Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you begin your career and how did you progress into this role?

Accidentally hired as a Bartender at a small cocktail bar in Indiana on my 21st birthday. From there, I was hooked to basically throwing bar top shindig on a nightly basis. As a bartender, I could explore the timeless tradition of distilled spirits, cocktails, and hell, just people enjoying being at a bar. Since that fateful year; I've been very fortunate to build cocktail programs for Disney, a 3 Star Michelin-rated restaurant, fine dining in mainland China, and various restaurant groups. 18 years later, every day is still a school day. 

Define your role and the tasks involved in your role.

Currently, I'm the Bar & Spirits Creative Director for the restaurant group that owns Puesto & MARISI Italiano. We have 9 Mexican concepts and are opening our first Italian concept, all of which are in California. Puesto is high-end casual and very high volume of craft cocktails. My job is to educate, elevate and innovate for its multi-million dollar cocktail program. Whatever recipe gymnastics I perform during R&D sessions, has to be executed by over 100 bartenders day and night, 7 days a week literally in the thousands per cocktail. 

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What questions would you ask the bar owner before you plan your sales growth strategy?

1. What's your goal?
2. Do we need to generate cocktail interest?
3. How are we planning to increase the skill set of our team members?
4. Sales or media awards?

How can suppliers work with you to drive sales?

Get creative, if you've seen it before, be different. Stop peddling the old tricks that worked 10 years ago. If you want to be better and different, you have to do things better and differently. 

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What do you look for items that qualify for house pour?

Quality, gone are the days of our guests looking for the cheapest hooch out there. They have brands they love and on top of that, if they actually want cheap, I do love me a good dive bar. 

What are the four main things you focus on daily in your role?

Education, how am I preparing my team for their next job? Logistics, where are our systems working vs areas of opportunity? R&D, I always have to be an idea factory and some days, an idea warehouse. Lastly, how to improve my public speaking; I'm constantly teaching and training so I can't suck at trying to inspire people to drink better. 

5 ways to upsell drinks at the bar.

Education, how much does your staff know? How much do they care? Offer a few recognizable premiums but mostly offer options they don't see everywhere. Talented and committed bartenders, if you’re trusting them to make premium drinks, they need to have premium skills. Lastly, did I already say education??

Tips on training new bartenders.

Beau du Bois stirring up a drink

Keep them engaged, their training can't just be this monotony of information being lobbed at them. Make sure their experience is dynamic and honestly, fun. Your goal should be that they are excited to come to work and learn more. Beyond that, be the perfect example, if you’re hungover, clutching a Starbucks coffee; don't be surprised when they start showing up in the same dumpster fire state of mind and body. 

What are the drinks trending in your country? cocktails, brand names, categories?

Classic Martini is about to have a moment. Espresso Martini is trending and I'm here for that, honestly. Guests have just spend 18 months at home watching videos online, so they're very interested in learning more about craft cocktails in general.

What's customer service to you?

Customer service should always be approached at genuinely being engaged with providing a thoughtful and individual guest experience. Do you like to go out to dinner and have a memorable experience? Of course you do!

Define a good bartender.

For me, a good bartender is very focused on the individual guest experience as crafting each drink to the height of our standards. They work efficiently, clean and always, quietly. Lastly, they're interested in what they're serving and where they work.

How do you manage non-performing brands?

Firmly, we pay our invoices promptly, so we expect constant hustle from any of our brands. Brands are constantly trying to make the menu at Puesto so my expectations are very high. 

How can you increase your beverage sales with the selection you already have?

Efficiency, how do I make 1 cocktail per guest become 2 or three? It's all in efficiency of logistics. 

How according to you has the role of the Bartender evolved, especially now during Covid times?

I think, more than ever, people are thirsty to sit at a bar and others are just plain thirsty. So, you've got a busier bar top and a busier restaurant, time to hit hero button. 

What else do you look for in a brand before saying yes apart from quality, value, and package?

Communication and organization, seen brand of all shapes and sizes, I can navigate the brands that don't have their teams on point.

Give us an example of a common problem in bar business and how you handle it.

I see other groups constantly treat the bar in their restaurants like a revenue center that just figures itself out. Wrong, your bar is potentially your most profitable revenue center and if you don't have a Jedi running it and Jedi's working it, don't expect distinct profitability. 

Your favorite places to enjoy drinks?

Here in San Diego, I enjoy Noble Experiment. In LA, the Winston House, David Purcell is a lights out Jedi and runs a tight program there. In NYC, Overstory has the best cocktails in town. 

What's the best and worst part of your job?

The best part is working with very talented and skilled young bartenders who are excited to consider bar programming as a professional career. The worst; right now some guests are just clueless how hard it’s been for restaurants to restaff and reopen, you will hit a button with me if I see you degrade anyone on my team. Just be patient and be kind, we look forward to getting a drink in your hand ASAP. 

Interview by Prithvi Nagpal, Editor & Sommelier