This week's guest is Jessica Nablina, who joins us from Los Angeles, California. Jessica shares her journey from various service industry roles to becoming a successful bartender, including her experiences in competitive bartending and opening her own bars. Currently, Jessica is running her own bar in Riverside, California, called Bar Hennimodo, which has been a concept and project of the works for the last two years. In our interview with Jessica, she discussed how her background and design and art influences her creative approach to cocktail creation, while emphasizing the importance of passion and service quality.
We talk about her decision to take a hiatus from the industry and work as a flight attendant and some of the high points of that career. Jessica also discussed her work with founding La Raza Collective, which was created to support underrepresented communities in the bar industry and her continued commitment to growing the local bar community through various initiatives, plus we cover a host of other topics as usual. You can find Jessica online on Instagram at Underscore, Jess Buddy, and her bar at bar underscore Nablina, and that's N-I-M-O-D-O, or check the show notes as always for all the links. Enjoy the show.
Okay, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast. My name is Kip and this is Dan. Hey, that's me. How's it going?
Great, man. Great. How are you? Still awesome.
Still awesome. After all this time. Good for you. It's an alarming consistency.
Summer time, right? So it's easy to be awesome in the summer. Yeah, I was at a lovely event at the Malabar Winery today for our clients there. So it was hot as hell, but it was a great event put on by Malabar.
So thanks to them. A reminder that if you were looking for any wine from Malabar, you should hit me up at kipsonders at gmail.com, k-y-p-s-a-u-n-d-e-r-s at gmail.com, or if you were looking for spirits from Alora Distillery, check that out too. Or it's about for pure pore. Our good friends at pure pore.
Best pore. Spouts in the business. Yeah, so check that email out for all of that. If you like what we're doing here on the show, the best way you can help us is to subscribe, rate, review, follow, tell a friend.
It's always a great idea. That helps tremendously. Yeah, it's the easiest thing to do. It takes about a minute or so just to help spread the word.
Just make sure you check out this podcast. Here's the URL link and spread the word to the show. It helps us out a great lot. Yeah, and if you're looking to be a guest on the show or provide support, the email address is info at theindustrypodcast.club, or you can DM us at the industry podcast on Instagram where you will find amazing artwork from the lovely and talented ZACANA at zacana.co for all your graphic arts needs.
I just want to give a couple other shout outs. You've heard me mention it recently, but our good friend of the pod, Reese Sims, has an amazing new project called the Flavor Report. So you want to Google the Flavor Report to check that out. The first edition is out now.
It's like 90 pages of writing about spirits and cocktails, and it's the first edition is called Flavors Connections. So definitely check that out. It's a fantastic piece of work. That's the Flavor Report.
And I would like to mention because I went to the launch party for the other day that it's been officially announced at the inaugural Toronto Cocktail Festival. It will be taking place October 22nd to 26th, and it's a citywide celebration featuring tasting events, neighborhood crawl, seminars, parties, and special guest gifts across Toronto. Proceeds for the festival will support Mind the Bar, a national mental health initiative for the hospitality community. The people behind us are tremendous.
The launch event had several of some of the more famous bartenders in the province there, so it was great to be there and the event's going to be spectacular. So that's October 22nd to 26th, Google Toronto Cocktail Festival defined out everything that's going on there and how to get your tickets for all the events. Also, today's episode is in partnership with in Biblia, the visual cocktail app built by bartenders for bartenders. Menu development shouldn't happen in spreadsheets, email G-Drives for Microsoft Word, and Biblia's business accounts let you create collaborative lists, set editing permissions, and share custom ingredients across your entire team.
The aggregate flavor analysis shows your menus balanced at a glance. Instantly spot if you're missing the drink for the crowd that likes spicy or smoky or if you have too many better forward drinks. Business account lists have analytics that make this sort of thing second nature. Here are all the details in episode 216 of the industry podcast.
