Gerardo “G” Bustamante — From Mexico City to Harlem: Identity & Bartending Hustle

Gerardo Bustamante — born in Mexico City, raised in Harlem, and shaped by summers in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca where his family produces mezcal.
In this episode of Bar Talking Talking Bar, Gerardo, or "G" as many know him ins this industry,  opens up about identity, belonging, and how an Xbox and a packed schedule at home pushed him into hospitality. From washing dishes at 16 to mastering speed and volume behind the bar. This episode is honest and packed with lessons for anyone building a life in hospitality.
Hear the stories that forged his voice: identity between two worlds, the grind behind Milly’s and Monkey Thief, and the pop-ups he runs to lift the Latino community. G has built a career that blends craft, community, and cultural pride.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:05

Hi, I'm Meta Hernandez. And I'm Nuri Robles. And this is Bar Talking. Talking Bar. Your access to the heartbeat of New York City's bar and hospitality scene.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

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SPEAKER_06 0:23

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SPEAKER_02 0:32

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SPEAKER_02 0:48

New Episodes Weekly.

SPEAKER_05 1:03

Anyway, welcome back to another episode of Basalking Talking Back. Today we're gonna um thank everyone to watch us, to subscribe, and for commenting and sharing. And I'm Nuri Probless.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

And I'm Edgar Hernales.

SPEAKER_06 1:19

And today we have another VIP guest.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Welcome, welcome.

SPEAKER_05 1:31

G.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Better no, you can't get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Gracias.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Very busy.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Very busy. Thank you for being here. Like we say, you know, like you know, in this industry, we showcase talent and people who've been in the industry for a while. Uh this industry.

SPEAKER_05 1:58

I'm representing New York City.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

And it's like, you know, like everyone else here and uh our audience is this podcast is uh dedicated for bartenders, bartenders, uh brands, cocktail lovers. Uh if you know anything about the bartender or the service industry in general, this is where you can learn a little bit of the of who we are as human persons. Uh we're not just a working machine, you know, and have feelings, and we do this because we like it. Uh and this is our careers. Uh, but you know, why don't we start by knowing more about Gerardo? Or aka G. G. Uh, we're gonna start calling you G because that's how everybody knows you're here in the city. In Mexico City too. Uh two cities, well, whoa.

SPEAKER_05 2:40

City Boy. City Boy. So we always said that you know, many people know you, but obviously there's people that they don't know you. Uh so if you want to introduce yourself to the audience, you're you're free to say who you are.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Well, my name is Gerardo. Um I go by G, just if you can't roll your R's, just say G. That's really how it started. It's just like as growing up, everybody would put an album in my name. And it's like drove me nuts. I think it was just too much, and I was just like, just call me G.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Oh, because you grew up in Jackson in Washington Heights.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Nah, I was I grew up in Harlem. Oh, Harlem, okay, okay. And like middle school, I was the only Mexican kid in my in my class.

SPEAKER_05 3:25

So Harlem is what, like more Dominicans and or um depends on the area and depends on the school you're in.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

The schools that I was going to, there were but predominantly Puerto Rican, black, or white. Okay. Because we were still like on Fifth Avenue.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So it's like there was a lot of white kids still there. Yeah. Um but predominantly black uh Puerto Rican, not a lot of like Mexican kids, like that was literally the reason why. I was the only Mexican kid in my class.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

Cool. Um percent things I'm gonna do. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

I don't know why it's the most something.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

Um so let's go a little bit back and uh let's start like how was your childhood, like with your parents, your family, if you want to talk to me.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

So I was born in Mexico City, Lavenia Cuitenmuck. I've always been a kid from the hood. Um I used to live in uh La Obrera. If you know Mexico City, La Brera is Barrio Pesado, so like it's a little bit of the hood. It's still pretty present. It's still pretty much a little a little bit of a hood in there. Um but uh I was born there and then my summers would be spent in Oaxaca and Miyahuatlan.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Um Miyuatlán is like a very little small town, uh um about four or five hours away from um El Centro de Oaxaca. And it's mostly known for like the gas station. Porque todos los tigres que iban para abajo, like with all the like produce, they would stop there for gas because it was like diesel there. Oh so it was like that's how you end up in that town. But recently with the whole movement of like mezcal, we're making a lot of mezcal there, so it's becoming a lot of like mezcal tourism, um, which is good for them, they're making money. I recently went back and I was like, holy fuck, there's so many new houses, and like there's a I saw a building that had like four floors, and that's never happened there. Like always just one or two floors, and I there was like, oh, it looks like a skyscraper here.

unknown 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:42

That's the that's the tallest uh building in the area, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

And it's only like four or five floors, but still very tall.

SPEAKER_05 5:49

So your grandparents live in the in that area.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yes. So my grandmother's house was um technically in Isodoro, which is like because the town is between three different municipalities. So like literally crossing the street would be a whole nother municipal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

That's one thing I never really understood about like how they're divided when they're the same town.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Uh yeah, I don't know. It's like municipales and yeah, yeah, like I don't know, too many things.

SPEAKER_05 6:20

Um what was like the the most like you can remember about your like going to that town when you were a kid.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Oh my god. Um I have like a very vivid memory of Oaxaca because I spent my summers there a lot.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

Like yeah, the the the food or like the no the the the the soil okay like the dairy like um isn't it grassy and moody? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

So the thing is in that area is very rich in minerals naturally, which is where the barro comes from. Barro is literally just soil that it's splendid. Um because of the minerality of it, the dirt is very red.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Oh yeah, like virtual, yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

See, cuando like if a car is driving or if it rains, especially if it rains, you can smell the the the dirt in the air.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, actually it reminds me of uh as a kid having uh coffee uh and then while it was raining, you can see like they're almost sensitive and feel it. It's it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 7:23

Me, I mean I'm from Puebla. Like my grandparents are from Puebla, and I also like and if I remember my childhood, it's always with my grandma. Because um my mom she used to take me like on the summer, like just take it for two months.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, basically basically that's how I ended up in Oaxaca.

SPEAKER_05 7:45

And then it's like um I remember when it was like it's super hot and they put the water in the Los Cantaritos.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Oh like little I don't even know how they call it, but yeah, no, like they there was like big vessels with uh the clay vessels. Well, it could be 110 degrees outside. That water is cold. Yeah. It's 40 degrees.

SPEAKER_05 8:03

And then you drink it and it tastes like like away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Minerally, minerally. And even with the clay, like it has this clay aftertaste, you know. Yeah. Like refresh. Yeah, that's where houses were built, like especially like 1600 1800. Still early 19, they were still built by you know, made out of clay. Nowadays, the four-story building they cannot survive if their four-story is made out of clay. They'll go down now. So they need a different structure.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

Um, so yeah, more.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So that house actually, fun fact, my grandfather actually built our house from that dirt. So our house didn't have actual like uh plumbing or electricity. He built it with just like putting mud together and let letting it dry out, and like it was sort of made like barro. Um, and then our light was just candles and stuff like that. It was like super, super small town Mexican. Like, um, like I I remember vividly one of the craziest memories of being in that house was I woke up to my grandmother screaming because there was a snake inside the house. Oh yeah, and she was like, Yeah, it made a burrow and like just broke through the wall. Yeah, and I was like, okay, that's normal.

SPEAKER_05 9:18

I remember like uh with my grandma, it would be like you have to move the beds out of the walls because it would be like scorpions around it.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Uh-huh. And uh because they the climate is so hot that scorpios drive, snakes, yeah, spiders. Yeah, they want to hide.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

They also are hot, also. Yeah, it's hot, yeah, of course. So they want to hide.

SPEAKER_05 9:39

I mean, they're beautiful, but it's like super dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

See, see, like um, it was super interesting because like next to the house was our kitchen, and our kitchen was just like um these two pillars that he built con una roca encima que la cortaron, uh huh. And it was like the comal. Okay and then we would just cut lenya and then feed the fire constantly so that way we can cook. But there was like always like these large pots on top, and like like um teníamos molino. Um we would have our own crops to make um tortillas. Tortillas. Yeah, but we would go to the molino to grind it down. So when we go to the molino tubascomo like with like 20 pounds of it, and then you come back with this ginormous pile of it. So in the corner, there was always like this big pile of like masa. Yeah, like just ready to make like tortillas or whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_05 10:30

Have you ever done tortillas?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah. I'm very happy in uh in that at that age there was no TVs, there was not uh a lot of things to entertain myself, so I either help out, do some chores, or I'm bored as fuck.

