Bar Talking Talking Bar
Podcast sharing stories of Bartenders, Brands & Ambassadors, Hospitality Pros & Cocktail Lovers in NYC
Bar Talking Talking Bar
NY Cocktail Expo Founder: Matthew Kourie's Journey
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What happens when a master sound engineer and music producer trades the studio for the spirits world? You get the NY Cocktail Expo—and its visionary founder, Matthew Kourie.
In this special episode of Bar Talking Talking Bar, we sit down with Matt Kourie, co-founder of the New York Best Wings Festival Championships and the NY Cocktail Expo, the largest cocktail and spirits exhibition in eastern New York. After spending over a decade as a master engineer and sound designer in the music industry, Matt pivoted to his true passion: food, cocktails, and creating unforgettable experiences.
Raised by a chef dad who introduced him to international flavors at a young age, Matt became a master wing hunter and libation lover with a comical and energetic hosting persona that made him a beloved figure in the NYC food and cocktail scene. Now, he's bringing together bartenders, brands, and cocktail lovers for an unforgettable experience at the NY Cocktail Expo.
Bar Talking Talking Bar is proud to sponsor the NY Cocktail Expo, and this episode gives you an exclusive look behind the scenes of one of the most exciting cocktail events in New York. Whether you're a bartender, spirits enthusiast, or just love a great cocktail, this conversation is packed with energy, passion, and insider details you won't want to miss.
If you’re into hospitality industry insights, this episode is for you!
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📆 Sunday, August 23
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Hi, I'm a turn and this. And I'm Nuri Robit. And this is Bar Talking Talking Bar. You're added to the heartbeat of New York City's bar and hospitality team.
SPEAKER_03Hosted on the City of the Nervous Leaf. We sit down with bartenders, brands and ambassadors, hospitality pros and cocktail lovers.
SPEAKER_00Whether it's the art of bartending, the hustle behind hospitality, or the wildest bartels, expect raw conversations and listen to the people or your favorite cocktails and keep the NILA alive. If you love bars, it's great and the stories that bring them to life. Follow us, share, and subscribe to keep the conversations flowing.
SPEAKER_03New episodes weekly. Welcome back to another week of our favorite podcast. Bar Talking. Talking Bar. I'm Megarinales.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Nuri Robles. And we're gonna start today with another episode. Uh, but not before saying thank you so much for watching us, for listening. Uh, you can find us on YouTube. You can also find us in every platform from audio. If you're running, if you're like, I don't know, doing your laundry, you can fold it and listen to it.
SPEAKER_03Right, you gotta get that stuff in.
SPEAKER_00Uh so today we're also very happy, Edgar, because we have we have another VIP guest. VIP. Um, can you help me to introduce you? Oh, yes, Matthew Corey.
SPEAKER_02Can you can you use uh pronounce your last name for us? Yeah, Matthew Corey, like the Apple core. Oh, big apple. Corey. Everything makes sense. NYC in New York City. That's right.
SPEAKER_03Matthew, thank you so much for coming to uh our studio, uh, for making the trip. Uh you I know we know you are out on all Lone Island. Yeah. Uh not far from the city, but still, you know, it's fine. It's a drive.
SPEAKER_05It was a nice drive. I used to live in Queens. So no, thank you for having me. I'm I'm so happy to finally sit with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the other prize, like uh, you know, um we're from New York and New York City as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And today we're gonna talk a lot about New York and New York City. And the reason we have you here is because we're intertwined between cocktails and bars. But definitely before we jump into that conversation, we uh we asked our guests to introduce yourself to the audience because some people they know you, but some people don't. So if you don't mind to start with your background and everything.
SPEAKER_05Sure. Well, I'm Matthew Corey, I'm the owner and founder of the New York Cocktail Expo, which is New York's premier cocktail festival, founded in 2015, respectively 2017 for New York City.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Wow.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we've got some years going right there, right?
SPEAKER_03That's amazing.
SPEAKER_05Uh, and it is home to New York's official cocktail competitions, best cocktail of the year, the tiki throwdown, and our new mocktail competition.
SPEAKER_00That's yeah. Yeah, I mean, obviously we have this. Um I don't I would like I think we talk about it. Like it's not a trend. It's it's something that it's been uh you know proposed because we want uh integration of many situations like people who don't drink, people who are pregnant, or people who decided that night doesn't want to drink, or someone who's struggling with uh, you know, some alcohol issues that we also tell people that first of all, drink responsibly, but other also like if you know someone that is struggling, have them to like you know go through the process without shaming, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, drinks are drinks. I mean, people love food, there's there's not a lot of the alcohol in food. You know what I mean? People don't line up to Starbucks for the alcohol, it's caffeine, there's a lot of other things that could be in the glass. So I think we're just in a new era of options and it's an exciting gateway for new forms of mixology. So I think it's a it's a new road to pioneering some new classics. It's very hard to create a modern classic cocktail with the old ratios that we've been doing. So I think it's really exciting. Uh, and once again, what whether it's for those reasons or just to change the the course of your drinking night, maybe you're having two alcoholic drinks and then your third one's a refresher that is not to keep you going. So it's not just water service anymore, it's getting low ABV and non-alcoholic cocktails in there. It's not just mocktails, it's non-alcoholic cocktails too, right? Not everything's a mocktail. So it's it's cool. I I like what's going on with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's a well-thought-of cocktail, and I'm so happy that you mentioned that competitions, because I feel like uh for the most part, it has been always about, you know, the best tequila, the best cocktail with, you know, like the tiki cocktails, uh, the best cocktail with uh rum or anything really. Uh but when it bec it comes to uh an alcoholic spirits, it could be an alcoholic spirit, or we could it can also be like a well-thought unalcoholic cocktail that doesn't have to have any non-alcoholic alternatives, right? It can just be something that you make, like a tea and infusion, uh some foam and who knows, creativity comes up play, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, totally. There's new avenues, new ratios, uh new glassware that we're gonna see, new names. It won't be just flips and sours and spritzes and highballs, it'll be new things. So if you wanna, you know, once again, you love hospitality, you love being with guests, but you also want to maybe make your piece of a legacy and a legend in this beginning of the century that we're still in. Yeah. Think about non-alcoholic cocktails. Because once again, not everything is a mock tail. You have different categories now, right? You have there are mocktails mocking another known cocktail. You have non-alcoholic cocktails, which could be anything, it's just not alcohol-centered, okay? And then you have uh functional drinks, which there's some function to that drink. It could be a a cavo or a feeling behind it, caffeine is even a functional ingredient. And then, you know, and then you have wellness cocktails as well, which has a wellness criteria, healthy drinks. It's just not a uh, you know, a an arbitrary smoothie handed to you in a styrofoam cup. It's a thought-out, crafted second cocktail, Renaissance style cocktail. So you're gonna see a lot more creativity, and it's I think it's gonna blow our minds a little bit. Yeah, it's 2026, and cocktails are no longer just alcohol-centered.
SPEAKER_00That's that's that's very interesting. Yeah. Um but also being interesting, um where we don't start, like how do you who you are, right? Obviously, you say your name, but what is your background? Where where did you grow up?
SPEAKER_05So, I mean, I'm New York through and through. I grew up uh on Long Island. Uh and I did move out to the West Coast for a bit, the East Bay area in twice, actually. So I actually went to to college in 2000. Uh, and I studied uh multimedia engineering. So I was like in music for a long time, and um I grew up loving film, so I studied sound arts there and uh and got really into marketing and I did a lot of voiceover work actually at that time.
