cardi legacy and I had no idea what I was getting into for that one right having followed this really cool easy going command to teach punch cup I then get launched into this like massive competition where it feels like a second job and there is PR and they're fundraising and you have to run events and you have to do all of this work and that was like you know the other end of the spectrum of competitions and then traveling to Puerto Rico and being on a stage stage with a mic like really is a whole production that taught me a lot as well yeah that's like yeah that must have like stoked a whole different type of nerves because just the stage is so much bigger mm-hmm yeah they built this beautiful huge stage and like this gorgeous building of plants inside of it and there are different bars and areas and so many people and you know just a totally different beasts yeah it's a big jump from the first one the second one yeah it's almost like you need a middle ground competition in between us too yeah I'm in the middle ground since then yeah yeah that's all I know I can happen another yeah so we obviously want to get talking about the project you're working on now but before we do that because that's a good way to sort of close things off is that I did notice in your bio that you and this is completely unrelated to the service industry but it was it caught me into so you were a competitive skier in Vermont yeah yeah I was my dad grew up skiing in Vermont we used to drive up like every single weekend from Thanksgiving until April pretty much as long as there was snow we were going spent every holiday there and we we skied we skied every Saturday and Sunday and it was awesome and I think my dad enrolled my brother at night and so the ski racing program is a way for us to learn more technically about skiing and you know it was like you don't have to compete you don't want to have to do any of that it's just good for the instruction okay yeah I don't want to compete and then comes the first ski racing competition we're like I want to do it okay so then you know that opened up a whole can of worms I'm having to wake up at sometimes you have five in the morning to get a little rest up together and drive to and you're buying mountain that's sometimes gonna be up to an hour away and go to the whole competition it's a it was it was a lot but it was really cool I have very fun memories of that time I did it until I was like 14 or 15 oh last but when you're very young yeah yeah I started when I was nine oh okay yeah really on so I'm living in the Midwest you still get a chance to go once or twice a season somewhere yeah I try to go once this season now yeah I definitely miss having my ski legs but it's a little flat yeah yeah it's a little bit more to get to that yeah any family hills you in the US you like well I have had the opportunity to go out West a couple of times though I'd say Jackson Hole my favorite place I skied yeah a couple of times and it's awesome I mean the landscape is beautiful mountain is challenging really really fun yeah that was always the highlight yeah and you avoided you managed to avoid any major injuries through this life surprisingly yeah good for you yeah yeah yeah yeah a lot of ACL injuries pretty common in the world and I'm both intact yeah knock knock with that or maybe it was aggressive and that's why not doing it okay so let's talk about your new project which is called hereafter and this is your first your first bar on your own as a business owner yes it's actually launched today on social media oh wow finally announced it's in the public today yeah so my stomach has been a not-sull day but it's yeah it's a it's an intimate 32 seater cocktail bar restaurant and it's focused on creating everything intentionally and delivering it with mindful and thoughtful hospitality to create a really calming and a touchful experience around eating and drinking which as mentioned earlier not exactly a common sort of experience to have in Cleveland all right well let's uh so let's talk about this a little bit because I've done this a few times myself now and none of it starts like it's it's years into making these ideas so when did you first get the the notion that you wanted to open your own place and then when when did you start to get more attention behind that idea well yeah I mean years for sure thinking about it for a long time but it's one of those things that you think well everybody wants to open a cocktail bar you know so until you really start to feel like wait a second I think I think this has to be my next move it's still kind of feels like wishy-washy you know but I always felt like every time I travel to a different city I was looking at different buildings and vacancies and dreaming about I could put in different places and the more I dreamed about what kind of places I would put in different locations just for fun but more I started to hone in on what kind of thing I really would want to invest my time on and I thought more about the experiences that were really impactful on me dining and drinking experiences and they were the ones that had me slow down that held room for me to you know look at what I was enjoying look at this place and I'm in and really appreciate all the craft and the attention to detail that went behind everything you know the more you you learn about these things and more you're like oh wow like they really thought about this bit of service and that little detail on the bar and the way they set this down the coaster and all these things and I thought I want to be that I want to do that every day you know not just every so often about a special occasion or when I'm traveling but I really want to do it every day and and so I started thinking about pop-ups I would want to do and I actually applied to world-class a couple of years ago and the theme was mindfulness and that really had me thinking about what it would look like to have this bar centered around mindfulness and that's kind of I think where I started to think like I think I want this to be real I don't just want this to be an application that was passed over but I think I want to continue flushing this out and that's kind of you know how I ended up here yeah and so I was just interested in the process because I'm just a process guy clearly making the plans for what you want the place to be mentally maybe you can take notes whatever I don't know what your process is but then you have to start looking for locations so it talked to me a little bit about how difficult that was and or did you already know an area you wanted to be in I had a general idea