StarTender

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.

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.

Houston is home to some really cool coffee shops with delicious java. The third wave of coffee has made it possible for consumers to experience products from different regions and unique styles of cultivating, washing and roasting. 

Also, we now have a high quality ingredient for the modern classic in the cocktail world...The Espresso Martini. 

Plus, coffee shops and bars make for great Third Place in our lives: home, work, coffee/cocktail.

 Jojo Martinez is a hospitality professional from the Alamo city.  She moved to Houston on the suggestion of a family member. It turned out to be an enriching transition for her professional career. Her desire to create a unique and entertaining experience for her guest guided her to seek out instruction on flair bartending. She furthered her education by entering the competition circuit. By continually seeking to improve into the best version of herself she has been able to garner recognition for grinding in a true H-Town fashion.  

Insta: @jmartinisvcs

 Wine is delicious. Wine is more fun when you taste from different regions and different producers. Knowing how to read a wine label can instantly expand your enjoyment of the world of wine. More importantly it does it at your price point. 

In the two hour interview we had last week, Mike Raymond and I talked about many topics important to the bartending community. Health and wellness, trends, the fundamentals of the 3rd space... One of those that was of particular to me was the process by which someone finds a space and gets on the same page with their business partner to 'make it happen!' Mike shares with me how he ended up opening his second bar, The Cottonmouth, in an area of downtown that is...developing.

Mike Raymond  is the owner of Reserve 101 in Houston Texas. He has been grinding it out in the Space City for several decades in the bar industry. We talked about the many changes the city of Houston has experienced and some of the does and don't of running a bar.

 Building a bar is hard work, conceptualizing it...I think that's even harder. In this episode, I interview the business couple of Merchant & Market, Gino & Blanca. They have had several retail shops around the city, renovated homes and build out some of the coolest bars around Houston.  

Sheldon Richardson was working at Tmobile when a customer later turned out to be his future boss.

Tequila is a category often misunderstood. In this episode I clearify a few of them and talk about tequila production. From agave to spirit.