See why it was featured by Bon Appetit, then 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.mbiblia.com for more or check the show notes as always for all the links. Great tool if you're a professional bartender or a home bartender and if you just don't feel like making cocktails at all just come by check out Sugar Run in the kitchen area that's at Sugar Run Bar on Instagram to find out everything that's going on at Sugar Run.
I think that's about all we need to talk about. Okay that's funny. Let's get to our guest Jessica and Oblina is with us joining us from Los Angeles California. How are you Jessica?
Hi I'm still good guys thanks for having me. Yeah thanks for joining us on the afternoon. We appreciate it. I love them on day off.
Honestly I think they're like the best days to have off and set you off for like the weeks so it's like perfect day. Monday's off. Great. What's going on out there is everything on fire or?
I wasn't to say a lot of fun fire but you know we're doing all right. Honestly what has been really cool especially with what I think is going on right now in the world is seeing how much our community kind of comes together especially the bar community you know supporting our local bars and we're working together just to create that sense of home that we feel is at Target right now so it's nice to well one be a part of the bar community in general but so much more like that family can create in the industries in the years that you're in the industry so yeah seeing everybody come together has been really awesome. But you're safe and where you work is safe and yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so you grew up in the Los Angeles area correct yes as born out here in Glendale Glendale Hospital and then I kind of moved around a lot when I was little but more or less raised in Monterey Park and then moved inland as like I was getting older and my family was moving more more into the east side but yeah. And so what time you got involved in the service industry at a pretty young age what was your first job?
My first job was at a smoothie spot in a inside the mall and I was selling smoothies and singing smoothies and then went from snaking smoothies to working at a journeys at a shoe store and then kind of started working into like restaurants and like hosting and serving and then moving into like the bar industry when I was 21. But my family comes from like a line of like I guess hospitality my grandparents growing up they had three successful restaurants here in Los Angeles. So my dad actually met my mom at the restaurant he was a DJ and she was a server and that's kind of I mean I guess it kind of is in my bloodline I guess so being in the industry I mean if you talk to my grandma now and tell her I open up a restaurant she's like why did you do it but all in good favor and all in good talk of it but yeah. No I agree with the grandmother.
So you're growing up in the industry you're doing a bunch of different jobs at what point do you feel like you realized that this is maybe what you were going to be doing with your life? Yeah when I was 21 so I started my kind of bar in Riverside called Wolf's Scale and it's still there now. I was part of the opening team on that and it was right when I got that was that was a well go but it was a before death and co kind of already was starting like the craze of a craft cocktail bar in like the scene and like employees only hey bartender had just came out you know the documentary and I was working as a server inside of this bar and eventually my managers were kind of like well we need food we need busters we need you know bar bags and I was like I want to bar back I'll learn it you know like and then from there I they kind of laughed like yeah right like eventually I just moved into that company that its proprietors that opened up nothing called by the same time they were also looking to open they just opened also like Honeycutt and Walker in San Omni Club and they had opened up this little craft bar in Riverside and then I was like I want to get behind the bar it was kind of more like I just need to work kind of thing I was going to school the time but I was also living on my own I moved out when I was 18 and kind of been on my own sense and so kind of just working my way and meeting to do work when I finally hit that moment it was literally probably the moment when like my managers told me I couldn't bar ten and like kind of telling me like I couldn't do something or being like yeah right like you're not gonna be a bartender and like proving people wrong I think in that in that moment and realizing that I just really love being in the hospitality industry I really liked caring for people I really liked serving people and bartending just seemed like another another venture but then it became like more of a passion and it became something that I was still wanting to learn so much about because it wasn't just cocktails and that and like you know it was like the whole service of it the performance of it you know the all the angles that come out of being a bartender being told I couldn't do it or like yeah right laugh in my face I was like oh I'm gonna do this and it's gonna I'm gonna be the best at it yeah I'm eventually it became something that was like okay well what's next I did take a little hiatus from the industry at a point just because I think as we all grow into something that's passionate sometimes it's like all right like where is this healthy and where you know I had to take a little a little break because you know what