SPEAKER_05 10:45

So you never went to like your cousins or like you know your uncles, like taking comment uh llevarlos animales a comer? Yeah, going to the the mountains.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Actually, one of my chores was I had to go behind La Rieta. La reta is like something that they put on top of the bowl whenever they're making the little channels to put like the the cosecha. El arado. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And then I would go behind them putting in the seeds.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

So like I would do that for the frijol and maíz. Um, we had other different crops. I truly don't remember all of them.

SPEAKER_05 11:20

But main mainly in the areas like like beans and corn and my yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, we would have a lot of squash. Um naturally it would grow behind our house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Watermelons too. They walk the grow like watermelons grow naturally on when you're planting stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

So much things. Um, like I remember there was this one hill where there was a lot of like squash blossoms growing naturally. Like I would just pick that one. Yes, and that's literally what I would do. I would come back home like Aula, I want quesadillas, please. Like, I just found all of these.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

That's so cool. I mean, I remember uh around the town and everything, people will like uh have potatoes, onions, beans, squash, but also cucumbers. But my my family didn't plant cucumbers, so you have to go and steal someone else. If you don't know them, like you if you know people you will be like, hey, can I have some? But if you don't know them, you will just go and I'm gonna say this out loud.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I borrowed some mangoes from my neighbors because my the mangoes that my neighbors had were so good. Did you borrow them? I just borrowed them because you know I was like, it's gonna fall and nobody's gonna eat it. I might as well just take care of it, you know?

SPEAKER_05 12:36

And I don't know if you also did that, like there would be like mango trees, but then you have to throw like stones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

So my grandfather had a really large crop of tunas.

unknown 12:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Oh like he had a lot of tuna uh nopales, and like during the the season, ellos como no lo wouldn't see it as like a valuable crop because they would go bad so fast that they're like silo cosechangos and we don't sell them by tomorrow. It's like work that we did for no reason. So they would concentrate on like more like the maíz, cagna. Like my grandfather had a cana field, like sugar cane, um maice, and honey. Yeah, it makes money.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

So, but we had like a large crop of like no palace growing naturally there. So I would go and take like branches and just smack them and then force the fruit off of it and then just eat it. Yes and like uh my mom would like scream at me, he was like, 'cause like when they're not cleaned, full of spikes.

SPEAKER_05 13:44

But also the tiny ones.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, well, pitayas, tunas, they they all grew there. So that you would get like tuna rojas y verdes, and then pitayas, pitayas are like smaller, and they like yellow, brown, or like dark purple.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yellow, but the dark purple, uh I don't know if that's a flavor, but the color is so good, it's so much richer.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Oh no, there's a difference in the flavor in the flavor based on color.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Because even the mayo ones, the pitayas and mayo, they're like bigger size, and the colors like pink, white, uh kind of like reddish. Um, I don't remember all the colours. There's no blue. Ah, it's kidding. Uh there were so many colors.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Um and like I would just eat them all. Actually, I found out I was allergic to bees because of stuff like that. Oh, really? Yes, my grandfather used to uh this has honey. No, I'm okay with honey. It's just like bee stings. Oh, okay, will literally kill me. And it would and I found out because me and my cousins all wanted to eat honey. Like, we would like to take the pinkas and like stuck on the pinka and like um, but my grandfather would beat our beat us up if you're if you're not go setcha. Yes, because it says bunny. Like, this is how he pays his bills.

SPEAKER_05 14:57

And it takes I mean, I think it takes a little longer to and between six kids, you would eat a lot of honey.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

So, um Yeah. I used eat a lot of things. Honeys, but I mean bees migrate. So even though they're you're farming them, you're supposed to let them migrate because if that they won't actually work.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, because you'd be pollinating and you can't. Yeah, you need them to pollinate.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

So they're and on their way back, they would bring back wild bees with them. And then they kind of made their own honeycomb on the trees around them. So he was like, Don't eat that, but if you want to risk your life, eat that. So we made a deal and we was like, Alright, everybody draw some straws basically. Um two of you guys are gonna throw rocks at it to scare the bees out, and then one of them needs to like get their attention and run towards the river. And then while the other two are taking the the honey off, like the the whole honeycomb.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

How do you choose who's gonna be first?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Pequeño, like I was the youngest one, so much and then they convinced me by saying I was the fastest. They were like, oh, you're the fastest one.

SPEAKER_05 16:15

I was like, I'm the fastest one.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Um ended up getting stung 46 times. Wait, so you never made it to the river? I did, but in the process they had already stung me because I wasn't that fast. I was not that fast. Um and I don't remember anything after that because with so many bee stunks, I actually lost consciousness.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

And I I like ended up being hospitalized. Oh my mom told me it's like, oh yeah, you like passed out and you was like hospitalized for days.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

I was like, oh, well, that's a cool way to find out that you're allergic to something.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Well, but that's a good way, actually, you know, since we found out I was a kid. Because I think after that you could probably be more aware than not to get closest to bees, or if you know, if you are not trusting your cousin. Oh my god. You know what I was thinking? If this was a uh a video, if somebody was recording you guys, you guys have been viral viral, viral, viral. It's not like a part two.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Yeah, yeah. So well, that's your childhood in Mexico, but then how was your childhood here?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Coming to the US, I um my mom, thankfully, she's an amazing woman. Um, while I was in Mexico, she put me in like a private school. So in Mexico City, I would go to uh it was a Catholic school, technically. Um, but that school was really good because they taught us English. So I knew basics, like hi, hello, goodbye. My name is Yeah, they literally taught you stuff like that. Can I go to the bathroom? Uh-huh. So when I came to the US, um, you kind of have to take like an equip like like what is it? Like a a test to sort of like um see where you stand. And they decided that I didn't necessarily need ESL help, but I did need to be in a bilingual class, and luckily I was in a bilingual class. Um and that's kind of how I learned English. I remember like like the word because I learned how to spell it because I would say it in Spanish. So like every time I would write because I would say bicauce. And like, oh, that's how you spell it. Um now it's like, I mean, you can still sometimes read about accent.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

It's a little hard to not have an accent because it is I think that part, I and I I you know, like I'm very um pro about like changes and everything, but I feel like we should should pass off like thinking about people about their accents or you know, color or whatever. But definitely we have to like stop, like, oh you have an accent. Everybody has a freaking accent. Oh, yeah, you know. Like I remember when I moved to uh New York, I thought everybody speak like you know, like Friends, because I I used to watch a lot of Friends, like the the series. And then you come and then if you go to Chinatown, even you know, people who was they were born here, they will have still like an accent of Asian accent, or like Hindus, Pakistanese, when they speak English, but they also have accents. So I was like, so why didn't not everybody speak the same? And then you you understand that we are very lucky to live in New York that thanks to those accents, also you kind of respect other people, like you know, you are um the same immigrant in Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

I mean, there's this saying that really resonates with me that it's like a Spanish saying, Ni de aquí ni de allá. It's just like you're not from here and neither from over there. And that honestly was super prominent last year because I spent a few months in Mexico City. Um and like when I while I was out there, every time I met somebody, they was like, Oh, where are you from? I was like, What do you mean where I'm from? I'm from here, I I I'm I'm Mexican. And it was like, yeah, but like, where do you live? I was like, what do you mean? And then they were like, yeah, like you're from the US, right? And I was like, Hold on, you look at my birth certificate, I was born in nah El Hospital Cotebook. Like I was born in the hood. And I was like, Yeah, but like you don't live here though anymore. And I was like, Yeah, okay, cool. And like as a child, also going to school over here in the US, it was always that same thing. It was like, oh, so where you're from? It's like, well, I live here, I'm from Harlem. Like all the way to high school. And I was like, Yeah, but like where are you actually from? And I was like, so it's always been like, I'm not from here, I'm not from there, I'm from the world.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Yeah, exactly. Because I I actually have a I I had a conversation the other day with a friend, Phillips in uh LA, and we're talking about like you know, in Mexico, like they they treat you like a pocho. And then if you come here, it's like you're not American, you're Mexican, right? And I always fight that. I always say, like, dude, if I was born here, I'm United from the United States, and that's it, you know. And I'm I feel like we're very proud of like being Mexican, so where from where you're from. But that doesn't mean I'm not from here. So why you try to separate me all the all the time?