SPEAKER_01That was so cool.
SPEAKER_05Um, you know, and I did bands for a long time, and it's funny that uh when uh those bands were kind of ending, um, like my one of my best friends, uh, we wanted to say, hey, the bands are aren't really doing much anymore. This is like 2011, so what do you want to do? And we always used to go eat chicken wings and have beer after like the rehearsals and shows. So we said, why don't we go review chicken wings all over Long Island and New York and tell people about the best ones using our multimedia engineering background? And that got into like, you know, uh, this is blogging before Instagram was around. And then we would go, hey, why don't we do a wing festival? Let's show people the best restaurants. And then uh really got into like 2011, 2012, where I started enjoying Brooklyn and New York City and Queens. And a person I was with at the time was taking me to speakeasies, he's in cocktail bars. I was like, oh, this is just like cooking. I know this, the creativity, I love this. So um, about 2015, uh, I decided to do what I was doing for wing festivals for cocktails. And there was just a few bars uh on Long Island that were doing the craft that I was getting to know. Uh I was writing for like Huffington Post at the time and doing contributions. I did a best cocktails of Queens and other boroughs, etc. And so I said, I think there's enough bars uh in Long Island for me to do uh this sort of listicle and then put together an expo to showcase them and have Spirit Brand's team, and we can have a best cocktail competition. And that, man, that that blew the doors down for a cocktail revolution on Long Island, right? Really showcasing what Expo does is it creates this awareness and popularity and what's trending and for people to find their new bars in a place that was just kind of apple teenies and Long Island iced teas, right? Um but really at that time and spending my my time in Astoria, it it went right rolling right into, that was 2016, went right rolling into the New York Cocktail Expo of 2017, where we did that for all the Queen's bars at the Bohemian Beer Garden. That's before we landed at the Melrose Ballroom, which has been our home for New York Cocktail Expo since 2018.
SPEAKER_00Which is a very good place.
SPEAKER_03It's a really nice place. Uh we've been there several times for different events. Speed Rack happens there every year. Uh we were there last year for the expo as well, uh, for the first wave, because I know you have two uh waves. Yeah. Two sessions per se. Two sessions, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right now we have timed entry. It's gotten it's we're back to our 2019 numbers, you know. So the first year we were back, it took a little like, hey, thanks for coming back, everybody. And you know, so now we're back to our number our 2019 numbers of of uh participation and attendance again. So it's timed entry. But it's still the same format, you know, pretty much.
SPEAKER_00So uh when you mentioned that you were like doing the Gwyns uh you know uh critic and everything, who you were working with?
SPEAKER_05So that right there was my best friend. We he was like my wingman, we called him. So we would just go explore restaurants, and that's when I started to get a feel of service and noticing things about ownership and hospitality. Um and then when I did the cocktail expo, I said, I really want to be able to because you have to commute when you're an event organizer, you really want to know all sides of it. It's almost like if you could be every role in hospitality, how much better would you run the restaurant having done every single thing?
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_05Uh so I really was interested in that. So I said, hey, to one of the bars, I said, I'd love to do an apprenticeship with you and understand what it's like to be a bartender or barbacker. Uh and that bar was Cork and Carry, uh, which was really like the top cocktail bar of Long Island at the time. Uh they're no longer uh here. They've closed down since. But man, you got to see uh so much about service uh and so much about technique uh and so much about hospitality. And I said, wow, this is amazing. I'm kind of a purist like my grandfather. So I was there for about four months, really got that. I said, you know what? I I'm gonna go do beers and shots now. I'm gonna go do dive bar bartending. So for about a year and a half after that, I went to a bar called the Bruce Brothers Grill, which I was bartending the late shift. I lived in Forest Hills and I'd get home at five in the morning, couldn't find any parking, to sleep in the car sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Uh and getting so much tickets.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. But you know, just seeing all sides of service and getting to know those things. And and, you know, I just found that I had such um a love for it. I love being with people. You know, I brought people together since I was a kid in school. I was always between the the nerds and the cool kids and the, you know, to be like, let's go hang with Matt. He's gonna make us laugh and we're gonna have fun. So I love community and bringing people together. Um so yeah, so so so with that, this was a trajectory into getting into uh drinks and service and from there. And then I actually went to Queens and uh ended up hiring staff now for a new gastro pub for their bar team, the bar manager, the beverage director, and so forth, and uh, and then really putting my marketing stuff to use with the bar program. Uh so now I will, you know, take on certain projects of restaurants that really need help. I'll come in there as a marketing director, beverage director, find out where the leaks are in the boat so we can stay afloat and start to sail. Yeah uh and that's really where things are uh really right now.
SPEAKER_03So that's amazing. That's amazing. Like you say, understanding every role in order for business to succeed. I think this is uh we're doing consulting at this point, right? This is consulting, opening a new bar, uh educating the staff and seeing from another kind of perspective. And that's amazing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right. We get to change I call it the many sides of the diamond. You can change your perspective and then reality changes. It's kind of amazing. So so yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and talking about changing perspective, like how do you feel, you know, going from engineering and working, you know, writing articles from a newspaper, and then just like, you know what? I mean, I just got to hospitality. Did you I mean, were you still working on on your career, or it was like only just switched like a hundred percent?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, uh there's a love for it. It it's totally who I am, it speaks to who I am, being with people. Uh, but you know, uh part of that was being a recording artist for a long time and writing songs, and there's a lot about the song and the rhythm of service and harmony and things like that and and being around folks and the creativity um of being in the kitchen or behind the bar. I do really enjoy um the creativity I saw in cocktails. I really do enjoy that. I, you know, when I was first getting to be really uh involved and covering the second cocktail renaissance, I said, this creativity is what I know. Like my father's a chef, you know. So I grew up with a lot of food around me and a lot of creativity and making recipes, and I always loved restaurants uh and hospitality and entertaining people. So it was just a natural gravity. You know, once I was like, wow, this is this is great, you know, I love the classic cocktails, I love the modern classics, you know, penicillin was my favorite cocktail for a long time, and I enjoyed the creative process of drink making. But also it wasn't, it became less about that and became more about how we're making people feel uh being behind the bar and tending to people as a bartender, the tending to people. Uh it became less about like my drink and how great the drink was. If somebody wasn't having a good time while they were sipping a drink or something went wrong, bad news that they could get, well, here's the first service of this cocktail coming out. I've been working on this for three weeks. I want the face. I want them to make that face, you know. Uh, and then it's like, ooh, they make that face, and then they get bad news, and then now it's their least favorite cocktail because it's tied. I just find it so all this stuff so interesting. And I also found that uh, you know, I I played to my strengths. I'm a better teacher of bartenders than maybe I am a bartender. And that's okay. There's a lot of I gotta get the POS in here, and there's all the multitasking and things that are going wrong. It all has to kind of work together. So I have a high respect for bartenders and bartending and this multitasking brain that you have to have, uh, and all of the psychology and emotional work that goes into service. It's just I gravitate towards that. So um, and I and I do find it interesting to get into businesses like we we we need help, we need we need help, we need cocktails, we need to understand, and going, okay, well, here's what's here's a few things going wrong that can help you right away. I just I gravitate towards that and building community, uh, it just feels natural to me. Everything is about community, um, down to earth relating with people, as opposed to you know, the experience we may have talked about being clicky or or this is a cool kids' club, or you can't sit with us. I really enjoy sleeping. I enjoy community, and I like to see that in New York.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, and and and I and I'm so happy that you're doing this with the Cocktail Expo, because I mean you bring a lot of community. Uh I know that there's a lot of people now that who knows about a cocktail expo. And I mean, it wasn't when you started it in 2017, do you think this is gonna be like this was gonna grow as big as it is becoming now? Uh because I I know this is gonna become bigger now. But have you like do you see it there like the way it is now?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, well, we're still a small business, just bartenders pulling this together. But when we did the first expo, I just thought I was doing a tasting and showing people cool restaurants and and cocktails that I wanted them to have. I was like, I'm gonna wreck your palate. Once you have drinks like this, you're not gonna go back to your apple teenies and the stuff that we first started. But the 2017 thing, I really enjoyed the Astoria bar community and and um it it felt like a home to me uh being a part of that and uh covering it. Um but I had no idea all the feedback that I would hear after doing the expo, all of these benefits everyone enjoyed. Like we're working with so-and-so now, we've got new people coming in. This started a revolution. Like I'm able with my spirit brand now to go and talk to these bars that never would have had me before. And I'm going, oh, there's all these things going on. I'm like, wow, well, let's let's continue to. But um I guess I guess I didn't I didn't know what those outcomes would be. Um, but I do think that we are in the most iconic state in the world, at least from where I sit. You know what I mean? I've got my perspective. And New York cocktail bars are an iconic thing and a very special place for it to be, like the heart of it, I feel. And so I I do I do have um, you know, a love or an iconic view or a community view of the expo, and people are saying, hey, you know, it's getting big, we might have to go into a two-day thing or or something like that. But um no, I guess I guess I didn't see us uh at the Melrose Bottom at first, you know. No, I I can't I can't say that I did right there. So it came with time.
