Shift Drink

You can’t escape the topic. Seemingly, everyday Trump goes on social media announcing new tariffs in an effort to bully other nations into submission. But in the meantime, Americans are the ones getting hurt. And that hurt has the p0tential to metastasize across the global wine community. Today I have wine importer Lyle Fass on the show to talk about the damage that even relatively small tariffs w...

Cory Starr has helmed some of the most well-respected cocktail programs in the country. But a few months ago, he took his biggest job yet… he is now running the show at the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale. The Mai Kai is a tiki institution — in a class of “survivors” from tiki’s golden age. Originally opened in 1956, it was designed to be a Polynesian paradise to rival trendy Polynesian palaces of the...

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 a...

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 tas...

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 retu...

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 n...

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 pr...

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...

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 E...

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 d...

It’s always a great time when I get a chance to talk with Zan Kong of Worthy Park Estate . But, despite the many hours of sharing Jamaican rum together, I’ve never really asked about his background and how he ended up in Jamaica from Canada. Well, this was my opportunity to remedy that. Tune in to find all about his big move from hospitality to rum production, and everything about Wort...

I’ve been working on getting Christophe Rossi on the show  since mid-August of last year. His bar, L’Escamoteur , came highly recommended from several Kyoto locals while I was in Japan. I dropped in expecting to have a drink or two, but ended up  staying all night. And several subsequent nights. The cocktails were perfect and delivered with a bit of magic , but the real draw was the se...

Lately, there seems to be a theme of guests that had a specific path in life only to find it disrupted and hijacked by the craft spirits business. And this week is no exception. Jason Cox was working as a translator when he decided to spend a few months studying Mexican slang and dialects.   When he attended his first mezcal tasting, he was immediately drawn into a world of fine-dining , mezcal, a...

This week’s guest, Garett Richard has worked in some of the best bars and with some of the best bartenders in New York, which also makes them some of the best in the world. And being a tikiphile running a Tiki/Tropical bar in New York makes him something of a unicorn these days. Having made an unlikely jump from radio to hospitality, he has, in just a decade, made some pretty big splashes in...

Rolling Fork Spirits won me over immediately. The two owners, Turner Wathen and Jordan Morris, set out to create a brand that offered something no one else was offering. Luckily for us (read: me) that meant rum! This small, independent bottler could easily fly under the radar of spirits geeks. But, again, lucky for us, they’re doing it more for themselves than anyone. They source some of the...

I’m back in Japan today, and talking to one of the few tiki bar owners in the country. Brandon Grilc’s career as an architectural historian took a left hard turn when he and his wife decided to spend some time in Japan teaching English. They had already become tikiphiles and amateur Mid-Century (American) historians while living in the Pacific Northwest, but now found themselves immers...

When Ashok Chokalingam took his first job with Amrut Distilleries , he had no idea how far that job would take him, and the impact he’d have on the whisky category, India, and worldwide acceptance of one of the most beloved whisky styles in the world – made in India. Not Scotland. His first job with the company was to relocate to Newcastle upon Tyne and convince the Scots that to start...

The Cocktail Wonk is back on the show after six long years. And he’s accomplished a lot in that time. This week we’re talking about his influential book, Minimalist Tiki and his new tome, Modern Caribbean Rum , and how those books lead him and his wife Carrie to start their own publishing company, Wonk Press .

If you’re reading this we hope you’re in Tokyo, because you’re in for a real treat. Tonight is the opening of Japan’s newest craft cocktail bar, Tokyo Confidential . So today I’ve got Holly Graham on the show to discuss how she got here. Both literally and figuratively. How does a Londoner end up in Asia for 15 years, spending 10 of those years in Hong Kong, before pi...

Just a decade ago, Chris Montana opened DuNord spirits. In the ten years since, his role has grown in ways that he could have never imagined. Looking around rooms filled with craft distillers, he noticed that no one looked like him. So he set about to help remedy that through educational programs to teach young men and women of color how distillation works, how 3-tier distribution operates in the...

UPDATE:  My good friend, Brother Cleve, passed away unexpectedly on Sept 9, 2022 — just a few months after this interview. Cleve was a mentor, a friend, and a confidant for me, as well as countless others in the industry. He was always quick with a smile, generous beyond reproach, and one of the kindest humans I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. He is missed. I think of him often. So tha...

After the first ever shochu episode back in 2017 A Shochu Lesson with Erik Zmara , I received a tweet from a gentleman in Japan that was working in a distillery. He sent some responses to questions we weren’t able to answer during that episode. That man was Stephen Lyman and his life has been a whirlwind since that tweet. Stephen is now lives in Japan, is the co-author of the James Beard Fin...