Drinks At Work with Sam Bygrave

It’s one thing for a bartender to think about opening a bar of their own one day — after all, you’ve worked in bars, hopefully have run one or two and have an idea of the business side of things, you’ve got a sense of costings and hiring and know what makes a bar work.  But it’s an all-together different thing to launch a drinks brand — even one that is informed by your bartending experience, like...

In this episode, Sam Ng talks about his journey from chef to bartender to ambassador, to criss-crossing the Asia Pacific region. And he talks about why he gave up the ambassador life and came back to open his own bar, how a series of pop-ups gave him proof of concept, and loads more.

This episode, I'm talking to Nick Winter and Pete Hollands from Frog's Hollow Saloon in Brisbane, which took out two awards last month at the Boothby Best Bars QLD awards: Best New Bar QLD presented by Patron Tequila, and the big one, the Best Bar in Queensland presented by Giffard. They've got great advice on how they built their bar, the systems they've out in place, and what it might cost to op...

This is a show about building creative and rewarding careers in and around the world of drinks.  This episode, I'm talking to RockY Hair — she's the group ops manager for the Mucho Group, whose venues include Tio's Cerveceria, Cliff Dive, Cantina OK!, and Bar Planet.  

This is a show about building creative and rewarding careers in and around the world of drinks. This episode I’m talking to Mitch Townsend, the Flor de Caña brand ambassador for Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The Flor de Caña Sustainable Cocktail Challenge is the sponsor of this show, too, so in this episode Mitch shares some advice on what will make a winning drink in that competition, as well...

This episode I’m talking to James Christopher, who is one third of the ownership trio behind Sydney city rum distillery, Brix. Brix began in 2017, and opened a distillery and bar on Bourke street in Surry Hills. They’ve been laying down rum ever since, and this year they’ve had a couple of breakthroughs on their journey — they’ve reached the point now that they don’t need to import older aged spir...

This episode first aired in December 2022, but we're giving it another because Simone Caporale is in Sydney next week for the Maybe Cocktail Festival ( maybecocktailfestival.com ). Simone Caporale is something of a renaissance bartender — he’s a busy guy. He’s in the process of expanding his Barcelona bar Sips — which opened in 2021 and landed at number three on The World’s 50 Best Bars list this...

Kate McGraw is the Australian World Class ambassador and the guest on this episode. The World Class ambassador role is a big job, and I talk to Kate about that and how she got to this point in her career, why preparation is so important, what she had to improve upon to do the job well (and why), and lots more. It’s a good chat and I think you’ll find plenty of advice in there whether you’re intere...

This episode we’ve got something a little bit different. This is a recording of a panel chat that I hosted the other week in Sydney at Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof Forum. It was a great night, a number of different distilleries and brands were on hand offering samples, and we had a great audience to listen to three of the talks on the night. This one you’re about to hear was about future proofi...

This is a show about building creative and rewarding careers in and around the world of drinks. My guest on this episode is James Young.  James is the founder of Old Young’s, a small WA distillery in the Swan Valley that makes gin and vodka — and one which has racked up a number of big accolades since beginning in 2016. In 2017 and 2018 they were named champion Australian distiller at the highly r...

My guest on this episode is Sean Baxter. Sean began his working life as a bartender up in Brisbane, before moving to Melbourne and eventually getting into the brand side of things as a brand ambassador.  It’s that experience which stood him in good stead when he and business partners Tim Boast and George Georgiadis began Never Never Distilling Co in 2016. Since they first released their gin in 201...

 My guest on this episode is Krystal Hart. In this chat we get a look under the hood of the brand ambassador life. Krystal is the national bartender engagement and trade advocacy manager at Campari Australia, and one of the leading lights of the bar scene in this country for over a decade. Krystal stepped into the brand advocacy side of the bar business in 2013 with a gig for Diageo’s Reserve Bran...

My guest on this episode is the owner of Clipper in Auckland, which is talked about as the best cocktail bar in New Zealand: His name is Barney Toy. Barney is originally from the UK, but has spent a lot of his life working bars in New Zealand.  Clipper debuted in 2019, but then a pandemic came along. We don’t really talk about the pandemic and lockdowns in this chat, but it’s interesting to note h...

My guest on this episode is Julie Reiner: you may know her from any one of the New York bars she’s opened since 2003: Flatiron Lounge, Pegu Club, Clover Club, and most recently, Milady’s. She’s written cocktail books, judge cocktail comps around the world, and won numerous accolades for her bars and herself. Or if you’ve just come into the bar world, you might know her from TV and the Netflix show...

This is a show about how you can go about building a creative and rewarding career in and around the world of drinks. We’re back for the 2023 season of the show, and today’s episode is a little different. It’s a live recording of a Q&A I held with JULIO BERMEJO at PS40 in Sydney after an Altos Tequila masterclass there. Julio is best known as the creator of the Tommy’s Margarita — but he’s a l...

Dre Masso is a bartender who has done just about everything in a varied, successful career — and he's coming to Australia to share his experience soon. He's touring Australia with Julio Bermejo to talk about The Collective Spirit competition from Altos Tequila which has a $50,000 USD prize — keep an eye out for venues and dates soon. He also talks about how he chooses collaborative partners, how h...

Simone Caporale is something of a renaissance bartender — he’s a busy guy. He’s in the process of expanding his Barcelona bar Sips — which opened in 2021 and landed at number three on The World’s 50 Best Bars list this year — and has more than a few strands to what he does, and a recent roundup includes the following: along with Alex Kratena and Monica Berg, he created the innovative Muyu liqueurs...

Stefano Catino is the very definition of the consummate host. Walk into Maybe Sammy when he’s on duty — or in any of the Maybe Group’s other venues, be it the coffee-focused Sammy Jr, pizza joint Maybe Frank, or the luxe surrounds of cocktail bar Dean & Nancy on 22 — and he’s commands the room.  So on this episode, Stefano talks to me about why he does what he does, what it is that he thinks m...

Today I’m talking to Orlando Marzo. Ever since landing in London in 2009, Orlando has worked hard at some very good bars: he talks here a bit about The Player and Milk & Honey in London, two very consequential bars, and you get an insight into just how much work and preparation went into those roles, not just for Orlando but for everyone who worked at the group that owned it, The Rushmore Grou...

Today I’m talking to Ryan Chetiyawardana. You may have heard of him. The London-based bartender and creative is behind the Mr Lyan group of venues, which began in 2013 with White Lyan in Hoxton — he closed that in 2017 to launch two venues in its place: Cub, and Super Lyan. In 2014 he launched Dandelyan in London — before killing that venue in 2019 to relaunch as Lyaness, one of my favourite bars...

Today I’m talking to the talented Kayla Reid. This award-winning bartender and bar manager has just begun a new role created specifically for her at the Speakeasy Group. She's their new beverage creative and mentor and in this chat, we talk about the how she came to get this role, and her advice for bartenders wanting to craft an interesting role for themselves in the creative side of the bar busi...

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...