SPEAKER_03But that's also now that you mentioned that that's a two-floor uh building. Three floors, yeah. You know, and I've seen it uh where do you fill up the three floors? Because we didn't get I didn't get to go to the third floor. I went up to the second floor last time. But it I mean, that's that's a big space.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. We have people come in first and go there, and then we start directing people up to the top, and so they meet in the middle. Yeah. Countdown. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um, you know, it it's very interesting also that we talk about uh the expo or exposition at every like it would be the main idea of like why are you doing this? It's not just like, you know, we just wanna have fun, or it's it's an exposition for like the cocktails, right? But also the bartenders who are putting the work. Uh, you know, in many places that they give the opportunity to become head bartenders or beverage directors, and they create this uh, you know, uh sensation of like whatever is gonna be in this glass, we wanna make the gas to feel like oh my god, I want something citrusy and I get it. Oh, I want something like you know, penicillin, I love it too. Um, and this mix of flavors that you know you get to see a lot of bartenders doing that, or a lot of brands supporting their bartenders. And I feel like um this place is also in the middle of like people can get in easily, and the other part is like I think New York you can find an issue for everything, and sometimes when you create something, it feels like it's gonna work or not. But I think people love everything, even if you're now part of the industry. I think also like many guests or like uh the people in general that they go to try it because it's also very fun. Like you don't have to go like bar crowding or like you know, spending so much in like every week to go to a bar. So here you have everything together.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're so right. I mean, uh this is where bars and bartenders come to be seen. You know, best cocktail of the year, tiki throw down, best mocktail, the stage, the stage at Melrose Ballroom, right? It's very exciting. There's lights, it's like a concert venue. Okay, so we have all bartender attendees that come to see what New York's top bars and what's a trending in cocktails. They're coming there to see what what spirits they're using, what techniques that they're using, right? But it's also everyone that loves the cocktail. It's these guests that come to taste their drinks, and yeah, they're gonna save a lot of money now. Cocktails are getting expensive, so you have your ticket price, you have like, you know, many cocktails you can go through. But the best thing about it is that this isn't an arbitrary, like we we say we don't do drunk fest. You know, there's a lot of events that are like pulling things off of the table, and you know, there used to be a beer fest every weekend, you know, back in the old days, and it would be like, man, the exhibitors say, people are here just coming here to get smashed. But the thing we hear every year from our tables and the exhibitors, whether bars or or the spirit brands, is everybody is here to kind of have like a fun educational experience. And they're so interested uh in the bar or they're so interested in the spirit brand, because it's like an eighth ounce pour of the spirit. Tasting, going, ooh, what's going on here? And then you're seeing it through the lens of the cocktail, or vice versa. Okay, so so much goes on that we're distracted by, I think, in industry because we're online and our attention is getting there. But Cocktail Expo is here all year. You know, we've had seminars that we would do at home, and we're we really focus on the expo now. But you know, you go through and you have all industry um uh events that's gonna happen in June, and people people will go there, and then they're heading to New Orleans at a certain point of time and going there. But we're here now. You know, this is the show for all of the bars, and we call it Road to the New York Cocktail Expo. And all those things are happening along the way, but the crescendo is best cocktail of the year, tiki throwdown, where all the bars are gonna be going to the New York Cocktail Expo in Long Island City, Queens, to be seen, to have community for what's going on here in New York, uh, so that can permeate as community throughout the rest of the year until we come back again. Uh I think that's what's special about New York Cocktail Expo is really for the bars to be seen and supported by the brands.
SPEAKER_00And also I think it's very important that as I say it, I You know, we have um awards to p to say like the best bar. Uh sometimes bartenders they go to do pop-ups and they only showcase the cocktail but or their job, but they do not don't have the time to talk to the guests. And what I love about the New York Expo is that you go into like every booth and you can see the happiness of the bartenders like talking about their cocktail. And uh sometimes you know, they have the time to explain something that not necessarily have to be like I have to shake 20, you know, cocktails. It's like putting something and and having so much people trying it. Uh, because you know, sometimes when we go to events and the you know the bartenders are doing their little time, sometimes to get a cocktail from the bar is also very hard because it's super packed or it's super busy and they have to charge you and blah blah blah. So I guess this is a very good opportunity to see what happens in a bar and also knowing about the bartender and also you know enjoying other bartenders.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and not only about the bartender, because I've seen a lot of brands there also talking about this the the process. I mean, sometimes they have a little bit of time to talk a little bit about uh the information that we don't know, like for example, when was it created, why the label is like this, uh what kind of whiskey tequila, rum, or an alcoholic experience per se. Um, and I think that's also what you know good because you mentioned uh when everybody comes here, uh if you want to learn from somebody or something, you can just go taste it, ask. Uh, and if you have the opportunity to to talk to the bartender and tell you what his strength is all about, how he came up with a name, created a name, what's the name behind the name of the cocktail, the reference. Uh I think that's um one thing that also connects with hospitality again, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um and it and also, I mean, the competition. It's a good thing to see like all the bars competing uh for the same goal, you know, like for the best cocktail, for the best tiki cocktail, for the best non-alcoholic cocktail. Uh, because you know you have support of your team coming here, your friends, uh, somebody who has probably never been into like a competition. Uh they might have now the the the you know like the gods? Not the gods, but like somehow like the itch, you know, to do it. Like, hey, I want to do it. I want to be behind I want to be able to compete and do it again too. Because I mean sometimes we get afraid of being this on stage for because we have never been there. But once you're there, you break the ice, you know, like that's what I always say, right? Once you do it once, like alright, next time the next competition, it's it's uh whatever it is, right? Like the best cocktail, the best uh, I don't know, flare, if you were a flare bartender. But I think it's just taking that one chance and seeing it. So as the new bartenders come in and seeing uh people competing, I think it's always great for the for the industry because now we have other bartenders trying to get like the same uh, you know, each to do it to do it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, I love I think the cocktail extra is really approachable. Like if you're excited about that and you want to go compete, it's not very stuffy, it's so approachable. And I love how you were saying that, yeah, this is where you can go table to table and feel like asking questions rather than, hey, can I get a how do I say, I don't want to say the wrong thing. Everything is so down to earth and approachable. It's not these big build-outs and everyone has to, it's literally table activations where they're there and you get all this FaceTime and you can say, Well, what did you do? Oh, well, I actually sous-v'd this, you know, immersion. Oh, well, what is that? Maybe you don't know what that is. You're like, oh, you know, it's actually it's a water bath and for a bar to you get some cool technique and imagine how much you're gonna hear in that building. Yeah, and then tasting stuff, you're gonna leave so inspired, it's gonna be really great. And that's what permeates the the bar community. You go there to get inspired and see everybody, but also you feel like I can go and compete. It's approachable. It feels like, yeah, and then maybe like you're like, oh, I I I was uh a finalist, you know, because the judges they come around, and we've had some really amazing judges, okay? Uh like yourself this year, Eddie, you're gonna be a judge for best cocktail. I will be behind yes, I'm gonna be there's a judge.
