Drinks At Work with Sam Bygrave

Today I’m talking to Lauren Mote. She's the Global Director of On-Trade Excellence for Patrón Tequila, and oversees the brand's advocacy and education with bartenders across the globe. She's also behind the revamp of their Patrón Perfectionists Global Cocktail Competition, and today she talks about her journey to this one of a kind role, what's changed in the Patrón Perfectionists program, her adv...

Today I’m talking to Jordan Blackman. He's the group beverage manager for Sydney's Odd Culture Group, and has spent the last decade working in and running some of Sydney's best known bars. Here he tells us just what a group beverage role entails, how he got to the job, and loads more. 

My guest on this episode is ERIK LORINCZ. He’s as big name bartender as you get: he won the global World Class final in 2010, was the 10th head bartender at the American Bar at the storied Savoy Hotel in London, taking it to number 1 on the world’s 50 best bars list in 2017, before opening his own bar, Quaint — which also found itself on The World’s 50 Best Bars the year it debuted. He even has hi...

The World’s 50 Best Bars is a big deal. Held each year in October since 2009, when a bar lands on the list it can change their fortunes: they get more press coverage, they receive more trade, and they find it easier to hire good staff. But it’s also something of a lightning rod for criticism. So in this episode, I talk to mark Sansom, content director for 50 Best Bars, and we address some of the c...

Humans seem to be hard-wired to notice change — we put a big emphasis on new things, and we hate to lose things we value. But when everything is fine, and things are just coasting along — well, we don’t tend to notice them. Perhaps we don’t appreciate them as much as we would if we knew that one day they weren’t going to be there. So on this episode I speak to Lee Potter Cavanagh, to find out what...

Today I’m talking to Theo Watt. This episode is one for those who have thought about writing about drinks and bars and bartenders. I’m talking to Theo Watt, who is the founder of DRiNK Magazine in Asia, where they publish out of Hong Kong — you may recall his editor Holy Graham on a previous episode of Drinks At Work — and also pout of Shanghai for the Chinese market. He’s also the founder of Thir...

Today I’m talking to Cara Devine. You might know Cara from Melbourne rooftop bar, Bomba, where she is the bar manager; you may also have seen her writing in industry publications like Australian Bartender, or here on Boothby; but it’s more likely you know Cara from her successful and popular YouTube channel, behind the Bar with Cara Devine. That’s where she has amassed over 135,000 subscribers and...

This episode features Jane Ryan, a writer and content creator working in the world of drinks. She’s someone with some valuable insight into how you might want to go about building a career making content about drinks and getting it seen across the social media platform world we live in today. Jane started out as a drinks journo; she studied journalism at university in the UK before landing a plum...

Bartenders and hospitality types get to see a broad swathe of humanity at their finest and at their worst — and pick up a lot of stories along the way. Hospitality at its best is also often a storytelling experience, and some of the best storytellers work in the industry. But what if you want to take it further, and get into writing about drinks and bars and the stories that come from that well? W...

Today’s podcast is one for anyone in hospitality and bartending who has ever thought about making the leap over to the brand side of the industry. Maybe you’ve wondered whether or not you are someone suited to the brand world, working for a spirits company? Hospitality can arm with you a number of skills to make the move to brands, but they’re also looking for a particular type of person as my gue...

The Drinks At Work podcast is back after a few weeks off — I can recommend a few bottles of beer on a Fijian beach to anyone, by the way. My guest today is a good friend and possibly Australia’s most prolific drinks photographer, Christopher Pearce. We worked together for years when I was the editor at Australian Bartender, and Chris’ work spans the world of food and drink, shooting with bars, bar...

Evan Stroeve is a bartender, the Australian Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year for 2021, a brand owner in Rhubi Mistelle, and a bar consultant, and he’s not yet 30 years old. I first interviewed Evan in 2017 when he was at Shady Pines Saloon in Sydney, and he since went onto a trio of Australia’s best bars: The Baxter Inn, Bulletin Place, where he was the general manager, and now Re, Matt Wh...