we don't talk about is like kind of the unhealthy part of our industry and like drinking I was young 21 like moving in the industry very fast and like growing very quickly that eventually I learned I wasn't really appreciating what I was doing and I was reckless and you know no shame in my game I gave it just I was not not caring for what I was really wanting to do about it so I decided to travel and move away from the industry for a couple years but I was a fight attendant for six years with the airline yeah and what brought me back like full circle was traveling to these places and like being in Brazil and having Kachasa drinking you know Kibaneas or like really understanding the spirit world and in like a different facet that made me realize I want this to be my career and like I want to I want to go back to bartending like and being a bartender and like as silly as it is it's like you're just a bartender it's like yeah but there's so much more appreciation that I have for it now it's like I've been back in the industry I came back in like 2018 I believe so it took a couple years out of the industry but traveling and making it more it just made me want to serve and go back to the roots of everything being a bartender growing a business growing in a space growing a space growing with people that was really really what brought me back what did you go to school for I was actually going to school for design and like graphic design I was definitely more of an artistic person so I was in more or less like digital visual design and like drawing and stuff like that that was always something I've felt like an own to but what I've learned is that my creativity doesn't really actually start with like you know a pen in hand it's like more or less like I guess like full circle of like creating cocktails it's like also a way that I get to you know express myself and what I was feeling with art was that I was kind of it's kind of closed like I have so many sketchbooks like nobody will ever see because it's just like you own it and it's like I want to look at this but creating cocktails and seeing with people are like oh this is really good you're like thank you that's so good because I made that just for you like but yeah I went to school for design and art and eventually I mean I didn't finish school but that's also just because industry but yeah so when you were having your job as a flight attendant that's like an amazing opportunity to like see the world see different cultures getting to see a whole bunch of different bars and restaurants a lot of different ways that people are making cocktails how did you find that I mean I know you touched on a little bit like more specifically how did you find that influenced your style of bartending and craft coffee only when you finally got back into the industry yeah I mean again I was very fortunate I basically traveled through my 20s and at the time when I was leaving industry 21 again this was like peak of this like craft cocktail bar it was it was at the time only craft cocktail bar in Riverside in Riverside and now like there's bars there but it was never like the craft scene and leaving that and like taking that with me especially like with traveling and being a flight attendant I only like I just kept thinking about how much more potential I probably could have given that space knowing what I was knowing and traveling or I've been traveling now like when I look back and I see like what I'm creating now and what I'm able to do like it's one and I constantly learning and growing but bringing that into the space where it's like oh like I can actually talk about you know where this comes from or you know especially with crafting cocktails like I'm very aware of like you know the cultural references and like Marcus it's a like bringing a like a justice to it like you know if I'm making you know a classic cocktail like I know you know the origins or I'm able to appreciate it more I'm being able to educate people better it's really nice did you can you remember a specific city or country that you visited where you were really blown away by the barn restaurant scene oh that's a good one that's okay well Peru has I feel like was a space and place that like in people kind of overlook especially with like having Pisco there it's such a it's such a ritualistic kind of way that they do cocktails and where they've kind of used Pisco in such a different like forms of facets like you know everybody just knows a Pisco sour but then you're seeing them transform things into like you know fizzes and this is a hospitality for them too I mean I always just anytime I visited there I always felt like home and I was constantly blown away by just these little like little spots like little hole in the wall spots that you would walk into and then like well in the hospitality is like 100% like always just like 10 out of 10 and then you're getting these craft cocktails in like literally a third world country like you wouldn't even these places are not even like there's no roads or anything like just more or less like a hole in the wall little spot and like they treat it like a craft and so like you get to see that I think that's where like I appreciated more like this industry and what we do as a whole is like everybody is doing it in the same way just in different forms I don't know and I've been able to see that in like you know where people don't have like clean water or like where places don't have like you know the nicest tools or like you know the fanciest bar equipment but you know