SPEAKER_02 21:38

I think also um it's uh that's also a different part of uh the kids that are born here, you know. Like if I if I if my parents per se, you know, came from Mexico City and they you know, I was born here, for example. My parents, even if I learn English here, I'm gonna speak my parents' Spanish. You know what I'm saying? Like I've seen people from Oaxaca from Puebla, from Guerrero, from different parts of Mexico. And their kids speak perfectly English. But when they speak Spanish, they speak like, you know, like from the town. You know, basically. Like the accents and and the and the wording. Sometimes like if you listen to uh the mayor in in LA, but he speaks English, he's like, you know, English, like clean and or whatever. But then when he speaks Spanish, he like buys his words. And it's not because he, you know, he's uh bilingual, it's because he uh he speaks like his parents, you know. Like my grandma um have their way to talk, you know. Uh and in Puebla, that's where uh my family is from, but they have a different uh I don't know, dial dialogue. No, but even the way they talk to each other is very different. It's very different to uh like to Mexico City and it's very different in New York. Like for say New York, New York, and you go to Boston, it's very different than Boston, you know. Exactly. Like older, like we were talking about this with Felipe, like we we talked a little bit like about it, but I think now that you say it, it it's like, you know, people don't really realize that a lot. You know, like when we say Colombians, like we are friends who are from Colombia, they come from Colombia, it's one country, but they also have different uh accents in different places, you know, like Los Paisos y los Rolos. And then you know, like, and that's something that you sometimes like have to be black about it. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Oh yeah, and it's funny because um I think at one point I saw it like a way to attack me. Like it was always like, oh, it's cause you sound like this or whatever. Um in the last few years I kind of seen it more as like a like a power, like a superpower. Because like, for example, uh about two to three years ago, I started traveling a lot to Puerto Rico to um do work with PR Cocktail Week. And like I have a lot of friends. My my best friend John, he like lets me stay in his house all the time, so that's why they're gonna be your friend.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

Stay in your house.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

He's uh sweetheart for that. Um but because I spent so much time with them, like I picked up their slang. And then they'd say say it all the time. I was like, this is the most Puerto Rican Mexican we've ever met in our life.

SPEAKER_05 24:12

But also your food, because you're so close to like you're cooking like Puerto Rican food all the time.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, like I even like the food that I cook, like it's it's no longer white or black. Uh it's like straight up like I eat majority Asian food in my diet. I eat a lot of Puerto Rican food because I spent so much time in the last two years being in Puerto Rico itself. Mexican food is still in my blood, but like there's not like oh I'm Mexican, I only eat Mexican food. Like you go to my house and it's like Especially New York Asian spices, Asian spices, like so many Caribbean spices, like and also I think you guys as bartenders, uh it's also like a good thing to do RD because you start trying like different spices. Yeah, it gives you an edge. Like um when me and my friends we went to Colombia like last year um for one of my friends' birthday, and while we were there, I was doing a lot of the talking because I had hung out with a lot of Colombians before, and I did my research before going over there. Um and I had already picked up some of the slang so I was able to talk to people. And this whole time I always thought like my friends understood the conversations that would have with people. And one day I was hanging out with one of my boys, and he's like, Yo, you know, like while we were in Colombia, like no none of us understood you, right? I was like, What do you mean? No, they were like learned we speak Spanish, but we don't speak that kind of Spanish, and like you spoke with their slang and everything, and like they understood you. You learned a lot of the So stuff like that, like um, I mean at that moment I had been dating a a Colombian woman, so it's like I spent so much time with her family that like I picked up a lot of the ways they they talk. Um baby, if you're singing this, I love you. But yeah, um I gotta because of that, I think like since I've always been like moving around, I'm so good at it that thing. Um yeah, I think like at this point it's like it's super cool that I get to kind of be a lot more accessible to learn people's cultures and like it gave me this curiosity. Like every time I travel, I need to learn it all. I want to learn it all. Show me all the spots, show me where where you actually go to.

SPEAKER_05 27:16

Yeah, that's what I see, like, especially like techniques that you always like show on your videos. Uh like you were telling, I think one day you posted like, oh, I'm doing this, like the way someone t uh taught me. And I feel it's like you know, very cool because you show also like how you get experience. And talking about experience, um, so you were growing on Harlem here. So how was your transition of being like this Mexican kid to work in the hospitality industry?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Um, so when I started working in hospitality, I actually started at 16. Um my mom has always been a hardworking woman and she gave us everything in life. Like I I never had a need to actually get a job. She gave it us all. But as a child, you want things, and those wants aren't needs. And I decided I was like, I want an Xbox. And I'm not gonna ask you for it because you work really hard for it, and I know the reality of things, so I'm gonna go get my Xbox. And then I asked one of my uncles to get me a job, and he got me a dishwasher job, and I started being as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant. Um curiosity's always been a tool for me, and I got really curious with like the prep work or like they they would do like pastas like from scratch there. And I one day at uh I was like cleaning up the prep station and the chef was there making pasta for like one of the specials. And I was like, What are you doing? And he's like, What do you mean? It was like what are you doing? Like, he's like, I'm making pasta. Have you never seen somebody make pasta? I was like, No, I've never seen anything. Like I was like, This is my first job. Um he's like, Do you wanna do you wanna learn? Like, I'll teach you, like I have a second. And I I like explained them every I asked him everything. I was like, How come you put that? Like, what does that do to that? Or what what happens if I put too much water? Or like so he's like, You're really curious, and little by little he kept on teaching me stuff. Um, and then about like a month or two of me being there, he's like, Alright, you want to do some of the prep work? We'll pay you more and we'll offer you more hours if you want to do some of the prep work. I was like, Yeah, sure, I'll do it. And I started prepping like the tiramisu's, the um the pastas and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 29:51

And then but also you weren't doing dishwashing, or it was just Oh well yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

During service I was dishwashing.

SPEAKER_05 29:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

But like in between services, like while we're prepping and like either pre uh like service or after service, there were things that that would have have to be ha done for next day's service. Um, so I would do some of that stuff and I would just take a little longer. I mean, I was 16 years old coming back home at like 2 a.m. in the morning after work.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Um you going to school also?

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Yeah, I was going to school. Um Uh-huh. Yeah. Hustle, hustle. Yeah, my mom was like, No, she was she was super mad about it. She was like, You're 16 years old, like you know I could get arrested if somebody finds out you're coming home at 2 a.m. in the morning. Like, that's child neglect. And I was like, it's not because like I'm not spending time doing some dumb stuff. Like, I'm I'm learning and I'm making money and um and I'm just curious about the situation. And she's still till this day, like, she's always been like, Why did you go into this? You know, like I gave you everything, you went to school, you went to really good schools, like I wanted you to be a doctor, or I wanted like my name, um, Hidardo comes from like uh uh like uh what is it a general that my grandfather served in the war with because she wanted me to be in the military. And I was just like, that's such like weird pressure to put on a kid.

SPEAKER_05 31:23

But I think like that's that's a kind of like um Aspirations, right? Aspirations and also mentality in Mexico because you know there's like a lot of like um willingness to like be uh better, having a better life, and I feel like parents that they didn't have the opportunities, they also looking for those opportunities for us. But sometimes it's like you know, you don't want to do that, but also you want to do something else.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Well that's kind of why she was upset. She was like, you know, like how come you don't wanna you don't have all this energy towards going to school? And I do, like, I I did. I I wasn't a bad kid, like I went to good schools and I had good grades because I was good at it. It's just um at that moment, like this had sparked my curiosity.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Um that's good, you know, like you have when you have somebody to to teach you at least because uh oftentimes if you ask people to tell me like, oh I have no time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

I mean my relationship with that chef ended up terrible. Like he didn't he he didn't try to pay me on my last week. He actually didn't try to pay me on my last week there, and then like I was like, listen, your bar's full of all this glassware right now, that's about like a thousand dollars worth of glass. What if I just smack it? Do you want to pay me now? Like um, but regardless of it, in the eight months that I was there, I went because he had such large large turnover, because he was an asshole, like and so many people kept on walking out on him. I kept on getting pushed to other like positions. So I went through his whole kitchen, like I went from being a dishwasher to a prep, two salads, two desserts, to the grill area, and then eventually being like the person at the past that finishes all the all the plates and stuff like that. Yeah, expo. And um so I learned a lot like from that from that experience, and it's it's sort of like how I treat my kitchen at home, like I cook in that matter. Um and uh yeah, yeah, go ahead. And eventually I was like, alright, cool, I left this spot, I still wanted to make money, so I went to this steakhouse that was in my neighborhood, it's called Ricardo's. If you're from Harlem, you have heard about Ricardo's.