Philip Duff talks about the importance of being an asshole (at least some of the time), shares his advice on what to do if you’re keen to start a spirits brand, and offers some insight into where he thinks the opportunities are in the drinks industry today.

My guest on this episode is James Irvine, he’s the creative director of gin drinks for the Australian craft gin distillery, Four Pillars — it’s a unique role, one that is a brand ambassador role, but which also sees him as the lead for the Four Pillars Lab, the brand’s flagship bar in Surry Hills, where they’re making some very good drinks. The way I see it, bartenders who build a lasting career t...

It’s fair to say that Dr Anne Brock has something of a dream job: she’s the master distiller for Bombay Sapphire, overseeing their Laverstoke distillery and the spirit for all of the Bombay brands. I spoke to Dr Anne while she’s in Melbourne, where she’s launching their latest gin, Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru, and in this conversation we talk about the lessons she learned as a bartender — and how...

Nick Miles is a Jameson ambassador and the winner of the 2018 brand ambassador of the year award at the Bartender Magazine Bar Awards, for his work as the Australian Sailor Jerry ambassador. A couple of years as the ambassador for beer brand Estrella followed, but in the midst of lockdowns and covid, Nick suffered an accident, breaking his back, being bedridden for months, and needing to learn to...

Launching a new business is hard, but what is harder is keeping it going and growing. This week on the podcast we hear from Penny Sippe, the founder of  Australian Cocktail Month  — an initiative you might know as the first sponsor of this podcast — which is happening this May in 12 cities and 145 bars around Australia. It’s back for its second year, and was born from two things: one, Penny’s pand...

Michael Bascetta is a Melbourne-based hospitality pro who is the co-owner of the influential Fitzroy wine bar,  Bar Liberty ; they’ve also got the Italian-inspired  Capitano  in Carlton and  Falco Bakery  in Collingwood. Michael also has  Worksmith , a co-working space for hospitality, and we talk about how that has evolved, how they very nearly lost it during the pandemic, and why it’s a break-ev...

Today’s guest on the podcast is Ross Blainey. He’s the ambassador for The Balvenie and Glenfiddich, and not shy of a real discussion about the whisky world. This is actually a conversation I had with Ross for an online Boothby. Talks event during lockdown in October 2020, called How Whisky Works —  you can watch the video here. The idea behind the talk was to get at a broader look at how the whisk...

James France has been influential within the Australian drinks industry over the last decade, and is responsible for importing some of the best and most respected craft spirit brands through his company Vanguard Luxury Brands. He also seems to have a knack for recognising and breaking small brands in the Australian market, brands that then go on to get picked up by the big players in the drinks wo...

Shay Chamberlain is an accomplished bartender and bar manager. She ran the Melbourne cocktail institution that is Black Pearl, working there for four years. Before that, she honed her conflict resolution skills at the late night hospo bar of choice for many in Sydney, Big Poppa’s; and before there, Shay was a key member of the team at Bulletin Place that saw them win a number of accolades, includi...

Tim Stones is the distiller at Hickson House Distilling Co, where he makes a trio of gins under the Hickson Rd label. He began his career as a bartender, working at a couple of influential London bars in the aughts, before becoming the global brand ambassador for Beefeater gin. In this conversation he talks about what it was like to be a brand ambassador in the days of healthy expense accounts and...

You may know Caroline Ashford as The Gin Queen on Instagram and Facebook or via her website, theginqueen.com, but Caroline is also behind the Australian arm of Junipalooza, which as you might guess is a two day show devoted to all things gin, and during the pandemic she got into the gin pushing game herself with The Ginporium, an online concierge that helps you get the right gin for you. It’s an i...

Jason Williams is not just a bar owner, nor is he just the creative director for Proof & Company's consultancy agency Proof Creative — he also is one of the few bartenders to have his face and nickname adorn a bottle of gin. Williams talks to Sam Bygrave about how the choices he has made along the way, his openness to opportunity, and his adaptability have led him to a unique and creative care...