they're working out of little shocks and spaces but you know their service and then nothing that doesn't like defer them from the service or the cocktail you know application that they're giving to you and that's been really cool to see and knowing that like I'm seeing that firsthand but I can bring it back and be appreciative of like the things I do have makes it like makes it more worth it for sure yeah that's a really good point because there's like so many places where they just don't have access to what we have but the fact that they still take can still take pride in making like a beautiful cocktail and giving you an excellent service like the it's like you say the pride of form is still there no matter where you go it's like you're always gonna find a place where people don't give a shit but like no matter where you go but it's cool to know that you can go anywhere in the world and there are people who care as much about it as we do yeah for sure I've done like a pop up in Mexico City in the famous bars called Cafélena Día one of the best bars in North America and their prep room is probably like it's like stacked on each other it's so small and it's across the street from the bar it's not even in the front of me and they say I mean they craft some of the best cocktails literally in the world so it's I think even seeing those things and seeing those spaces like some of the best bars to some of the best hospitality like we're all in the same space doing the same thing it's just different forms and like you don't need some of the best equipment or the best things if you're creative enough I think that holds more truth to your you know to your passion and your and like what you're putting out in the industry over the fanciest techniques and things you know because you can have the best equipment and like the best things but like if you're service and you're pride and like your passion for it is so par then like it's actually matter in the end well it's kind of cool sometimes to see what people can do when everything's like stripped down to the basics and then that can kind of like reinvigorate your own creativity on what you can do with having even more or strip it strip it down on your end as well right realizing you don't need like you know a centrifuge or whatever to make it yeah so when you get when you say you go back to the industry what was there specific like light bulb moment where you're like I'm done being a flight attendant I want to go back to the industry or how did that happen well I mean just I don't know if we can detect politics here but Trump's first you know era that you really made flying a lot difficult especially being Latina you know people saying I have accent or something and being questioned about like who like where you're from or oh wow where you really from like it was to a point where I was just not enjoying the you know being in the aisle and being questioned or like not even spoken to sometimes I mean if the industry was looking I would say the flying industry I mean shout out to all the fagants because it's a tough job long hours long days you're away from home and then that whole time of flying during that first rain of this terror yeah it was really it was really tough and I made me realize like I don't need to put up with this I don't want to put up with this you know if somebody was disrespectful on a fly it was a point where like you know you had to just deal with it you couldn't be like at the bar it was like here he six you're out here like yeah I mean there's a safe space behind the bar and I love that and any space that we're creating behind the bar is safe in those times it didn't feel safe I totally agree with you and I and like the the funny thing about being like a flight attendant too is like it is a service industry job 100% and you're giving like sometimes way more specific and attentive service than we can even give in like a bar or a restaurant but there is no protection for you like for abusive customers there's no there's something you can 86 them off the plane yeah a little tricolizer shot the back of the deck we got a little slide just push it over and over and over and over and over the manifest looks a little different yeah so I agree with you shout out to all the flight attendants and flying is it can be like a really irritating experience and but just especially if you're not flying for vacation maybe you're flying for work that makes it even worse but like but just remember out there like that that's a fucking tough job be nice to the flight attendants Jesus Christ like that is a hard job okay so only maybe better at my service and I'm holding my tongue back I can hang me a little bit yeah so you come back to service industry now you're like right you're back into making cocktails getting into craft cocktailing and is this the point where you start getting involved with tells of the cateau yeah so so essentially pandemic happened and server was kind of grounded at the time I knew Mescal Tequila bar was opening up that I had opportunity and reached out to start working at but because of pandemic everything just got kind of pushed and I was living in LA commuting to San Francisco for work so yeah I was just kind of back I want to be home like I don't I'm so I'm tired of flying like I was tired of it and I realized that I've learned I felt like I've learned enough with flying and like coming back to the industry and I like to say like not drink responsibly is more drink respectfully and that's kind of where I've been able to to learn grow