Hugging the Bar

If you read about drinks at all, you may know the relatively new NYC bar Hello Hello for its famed, elevated riff on a vodka Red Bull. But there's so much more to unpack about this intriguing concept: Its day-to-night model as a café and bar, its three-pronged business approach as a coffee shop, bar, and distillery and how those prongs complement each other and are balanced to run smoothly; its ov...

David Nilsen is a writer, educator, consultant, event host, and podcaster focusing on beer and artisanal chocolate. There's more than enough to dig into with his prolific, insightful work for outlets including Wine Enthusiast, Pellicle Magazine, VinePair, Eater, Craft Beer & Brewing, and more, and with his engaging classes, tastings, and pairings he leads in Ohio and beyond, but just in time f...

Stephanie Grant is an experienced, accomplished writer and consultant in the food and beverage space with razor-focused insight to offer brands and businesses on how to craft their own unique stories that will engage new audiences, keep those audiences compelled with more dynamic social media presences, and overall brand and market themselves effectively even in today's challenging industry. She a...

Imbibers are engaging with beer in a more personal way than ever before. More than category loyalty or education-driven geekery, people seek meaningful connections, stories from the personal to the cultural to the historical, and ways that they can relate to a particular beer, brewery, or style. Enter beer industry veterans Jenny Pfäfflin and Shana Solarte—with experience working for the Cicerone...

Welcome to the new and improved Hugging the Bar podcast! We're kicking things off with Anton Kinloch, who owns cocktail bar Lone Wolf in Kingston, New York with his wife Lisa Dy. Anton is a fount of knowledge as a seasoned owner, bartender, bar program leader, sommelier, and consultant—it's knowledge he passes on with his monthly Class to Glass mentorship program at Lone Wolf, which tackles all di...