SPEAKER_01We let the news out here.
SPEAKER_05Okay, it's gonna be cool, you know. Uh I think it should be there. But anyway, we've had so many incredible judges, and then you get FaceTime with them. They're they're gonna walk around and taste your cocktail. Yeah. So then you also get that they're not hidden behind a room, and there's someone comes to take your thing. Everything is so down to earth. It feels like people leaving going, man, that cocktail X was a vibe. You know, and that does, it all comes from the top because I care mostly about people connecting and about hospitality and things not being like, well, you're not cool enough, more than like, yeah, let's do this, let's let's go. Keep your own. We learn and we grow together. Always putting myself in the middle point of going, I'm I now have my bank of knowledge and my experience, but I'm always learning, I'm always learning from everybody. So I think that really does permeate the event. It's so down to earth. And if you didn't make it, you're like, I'm coming back next year, I know more now, I've been at the expo, I'm coming back stronger, I'm gonna do it again. And so maybe you've won two or three times, you're like, I'm gonna be a judge. We've had people that have won that have come back and been judges now. Uh and also people that are hospitality curious. Yeah. They come in, we're like, okay, I'm gonna be server, you know, and then they're we see them, oh, you're a bar back now. Be like, no, I'm a bartender now. Well, I'm a head bar, I'm a bar manager now, I'm a beverage director, and now I'm a brand ambassador. We've seen this entire like ladder happen at cocktail expo. So Wow, that's amazing. It's a great place to come and just be a part of it and so many amazing um outcomes that happen at New York Cocktail Expo.
SPEAKER_00And also what I love about it is that um, like you said, it's down to earth. It's uh it's open to everyone who wants to participate. And I feel like, you know, if you're a part of like a bar or place that sometimes you don't believe in awards because some people are like, uh, you know, we're not gonna win or whatever, it's not about winning, it's about showcasing your skills as a bartender, also your place if you have a restaurant or bar or cocktail bar that people also can know about you. Because sometimes, like for example, last year when I went, uh, it's not like I don't know them, but I I happen to see people from Citrico. And you know, sometimes I don't hang out in Astoria, but seeing their like their work and everything, it makes me feel like, oh, you know, next time in Astoria, I'm gonna go because these guys are killing it, right? Yeah, and uh I feel like what I love also about the expo is that not necessarily has to be a you know the famous New York City cocktail bar that is gonna participate. But there's like we also talk about that, there's like some people that they don't have the spotlight sometimes because whatever the reasons, but it's also cool to have them there because you know, it's people that been working in the industry for so long, yeah, and they're a little afraid or they don't want to, you know, whatever it is the reasons.
SPEAKER_03So sometimes I think like, you know, to your point, I think sometimes uh what gets more showcases fit the best bars here or there, you know, or a hundred lists or whatever. But you know, in New York, there's thousands of bars that we have on every corner, basically. Yeah, you know, like you can go to Astoria, find at least 200 bars. You can go to Queens, you can go to Brooklyn, you can go to the Bronx, you can go to Long Island. Standard Island, yeah. So all these like places that you can go to and find a cool bar doesn't necessarily have to be like you know, feel the best, but they're have they have really good coff could good offerings. They have great cocktails, they have they have a great staff. Uh and I think what makes uh what makes it seem it's the competition part. Because if you compete in and you you know going to a competition or going attending the per se the New York uh City Expo or any other places where you can attend to for education purposes, uh where you can see a new spirit, where you can see a new c new technique that you mentioned, Matthew, earlier. Um, or you get to know all the other uh bartenders. Kind of like to cross-pollinate and learn from them. You learn from the LDL from you also because you know, the capabilities of everyone is very different. Like you mentioned, you know, like you were good at coordinating things. Uh other people is good at like I don't know, uh photography perhaps, you know. So if you have a team and you teach somebody who's good at photography, maybe use it for uh social media, right? Like understanding the team also, that's another thing. But yeah, that I mean going around and overall, I think at the back the New York Expo, it's a good thing for bartenders in general to go, to learn, to expose themselves, to be curious, to network, because network is very important also. Like knowing all the people. Um, yeah, I mean, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_05No, you said a New York Cocktail Expo is the home for all the bars to come and be seen. We've had, you know, some of the most famous bars both competing and being judges, while brand new bars will kick off their bar at the expo. Like they're gonna be opening or they've been open a couple of months, and they're like, we're gonna go to the expo and meet all of our new guests. Like as a guest, you have cocktail fans that are going, okay? They're finding all their new favorite bars that they never would have known about, right? And like, oh, you're you're in Brooklyn, you're in, oh, I'm from the great. And then they're the ones first coming to mind, those bars of where they're gonna go to, right? But then also, if I could just give some props to some of the bars that have been there, you can hear, you know, let's give them some, like uh, we had In Between Bar, Yawning Cobra, uh the Wishy Were Here group, Porch Light, Rosevale Cocktail Room, Cellar 335, Lucky Cat NYC, Ask for Janice, A10 Kitchen, Trad Room, Izakaya Jiraku. There's all these bars that you might not have ever heard of before, or that you might know, or that's just like, hey, Cocktail Expo is where everybody comes together. Okay? Yes, there are awards, but I I think you were speaking to it. It's that some people get like, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna go to win. Other bars are like, I just want to meet my new guests, I want to be in the community, I want to be seen, I want people to know that where I am, I want to be a part of the energy and going to be inspired. The awards are just one particular part. It's not all about that. You know, we we don't have a lot of people coming in, everybody's in suits and this and that. We have that with with people coming in casual and enjoying themselves, and the vibe is just permeates the entire thing, really connecting everybody. Everything feels approachable, everything feels relatable. Um and this is this is what we do. We put we have a platform for everybody. Yeah, it's not it, it's community-based.