from there but the Mescal Tequila bar opens up and I start working there and eventually started working um got offered a job also at employees only so I started working at employees in the LA and then I applied for the cap program I think 2022 yeah 2022 23 I told myself like you know come back but make it worth it like if you go back into this industry that you once felt was like breaking you in some way like try to learn from that those moments and like come back and like do well for the service you know because what I was doing at 21 was being reckless and like you know a generate 21 year old probably was but come back and like be respectful and like really take everything I've learned and put it into space and I applied for cap I did speed rack and all those things went really well so it was more of a time where I was like all right if you're gonna make something make it worth it and you're gonna do something like don't like half-assit and yeah so applying for the cap program definitely kind of set goals for myself and I was like okay if I can still continue doing what I'm doing and reach newer goals and levels like that's that's that's where you want to be you know continuously learning I like to say you know if you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room like yeah constantly learning and growing especially with that program like it just opened up so many doors and opportunities that I couldn't have ever really imagined but yeah the cap programs kind of kicked off a big part of like the appreciation I have now a lot more for the industry and coming back with like wiser eyes I say and did you so you did speed rack have you done other competitions as well I also participated in the BTA which is a bartender talent kind of me with Remy Martin um so Remy Quantro um hosts this global competition and I represented Los Angeles and went to Paris last year in September to do the global competition with you know world contestants um and honestly that competition also like I did win but it was one of the best like opportunities I think I've had in this industry I think I've traveled more as a fight as a bartender than actually like as a fight in it on like my own terms with bartending so like uh Remy's Remy the LA Remy team sent me out to Paris last year and that was awesome experience I got to learn about cognac and you know the Remy portfolio and yeah it was it's been a dream honestly if you told me I was doing this at 21 that would be like yeah right but yeah yeah that's crazy and the and so okay talk to me a little bit about the experience of being in the competitions themselves like how did you enjoy that part of it because I know it could be pretty stressful yeah I think like again like I you go in with like a game plan and say okay this is how I'm gonna do this is what I'm going to say I start practicing you start like you know you're in this like beautiful like Parisian house out in Paris and you're like with other competitors who are like from some of the best bars in the world and again you're kind of like uh how am I gonna do this like it's nerve-wracking it's scary but because they do this whole competition so that the whole week you're going through education you take you to cognac your in Paris for two days you go to cognac for uh for and you compete in cognac and you eventually just become friends and family with these people and I think that's the best part about competitions is that you kind of whether you win or lose you're create like almost like a family network where like we still have like a WhatsApp chat on from that team and that people that went out there and wherever we end up visiting or finding these people were like sending photos back and forth and so it's it's I think that's the best part about competing in competitions like I'm not really good at I think the competition side of things where I do get nervous and I stumble on my words or I forget but that was just nerves that's something I could definitely work on but um the best part about competitions I think is that commodity that you get that's what everyone says who comes on these or show up to be honest with you but I also like obviously there's some part of you that's a little competitive otherwise you're not entering your competition but there must be a part of you too that's like at some point you kind of settle in you're like okay I would like to win but who at the end of the day what a fucking experience I'm in Paris I'm in cognac is they're part of you they just kind of settles in and is like well that's like I could finish that last in this competition then we totally worth it 100% and everybody tells you that now I never get to that point no trust me like after a point where you're just like well I've gone a week to know these people and this guy knows his shit like I'm fucked like there's a point where you get to know these people and you're like oh my god like and the person who won was like world-class like I mean it made sense to me I'm like totally fine but yeah I think that's the best part also about this initiative is that there's constantly opportunities to learn and grow and like one of them being like you know competitions you know um pushing pushing yourself to the limits and putting yourself in positions that make you uncomfortable only gonna make you better and that's kind of like not that I wouldn't or do competitions it's just the time of it I don't really have a lot of time yeah yeah well especially when we'll get to why that is so now you're running your own bar in Riverside it's