of some pockets the neighborhoods that I was interested in but it I'm a very particular person which means when things are done they're done to my satisfaction but it also means it takes a really long time sometimes to get there so I've been looking for a space for two years or so before I finally found the space that felt right not only in the space itself but the neighborhood and the landlord too because that's a whole other thing yeah but I was fortunate enough to find somebody who was really responsive to what I wanted to put into his building and found a space that felt like the right square footage and the right layout for this you know the location of the bar that I was thinking because I was also very particular about making sure that you know you enter the space at the bar is to the back and that's the side because I want people to see the bar in its entirety and other little details that I really tried to consider when looking for the right space so I all came together finally this year I found it in January February I think and signed a lease in April oh wow and was this place a bar restaurant before or is it a year to do I've done that yeah it was a daycare oh wow the way my brain works at this point is like now you've cost yourself a lot more money by doing something we have to build the entire infrastructure of a bar restaurant so obviously you knew that that was the risk of not finding place that used to be a bar restaurant but the bonus of it if you get to create a space that's completely your own and you don't have to like go with anyone else's idea of where the plumbing should have been or whatever precisely yes no that's I was almost although it is more of an investment on the front side it gives me a better experience of the bar in general like to set it up exactly the way it should be and that's really valuable to me because I think especially knowing myself I probably try to start moving plumbing around which can be just as expensive if not more it's definitely better to leave it where it was for sure so but that creates such a temptation to do just that and then sometimes you don't end up satisfied with the result right so yep so I think this is a best case scenario for me for now to really get to create it exactly how I want it to exist I'm kind of I have a feeling like if I'm doing it now it has to be done right I think really every single part of this I want to be done correctly because I don't I don't want to wait until maybe option number two or like you know try number two make this one you know I'll put more into it or I'll do it better you know you'll see this is the time this is it like maybe there is no other opportunity so I really want to make sure that this is done correctly from top to bottom from the infrastructure of the place to every detail of the service and hospitality the way I treat employees and the way we treat guests and really just yeah the whole kid yeah that's amazing and so do you have business partners or is this all you it's mostly all me yeah wow that's a lot yeah okay so the next thing you have to do at this point is find a chef that's gonna match your ideas because you're a front-end house sir like have you ever worked in the back house I had it no okay so yeah that's the same as me so like you have to put a lot of trust in the person who's doing that side of it for you and they have to match your intention for what you want because if it's a bar slash restaurant even if the cocktail bar the food has to match what you're doing up front as well or the whole thing doesn't work absolutely and I went through a a couple of interviews and spoke to some chefs and I think so I do have somebody lined up for that position to run the kitchen but the thing that I was really looking for in those interviews and getting to know these people was that they're creative process lines up with mine because I'm not necessarily hinged on like a certain kind of cuisine or a region or anything it's more so creating things intentionally and with a proper creative process and being able to collaborate with front of house and make sure that everything is cohesive in that way so I had to find the person that I felt matched that the best right so you didn't have anybody in mind at the beginning you actually just started doing interviews that's even more difficult because I think a lot of times if you've worked in a bunch of bars and restaurants in a city then you tend to know a bunch of chefs already so you may be drawn that experience but to like sort of start cold like that that's even riskier like not to scary but just someone you're gonna be married to for however long they're with you there right right yeah well thankfully the person that I'm going with was suggested to me through somebody that I trust very much and he's also going to be working with me so it's a it's a little trio I have right now for sort of management team if you want yeah so it feels like that when I saw that and solidified you know the team members I was like okay now I feel like things are gonna be great like I have the right positions in the right hands of course you know we'll see what happens to never know but as of now everything feels really good to continue moving forward and create something really special yeah it's exciting but like so my experience especially with the first one I did was there's so much that's exciting about there's certain things are really exciting like when you're designing you to lay out of the bar and like how you want everything to work because you're gonna be back there and whatever and then there's just there's a lot of stuff that's just really tedious and annoying like city paperwork stuff red tape and like construction stuff that like I don't know if you're a handy person I personally am not so like you're relying on a lot of dealing with people who know how to do that type of work and chances are if you're not that handy it's because it doesn't really interest you that much so at least that's been my experience so like my conversations with people like that I just felt like so tedious I'm like I don't know like you know so you got that side of it but at the same time is doing the creative parts that's super exciting and then you also have the third part of this which is the stress of the money that's going out all the time before you're actually bringing any money in so how you're dealing with all these things together yeah yeah I mean that's definitely all pretty stressful so for the construction part of things so it's all it's all creative really so as a creative person somebody who's studying for an art