SPEAKER_03Uh that's what we do. And I guess my other question would be like if somebody who hasn't been able to join yet, or to, I mean, buy a ticket perhaps, but if somebody wants to join next year, for example, right? Like somebody wants to compete. Yeah. Or somebody is wants to enter the bar or the restaurant, how would they do it? Like, will they reach out to you?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. So if you want to join New Year's Cocktail Expo, come participate, come be a part of this. So you can write to us on our Instagram, it's NY Cocktail Expo, and you can send us a DM, or you can go right there on the link and there is a registration, and someone is definitely going to get back to you and get you signed up. And typically the bars will team with a spirit brand. You know, this way that there's a table, uh, the spirit brand will give them product and kind to be working with, they'll take care of any cost. We're a small business. Basically, you know, we do have the exhibitor fees that come on so the spirit brand can support the bars and covering that. That's how we get our funding in to pay for our advertising for the label, uh, for the labor, to rent the venue, because we're just a small business, we're not corporate, you know, we're like you. We're we're bartenders and hospitality people. So it's everybody coming together to make this happen. So it truly is community. But that's how you get signed on. Uh, and you're batching drinks, you know, you're doing a two-ounce of shaking cocktail sample, you know, no more than an ounce if it's going to be stirred. Uh, and we want you there. If you're getting excited, it's like I say, this is your year. This is your year. Come to New York Cocktail Expo because we want you there, we want you to experience it, and we want you back every year to be a part of this community. And New York Cocktail Expo doesn't come in for a couple of days and leave town. We're here all year to do stuff. So um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and I think this is also, I mean, a big opportunity to like be part of something that is created from New York, New York City to the New Yorkers. Because sometimes, you know, also there are people that is skeptical about like, oh, I don't want to go to this place because what we're gonna win, right? Or what are we gonna do there? And I I really want to highlight that it's the best opportunity not just to try a cocktail, but also to meet other people, like networking, and also like let's say you're a new bartender, you can go and you know, show off and say, like, hey, I work here and and I'll be happy to have you here. And and then I feel that sensation of like also supporting the the expo, uh going there is like given the credibility of this industry that sometimes it's like people just see and like, oh, they just do drink, right? But it's it's something that is really like well thought. Uh I I Edgar, I've seen him like working at Freeman for so long, and I every time I see a cartoon that he makes, it's like, oh my god, I didn't think that about this, right? So it's something that is special when you see a bartender doing something uh for the guest.
SPEAKER_03Especially when you're competing. Uh you wanna like one thing I always say, when you compete, you it you don't do it by yourself. Like, yes, you're the person on stage, but you always ask your colleagues, your friends to hey, can you taste my cocktail? Tell me something. So you know, like it's not a one-person thing. Yes, you of course you get the flowers because you you are the person on stage. But sometimes most of the like I'm gonna say, without my team, I wouldn't be able to like know what I want, what I like. Because I if somebody likes spicier than I want to the one I like, then I can find a good balance, you know? Um if I like, I don't know, like spare four cocktails, but I don't want to add a lot of bermood, if I'm using bermood, then they'll direct me to, oh, can you use Amaro? Because Amaro is a little bit better, you know, like they'll give me a feedback that is going to be constructive for me. Okay and it helps people it helps you grow. So in a way, you're growing, you know, because it's just sensors you can use them once, and then that's what we need. Community. Yeah. Uh and that community is the partners, or or or sometimes you can ask the server, you know, or the manager, the general manager, or the bibberry director, hey, what do you think about my cocktail? Or if you have a cogical question, how can I make this uh subi, like you mentioned earlier, right? Yeah, how can I make this? I I want to make it, but I have never done it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. No, everything you're saying is so key. There's just two points to this because you get everybody that loves the cocktail. One, you can have like peer, industry peer feedback. Hey, here, have you ever thought about doing this? But the guests are there. The consumers or whatever you know term you want to use here, the guests that are going to the bars, they're the ones that are the bloodline of the cocktail bars. They're working 40, 80 hours a week and they're coming into the bars to spend their money to have the drinks, so you get their feedback. And if you're a bar and you have a cocktail and you see them going, what's that drink everybody's drinking that everybody likes? What is this? It inspires people to go, hey, well, we need to do something like this. We need to have something like this. That everybody's really loving this punch or this stirred cocktail or this martini or whatever it is, or this riff on an old-fashioned and stuff. What's this, what's the spirit that that they're they're they're using, this new mixer, this liqueur? I never I never heard of this before. And what everybody loves it, right? So now it helps you make confident choices for your bar program because you could love something with with industry all you want. You could you can totally drive on something, but if the guests aren't going for it, if it's not upselling well, or maybe the menu name isn't right and all these different things, well then it goes away. So you need the coming together of trade, of industry, and our guests together to get the outcomes of what comes from that. And it's it's like 2,000 people in the room. So it's like the perfect size we found for people to kind of, I guess focus group is a term that some folks use. Come in and test a cocktail. Some people come in and say, no, this is a trademark drink, it's a mainstay on our cocktail menu. It really represents our bar and our brand and the relationship we have with the spirit brand. But other people come in and go, Oh, there's some cocktails I'm messing with. I'm gonna go there and test it, and then the favorite I'm gonna put on my menu because people love it. So it's interesting strategies that you can leverage the cocktail expo for because everybody is there.
SPEAKER_03That's true. And and then I'm good, I'm I'm so happy that you're saying that he's in the leverage, you know, because if somebody people, uh especially that's how all the classics, like modern classics, started, like you know, the margarita per se, because people sell them in, people loved it, and it was now it's a call for. Like you say, you make a riff uh on the old fashioned, even though it's a classic as well. You know, you you know what to work with. You have you kind of have an idea. Uh, but there's so many ideas that you can come up with. Honestly, like as a bartender, uh depends on the season, uh, depends on the ingredients that you have available, or it could just be like a changeable one-tell little ingredient, that's it. You know? Like it I think sometimes we um want to make everything so complex and different, and and you know, but I think sometimes uh simplicity makes it easier to you know, like I don't know, maybe that's a different point.