called Barney Moto yeah very and so this is your own like your you have an ownership stake in the yeah so the way it worked out is like partners who are investors into this whole project we acquired a property in a brick and water that is under like another space that is held by other person and we won our liquor license in a lottery so the opening of it was like so fast and quick because you know we got the okay from liquor license we're building this out it's a two-year contract for the whole space holds the liquor license if that makes sense and then after two years it's officially ours to move and do what we please okay but yes it's it's the whole partnership that we are a part of yes so how did that all come to be like you're you were working at a different bar and did you get approached by these yeah like walk us right yeah so i was uh working and uh employees only i was and i also on the side with doing like some consulting work um just you know helping out people build venues and you know i i think that's something i really actually too enjoy is just more or less um you know my knowledge should be shared knowledge should be shared all around like you know i'm not here to hold what i know or what i've learned like in this bar this uh at the time as well i was working employees only i was uh selling a mesca i was uh sales uh how would i say it a sales rep for ama ras mescal and i was pushing basically my territory was like all of like la long beach riverside so i was going back to like back home essentially going back to bars and i stumbled upon a friend who was like hey you're you're selling mesca like you should come talk to my friends um they run a couple coffee shops out here but they have a liquor license and a coffee shop and i'm like really that's so weird like but sure look i mean what's their wellness cover now and it was another brand which i want mentioned but we ended up pushing them out and um i got close with the owners and i realized that i like that i knew these guys from like years ago i was like you know working at a bar that same bar when i was 21 and these guys would come in and i was like i know you from somewhere and they're like did you start at well scale and i'm like yeah and i'm like oh we used to go there all the time i'm like that's so crazy and i'll run these three successful coffee shops in downtown riverside and i was consulting on their brunch menu so once brunch started going really well um they were and i was doing this mescal brand thing they were like would you be down to do like a host like a dinner where it's education on the mescal and then do like a tasting so we were doing like tasting dinners and we hosted the first one with the mescals it was four cocktails that i curated for a two-seeding dinner um this one friday night and it like sold out at like 90 it was like 90 like seats i guess i could say and in two-seatings and we sold tickets at like 100 bucks and they had like a full four course five course dinner um i needed the cocktails and then from there i was helping them consult on like other brands so like after this mescal tasting was a while like okay well what should we do next month let's do this once a month and let's you know work something out and sure enough it was i brought in some other friends who were brand members and um they were able to educate and it was like a hand in hand kind of like all right and then they were like summertime came around this was two and a half years ago and they're like how can we never thought about opening a brombar and like well every bartender wants to open up their own bar and i'm like of course i want to open a mambar but like you know finances like when i turned 30 i was like i had like a five-year plan of doing that i just don't know when and how did to go about it but like mamola was always going to be the name the mamola was always going to be the concept like the concept of what it is is already like in the works in my head in my plans it was just more of the financial backing and then a couple months went by um the dinners were going really well still i was still i was still at employees only at the time still and doing the nascale back and forth and uh they were like well we want to talk with you one day and i was like okay sure what's up and then they brought up the plans of the opportunity to open up the brick and mortar and like the space and like it's inside of the space that's being built right now would you be down to you know run bar run the concept into the space and i'm like uh yeah hello um also opening a bar and i was like a lot cheaper than open up a bar and always so yeah um but yeah i've and then we i saw the plans we saw what we could do and then um yeah the plans started working the design started like happening and you know we put together a whole portfolio for it and we got it going crazy yeah it was crazy now i'm 33 and that five-year plan has turned it to three we're planned really quickly but i feel very grateful for the opportunity for sure so talk to us about the bar how would you describe it what's the concept yeah so it is um an animal means like it is what it is like you know it's a phrase that my grandma always tells me and you know if something goes wrong or something's like you know you get a flat tire you missed your work interview you do something i don't know you in the end it's just like you mother like what else can you do about it like and how are you gonna fix it or how are you gonna you know go about it and like change it change the outcome um i like to think