SPEAKER_05 33:41

I think I heard, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Ricardo's at its prime, prime prime, like early 2000s, was the hot spot. Like um, you had triple car parked cars in front of it, every car in front of it is like half a million dollars to a million dollar car, Rolls Royces, Ferraris, all the joints.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Like I I think I heard about this place. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 34:04

But the owners were like um Italians or yeah, they're Italians.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Yeah, they're Italians.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Uh it's probably uh Italian owners, but the Mexicans are cooking. Yes, yeah, the whole staff is Mexican.

SPEAKER_05 34:19

Like it was sold like from 90s and I think late 1200s, most of the kitchens were like Mexicans.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they were all Mexicans, like they had chef, his name was Mario, and he was Mexican, his whole staff was Mexican. Um, which is how I ended up at the bar. Uh I I first got hired as a bar back there, but because they had so many like Mexican staff, or not even Mexican, like they it was just all Spanish, like um the best runner, I mean the best um um busser there, his name was Romeo. This dude was like four feet tall, carrying like a tower of wine b wine glasses like this in one hand, and like he taught me how to do that, and I was like, dude, you're a beast, like but he struggled. What was his name again? Romeo. Romeo, shout out to Normio. Yeah, he's a freaking beast. Um actually he's now he's now captain server there. He's still there. Oh wow he's been there for quite a while, but he's making money. I mean, they're not as busy as before, but they're still making bread, like um, it was just like a lot a lot more sus situation before. And they basically came up to me and was like, hey, we need another bar bag. Would you like to be a bar bag? And I kind of felt weird because like I've I've been at this spot for three months. There's been people here that've been like a year. How come you're not giving them the opportunity? But also, I'm not blocking my own blessings, like the opportunity was given, I'm taking it, you know. Um, but their rationality was like the bartenders had trouble communicating with people that spoke Spanish because they didn't know Spanish. So they felt more comfortable with me because I knew English. So um they're like, yeah, we'll just train you. And I learned how to do stuff there.

SPEAKER_05 36:10

W uh before that, were you know about like barbecue?

SPEAKER_00 36:15

I didn't know nothing. What I did learn from them is the hustle. Like, this is this room is bigger than that bar. Like the bar was just this little triangle right here.

SPEAKER_05 36:27

Like, it's like the house bar.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Yeah, no, seriously, the bartender is just right here, and and she has about maybe a foot and a half to get around, and that's about it. Like, you're really like this.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

And how many people were you like were were they doing at this point?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, on a on a Saturday night, we would do anything from 300 to 350 covers.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Wow, impressive with that own little bar.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Me, dude, yes. One bartender. Well, that's the thing, that's how I learned how to do stuff, because um, it wasn't just a bartender making drinks, like frozen, sangrias, any stuff like that. Like the sangrias were on the top bar top, so we just gotta serve them. And then the frozen's we had a blender there, but I had to make them.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Oh, we blend there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

So like we were making on-the-spot blender, like frozen's, frozen margaritas, honey coladas, stuff like that, like club type of drinks. Um, but she was busting out drinks, busting out drinks, busting out drinks, busting out drinks, and servicing the six chairs that was in front of her.

SPEAKER_05 37:29

And that time were you using like uh and not because I want to put it in the spot, but they were using like like natural juices, so it was also in the No we were. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

I mean, we still we Yes and no. So we used like the Sipley puree joints, and then we were using Rosie's lime juice.

SPEAKER_04 37:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

But like it wasn't like just straight up like ready-made drinks. Um like we made our own simple syrup, that's about it. But like prep wise, it was all very much like store-bought.

SPEAKER_05 38:05

Yeah, because I feel like those kind of uh restaurants also back in the day, it was like that. Like we won volume and people like them.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

It's not about it's also like you know, the cost of uh you know the cost. Yeah. So if you have uh if if you want to spend uh uh I don't know, per se fifty dollars to buy a case of limes, and you will you can buy five gallons for fifty dollars, you might as well you buy the fifty gallons, you know. For example, because in a co uh in a price point, I think uh whatever your margin is bigger and your production is less, it that means time, you know, because you need somebody to prep. So that means that that case of lemon that you pay fifty dollars or lime, excuse me, uh you're gonna pay fifty dollars for the lime and then you're gonna pay an hour on top of that because somebody has to use them. You know? So I think that's one one of the things that we're gonna do. No, I want someone who takes less than an hour to come lime some but like you know that that's what's I think that's what when people sometimes don't see that, you know. Like, and then production-wise, if you have 300 covers a day, how many lemons and lines do you have to do?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Oh my god, it was just ridiculous. Like Sundays, Sunday brunch was probably the worst. Like we all prayed on it every Sunday because that shift would be tough because you would do brunch and then into dinner service. So you're doing a 13-hour shift. Um, and in that transition between brunch tours dinner, we would do well over 400 covers. And it was like and these are like like, for example, one of the tables in the back patio was like a family style long table. We they they would call it the mafia table, because it's literally that, it's like a big oval table, and that table was never empty. It was like 12 people at the same time every single time, and there's only one server back there doing that table and every other table around him.

SPEAKER_05 40:02

I mean, obviously, um holy crap, impressive! Yeah, it's impressive.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

So you were so you were the kitchen for about a year, yeah, and then you move into the bar recording decision.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

As soon as I left um the Italian restaurant, that was the next job I had. Eventually I applied to this place, uh the Tau Group. I started working at Tau Group and I got put on to the opening team for Cathedral, which is like this big general restaurant that they have on like 12th Street.

SPEAKER_05 40:32

And it's very beautiful though.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

It's amazing. Like they literally made the interior of a cathedral.

SPEAKER_05 40:38

It's like literally down uh the Moxie Hotel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

I've been there. Yeah, it's amazing. It's uh it's connected to the little sister as well. Huge, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That restaurant was freaking massive. Um, again, like I've always been in like super high volume bars, uh, and like corporate bars. After that, like my whole time was very corporate bars, like um and I was doing great, like my beverage manager there, his name was Eric. And I always talk about my experience with them because they were the first place that I was like, holy crap, this is like serious shit. Like when we were doing our our training for the opening, our training was a month and a half long. And we did classes with uh somebody from Dead Rabbit, I don't remember his actual name, but they got um commissioned to do like the training for us. So they taught us how to do round building and like the specifics of like liquors and stuff like that. Like our bar training, we had classes. So like in the morning you come in, 11 a.m., you do bar training and spirit training, then after that, we do food training, then after that, we do allergy training, like we had four or five classes throughout the day. Um she was awesome though, it was it was amazing, it was an amazing freaking like experience to be like drilled like that. And then I because that was like my first serious job, I was like, holy crap, is every place like this? It's not it's not um sometimes they don't even give you a paper at the end of the day. Yeah, so I was I was a bar back at that point, I was still a bar back, and I was about to get like uh promoted to a bartender, and the week that I got promoted to a bartender, like I literally had my first two, three shifts as a bartender there. And then there was like, hey guys, COVID's starting. Yeah, and uh we get all got laid off, and in between COVID and like recently, like I switched kind of like industries and I was in like the fashion industry a little bit, not like the actual fashion industry, because I didn't work for an actual brand or anything like that. I was reselling, so I was in like more of the the gray area of the industry. I would go like store to store, buying sneakers, buying clothes, and reselling it to people, and like sourcing articles for people. Um indirectly, I met some dude who like he was really connected with a lot of artists, so eventually, like I was sourcing stuff for like rappers and stuff like that, and it was pretty cool. I mean a lot of money, like so much money. I think that's the most money I've ever made in my life. I started applying for jobs again, and I saw that Soul House was hiring, and I was like, alright, I'll go apply for Soul House because like I found it really cool because I was still in like that place where like I found art and fashion really interesting and soul houses, that's what that is. Like it's a space for creatives to create musicians, artists, um people that make clothing, all right.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

It's by membership only there too. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Well, yeah. Um I got accepted into Soho House right before they were public. So I still kinda saw the original Soho House where it was like super liked there. I spent almost two years there. And it was like really interesting. Cuz at one point I remember this one summer, everybody got sick. And there was no bar bags. COVID sick or Yeah, because I I had got so I had applied as a bartender, but I got hired as a bar back because the beverage manager there, her name was Adriana. And she had told me she was like, hey, listen, like we think that you can definitely succeed here as a bartender. However, my bar bag team is super weak. And I don't really have a space for a bartender right now.

