Over the last 10 years, restaurants and bars have placed a much bigger emphasis on their cocktail program. And one segment where this is most apparent is the world of fine dining. Until recently, these Meccas for haute cuisine have largely only served wine and offered wine pairings. But as bartenders got more savvy and chefs wanted to integrate some of the drinks that they personally enjoy, that area of the industry started to offer cocktail pairings, and in some cases, open whole cocktail lounges that operate as their own fine dining experience.

Today’s guest, Stevan Miller, is the Beverage Director at Esmé and Bar Esmé – Chef Jenner Tomaska’s homage to fine art as interpreted through his cuisine. This is a lofty goal in itself, but Chef Tomaska tapped Stevan Miller to work alongside him to bring that vision to reality with the beverage menu.

Miller also hosts the Balanced Hospitality podcast where he interviews people in the food and beverage industry that are offering up new ways of operating and innovating the world of hospitality to make positive and lasting changes for our community and beyond. So “smash” that like button and subscribe!

For the final episode of 2024 I’ve got a fun one for you. This week, we departing from the norm a little. Well, a very little. We’re talking Tiki, but this week I’ve got two aficionados on the show to talk about seeking out the world’s best Tiki, tropical, and rum bars. When Tikiphiles travel, it’s a given that a search of bars in the area will be one of the first tasks before arriving. But what makes Dan and Kane McGee unique is that they travel for business. And that business is managing some of the biggest rock and pop tours in the world. They’re currently traveling with Justin Timberlake and the tour stopped by Indianapolis long enough for us to drink far too much, and to sit and have a chat about their unique lifestyle. I always have a lot of fun with these two (and Dan’s other son, Josh, that just wrapped up his tour with ELO, so couldn’t make it) and I hope you enjoy this conversation between friends that have a shared love of cocktails, tiki, and music.

Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted another interview. And for my sins, they gave me one.

It took 5 years to recover from the last “interview” on Shift Drink, and we’re finally ready to do it again. Given our personal history of overconsuming together, it was best to make this interview happen remotely to avoid the pitfalls that we know all too well.

Beachbum Berry returns to the show this week to talk about his recent travels, cruising around the Caribbean with Dave Wondrich, the early days of the Tiki Renaissance, the frustrations of opening a tiki bar later in life and, of course, to talk about Sippin’ Santa’s Surf Shack! It’s all here and this time in Tiki-Vision-3D!

If this week’s guest sounds familiar, you probably recognize her last name. Eve Bergeron, granddaughter of the late Trader Vic Bergeron, is now helping to run the family business that just celebrated it’s 90th Anniversary. For those unfamiliar with Tiki and Polynesian Pop history, Trader Vic is one of the “Big Three” and his biggest claim to fame is the Mai Tai (or arguably Crab Rangoon). Eve is now protecting that legacy. Not only does she travel the world promoting the Trader Vic’s brand and helping to open new concepts, but she has been very active in preserving and archiving historical documents and ephemera surrounding her grandfather and Trader Vic’s.

But she is no “nepo baby”. In fact, she wasn’t even really aware of the impact the restaurants had made on the world by the time she was eating there with her parents in the late 70’s and 80’s. She just knew that her family was in the food business. Nothing more. But after spending time in the hospitality industry in Europe, she made her return to the states and a return to the family legacy (yes, I know… I use that word a lot in this episode). She now wears a lot of hats, and today you’ll hear about some of them.

Photo of Eve Bergeron courtesy of Jeffrey Bond Photography

During my first visit to Alaska, I had to check off the requisite activities… salmon fishing on the Kenai, Halibut fishing off Kachemak Bay, Denali National Park, and of course, Denali Brewing Company. So, on my way out of Talkeetna, I stopped by to chat with Co-Founder Sassan Mossanen. In a 15 years, Sassan has piloted his brewery through expansion after expansion, the launch of a large production facility, a new distillery, retail sales outlets, and… well, tune in to find out.

This wasn’t his original intention. He’s moved around a lot throughout the United States, but mountaineering and Denali pulled him to Talkeetna, Alaska. Talkeetna is known as a home base for mountain climbers seeking to check Denali off their list. It’s a town whose motto is “A drinking town with a climbing problem”, and that is in no small part due to the fantastic brews and spirits available from Denali Spirits and Denali Brewing Company.

A special shoutout goes to Sassan, too, for inviting me to join a meeting with his team to offer tasting notes for a whisky Denali Spirits bottled for Three Bears grocery. Those notes are for advertising to be used in their stores throughout Alaska. It was a fun project to join. 

Rum nerds and mid-century Mavens, Martin and Rebecca Cate are back on the show!

Check out Tiki Guru and The Cult of Tiki to hear previous interviews.

This week, we’re diving into their place in the world of rum and the Rumbustion Society at Smuggler’s Cove, where their collection of fine and rare rums tops the 1000 mark. Over the course of the years, their rum club has offered amazing perks such as distillery tours to Jamaica, Martinique, and all over the US. As the club gained in popularity, and the bar’s profile grew, it became a full-time job for the duo just to manage the inventory and memberships.

This week it’s all about rum. Refer back to previous episodes to hear about Martin’s start in Tiki, and how to power couple became synonymous with Bay Area Tiki.

You can buy those mugs and other Smuggler’s Cove merch at smugglerscovesf.com

Marie King has been making cocktails longer than most of us in the tiki bar business. She got an early start in hospitality at the age of 16 and couldn’t wait to get behind the bar. But, in order to do that, she’d have to move away from her home in Southern California and make her way to The Big Easy, New Orleans. But her travels weren’t done yet. She spent time trekking across Europe and getting a feel for a different way of doing things behind the bar before returning to Los Angeles to run LA’s oldest tiki bar, the Tonga Hut.

Now ten years later, she finds herself running the iconic beverage program for THE tiki originator… Don The Beachcomber. It’s been an incredible journey, one that would be nigh impossible to replicate in modern times. Mix up a Zombie and tune in to hear how she did it.

Mahalo Satan!

Eric Kaye spent decades of his life as a professional musician and amateur rum aficionado. But, as a composer for film and television, technological advances brought the barrier-to-entry intro so low that the competition for those film contracts started to dry up by 2017, as producers looked for cheaper options, even emplying AI services to do the work previously done by a musician. So Eric Kaye decided it was time to turn his passion for rum into a full-time career.

Eric decided the path he would take would be as an independent bottler of fine rums. As a musician accustomed to travel, it was a logical step that would allow him to visit distilleries, rum caches, and blending houses such as E&A Scheer and the Main Rum Company. He launmched Holmes Cay in 2018 and made big waves immediately with the first release, a Barbadian rum distilled at Foursquare.

In the years following, Holmes Cay has garnered a loyal following by rum and spirits geeks from far and wide. He now offers a wide variety of labels under two primary categories – the Single Cask rums that are hunted and collected by the hardcore rum nerds, and the Single Origin blends that offer a taste and terroir of a particular place like Fiji and Reunion Island.

And just a few days after this episode drops, on June 1 2024, there will be three more releases. So what better time than now to grab a bottle and eavesdrop on this conversation between Eric and myself? Cheers!