that other bar is that space meant to be like you know it is what it is it's simple it's uh you know meant to feel like home and people who do walk in there like oh my gosh like i love that it does feel like a little bit you're transported into like a mexican bar and you're getting an elevated experience so i like to describe it as a you know new new era like modern not too modern i think we still have like a rustic kind of style to how we do things in the bar but definitely craft cocktails um and it's been awesome to bring like my culture and like my you know the influence of my family into the space how are you doing that specifically yeah the cocktails the the i guess the um that's what i'm looking for the the flavors and the things that we do use um our chefs are also um they we do like small bites as well but they also bring in a like latin flavor as um with different um ingredients that are really known to like mexico and like uh i think that's more it's more important it's more genuine because it's like you know these are flavors i grew up with we have a cafe that oil yeah espresso martini which i think people are like oh i've had that before but it's so nostalgic to drink something and like you have this flavor that is just like so reminiscent to like when you're younger my grandmother's making me like a coffee in the night or you know something at night would you know to go to sleep it's like oh it's always like a way out or it was you know uh a champlarado like those are things that we get to do in the bar and like be able to bring it full circle of like you know and it's also like the techniques and stuff i've learned in la river side is like a year behind the cocktails scene i think in la so it's cool to be able to bring an outlet to that you know a little punch like everything in la la is clarified or have no punch at some point on the on the menu um and to be able to like do these things educate people on one of my punches i think that's where we're thriving in our industry we can constantly continue to like grow and educate you know the like our communities you know we're doing justice and if we're not doing that then we need to do something more well it's it's funny that you mentioned like we're in a similar situation here we live in a place called kitchen or which is like an hour away from toronto and so it's the exact same thing it's like we're about a year at least usually behind toronto cocktail bars but it's nice to be able to introduce like those sort of concepts into a smaller city that's like you slightly removed right yeah exactly i think like being able to you know again you can appreciate you know whether you're driving that that actually distance to go to that space i always think and i was like like my my team this the other day i'm like people come out of their home to eat and pay for food like that concept of like we're leaving our homes to go eat somewhere like that's a business like i don't know like i know it was a team it was a talk with the team and telling them like you know that hospitality limit that somebody walks in to like like they're paying for this experience like we have to do it like you know 110 because i mean think about it like people are leaving their homes to come and eat here like yeah or like you know and i mean i will always say like i go to the house but you're going out for an experience like we should you know give them that experience and you know that's well that's well but especially these days we're expensive and it's as well it's become more expensive to go out all the time right so you really we really need to sort of um reintroduce that concept into the hospitality industry is like exactly how you describe it like if people are willing to come leave their home to come spend money at your establishment you better show them a fucking good time these days like i'm like i go out or like i'm going to like eat somewhere and like you know the service is terrible i'm still at 20 percent but like it's just like man like i could have probably just ate at home like no like yeah you know it's this yeah everything is all encompassing and like going out like you want to have a good time you want to experience and you know we've been able to create a community especially the space that is in it's in like the downtown university side of the city and we have like families that come around and you know they're like all the kids are playing i'm like you know over there but we're gonna grab a drink i'm like cool yeah i love that every time i walk into that space that people are there i'm always like in awe you know uh yeah i know that's something you never lose like i've owned several places now and like the one thing i never lose is that feeling is like when you walk in it's like oh yeah people came to this like this concept that i came up with people are coming here to enjoy it it's like you never lose that sense of pride like that never goes away so that's nice i hope i hope that everybody gets the opportunity to feel that because again like you can put a cocktail on a menu and like that experiences also really dope and then but to see like a whole space that you built out so this coffee house that i i well it's this uh my partner is a owner coffee house i got an email one time about like i thought i said scones and i was like i don't think this emails for me is like hey can you check out these scones like which ones do you like i was like this is not correct i think i kind of of north email but it kept coming back up as everybody was responding and i