SPEAKER_05No, I love what you're saying because we we've seen cocktails and trends go through different seasons. We talked about how before it was like no cocktail could have less than five different ingredients, or no bartender wanted to have less than five ingredients. This is what I want to have, it's all written on my menu. And then we enter into this era of like this espresso martini era where actually cocktails have become more simplified. They really have. They've gone back to these sours again and things aren't as uh complex. So when you go to the expo, you kind of get to see the state of cocktails in New York, uh, where things are, what's what's trending currently. Um and so, and then you'll see those come out of the expo and they will change uh every single year. You know what I mean? Um so to have the guests involved and other bartenders involved, you're going, hey, let me go to expo. Let's say you maybe, you mentioned maybe maybe you have a leave of your job and you haven't been back to work, okay, and you're about to get back into hospitality or bartending again. Well, cocktail expo is a great place to go to get right back on the pulse. See what all the cocktails everybody's doing, what styles that they're using, what's happening. It's really like a snapshot of the time, 2025, 2024, 2023, to walk in, taste drinks, and go, this was the state of what cocktails were like. Because you have uh all this group of bars that are coming in presenting the cocktails, you're like, hey, this is kind of what's happening right now. You know, whereas like 2017 to 2019, it would have been maybe more complex, more ingredients, more things that people just hadn't hadn't heard of or didn't know what they were before. Things like that. Interesting. Or seeing how Mezcal came into popularity and became the mainstay, which was so cool that that happened years ago.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, and it actually changed a lot of things in the city, you know, because mezcal was very popular for a while.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Uh it still is. Uh but the thing is, you know, like people didn't really know much about mezcal. I mean, they only knew about tequila because we all know tequila. But yeah, when this uh mezcal boom we call it, uh now is uh uh because sotol is so popular now these days. And one of my favorite sprays actually is uh mezcala scotch, uh per se. But I really like to try everything. Uh I think every single bartender uh who's ever been behind a bar h has to at least try it. Even if you don't want to like you know, sip it, just like you know to try what, like mascala or something. No, no, every every every every different uh spirit. Okay so that I think I think uh that's what I'm going is that uh the cocktail expo you have a lot of different offerings, you know. You didn't alert so much. Yeah, you have different uh spirits. I saw some mixers also, some non-alcoholic uh options. Uh I mean it's really a good way to experience uh and and taste different things, you know. Not just not just the cocktails, but also like the spirits by themselves if you have access to that. Because you know, you sometimes work at a restaurant where you cannot, it's a dry bar, so you can't really drink or taste anything. Yeah uh it's not allowed. So um and this is what this is also a way for you to go and and you know sip on it or or taste it if you haven't. You don't have to buy the whole bottle, uh, and then you can, you know, if you don't if it's not for you, but in the future, you can use it in a cocktail. So that's what I always say. If it's not uh my my favorite spirit, it's okay. But I might use it in the future because I know that this is the flavor that I'm probably gonna be looking for later. You know? Yeah. So in a way, you kind of like build in that encyclopedia in your brain, in your taste buds. You know, you're like collecting and you just like adding into the brain uh memory.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you could you could kind of go in there with like a base of knowledge that's like curious and then leave kind of so much more educated and knowledgeable. Like there's this movie The Matrix where they plug them in and they go, give me all the access files to knowing kung fu or something. And he's like, all right, now I'm an expert. You go and you have a couple of hours and you're like, okay, now I know what Sotol is or Bakanor is. I never heard of this stuff before, or like, you know, what is Mir Flores? Or like, what did I learned about all these different mixers and flavors? And I went in there and I ended up with my own Malort face, you know, like that never happened before. Like, you know, uh yeah, you can learn a lot in one day, but then you're surrounded by the influence of the guests and and trade and the media too, as well. You know, bartender magazine is gonna be our uh uh official media partner and so forth.
SPEAKER_00So that's a right.
SPEAKER_05Definitely. Um they're amazing. So so there's there's so much to it. Um, and Cocktail Expo, you know, no matter what you're going in for, whether you're a spirit brand as well, and if you that's in your audience as well, you know, we've had Bars come in, have a cocktail, spirit brand as well. Really, really have the audience like love it and then walk away with an RTD. That's a best seller, you know? And we've had that before. We're like one of the spirit brands had one People's Choice Best Cocktail, and they ended up bottling the cocktail, and they're like, This is a best seller now in the marketplace.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_05So if you even for bars, they sit and back and go, hey, we want to can something, we want to bottle something, do we want to have one of our trajectories or streams of what we're doing be an RTD? Because that's very popular right now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Cocktail X was a great place to come, test a cocktail, and go, hey, maybe we should bottle this up or can it up, and this will be an RTD. Look how well it did with this audience. It's like the perfect size group to get that feedback and to do that. So there's just so many ways to enjoy the expo, uh, to be inspired, uh, and to leverage um what's going on there and to be seen. You know, this is the place for the bars of New York to be seen. This is our place. Not everybody's leaving uh out of the state in in in July. This is what's for us here right now. So be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00In the process, like I I have this question like, how is the process to like, you know, how many people are accepted to participate? Because, you know, it can be like a thousand, but it's not gonna be enough time and room. So how do you decide to how do you decide to be a two day, like you mentioned?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we're an open format, you know, it's really you just want to register. Um, but it's those that you know are coming in typically. You see the bars will be teaming with a spirit brand. So we have this thing, the road to the near cocktail expo. One of those steps is that you'll team with a spirit brand. So you're enthused, you want to find a spirit brand to team with, and they will come in and you'll basically activate at a table. I mean, it would be amazing if we had, you know, a thousand or two thousand bars going, We we need three buildings and we need five days. But you'll find there's a lot of human scenarios that either make it possible for people to be there or they they might not say, Oh, we had a conflict or something like that, we couldn't couldn't end up coming. Um, but it's just an open format. Just register, really register and get in touch with us. Uh it's hospitality, all are welcome. We want you there. Uh and just get your spirit brand team up. You know, you're gonna batch a cocktail, you come in to meet guests or compete, uh, and you'll be there. It's really it's just an open format. That's it. We're not we're not like selective, like as you said, it has to be 50 best bars, people, et cetera. It's like, no, come down. It's hospitality. All are welcome. Sign up, register, yeah, and let's hope that you can be there. And we'll help you through the process. We'll help you with questions, whatever you need. Um, but it has always been open format uh for everyone to to to be involved. You know, that's cool.
SPEAKER_00And uh, and also to let people know that there's also food that they sell during the yeah, because otherwise there is food.
SPEAKER_05Like, how do you keep people so well? I focus on carb items. I know we had like donuts one year, right? We had donuts, we had mac and cheese, you know, carbs. Uh, you know, if we're hospitality, we've got the waters are flying in Melrose Ballroom. And there's a food court in the back. So you visit the food court, you know, load up on uh, you know, what they have back there. Uh, and this way everybody stays safe. I always say professional drinkers, drink the water, eat the food. And we actually send out an email just suggesting that people might have breakfast before you come out to the expo. And people will come in because I like to walk around and meet meet everybody and go, I got your email, I had, you know, a burrito, you know, something like that. I'm like, great, smart, this is great. How are you doing? You know, but we have food, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and I feel like you know, it's very important that you know sometimes people relate alcohol with like getting super drunk, yeah, wasted, or like having just like a party and everything. I yeah, I think we also have this opportunity to mention to people that for example, if you want to drink something, it doesn't have to necessarily have to be a shot, right? Because you know, if you have you know 20 spots and you're drinking shot, shot, shots in 20 minutes, you're gonna be drunk, wasted, and also, you know, you waste your time and the opportunity to try other things. I think it's good to like sip it, enjoy it, first of all, because that's the reason you have something real to enjoy it. Yes, and you know, drink water, drink responsibility, but also as professionals, I think we are also changing the game of like just getting people drunk. It's the opportunity to like Edgar says, like educate uh not just the the the public but also other uh you know professional, I mean or bartenders that they feel like oh we just wanna work and whatever it is, uh protocol that we just follow. Like right now we have this program that's called Tips that you can take it and they train you how to like manage selling alcohol or how you treat a guest that is out of control.