Music and Booze With Mo

Baltimore native Nick Pikounis is the bar manager and beverage director of the tropical rum bar Pink Flamingo. It's surprising that someone who learned craft cocktails at a spot that wouldn't allow the use of citrus would now commandeer a place that revels in them - and he steered them right into a James Beard nomination. He also loves DJ culture, making some attempts in the electronic world after...

After years of working in hospitality within the Disneyland environment (hello Club 33!), Michael Cobb found himself opening up a little tiki bar smack in the middle of Santa Barbara's wine country. High Roller Tiki Lounge, located in Solvang, CA, is a tropical oasis in a small Danish village where you can catch rockabilly and surf bands booked by Michael, who also throws shows in Vegas and crafts...

Osman Cortave opened up Loma Bar in Providence, Rhode Island, with his bartender wife and twin brother. It was a dream they all shared and worked hard to make a reality, creating a inclusive space that serves up great cocktails and Latin vibes in an intimate setting. Their earnestness has earned them Tales of the Cocktail and James Beard notice, and the first cocktail Osman ever served was to bar...

Demi Natoli made her way to her current role as National Beverage Director at Nashville based Call Mom (which includes Dolly Parton inspired bar White Limozeen, The Spare Room Hollywood, The Mountaineering Club Seattle) after kicking things off back home in Miami at spots like Kreepy Tiki and even being recruited to serve at the legendary Lost Lake in Chicago. Her Miami time even saw her booking p...

Mike Anders currently tends bar at the James Beard nominated spot the Elbow Room, established in 1970 in Vancouver, Washington. When he got into bartending, he was content to just pour shots and beers, but keep finding himself in places that experimented in creativity and he went along for the ride. Now crafting beautiful drinks is just second nature to him, so working in a cocktail dive bar is th...

Minakshi Singh started bartending at events and parties and fell in love... but legally, she couldn't bartend in an actual bar. It was the '00s in India, and despite that obstacle, she forged a career in the spirits industry and opened several bars. Starting with Cocktails and Dreams Speakeasy, she followed with Sidecar (awarded as one of Asia's Best), The Brook, The Old House (in Nepal) and the l...

Nathan Elliott can be found behind the bar at Scotch Lodge in Portland, Oregon, which just racked up James Beard semifinalist nomination but has been deeply appreciated by its community since opening in 2019 (Esquire magazine has already recognized it as one of their best bars as well). Nathan got into bartending the old fashioned way - trying to support his music habit. From his start playing in...

Ricky Ramirez didn't mean to own a bar, it just kind of happened. And even though he sort of wishes he took a little more time diving in, The Mothership in Milwaukee, WI seems to have done ok, racking up a James Beard Semifinalist nod this year. Ricky grew up with religious parents in the Latin community so screaming in metal bands and becoming a bartender was not really an expected outcome (or wa...

Billy Weathers is bringing community to both the music scene and the cocktail scene of Des Moines, Iowa. He opened The Contrary just over a year ago after visiting craft bars in places like Chicago and San Diego, and decided his town deserved something like that. His vision has just earned the space a James Beard semi-finalist spot for best new bar. Billy also performs hip hop as B. Well, and cont...

Abigail Gullo, who you can find leading the program at New Orleans spot Loa, kicked off her bartending career in her native New York, where she trained (and drank) under some of the masters of the mid aughts. After honing her skills at Fort Defiance, she realized her other career onstage acting and singing was possibly behind her (although she's still ready of the opportunity arises!). She made he...

Charlie Lehmann & Cosmo Soto bartended in a variety of Sydney, Australia spots (from local dives to crafty speakeasies) before they had the opportunity to become owners of two music centric cocktail joints: Ramblin' Rascal Tavern and Double Deuce Lounge. They became the top selling spot for cognac in the country while also providing live tunes to their community, certainly haven't shied away f...

Damien Cavicchi is owner of Jackson, Mississippi's legendary music spot Hal & Mal's as well as the speakeasy tucked away nearby, The Walk In. Although he isn't a trained bartender (his calling is to be the chef), he did put those culinary skills to use when crafting the spirit free cocktails for The Walk In. Likewise, he dabbled at guitar and fronted a band in his younger days, but his love of...