was like oh it's sconces i'm like i literally thought it was this year and the last year um to like again like you don't you don't realize like oh wow like i know you see those scones in the space and i'm like hell yeah i would pick that yeah yeah you never lose that part of you never get to lose that that sense of pride to like walk into space and you know people are enjoying it and they don't realize that you do you miss your scones for scones but yeah uh before we let you go tell us a little bit about the la raza raza collective and what that's all about yeah so again the same sense of like we're creating a community we're meant to be knowledgeable we're meant to you know share what we know um so raza was born probably the end of 2022 23 23 23 23 i was seeing like businesses close um and a lot of businesses you see are closing a lot in la and i was seeing friends either out of work or you know really just um you know that i was seeing our city hurting in a lot of different ways um and raza was born i was like what we should be doing is doing activations i mean brand support is really big in industry it helps us so much it could be really so nice but you have that brand you know ambassador coming in and spending $200 to pour your product like that that's that just saved me you know my labor or whatever i see it now right um and i was like brand brand ambassadors have a lot of power in industry especially with you know the the way they are moving and growing in this industry how they educate like we can only hope that it comes into our bars and you know they come into our bars because i have this product that cost me $800 and i was like let's do an event where you know we get the brand support but also like it's putting money back into our bars back into the industry and then highlighting a community that um it originally was highlighting Latino community um basically you know we're not always the the bar manager or the you know the lead in a lot of spaces and like i was seeing that opportunities being missed on a lot of people who worked in bars for years and like being overlooked on like top positions from somebody else and it to me this was making sense and so i was like all right let's create a let's create a space where we can highlight and give an opportunity to people to r&dm menu uh jump behind and somebody else's bar do a takeover because you know beyond us they're sending the bar manager or like the bar lead to do the takeovers and not just taking the bar back or the you know the other bartenders you know it's always like somebody in some type of lead position um and so yeah we started network where you know there was multiple bartenders who were like i wanted to like highlight but also we get to highlight the bar that come from they get to highlight you know how many years have been in the industry and you're kind of saying hi hello to like maybe people who didn't know who were in that bar or and then yeah we did we completed a full year of pop-ups uh i did one every year every every month last year up until i started working more with opening moto but yeah it was just it became a space now uh a collective that now isn't just highlighting Latinos but people come into our pop-ups and people come to our pop-ups really feel like they're being seen and that's where that's been really the most rewarding and also like learning and growing the bar community and you know again like we're trying to keep our dollars in our in our pockets and you know in our communities and not like you know we shouldn't have to go so far to like you know get again that great experience but also like highlighting these bar tenders in their local in your local like local area it keeps the money here keeps the money keeps the money in you know businesses it keeps doors open so yeah la rasa has been a really rewarding part of like my career i think as i've just like opening a bar being in you know in any space but like rasa has really taught me so much about the needs and desires of the community but also um bartenders and you know what we should be doing i mean working with people within the industry for 10 plus years and then they've never r&d them anywhere like you know it's like well who's not teaching you or who's holding back information you know we should be once educating and you know growing the team within us like around us so yeah well that's good that's an important thing for chameleon it's great it's a nice way to give back as well right yeah yeah well we really appreciate giving us all this time and yeah like everything you're doing amazing keep going like it sounds like the sky's the limit for you so um yeah tell our listeners where they can follow your the collective the bar yourself personally yeah instagram for me is underscore jesbani and our social media for bernie moto is bar underscore nimoto and rasa the collective for us is rasa underscore rasa dot la and yeah we have really cool opportunities for you know um again if you're in the alley area check us out um highlighting you know local bartenders under marginalized groups and yeah amazing well i it's like i really find it impressive glenor heart is to run your own business so for you to also be doing that on the side is to get its way of giving back to super impressive so congratulations and thanks for giving back to the industry community and thanks for giving us your time today this was super fun and informative and that's a block of everything thank you so much i appreciate you guys having me thank you thanks a ton yeah we'll chat soon soon