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03But I feel like this is uh something that don't don't see New York Expo as a place that you just gonna get chunked the opportunity to no it is like I mean, like you said, you know, and I'm sorry that you mentioned that because we spoke about this. I think the tolerance, right? Everybody is tolerant is very different. Yes. But in the educational part, people don't go and get like hammered. And you go, you taste, of course, because you have to taste things. Uh that's food. So you can, you know, have a good balance. Uh and then they would the same way that you go out to a bar and then you don't want to drink more, you know, you don't have to. And if you don't want to eat more, you don't have to. And if your friends see that you're a little bit overserved, you know, that's what friends are there for, also. So your friends are always to say, hey, you know what? I'll drink you some water, let's drink some coffee or whatever. But I don't think um, I mean, I'm I'm glad that you say it because you know, it's a place that you go tray, try, taste, uh, enjoy, connect, uh, rather than they go into a place you're just gonna blow their hammer.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I you know what? I mean, look, I would go to every single event that was a spirit-based event or a food-based event that had alcohol, and I'm gonna see shots being poured, and I'm going, how are people, how are they walking out of here? They just had full shots at five different tables. We do an eighth-ounce spirit pour. So it I think the same way people might culture their bar, okay, and go, this is the kind of guests that we have coming here, and all the bars are different, the same way that's how Expo has also been successful. There's engaging going on. There's a people's choice best cocktail. You come in with a cocktail pass. It's not unlimited drinks. We don't, and it's a two-hour limit or a three-hour limit for VIP. So we have all these touch points of making sure that we keep the lowest. I mean, if somebody comes in there and they're slamming stuff, and that that's like a 1% issue that you may have. But they're like, how did Cocktail Expo get it? So people are going, they're happy, they're enjoying themselves. Well, there's all these different things that we do. And that is, yes, the emails that we send out recommending that you're eating the food, we have the food court for you. The drinking is limited for the for the time that you're there. It's not unlimited drinks. You hand a cocktail pass over to uh the exhibitor or the bar there, and they actually will check off that you've had the drinks. So if you want to go back and try to get to, like, hey, thanks, you know, some thanks so much, and and so forth. Because let's face it, there's uh a conflict in hospitality and serving alcohol. This is why this whole thing that cocktails are not alcohol-centered anymore is really exciting. Okay, because in one thing we want to go, oh, how am I upselling? You know, oh, they're down to the last centimeter of the glass. Another round for you? Oh, perfectly timed. Yeah, I'll have another one. Great, great. My ring is getting high, and we're putting bucks in the drawer, like all those things. But then it gets to the point where they've had so much. Now your cutoff chops have to be good. And now you're leaving, and there could be a liability of someone getting into an accident or whatever. This is why, really, more options of what's in the glass is going to be great for hospitality. More of this, you know, low ABV, uh, the idea of, you know, the old man that would pour a little whiskey in his coffee while nobody was looking. We now can look at alcohol also as a modifier. It doesn't have to be what the base thing is. But yeah, when you go to Expo, there's engaging. It's people's choice, best cocktails. Which one did you like the best? Which one? Oh, I want to do that. I want to vote for them. Hey, when when's the last time I can vote? Hey guys, you know, get your vote in because you know the your session's gonna be ending soon. Oh, okay, I really wanna, I really wanna go do that. There's so much thought involved. That's what makes it valuable for for the bars are putting in so much time. Imagine all the drinks they gotta batch and all the wines they gotta squeeze. That's a lot of you know stuff for them. It's a grueling day. So we want to give them an audience that cares about it. This isn't this isn't an event where people are they're pulling drinks off the table. I've had five, I'm getting my friends a whole tray. No, it's not. It's thanks, great. And you're like you said, we're educated about the spirit, and then you're seeing it in context in the cocktail and how it's used. So this is so much value coming out of the expo. Uh I could put on any kind of event. There's a lot of events that are just like, okay, people come in to drink, it's a booze fest. You know, we don't do that. We don't do that. It really is everything that we're saying. And in order to have that, people cannot be getting slammed. They can't. You only need a taste of the spirit. You just want to get that roll on your tongue. Ooh, oh well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's why I mentioned that you don't have to buy the whole bottle if you want to taste something. Because, you know, tasting is just taste. I don't know what people think about tasting, like especially like probably like less than an ounce. Yeah. If you want to taste like something neat. Uh, and then of course, like you said, the uh the the cocktail is not more than two ounces. That's right.
SPEAKER_05And there's less waste too. Some of the events I'm going, okay, I only want to taste, and they're well then I'm doing that, I'm throwing out because I don't want to get smashed. I want to enjoy my time. And people are becoming more cognizant in this era of going, I don't I don't like the way I feel when I've had too much. You know what I mean? Uh all the negative outcomes that come with that. So there's less waste. That cocktail pass makes it so people can control the amount of samples that they're doing, they know how much product that they've had, etc. It's more of, you know, an efficient process because we said we we want people leaving inspired. We don't want them leaving um, you know, intoxicated completely. It's a different culture of what we're doing at Expo.
SPEAKER_00And I think also just like a quick point about it, is like if you're going there and you work for a place, it's also the image of your place. When you, you know, you're representing a place, and you know, if you get a smash or like super drunk, it's like putting your team down. Um, but you know, I want to ask you something. Like you said, it's it's a a big event. How do you control everything? Like how how many people work for you, like volunteer for you?
SPEAKER_05It's a small team. We work with the Melrose Ballroom, who are really amazing. They're great. They're once again also down to earth. They work with us so nice. They're like family now. Okay, we've been there since 2018. It's a simple coordination. We make sure there's plenty of waters coming out uh on the two bars. They've got two big bars on all floors to make sure. We'll have a team of five to ten volunteers that want to come on and so they can enjoy one of the sessions. As I said, we're a small business, we put it together with a few people. I have um uh Hannah Mizrahi is our outreach manager. She's been with us for three years. We have some other uh people doing engaging as well, but it's a small team. You know, like I said, we're not corporate, we're a real small business. So we rely on everybody coming together and making it right. And, you know, hopefully the the bars and the spirit brands and the exhibitors also can be in touch with us, hey, somebody might have had because you're gonna have 1% to 2% of people that have maybe had, and that's what we keep the percentages so, so low on that. Uh, but we have a really small team. We just work with the venue, uh, we go in there and we just we just stick to what our our um you know our boundaries are on making sure it's a safe event for everybody.
SPEAKER_00And uh once the exploit is done, uh and you're like, okay, it's Monday, I'm gonna take a little nap.
SPEAKER_03So how do you think all this uh logistics behind? Of course, you have to take a little nap.
SPEAKER_00Do you start uh immediately to program the next year, or how what do you do after then?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, actually what really what we do is is for the whole entire week, there's a lot of social media that goes on at Expo. Like we get a lot of social media. So I think our thumbs are going for a while, reposting things and and saving things. But we're getting we we actually are still following up with all the bars and the spirit brands and seeing what they enjoyed, what what really worked well for them. Like what they're hearing, hey, we love how everybody is so engaged, we we get all that. Um, but typically, yeah, we're planning a year in advance for cocktail expo, but we're actually launching uh for April 2027. We are now launching non-alcoholic cocktail expo. So we will have an entire cocktail expo based on non-alcoholic beverages. Uh so we would be planning those two events now. So we're gonna be right on that. You know, I think we're launching tickets this week for that event.
SPEAKER_03So there's a lot of there's a lot of uh new brands uh that just came out actually, and brands that were just there. But thanks to a lot of the bartenders who have been putting like, you know, their amazing skills uh to work and made really amazing alcoholic cocktail uh cocktails. And they're like, you know, we went to this place not far from here called uh Athema. And what I really like it was the take on the Garibali. It was it was like or it to me is simple things, what I always uh mention, like the simple things makes you the it blow it will blow your mind because you will never think about that. So it was Pact Finder and Oranges.
SPEAKER_00And and they did a riff on like tropical flavors, so they added that.
SPEAKER_03Passion fruit.
