Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC) is the premiere event for any beverage professional! It is a place to learn, meet and share ideas with the very best in the industry as well as with many other novices looking to up their game.  Houston Grey Goose brand ambassador Nathan Raffell shares with me how he first ended up at Tales and how it helped him develop within the bar industry.

This week is Iron Bartender month and my busy schedule with Lockwood Stn. Opening a bar is hard enough, but you add five restaurants to it and....tic toc.

Patrick is a Houston bartender who is also a World Class competitor, bar consultant, and soon to be bar owner.  In our conversation we touch on matters of bar culture, competition among other topics.

Insta: @openbarexperience

Twitter: @daquiri_tv

Andy Seymour takes us through the process of producing sherry. A fortified wine full of complexity and tradition has a style for all palates. 

As for me, I have a bone to pick with publications that like to give Houston the cold shoulder even when we win and deserve the recognition.

Neat Pour 

BAR 5 

Dre Masso spent his formative years in the bar industry leaning from some of the best and most legendary bartenders and ambassadors in the 90s London bar scene. 

The past six years he has been traveling the world with a property design and development agency. After spending some time in Colombia he is headed back to Europe. 

Visit some of his bars in London, FAM and Opium Cocktail and Dim Sum Parlor  

Also check out my website:

The Open Bar Experience  

Thomas Reyna has a diverse set of experiences in the bar and restaurant industry. He has been able to participate in some of the industries best immersive training programs. Some of these programs allow a very limited amount of attendees into each session. What makes Thomas special is that he does not hoard the information. Instead, he shares it with the Houston chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild of which he serves as Secretary. 

You can find him:

Insta: @treyna31

In this episode I talk about the healthy growth the Bartender Guild has had under the current leadership and of some of the programs and people that are making an incredible contribution to the Houston Bar Scene.

Sara Cueno at Poitin

Rich Bailey at Johnny Goldbricks 

Nathan Raffell with Grey Goose

All opinions in this podcast are my own and no one else's.

Becoming an entrepreneur is a difficult decision to come to and follow through on, but when it's with people you love and trust then that is different. Here is a couple and family member starting a coffee roasting company in what could have been less than ideal situation. However, their desire to bring to market something unique persevered. 

Houston bartender Marla Martinez  talks about how she got behind the bar for the first time, her mentor and how she used her love of cooking to create cocktails that helped her through the competition circuit.