SPEAKER_05 44:49

But you can grow.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

But I'm willing to help you get there if you can do us a favor and help us with our bar bags. Because of like your experience. Um so I was like, alright, cool. Like I I took on that role and I was a bar back for a bit there. And it was it was like crazy, because like I was only there on the weekends mostly, because that's where when the most high volume happens. And there was this one day where everybody got sick and they were like, hey, you're the only bar back for today. And I was like, how many bars were there? So in the interior was three bars by a way, I understand that. Three three bar wells plus service, so four wells. The patio had three, four, five, five wells around, plus the two service wells. Then there was a pool rooftop that had two wells.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

So you weren't the only barback for everybody for all three floors, all three set areas. But then you'd put it on every well. It's already been three hours.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

It was like it is do it all over again. And um I I got through the night and it was terrible. Like literally, I I told all the bartenders, I was like, you guys are cleaning all your stuff today. Like, I ain't helping nobody clothes. I'm doing what I gotta do in the back, and that's it. I'm out of here. Um, but I think that gave me a really good perspective because I it happened for like about a week. It kind of gave me this edge where like time management, and that's sort of what I kind of try to put back into the barbacks that I work with now. It's like knowing how to time manage your own self, going and not own not waiting for me to tell you what I need, anticipate my shit. Your responsibility is these low boys, these lowboys have to be full at all times. I don't need to be asking you what I need to be. And if you have some low um laybags time, because obviously all your syrups and your backups is in those low boys, so if I hit the bottom of the bottle, I could refill it for sure. But it's an extra step I have to take. So if you can find some layback time and instead of chilling, you go and you start touching the wells, and that's what I would do. Like I would go in and I I would start touching the bottles. If you're about to hit the bottom, refill that.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Well, you would like a 0.25 both bottle, you always get to get ready for the next bottle. Yeah, either have a new bottle, finish if you have uh any citrus in there, finish it. There's other also uh thing, one of the things that people don't realize is that if you pour fresh juice to that little bit of juice, it's gonna oxidate everything in the bag. So you gotta go fill until those things that you learn as you call like become a bar back.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

So during service, that juice technically still fresh, right? Because we probably just refilled that cheater just like two, three hours ago, and we're just doing high volume. But in the beginning of the service, I would tell them like you don't refill that lime juice, you make a backup bottle. Instead of me having to refill a bottle, the bottle should be already in the fridge with a speed pour, and all I do is just pull it and pull that one to the back. Go wash that, refill it, put it back in the low boy, and then next time I just pull that bottle. We're not actually refilling bottles sometimes. Um, it also depends because sometimes you're just that busy and you don't have that time to take that beat. Um, because like we were also responsible for glassware there. So like you gotta wash and polish glassware. So that's like at 1 a.m. in the morning, that's majority of your time being spent is just glassware. Glassware, glassware, glassware, washing and washing.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Um, because everybody leaves, and all of a sudden you have these six, seven racks of glasses trying to wash and polish.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

Oh my god, yeah. After last call, and all the servers pull all the glassware from the floor, and it's just a fucking mess back there. Like, it's like, bro, where does all this glassware come from? Like, um, and it just like from there I went to a member only club, and it was in Midtown, it was on Fifth Avenue. It was called um Core Club. Well, it is Cork Core Club, it's still there. And I was one uh I was working under Ash Hasnf Haself. I swear, I I love you, Ash. She was like amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. This this woman like drilled stuff in me and made me a better bartender.

SPEAKER_05 49:34

No, what can you say?

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Huh?

SPEAKER_05 49:36

Why can you say that she drilled on you?

SPEAKER_00 49:38

Like, for example, the tins. I used to like everybody else, stack your tins. Yo, every time she would come by that pass, because I was put into the service well almost all every day, um she would come by and she was like, Why are we stacking tins? So that's disgusting. And it's like, and she drilled it to the point where now, like, when I'm running my well and somebody comes and makes a drink and then stacks the tins, I'm like, What the fuck you what why would you do that?

SPEAKER_05 50:08

While you're drilling doing the drink.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Uh huh. While you're doing while you're doing the drink, yeah, like there's there's some some people that like build with like the tin inside or the ice, the put the put the tin, put the ice and then they put the other tin on top of the thing.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Yeah, that was very that was very old school, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

But it's gross.

SPEAKER_05 50:27

Yeah, but it's a hell department.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

And then also, like, once you do make the the the drink, they would take it and then just stack it underneath and strain it.

SPEAKER_03 50:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

What's up with that? Like, you know, like um she taught me like you're only as fast as your reset is fast. As you're pouring that drink, you should be washing that tin. That way you reset before that drink goes into the pass. So by the time you come back after dropping off that drink to the pass, you're ready for the next drink. Yeah, you don't have to spend time washing your tins. That whole idea that like there's a lot of bartenders that I've worked with who like throw their tins and wait for their bar bag to wash your tins. Why are you white waiting? Why why are you like when I was in Tal Group, I had a bartender that there that we used to get into it because he was like, I can't make drinks because my my tools aren't clean. I was like, so then wash them. Yeah, it was so like wash them. Like you expect me to take time out of my day to make you faster when the same action you could have been doing is just washing them as you go.

SPEAKER_05 51:31

Yeah, because uh I mean, obviously, there are certain bartenders that they feel like you as a barback, you're supposed to do everything, everything, but it's you're just like obviously helping them, but the teens definitely has to do with the bartender.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

Yeah, because you're you are the one who knows it's your main tool. Like if you don't have tools to shake make a cocktail, then you have no cocktails, right? Yeah, so you have to like reset.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

As a bartender, you have in your mind what are the drinks that you're building. So sometimes the bar bags are. Yeah, it's a round build.

SPEAKER_00 52:04

Yeah, yeah, like um at Tal Group. If we were running three bar bags, one of the bar bags would be designated just for the service wells, and that bar bag is not just bar backing. Your job is not just refilling things and like it's also listening and picking up tickets. If there's wine tickets, beer tickets, or we already had like pre-bottle cocktails, the bartender shouldn't be making those. They're making things that they're building. Negronies, boubardiers, classics, actually cocktails that we are having to build, the bartenders shouldn't be moving away from the well. So the way that Eric taught us was like you listen, if you hear a cocktail that you already know, because our glassware is chilled and we have big rocks in there too. By the time you hear that drink, you should have already put that in front of them. So that way when they're finished making that drink, all they're doing is pouring it right into that ice.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

That's that's that's a good efficiency uh rule if you have a big volume. Because you're hands-on, it's like uh symphony, you know, like everybody works uh together. Uh but when when you were waiting to wash your tins, I'm like, come on, like you know. That's what I was telling you.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

I was like, you really want me to be right next to you washing your tins when I could have just been doing everything else for you. Like, like you're that that extra step is so not necessary. But yeah, um, when I was at Core Club, that that um opening, because we we were the opening team, that opening was amazing, and Ash believed in me so much, so much. Like there was bartenders there who had a lot more capability of me or more experience than me, but I don't know what she saw in me, and she like leaned on me so much, and I ended up being the head bartender of like the more cocktail-oriented space because we had two spaces. Upstairs was like more of like a large sit-down type of like family-style restaurant. It's all Italian, so it's like big big tables and stuff like that. Then downstairs was more like the craft cocktail, more cocktail bar. It was named Leo's, so it was like design uh uh with Leonardo da Vinci.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

And then was there art like on the walls or yeah?

SPEAKER_00 54:18

I mean, even our cocktails were inspired of like like his artwork and stuff like that. Um and it was a program that was made by uh Christine Wiseman from Bar um Bar Lab. She had just one like bartender of the year that that that year.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

And this is like three years ago, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Yeah, about three years ago. And Ash was like, hey, like this is your bar. Like, if you want this bar to succeed, it's on your hand, it's on your hands. And it was amazing. Like, oh my god, my back bar had so much stuff that now I go to other bars, and I'm just like, I can't believe you don't have that. Like, we we had a massive, massive bourbon collection and like crazy bourbons, like Sakura, uh aged um what was it, Glen Fiddlech. And we had like Oban at all times, Oban 18 at all times. Like we were moving Oban. Like, and it was tequila. The the the members only like the rare eagle, like I I picked up that bottle so much, crazy amount. I've never sold cases of Reddit. Rare Eagle.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

And now it's allocated, like, there's really no access to Reddit. Like, I I we can even get it because it's either out of stock or you can only get like two or three bottles a year or per month. I don't know. Unless you have a big plug, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Like like our Oban, um, we blew through it on our first month and we couldn't actually get it.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

And uh during that time, did you feel like you already knew the concept of hospitality, or you were like just because you have it on you?