SPEAKER_00Passion fruits, but uh Kiwi did a very good job, and I feel like those are the things that sometimes you're like still believing in the industry because it's like, oh, you know, even if I work in the industry, sometimes you don't think about those little details, and you go and find it and it's like oh, just like oh my god, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, get it. I say for any bartender or drink maker, mixologist, whatever term you use, just get into cocktailing. Cocktailing is just it's really it's not exactly alcohol-centered anymore. There's a bias or just a program we have to go, what spirit am I building this around, or what mixer am I building it around? But I mean, I've been enjoying, you know, you know, people do these wellness shots, which is just like two ounces of ginger juice. It's like, whoa, that's like the new wellness bartender handshake is that. But maybe make a make a ginger daicory, but have the ginger juice be the base spirit, okay? And maybe you have like a um, you know, an organic maple syrup that's cut with water and it's lower on the glycemic index, doesn't hit your bloodstream as hard, and the fresh lime juice, not going to complain about that. Shake up your daiquiry. Three-quarter, three-quarter, two ounce. Let the two ounces be the ginger juice. And I'm telling you, you're gonna go, well, that's pretty damn good. Yeah, that's amazing. I love it. You know what I mean? There's so many fun riffs that you can do on the ratios that you know with things already. So get into it. And that means using these non-alcoholic spirits that are coming out. Some are like mock spirits, hey, this is a non-alcoholic bourbon, or there's just spirits that are non-alcoholic that are all different styles and flavors that have nothing to do with the old paradigm that we know. So I actually think we're we're getting out of a narrow pathway and heading into this new horizon of cocktailing. Because once all the options are here, like, whoa, there's so much more I can do that actually no one has done yet.
SPEAKER_00No, so you know, that like non-alcoholic spirits, but also uh bitters that they don't have alcohol. They're like there's a lot of stuff that you are like learning, and I feel like, you know, it's kind of like the new American cuisine that they still like not just I'm just going to an Italian restaurant. I'm just I'm not just gonna go to a French uh uh restaurant. But the New American cuisine came, it's like, you know, you can find a pizzeria that is like adding avocado, because you know, Mexicans. Uh but uh you know, it's it's very cool that you find another flavor and and and add in it and you you give a new experience to the to the guests.
SPEAKER_05That's amazing. Yeah, they they if they don't want to drink alcohol, once again it could be their entire night of not drinking, or maybe two drinks that are alcoholic and one or two that are not, they want to stay out for a long time. Like if I have another stirred cocktail, I'm gonna fall off the chair and be on the floor. Yeah, you know, how about something else? Um I think it's I think it's exciting, I think it's cool. Get into get into cocktailing, into non-alcoholic uh cocktailing. It's um it's just gonna showcase more of your creativity. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00And uh last question for me is that um so basically this near uh New York Expo the the there's a lot of uh like participants, but it's every single borough like participate in?
SPEAKER_05It's open to every borough. You know, we've had the Bronx and Brooklyn and New York City and Queens, uh New Jersey, we've got New Jersey. You know, it's all it's it's it's like the New York Cocktail Expo open, you know? Like like like golf or the World Cup or whatever. It's it's open to whomever. If you want to come and compete in New York, you could be from France and just working with a brand and going, I'm gonna go and do the Buzz Cocktail or the Tiki throwdown. I want to get in, you want to come and compete. Well, then it's like saying, I want to go to New York and compete amongst these great bars and be a part of that. Yeah, you can. Um, but we've had every borough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but in those years, like you've seen like people coming from like, okay, we have a couple of bars from the Bronx, from a couple of bars with Saturn Island. And I mentioned this because usually people think like the majority of like, you know, best bars or like more well-known are in Manhattan, but you know, we can see that there's a lot of bars everywhere. Like in your experience, you see that people from other boroughs are also participating.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. I mean, once again, we can't we can't guarantee that someone will or can participate. We just do our best with the few people we have to outreach and to reach out to as many bars. We're not selective, we're not saying we can only have the cool bars. We're not doing that. As you said, there's there's so many bars, it would be impossible for us to reach all of them. So we with whatever efforts that we can do and whatever noise that we can make with our with our partners like yourselves, we just try to get the word out and say, hey, if you find us and you hear about us, we'll come and register. It's open to everybody. But also we're gonna be reaching out to and invite whomever that we can that we can. Uh and if you were, it's not like I wasn't invited. There is that's uh wouldn't be in context. Yeah, it would be that maybe we didn't know about you or you didn't see us, it'd be impossible to reach every single bar, but it's open.
SPEAKER_03Uh it is open to the happy and then you said uh we were not invited. Because if the if the opportunity is there, I think that one person who has to make that click and and fill in their information is a person who wants to take part of it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00And and I just want to mention this to the audience. So if you know someone that you feel like they should be participating, let them know. Nominate them.
SPEAKER_01Nominate.
SPEAKER_00And you can reach uh Matthew. We're gonna put uh you know the information here, and you know, you can also have your friends uh in in the stage.
SPEAKER_03I will I will I will yes, I'm so happy you said that recommend your friends, uh recommend uh the bar that you work at or restaurant. Uh, because uh I'm gonna quote somebody something that a friend told me. Uh her name is Camilla, you know this person. She said, we don't believe in ourselves until somebody else believes in ourselves. So what I'm trying to say is that sometimes we don't know our capability, like how capable we are of doing these little things, you know. I mean say little things, but we don't know how capable we are until we do it. And we just need encouragement. And if that takes a friend or me telling one of my coworkers, say, hey, you should take this, uh, take advantage of this and do it. I think we all need that, you know, like that little pat in the back and hey, I think you should do it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Why not?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you know? So whoever's watching, you definitely know this person, this somebody. Give them a little pat on the back and say, I'm nominating you to head to New York Cocktail Expo. Come be a part of it. I think you should be really glad you did.
SPEAKER_03So you get it, you get you get it, guys. Get your tickets, make sure you get a ticket. Uh go to the uh NYC Expo uh website, yeah, get a ticket, uh, first or second session. Uh I'm gonna be there, no one's gonna be there. Uh Major has to be there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um Do you have anything else to say?
SPEAKER_00No, I mean, obviously, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for explaining the process. Thank you for sharing the experience, and obviously having us to like be part of this. Uh it I I love the idea. And uh thank you so much for coming.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, thank you both so much. It's been great to be here. Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_03Is there anything you'd like to say to the camera? To this one right here.
SPEAKER_00You can shout out to you. So this one right here.
SPEAKER_05I'll say thanks everybody for watching and listening. Let's see you at New York Cocktail Expo in August 23rd, Melrose Ballroom. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all right, guys. Thank you so much for another episode. Thank you so much for coming.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_00Um, we're gonna finish saying Bart Talking.
SPEAKER_03I don't want to finish yet. If you guys want to watch more episodes like this, please go to our website, triple W bar talking talking bar nyc.com. Uh, if you guys like this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, follow, uh, share with your friends, talk over it, you know, to let us know what you guys think. Um, but yeah, thank you so much for another week.
SPEAKER_00Uh, I just want to also mention that uh don't forget to tip your bartenders. Don't forget to tip everywhere. And uh also if you want to donate support our curl, uh we have a uh link in the our Instagram uh page and also on YouTube so you can follow uh you know buy a coffee or also you're gonna see uh our sell QR code on the pay on the screen. So if you like it, share it as well. And like I said, thank you so much for annoying as much.
SPEAKER_03Three, two, one, by talking, talking bar and other way.