in school it's something that's really exciting to me I love designing spaces and as we talked about that taking over a space that was not already a bar or restaurant means I get some manipulate really every single part of it including how things are constructed and choosing the right people to do certain jobs so that I have you know detailed minds working on detailed parts that is awesome for me and especially when I find the right person and which I have found a few people to take concert and participate and we vibe well and and they are receiving the concept well and I'm responding well to it then that means okay good now I feel like that part is is offloaded in a way or a stress of making sure that it's done right feels a little bit assuished so I can just continue to move forward and I know that that's a good hands but yeah the financial part of it is definitely stressful because I am at that point where I have to start paying people big bucks yeah well I have never done a spot where and like I'm not saying this is gonna happen to you but I personally never done a spot where I didn't start to get really worried as we got closer to opening day because you're there's things that aren't quite done yet and you start to run out of them you almost always end up a little bit over budget and it's like trying to find that money to finish the things and it's if I'm like you where I don't think I should open it unless it's exactly the way I want it to be which means sometimes you either have to go find more money somewhere or like or you have to compromise and I'm not really a compromised type person so and it seems like I don't know yeah there's definitely some planning ahead for that knowing what kind of person I am looking at you know what the budget should be versus what I know the budget will be yeah and trying to you know extend that and make sure that I have the funds available to make it happen and when you deal with construction part two it's like inevitably I've never done a spot where the contractors come to be at one point with like some sort of surprise expense that is like huge that was not in the budget at all but no wait it's right the sewer line going to be there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the building is building an old building it's a hundred twenty years old so I know this is kind of exciting and like I definitely the first one too is like you get so emotionally attached to it as well like because you're really your dream thing after all these years of thinking about it like anyone else who has done this we've had the idea for our bar in the back of our minds whether we were cognizant or not from like probably the first time we started working in a bar.
Totally, yeah. It all starts coming together and you're like, oh, that thing, but I love so much. That's totally gonna be part of this part. And that space that I really love to be a part of, like, I'm gonna try to implement that here too.
And yeah, it's totally, it's really an accumulation of all of these experiences we've had over the, for me, 10 years for you, I don't know how many years, but like a lot of years. Too many. That's why all those things are like. I think I've had my first one recently.
Oh, yeah, I'll be back. It's happening. Yeah, I think, oh, sorry. So since you mentioned the online social media for the establishment today, what is the name of the spot and where can people find this on social media and the social media for it on Instagram is here after bar, H-E-R-E-A-F-T-E-R bar, no punctuation.
And then the website is www.hereafterbar.com. All right. And so we're hoping to get this open before the end of the year, but as I know, like you never set a date at this point because something's gonna delay it, or if you're really lucky, sometimes you end up ahead of schedule, which is awesome too. Yeah, I don't see that happening.
But, I was trying to get it to be done. Thank you, I appreciate it. I need all the optimism I can get, but more likely, so I'm hoping to be open by December. And that really just comes from issues with the liquor license.
Ohio has all kinds of really fun, antiquated laws around what you can serve and what you can't serve. So just so happens, my location is in a dry area for a bunch of things. So I have to go through this whole process of getting signatures to get onto the ballot in November to be voters, we're allowed to have certain liquor licenses so that I can serve everything, right? And yeah, it's really fun.
Like, what's dry in your area? I think it is beer to slicker and mixed beverages. And wine, I think. Is what you're allowed to do?
You're not allowed to do. Well, you can. I mean, there are places up and down the street that are even just the block away that serve all those things. It's just that it forces you to go through this project or that process rather, where you have to go through the city and the city has to allow you to obtain those.
They give you an accession to hold those licenses. So from there, I have to do that. It takes, I think, a month from being voted in, which usually the process, as long as you're not opening some outlandish kind of business, citizens of the area are generally happy to invite businesses to have those liquor licenses and to be in operation in that ward. But once you're voted in to be allowed to have those licenses, you then have to obtain them.
So I have to line up a seller, so sell me those. And it takes about a month for those to land in my possession. So from early November when the election happens to when they, I'm actually allowed to use those licenses and have them, it's about a month. So that's really the earliest I can open.
So you don't even think about that, is that it gives you a target date. It's like, OK, I can't really open before here anyway. So now let's try and get everything done before that. You have a goal where it's like, I've opened a place where it's like, things just kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed.
And after a while, you're just kind of like whatever fucking happens it happens. But now you have this sort of target, which is nice. Well, it's as early as possible. Yeah, that's what I mean.
Which is actually pretty far out. But yes, that is the earliest I could possibly do it. So that does give me quite a bit of time. But it gives you a lot of time.
It gives you a lot of time to make sure you're ready when that date happens. Whereas I found that it's very easy to just be like, oh, another fucking delay, whatever. Where you have a thing, I was like, no, I'm going to get this and stuff. But that's a crazy antiquated situation.