Alex Howard, owner of Martha My Dear in Nashville, thought he was going to go into the music industry but got bit by the bartending bug instead. He came from a family of music creatives, and he went to college to study the music business himself and become a mover and a shaker. To pay the bills he got into hospitality, and the longer he worked in it, the more he loved it. From learning the basics...

Hannah Spear, bartender at Chicago's Bisous, started playing violin when she was 6 and thought that was going to be her entire life. After years of training and the highs and lows that come with an intense musical existence, she needed to take a break. Enter bartending. Now the craft of making cocktails has her performing for Chicago's drinkers, playing with terroir, reversing martinis, and drinki...

Lou Bernard currently serves as the beverage director for Mita in Washington DC, applying his skills to the drinks at this James Beard nominated (and Michelin Guide) vegan Latin restaurant. He's been involved in the DC scene for years though, proudly bringing the flavors and inspirations from his Latin upbringing to the bar and introducing the area to Singani. He was recently named one of Punch's...

Danny Garcia bartended in the Midwest and the Southwest, and when Lady Jane came calling, he made his way to Denver to join the team. Now serving as the spot's assistant general manager, Danny talks about his love for rums and his current obsession with Billy Joel while not forgetting his childhood fascination with swing music and playing saxophone. He learned something from each space he worked a...

Alexandra Kuechler Caffall returned to her hometown of Portland, OR after having been part of the NYC cocktail scene, spending years at Fort Defiance, and now behind the bar at Too Soon. She moved around the music world too, playing several instruments and leading worship groups when she was young, then ditching that to head into opera and direction of musical experiences. We talk the philosophy o...

Judd Finkelstein - known as The Fink, which is also the name of his award winning cocktail bar in Napa Valley - has been a drinks scholar from an early age, digging up classic recipes to try out on friends when they were still more about beer bongs. He even formed the Friends of Ardent Mixology (F.O.A.M.) decades ago, creating a community of like minded folks who enjoyed learning about all things...

Cristian Salazar Diaz went from the bar scene in Fresno to combining his culinary training and bartending skills at Trader Sam's at Disneyland, and now can be found at The Lucky Tiki, located in both West Hollywood and Highland Park, CA. He accidentally found himself in the tiki world and went at it with gusto, later applying molecular experimentation into his mixing and enjoying the community and...

Cesilia Berumen took the long way to her current role as the general manager at The Golden Tiki in Las Vegas, having a full career and family already in place before relocating to the desert playground about 20 years ago. That major life change also put her in the managerial world of hospitality before she decided to take a step back into bartending, and eventually landed her in an immersive tiki...

Ryan Jones is relatively new to the tiki cocktail scene, but he admired it from afar for a long time before he had the opportunity to be a part of it. Growing up in a formerly dry county in Kentucky, he taught himself how to make tiki drinks and drove hours to find specific ingredients. This all paid off when he got a job at the revived Don the Beachcomber bar in Tampa, FL, and then moved on to th...

Suzanne Navarro teamed up with her business partner to open a tiki bar in Maui, Ester's Fair Prospect, after she realized she didn't want to have a boss anymore. Before that, she bounced around Bay Area dive bars, did a stint at Miami's Sweet Liberty, and got her rum education in Chicago at Three Dots and a Dash. But the islands were calling, so she picked up her guitar and crossed the ocean to la...

Tommy Milburn fell in love with tiki when he was a kid on vacation in Hawaii, and became a bartender to support his other creative endeavors but always checked in with tropical bars wherever he was. A musical theater kid in Canada who played piano and grew up to run off to L.A. to be an actor, he eventually decided to embrace the dream of buying a spot in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, and open up his...

Erica Luera brought her witchy tropical vibes to the world renowned Strong Water in Anaheim, CA and is currently serving as their bar lead. She used to visit the legendary tiki palace Bahooka in Rosemead as a kid, about the time she was learning how to play violin. She graduated to working in dive bars and playing the guitar, and during the pandemic, she deeply dug into the craft of tiki drinks wh...

Valentino DeMartini was actually already behind the bar when he was a teen, barbacking and perfecting the martini for his family's bartending service. He started playing guitar around that time as well, inspired originally by emo but then embracing the country music of his youth. These days you can find him shaking things up at LA hotspot Donna's in the Echo Park neighborhood, while his twangy ban...