SPEAKER_00 56:00

So when I went to Solo House, I met this guy, his name is Julio, and he was my bar captain. And Julio, the first time he told me to go with him to an industry event, it was at Double Chicken. And that's where I had met my friend Gio, who till this day, like that's one of a really close friend of mine. And Jiordana. Jordana. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And from that experience, I got really involved with it, and I started seeing like the different side of the hospitality industry and how like the community of it, and I got super curious about it. So when I applied to Court Club, I saw that Bar Lab and Christine Weisman was involved and all that. I was like, okay, cool. Like, not only am I gonna make money at this spot, it's sort of where I want to go. Um, and once I started with them, that's where I like I fell in love with it. I was like, fuck yeah, dude, this is definitely what I want to do. Like, not only if you do this right, you can make a lot of money, but it's fun. It's so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

I also want to point out something because when you mentioned mescals earlier, uh, you also know all this about mascals because your family owns a mascal cousin. Yeah, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Like, yeah, we make me scaling Miawatlan, the perfume of yes, and we've been working on the brand for a few years now. It kind of came to us accidentally.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

So who makes their mascal though?

SPEAKER_00 57:22

So one of our cousins um is the one that started making, like took on the operation. We started with the espadin, eventually moved to the Madricuche, and then the Tobala. At the moment, we haven't bottled the tepestate just because the pestate takes very long time to grow. So if we start tapping into all those plants, eventually the demand will be too high for us to keep up. And that's kind of what happens to a lot of brands that they end up um adding stuff. Not adding, but then they'll start buying bencas from other places. My cousin knows how to cultivate it, and this guy knows how to cultivate it, and everybody else knows the ins and outs of it. And my uncle was the guy that like qu kind of got our our Dom sticker for us, because he knows how to deal with the government because of all his businesses. But I was like, Alright, then now let me speak. You guys don't understand what this is. Like, yeah, if we because when they came out to me and it was like, yo, you're in the US, can you sell it? And I was like, Yes, but how much do we have? And I I broke it down to them. I was like, listen, if I bring it in right now, the demand might grow. Because they wanted to flood the Espadine and be like, yeah, you just sell it for the cheapest price. You don't really know what cheapest is. Like, you understand, like, some of these well mascadas that they have, they're like price point to a point where we probably won't be making much money because of the way we cultivate. We still use Dohana, we use um like very, very traditional. Like uh, one thing I always stress about like the mezcala is what kind of water you're using. We use natural rainwater, agua de pozo, which we collect. It's it's like a a big mineral thing down underneath. You excavate it, and there's like pots of uh of water in there that people take and then it also collects from the rainfall, so it runs down into the ground and then it it like filters out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can taste that if you know how to taste for it. Like, um, there's mascadas I've tied, and I'm like, oh, you're using spring water, and I was like, how the fuck do you know that? It's like because I can taste it. Like you you can definitely taste the minerality that comes from some of these agaves is because of the type of water they're they're using.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Yeah, it is. It's very different to to to like absorb and and and and interact with the with the flavors of water, honestly. Now we we mentioned this at the very beginning, uh with the pot with the clay pot that we had. It's like you have that similarity, like similarity per se. Uh and then when you went to um Soho House and you moved to this other place three years ago, well where where is where are we here? So you you started working with Christy Wiseman or the program she she created. Where was this again?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:15

It was in um right on top of the polo bar on Fifth Avenue. The next thing I did was um I went to to Mexico and I was in Mexico because of my father passing away. And um I kind of stepped away from the industry again and I spent some time over there, but while I was there, I kept on wanting to still be back in it. So PR cocktail week happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

I think that's when we met uh when we uh saw each other back in Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

Yeah, right. Well we met um at Tells.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

No, we meant at Tells. We met. Yeah, we were flying back from uh from Tells, but we met uh Puerto Rico when he was coming from Mexico, he brought some bottles of Mezcal. Yeah, you didn't have bottles in the Yeah, I had bottles of Mescal with me.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:04

Yeah, because I was already in Mexico, so I went to go pick up some bottles and the goal was like you came in with like the big bags that were the goal was like to go and be like, you know what, like if I went back to Mexico, I'm gonna get something out of this. So I went to my cousin, I was like, yo, let me get let me get a couple bottles. Like I bought like two, three cases off of them. Because there's like, we're not just gonna give it to you, you understand though? Like, we need to preserve the brand. I was like, listen, I don't care, I'll pay for it. Like, I I understand that handing over the operation with me would be like a risk, so let me show you what it is. And that's when I went to Puerto Rico with them. And like, I mean, you could go to Jungle Bird and there's a bottle behind the bar there. Um, you go to Machete, I don't know, maybe Machete already drank it. I know 173 already poured the last one because I was I was the person that finished that last bottle. Um, but like when I went to Piotr Cocktail Week, I connected with so many people over there that the second time I came back was over the summer, and it was because I had seen that um speed rack was going on. And my father passed away from cancer. So thank you. But speed rack really resonated with me because of their cause, and I was like, you know, like it just makes sense for me to be a part of this. So I went to go be a part of Speed Rack over there, and I worked it. Um I was working with Jenny from um Jungle Bird and Danny. Okay, they're also from they're both from Jungle Bird, and it was just me and Danny as a bar bag, and Jenny was like our captain, like she was like running the back end of it, and then Lynette was there, and the work we did, like basically what Lynette told us is like for the last few years, we've been behind schedule, and we usually end like after the time we're supposed to. And this is the first year we ever ended on time. Mind you, we started an hour late. We were already late and we caught up and ended at the time we needed it again. And it was because like in parts, Jenny and Danny are great friends of mine, and me and Danny just are fucking like we just clicked, like our chemistry was so well, like, bro. Like, if you're doing this, I'm doing this. I'm doing boom, boom, boom, and we just move and we moved.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:28

And um, how do you meet all these work and like everything? Just going out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Yeah, just going out there talking to people. Uh and then that at the end of the the night, she was like, Hey, you're from New York, right? I was like, Yeah. She's like, I'm helping this bar open. It's called Millie's. And if you're interested, we love we would love to like offer you a job there. And I was like, Yeah, I mean, I'll do it. Fuck it. Yeah, I I need a job.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

And also on the hoop. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

And I was like, alright, I'll do it. I'll take the job. She's like, yeah, when you get back to New York, call me and we'll set up a meeting and we'll do the onboarding. Um, that was about a month into Millie's opening. And they had already opened when I when I joined. And um I still thought I was having an interview. Like, I came through as I'm having an interview. And Don, who was a GM at that moment, he he was like, Alright, so what's your availability? I was like, huh? He's like, Yeah, he's like, You You already hired Lynette said that you're good. That's all I need. Like, um, that's really all I need. I'm pretty sure she knows what capable bartenders look like because she's a capable bartender. Um, so what's your availability? And I I just told him, I was like, well, Andano joined for like Sundays and Mondays because I was working for this event company called Happier at the moment that was taking over my weekends. Um and I was like, I'll I'll do that, and I'll I'll come here Monday Sundays and Mondays. And I've been there for what, the night last 10 months, 11 months. We're about to do a year.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:15

You have that experience of like high volume on restaurants and now high volume on clubs, but also like this uh small restaurant like Lili's is as well. But so how do you how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

There's some music there too, like BJ. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

So um at the end of the day, I've always I chased the bag, I like money. Um these small concepts, these small programs, they're really cool, but sometimes they're not really paying the bills. Um so I I got brought in at Happier through one of my friends, and it was because I I really needed work after being um like core club and being let go and this company was like such a weird company um it's like it's around events like you say but in so many different aspects and it gave me maybe I didn't learn too too much from them but it gave me this edge where it's like because the way the schedule works there is like one day you're doing like a banquet dinner in like a full like suit and then the next day you're doing like an art this uh art installation and all you're doing is wearing black and then come Saturday and you're doing like a rave and it's like and now it's like 2,000 people in here and I'm wearing a fucking tank top ass off. Expanding Yeah so it's like it made me very versatile. So like sometimes I would surf sometimes I'd be concierge sometimes all I'm doing is being in the elevator. But it gave me so many cool like experiences because I would do like brand activations um very like intimate like literally just for Eid that just passed by we had it's like one of our larger uh accounts that we do every year. It's like a very large Eid dinner with a lot of like powerful people in the room.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:22

