This episode features Tiffanie Barriere, a bartender, educator, mixologist, and Tastemakers of the South award-winner who spent 7 years as the beverage director of One Flew South in Atlanta aka the “Best Airport Bar in the World.”  This Louisiana-Texas native now based in Atlanta is the trustworthy mentor of some of the best bartenders and mixologists in the world with a goal of education, service and fun with every pour. As an independent bartender, she is known for creative and innovative cocktail menus for pop-dinners, hosting mixology classes around the nation, and connecting culinary and farm culture with spirits. As a leader, she is a member of the Tales of the Cocktail Grants Committee, the James Beard Beverage Advisory Board, and a member of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.  Being “The Drinking Coach” has taken her around the world and to demonstration stages of food and hospitality events such as the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, Charleston Food & Wine Festival, BevCon, Tales of the Cocktail, Savannah Food & Wine Festival, Music to Your Mouth and more. As an author-contributor, Tiffanie’s cocktail recipes can be found in the Southern Foodway Alliance Guide to Cocktails by Jerry Slayter, Jubilee by Toni Tipton Martin, and Road Soda by Kara Newman. Her reputation as a public historian has opened doors for her to speak on panels at such venues as Fire, Flour & Fork, Southern Foodways Symposium, and the Soul Summit, and she has interpreted the cocktails of African American and women firsts in spirits at the James Beard House in New York City.  In 2020, Tiffanie was featured on Food Network's The Kitchen and received the Tales of the Cocktails Dame of the Year award. In 2021, she appeared on the cover photo of Imbibe Magazine for the Top 75 for Imbibe, became a judge for the L.A. Spirits Awards and Ascot Awards with Fred Minnick, spoke in Berlin for Bar Convent, and shared birthday cocktails with Hoda and Jenna on Today Show.  We met at dinner in Rome while visiting Italy with Hello Grappa to learn about this unique category of the wine and spirits industry, and we talk about our key takeaways from the trip and how we see our industries evolving in the future. You can follow her @thedrinkingcoach and visit www.thedrinkingcoach.com to learn more about her work.

Recorded November 16, 2022

Photo credit: Gregory Miller

This episode is sponsored by Diane Carpenter and Ross Knoll Vineyard: https://www.dianecarpenter.org/wines