So you have to pay for all these individual licenses as well. So it's a bit of a cat to do. Well, yeah, although I think the price of a liquor license, at least for the US, Cleveland is one of the less expensive cities to obtain liquor licenses than other major primary markets. So it's not too terrible.
I can purchase some through the city that are available, but most of them are not. So that's where I have to buy them from other people. That cost more money. That's crazy.
What point for that? This is the laws I've been updated since 1830. Literally, they're pre-provisioned laws that have to steal in place. It's wild.
What you guys need is to band together and start some sort of a petition to get these laws updated. Because that's ridiculous. Go through that process every single time anyone wants to open a spot. I know.
You think you'd want to make it easier for this system and then imagine I was all ready to go. I was like, let's do this. I can have this ready in two months. And then I still had to wait until December.
I mean, that's pretty deflating. And it's just, it's such an un-paying rent. And it's such an unnecessary, annoying thing to have to even think about. Like when you have all these other things to think about when trying to open a place.
Especially a place like yours where you're turning something that wasn't a bar at all into a bar. There's a million things for you to be thinking about at all time. And then you're going to be like, oh, well, I also have to get this specific license so I can sell some beer there. Yeah, totally.
Well, I think that just kind of comes with the territory of knowing your city and knowing the landscape of where you're opening a place. It says like, well, some people might and you have the right connections to do it. And then you can do that. But I can't imagine just moving to a totally random city and just be like, I'm opening a place here before I even know how things are operated, how what the landscape feels like, what the places are.
And then also just like the legislation around making sure you can get the proper permitting and things like that. Well, you'd be surprised how many people actually do that. Because I talk to people all the time and they have come to the city. You're like, oh, there's no bar.
I didn't know you had to deal with this and this. I'm like, well, that's why you ask these questions before you break ground on a society and do some research. I always talk about the wealthy people who hang out in bars. I'm like, I should open a bar, but they don't know anything about the industry.
Yeah. Well, I'm also super, super lucky to have some people close to me that are helping me quite a bit with all this stuff, all the red tape. That's good. Yeah.
The owner of, or one of the owners of LBM, there's a fantastic cocktail bar in Lakewood. He has been instrumental to making sure that everything is lined up and that I get all the proper licenses and I know how things work before. I ever jumped in and signed anything. So that's a helpful person to have.
Yeah. Well, yeah, you need that. And that's smart. Like just as many connections, like the one thing I learned the most in all the times I've done this is the best thing you can do is just talk to people who've done it already, right?
Like, and that's probably the case in anything in life, but specifically when you're opening your own business, it's like, there's so many little tiny bits of advice you can get. There's like, oh shit, I actually never would have thought of that only because you've never done it before. Yeah. I mean, at the time, I didn't even know what kind of questions to ask.
I was just like, how do I do this? How do I get from point A to point Z? Yeah. And having somebody who like understands what I'm asking when I don't even know how to find a word to ask when I'm asking is super helpful to have that kind of person in my life to help me through that.
Yeah. I remember what the my first one. I literally sat down a person. I know who had done it before.
And I'm like, just right out the list in order of the things I need to do and like, in what's the best order to do them so that I don't waste my own time or do things out of order that ends up costing me more time, right? Yeah, totally. Because that can happen too. Mm hmm.
Yeah, it's a lot to take in at once. So this is exciting though. You must be and you're also obviously still working. Yeah.
Yeah. I'll be on timetable until I can't be. Basically, I'm very lucky ownership and management there is super kind to the idea of me opening my own place and is being really flexible with me and allowing me to sort of make my schedule as I need with, of course, a heads up. But if I need to go down to part time at a certain point, they'll allow me to do that until I just can't do both, you know, which I'm guessing it'll be about a month before I open.
I'll have to just, you know, focus in and really just. Yeah. There's a time where it takes up all your time for sure. So you're not there yet, but you're about to be in.
It's all exciting stuff. Gabby, I'm super excited for you and sounds like you have an awesome idea there and in a city that could use it. So yeah, congratulations and keep us posted on when opening date is and anything we can do to help on our end. We'll be happy to promote it.
Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Yeah.
One more time. Just let everyone know where they can find you once again on social media. Yeah. My bar here after can be found at here after bar at here after bar and my personal social is at Gabby Holzer G A B Y H O L Z E R.
Perfect. Thank you very much. We'll put that on the show notes as always. Well, we appreciate you taking the time.
It was great meeting you. I know this is like a super busy time in your life. So the fact you gave us a little bit of your time to talk about everything was amazing and it was we wish you all the best luck. Thank you.
Thank you so much.