Eid uh it's um um like the Muslim Yeah yeah yeah um call it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah basically they like they don't um eat or drink they fast for like a month uh for a month or so um so I mean they eat but they there's times yeah yeah for when you eat they fast from sundown no sun sunrise sunrise to sundown yeah because they have food like at night um but like Mandani was there uh the mayor and like yeah it was like a really cool experience because like we do it every year but obviously we might have just not known who Mandani was prior but this year it wasn't the first year he came we have seen him before there and by this year we was like oh my god like the mayor's here and yeah oh yeah for sure um funny I'm just gonna like last week I went to the hospital and he was announcing the closing of Rikers uh at Bellevue Hospital so that the entrance was like closed and everybody was like you know sending you to another door and then um there's a lot of people with cameras and I was like what's going on like us yeah so I I thought maybe it was the president or something because it was a lot of like people but then they said it's the major and then in here so I was like okay so I run and and I just um saw the whole um uh speech that he was doing but it was very cool because then you see like that kind of like sensation of like New York feeling and looking at this guy that is like young and bringing this like kind of mentality of like we're gonna work together. I mean I feel like like now like you have that experience like it feels a little different.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:22

Yeah I mean it gave me such a crazy edge. I mean like if you follow me on social media you'll see like I'm at Millie's I got a calm Sunday Monday and then like but like the night before I was at a rave that ended like at 5 a.m in the morning with like 2,000 people there. And then it's another Thursday and now I'm like in a full suit and like I'm I'm at the member only lounge that we that they have and like I'm just doing like craft cocktails and stuff like that. So it was like yeah it's super cool. It was like a super cool experience. I actually my last week was just this that past week um and uh what are you doing something else besides Millie's and well I got I got picked up uh Alec um if you know have you met Alec before he's part of Monkey Thief and he's the operations director for Monkey Thief and he had posted they were looking for um prep for a prep team and I was like yeah I I could prep drinks like I I applied and he was like yeah we'll bring you in blah blah and when I met with the owners Avi and David they were like oh would you be interested in being cross trained just in case we need to like cover some shifts every now and then like we'll be happy to like cross-train you just because of your experience and I was like yeah sure fuck yeah like I'll I'll I the event company has been going through stuff so like there hasn't been a lot of work there so I was like yeah I'll pick up the extra work um and then about two weeks ago no not even last week about last week they came up to me and was like hey we want to talk to you because we um we want to promote you and like make you a full time bartender instead um our residency is opening up this week this coming week on Wednesday and they were like we we're hiring new bartenders and it just it doesn't make sense to bring in bring in new people when we have capable people here. That is already trained so they're like listen like the way you came in like we want we like your attitude because basically when I applied to them I told them I'm like the reason I'm applying here as a prep is because I want to learn more and you guys know more than I do and that's what I'm looking for. I've been at places where like majority of the time I'm either the only person that cares or just the person that has the most knowledge um and I always felt weird about it because it's like I don't feel like I know everything and I don't know everything. So like the fact that there's nothing or nobody that can challenge me and teach me something new it kind of would frustrate me a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:20

Because you feel stuck.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:21

Yeah so when I applied to them I was like I want to be your weakest link like I want to be the worst bartender here. Like if I have a crap ton to learn from you guys I'm super happy because that's exactly what I want I want people to like like give me new skills and teach me new skills. And they do I mean I mean Tyler's our head bartender and he worked at Manhattan and he's like a super nerd like to this week we've been doing training and he took like five seconds to like see everybody shake and be like listen the way you shake this is how much dilution you're putting into it or like you're breaking up ice ideas and like nobody ever in my time of working has ever made me shake water. Like that's what he was doing. He was just putting foam and water in there to see like more or less what's your what's your wash line and like how you're breaking up cubes. And I'm like yo these dudes are nerds like these they're super nerds but they're like passionate about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:21

Which is good now in many in you know in the times that we l uh live in in terms of cocktail like cocktails and bars because I feel like now people who are nerds are really like taking the time to teach other people and imbr investing in you as a new you know as a new team.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

And and if you learn in all of this because you have invested in yourself. Because it's not like something you learn and you know it it's something that you have put time into it. Like you say that people care. Like if you care about somebody having a great drink, a great experience and also quality cocktails, you know like you have to take uh time and learn the shaking part because that's important. If you don't know how to shake and you overshake or over dilute a cocktail you add in more water than it's supposed to go there. You know like so basically the balance of a cocktail as layers of salty, sour, umami, spicy or whatever you are trying to acquire but it has to be a a complexity around the flavors in that one cocktail. You know and and I think this comes with a lot of knowledge and and you know working behind the bars and also kind of no learning your team is very important. That's why education uh with the team is crucial when you are about to open something new. Because if you train your people and this is what you want this is the steps of service uh this is what we want to know like in terms of the shaking parts like for that one cocktail you know if you let's say if you add uh something like a tiki cocktail with extra ice you shake it then you pour it on more ice you're always diluting it because the time that it's gonna spend on the glass is just gonna add you know it's gonna the cocktail itself is gonna evolve too so you're basically stretching that cocktail a lot and you don't want that you know you want something that is rich and it's gonna stay there and and the ice for that cocktail is there for a purpose too like purpose on on ice you know like big rocks why we why to use big rocks why to use cold wrap why to use uh crushed ice why when you stir you put it on a on a martini glass up and then why is it extra cold you know like all these little steps and processes that we learn uh you know when we are trained it's always good to like relearn sometimes you know because as a season bartender sometimes you like forget about these things you know like I've been doing this for so long well whatever but if so if you go to a two place and they they like re uh ignite this fire you go like okay this is what I've been like I can perfect I can you know do better and and be a good part of the team. Like you say you know you I want to be the weak link but you might not be in the weak link you might be the you know the the person who's like okay what can we learn from you too you know because sometimes that's what that's what happens like a bartender who has been doing this for so long uh he might not know at all but if you bring like uh some sort of experience or even if you say something about fire washing like oh I've been fire washing for years but this is the fastest way. I've been doing this for it takes less than 12 hours, three hours, you know like normally if anything fire wash is 24 hours. So if you fire wash it for a freezer, I don't know, like you know like if you have an idea because that's what we heard you know in Japan they're like clarifying things in the freezer and it's like what? I've been clarifying things for hours and they just put it in the freezer and they clarify it immediately.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:34

So you know like this process that you learn you cross-train and if you go to different places you learn like different different stuff and people and and that's that was my question of like hospitality because you know you mentioned that you went to to college for business and accounting and then the data you fall in love with the hospitality industry and then you know now you have this experience of like you know trying to becoming like you know not just a bartender in in one place but you are like having different places and different backgrounds and you know probably like we always said now bartenders they know that this is a profession. It's not just like your side work. And I believe that you're gonna convince your mom of like this is a professional mom.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:19

I mean like even because of like being at Court Club was probably the most nerdiest program I had been in until now. Joining Monkey Thief and now it's like they put a spin saw in front of me and I was like I've never seen this before and like it's so much fun to work with some of these stuff. Yeah and like I'm super excited about that program because like all the nerdy shit they're doing is what I've been dying to learn. Like there's things that I've learned in the last month from them that I've already started applying into my craft like their their approach in using like acids and stuff like that or like the way they clarify in different ways. Even the carbonation part like I've been at a lot of bars where like they have rigs behind them behind the bar and they're carbonating the the the cocktail on the spot sometimes or like they cap it. And Alec was like when didn't um he even said it right now this week he was like don't quote me this is just our belief but our belief is the more you move the bottle and the more you're touching the bottle the more it loses carbonation. So we have an ice bath where we keep these open bottles we don't cap them back up. Why? Because every time we cap them back up and you shake it the pressure rises and the the the air wants to leave the bottle so yeah it's like like you open a a bottle of like plastic soda you know you open it the first time and it's a lot of like COD too but then you know during the time that you're drinking again it's like super flat because it's like losing it the whole thing the first one is going to be perfect the fifth pour is going to be like losing the carbonation right and then some people's like solution to that was like oh just hit it back and carbonate it again. Which is okay but when you're working at such a costly operation every single dollar and penny matters. Matters yeah um because it's just that that's how budgeting works. So it's like if we actually carbonate them every single time we're lose we're using so much CO2. In that space we're having three different like venues operating off of the same room so it's like we're using carbonation through all three spaces so if we carbonate every single bottle at a time we either buy 10 or 15 of these tanks at a time or we're just smart about how we use them.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:59

