In this special GIANT SIZED Buy Back (call it a double) Season Finale, Andrew from DeNucci's in Highland Park outside Chicago sits down with both John and Alex and causes absolute chaos. The threesome has known each other since middle school, and it shows. Tune in as they talk about the origins of their friendship, and how Andrew got the bartending bug. Andrew also offers some solid advice, lies on his resume, and tries to explain Malort.

In this special GIANT SIZED Buy Back (call it a double) Season Finale, Andrew from DeNucci's in Highland Park outside Chicago sits down with both John and Alex and causes absolute chaos. The threesome has known each other since middle school and it shows. Tune in as they talk about the origins of their friendship, and how Andrew got the bartending bug. Andrew also offers some solid advice, lies on his resume, and tries to explain Malort.

In this special GIANT SIZED Buy Back (call it a double) Season Finale, Andrew from DeNucci's in Highland Park outside Chicago sits down with both John and Alex and causes absolute chaos. The threesome has known each other since middle school and it shows. Tune in as they talk about the origins of their friendship, and how Andrew got the bartending bug. Andrew also offers some solid advice, lies on his resume, and tries to explain Malort.

Crystal returns this week to talk about her personal war with raccoons, Funky Cold Medinas, and Covid's effect on local business. She also may have been witness to a failed murder, AND ALSO planned John's murder? It's unclear. Bees? They had so much fun chatting, they actually had to hop on a second call this week!

Crystal has worked in every type of bar possible, including a few you've never heard of. In this Part 1 of 2, Crystal charts her journey from bev cart golf girl getting flirty with those over sixty, to managing one of Queens' top bars, to mom of two, and back behind the pine.

Alec returns for Part 2 at the Starchild Rooftop, where he takes us behind the scenes to a cast party of one of TV's hottest shows. He and John dig deeper into the box of booze, and we get a rundown of his drinking history with ONE unfortunate beer that puts him out.

In this week's Part 1 of 2, Alec Kass—an old acting buddy and now the Corporate Beverage Manager of Carver Road Hospitality Group—sits down with John at one of his bars (Starchild Rooftop at the Civilian Hotel). Listen in as John and Alec weave through their intermingled history together, and John reveals the TRUE story of how he started working in bars. Spoiler: It involves Alec, his mom, and his sister (it's not as weird as it sounds, we promise.)

Natasha, Carlo, and John all met at the now-defunct sports (read: absolute dive) bar called Duren. Natasha was bartending, Carlo was DJing, and John was drinking after a shift at the Blind Pig. It's been almost 10 years, and now Natasha and Carlo have overseen the opening of the much classier Bateman's in Manhattan, and John is still drinking. Join them this week for a walk down memory lane on THE BUY BACK PODCAST.

In this week's episode, John's American ego is exposed, while Liz from Piranha Bar in Montreal patiently explains all things Canada. Listen as they talk about French acrobats, some epic music, and maybe even a little Jim Henson.

While IMDB knows him best as Mickey McGinnes on AMC's Hell on Wheels, and his family knows him best as Phillip, John knows him best as his bartending buddy from the trenches of the Blind Pig in the mid-2000s. Join these two old friends as they sit down and chat about the Santa-Con shenanigans and sometimes the overwhelming darkness of working behind the pines.