That's it takes time.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:01

Yeah like what we do is we don't pour that last drink majority of the time you can taste it and if it's still good and you feel comfortable serving it by all means. But if you don't feel comfortable with the way it's carbonated seal that bottle back up send it downstairs. We're gonna recarbonate it with the master blatch and like act like it's a brand new cocktail again. We don't need to try to start stretch that one because now we're sacrificing quality over like cost as well. Yeah. So it's like the way they create these cocktails is isn't a matter for us to be able to have a good shelf life on them. So we can just take it back downstairs and plus tomorrow's gonna be served anyways. But it's just like a lot of the ways that they think like it makes so much sense and it's like super interesting and like I mean this last week that training has been amazing. Like um I gained so much off of it. The way that they approach everything is amazing. Since Tau Group has been like my first experience with like intense intense training but it was like in a longer like a month and a half that we did that training right these guys was like listen we got a week and a half and we're just gonna throw everything at you but like ask all the questions you have all the uncertainties you have this is the moment to do it and blah blah blah. And like it's fast but the team in general we have so much curiosity and we're all super eager to do this with them that it's just it just works so organically and it's really cool honestly and we're super excited to open it to the space.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:41

No and and also the difference is like you know coming from Tao that is a a corporate so you know that they have these like big books on like HR and like you know the things that you have to learn from the company. So it takes time that you know this uh monkey thief is is not um you know like a small company compared to Tao. So the training is also more like focused on a bar than rather like a hotel and you know restaurant and bar and ambition. But yeah but we're very very excited to to see you there. And uh you know hearing your um journey is uh it's very very important because you know like us we met you through like uh pop-ups and everything but like myself I I didn't know like exactly where you're coming from I was like also kind of like why why this guy is like so you know bubbly and knows all these people but I don't know where he works. You know it was kind of like a question but also I learned from you that you were like going back and forth to Mexico and and dealing with your your dad's um sickness and everything like you were like super super like supported with your dad at the at this period of time.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:52

And I'm glad that you're like now you know on this side like working on your dreams and your goals and I be I believe that you're gonna you're gonna go further you know succeed and like honestly like since you uh mentioned you know starting from from um dishwashing and moving your way up I I so many people in the audience can relate to that because a lot of us who have been working in the industry uh and you know this is what we do this is what happens when you gone through even if you go to college to school um whatever your side jobs are you know or if you have two jobs because sometimes like even if you work during the day as a teacher or as a uh you know accountant you are a busboy a bartender or server uh during the evening or weekends you know so a lot of people relate with what what we just heard from you. Um and then seeing what you're doing I think it's also really a lifting for the community you know in general like not only the Mexican community but the Latino community because you know being in New York it's so it's so big but so small at the same time you know because growing up in Jackson Heights um I'm talking about myself I grew up in Jackson Heights and the community there was Dominicans, Colombians, a lot of Ecuatorians, you know, Peruvians uh some which I mean like most of my friendships. And like you mentioned you know you're going to Puerto Rico going to these places uh having friends from Puerto Rico like you know this is this country uh or this this this state perhaps it's so beautiful in that sense because it helps you connect with all the people all the food all the drinks and then you learn from everybody right like we're still learning from everybody. Yeah I love that about this and and thank you for sharing your story.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:34

Be before you leave obviously we know that you're like you know also working in a nonprofit and doing pop-ups so we have the the conversation about you but like now what are you what is the project that you you're working on on your side as a personal so about three years ago I started this um it was sort of like a way to like I was I was just getting upset with like all the stereotypes like um it was mostly about my own culture and it was just like uh I was tired of like the whole concept of how people have between cultures like Mexican food is always spicy and it's always guacamoles and tacos and stuff like that. So I started this event where um we are stepping away from stereotypes and giving you all the opportunity to learn cultures in an under new light. So we're trying to put in new flavors different types of cuisine that you can see or anything like that. The first one was what three years ago I did it in Harlem in my own neighborhood at a new bar that had just opened there. The last year was at Frijoleros and we did an amazing event up there with Fabiola and like all her team and you guys actually you guys won that award yeah if you guys haven't seen it this is a banana award yeah but I represent so the first year it was sort of just one-sided where it was just like all we all I wanted to do is offer people a new way on how to look at our culture which is why we don't work with agave spirits we only do Mexican non-agave spirits so we that year we did Casalumbre last year we did Privo and Condesa and Palente um but last year I was like you know what it's really fun to throw a party in everything like that but for what like so I kind of put a second layer towards it and decided that if this is really about community it's about also giving back to the community so I started thinking that we should use the funds of whatever we make to kind of give back to the community especially with like the whole political air that that things is our um last year you know Trump came into office and was kind of persecuting the Latino community. So we partnered up with the Street Vendor Project and that's who we donated our money to um from that event. And it was really cool because I mean about what last month uh the street vendor project had an amazing win by winning um this new law where they're actually going to start printing new permits for street vendors. It hasn't happened for over 10 years, you know? Finally and like um in a way like I might not be extremely the reason why it happened because that legal battle was way more expensive than what we contributed. But it was nice to know that in one way or another we were able to contribute to it. So this year we're doing it at Monkey Thief uh like for our what second week opened we're opening up this week it'll be on our third on the it but it'll be for Cinquelia Mayo the first two years was for Mexican Independence Day. This year is for Cinco de Mayo we're probably still gonna do something for September but the one for Cinco de Mayo it's like I kind of wanted to make a little bit fun of it. Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico it's uh it's an American It was it was made by by tequila brands to sell more tequila, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:05

And and beer.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:06

Uh-huh. And beer, yeah. So um I decided, you know what, we are going to do agave spirits and we're gonna do tequila and we're gonna do margaritas and all the stereotypes, but I'm gonna show you exactly how to do these right. Like, we're not gonna put mango on guacamole. We're gonna make a real good guacamole. Or like we're not just making acidic fucking margaritas that cost two dollars. It's still gonna be a pretty cheap margarita, but it's gonna be a good one. Like it's not gonna be um, but we're donating our proceeds this year to uh Little Sisters Association, which is um actually in my own neighborhood. It's a program that started a couple years ago. That it was just a group of nurses that came through from Europe and they were giving aid to the people in the community, and they chose East Harlem because they believed one of America's biggest enemies was obesity. And um uh Harlem just happened to be one of the largest communities that has a lot of child obesity. So they set up shop there and they started with children, but at this moment it's been quite some time, and over the years they've branched out to other things, and one of those things in um include legal processing for people looking for documentation. Um, and they actually helped me directly. They are the people who gave me the documentation of uh of how I'm able to work and like and have the residency that I have, and they're helping me with the process of getting the citizenship. So I just felt like if I have this platform now and I and I can give back, I can definitely give back to the people who directly help me out and they can help the community that I'm in. Um, which is gonna be super fun to like be able to give back to the people that gave me the opportunity to even be doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:57

That's amazing. If you guys listening and watching, uh make sure you follow G, uh his Instagram socials, because uh once he posts this uh information, I think it's good for us to know. And you know, if you have the time, go uh support, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:12

Yeah, it's gonna be on a Monday.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:13

So it's uh it's hopefully everybody's off. May May feed on Monkey Thief and it's gonna be for May 4th. May 4th, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:21

Maybe 4B with you.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:23

But it's gonna be, you know, uh directed to cook uh helping the community and you know, I guess immigrants in general, uh we're building also this country. We have been building this country and we're still gonna be building this country.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:37

I mean, yeah. I mean we're here, fuck it.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:40

Yeah, and we're you know trying to do our life in a way that you know not just contributes to society but also to ourselves. So we're doing something that we're passionate about it, and hopefully everybody gets to have that type of opportunity. But you know, now we learn from you and and we're very happy to have you here again. And you know, we'll we'll wish you the best. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:04

Welcome to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:04

Welcome to you for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:06

I I want to try also the pizza there.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:08

Um yeah. I'm there on Wednesday, but on Saturday will be my first day at the residency.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:14

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:14

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I'm at the pizza shop.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:17

Perfect. So thank you again, Edgar, for for another episode. Thank you. Thank you. And um guys, uh appreciate you guys. Thank you. Uh well, thank you, Edgar. Uh thank you so much for watching uh at this episode. Uh we also have the whole episodes for from from what day one. Uh you can watch them on www.bar talking talking bar nwacy.com. And um, you know, we have our YouTube channel. You can also watch some uh shorts on Instagram, you can follow us, and then you know, don't forget to tip your bartender, don't forget to tip at all. Bar Talking Talking Bar. Bye. Everybody,