Not Just a Bartender Meets Beautiful Booze with Chris Leavitt & Natalie Migliarini (TCGP S3 E13)

# AI Transcript: TCGP S3 E13

Announcer:
Jonathan Pogash is the cocktail guru, a mixologist and hospitality expert. Ah, see? You know big words. Dude, I'm the cocktail guru. Cheers. Jeffrey's his dad, a wine and spirits author, historian, and consultant.

Jeffrey:
Well, I do my homework.

Announcer:
With decades of experience, they're always looking for the next big thing. Join this father and son duo for a few laughs as they explore the hottest trends in hospitality with the service industry's leading trailblazers and tastemakers. Welcome to the Cocktail Guru Podcast.

Jeffrey:
So John, during this great trip to Las Vegas, who else did you see? I know you got to go to Tony Abughanam's bar, which must have been a blast. So who were you working with there? Who did you talk to? Yeah. Celebrities or personalities did you schmooze with while you were there?

Jonathan:
First of all, we saw Tony. It was really great to see him, but he allowed us to use his bar and we were able to interview a guy called Chris Levitt, whom a lot of people have heard of in the industry. He is a Las Vegas-based bartender, but he is also a social media phenomenon.

Jeffrey:
We, I love social media phenomenon.

Jonathan:
Dramatic pause.

Jeffrey:
Yeah, well, it had to sink in, you know, we don't get to associate with social media phenomenon that often, so.

Jonathan:
I know, so Chris Levitt joined us and he's a really cool dude. If you look him up on social media, you'll be able to see some of his videos. So we just had a really nice chat.

Jeffrey:
Fantastic. And of course, Tony. Tony Abhuganam is just fantastic and one of the very best in the world.

Jonathan:
So here's our chat with Chris. All right. Well, Jonathan Pogash here, the Cocktail Guru podcast on location in Las Vegas, Libertine Social at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. I am so happy and honored to be here. And my special special extra special guest today is Chris Leavitt, who is a Las Vegas superstar mixologist, influencer, content creator. So many different things.

Chris:
A handful of things. I try to live up to that name, not just the bartender as much as I can.

Jonathan:
So, Chris, we always ask our guests on the podcast this one question. What is your desert island drink?

Chris:
Oh, I mean, without a doubt, it's a classic daiquiri.

Jonathan:
A daiquiri. I love it.

Chris:
Yeah. That's delicious. Yeah. A lot of people ask me whether it's between a Desert Island cocktail or a Deathbed cocktail, and it's the same answer. I love a classic deck. Any specific style of rum for the drink? As long as it involves Jamaican rum, I'm usually pretty happy. Oh, yeah. Otherwise, split base is totally fine or just 100% Jamaican. Something with a little bit of funk. That's what I like to lean into. Yeah, sure.

Jonathan:
And so this is the first time that we're meeting. Yeah. But I've been seeing your stuff on Instagram and TikTok for several months now. Yeah. And it's really amazing to see the stylized cocktail making that you have, which is pretty unique. But also, so you do. I think you probably do that part of the time. And then you're also behind the bar part of the time. So where where are you behind the bar here in Las Vegas?

Chris:
Right now, I'm at Vetri at the Palms Casino. It's a I guess like an outfit restaurant that's from originally from Philly. Mark Vetri is a James Beard Award winning chef many times over, actually. And then I think back in 2000, 18, no, 2019 into 20. He opened a veterinary kusina that's at the palms. It is a beautiful restaurant that's on the 56th floor of the one tower. So the top room, we got a beautiful, like 180 degree view in the dining room of the strip nice at that height, which is pretty beautiful. And since it's The Palms, it's a little bit off the strip, but you get to see everything on it. So like celebrations like New Year's Eve, Fourth of July, they're always very special up there because fireworks are going off literally right in front of the building. Probably one of the best views in town.

Jonathan:
That's awesome. And I want to talk about your content creation later, but I always like to hear about how people got into it. what we're doing, like our industry, this business, where did you grow up?

Chris:
What brought you to hospitality? So funny enough, my start in hospitality was during college. I had transferred majors in schools. Originally, I was going to school for architecture back in 2008. Then the housing market crash happens and the outlook of of continuing a career in architecture was kind of scary. And I made a gut decision to leave it and pursue business instead. And I found out that business school was substantially easier time-wise than architecture school. And I asked my mom, should I get a part-time job? And she's like, yeah. She worked in restaurants growing up. And she was like, why don't you just try and find a job in restaurants? And I ended up walking around the corner from where I lived at the time. It was this really upscale version of a Mexican restaurant. I was asking, hey, I've never worked in a restaurant before, but if you're hiring, I'd love to take any opportunity I can get. I started off as a host, worked my way up through busser to food runner to server, but I always had my sights on the bar. Something about the energy, just the environment was way more fun, physical, casual. And I eventually convinced them to make me a barback on the weekend shifts. And then from there, I asked, I begged my way into the slow shifts on Mondays and Tuesdays to bartend after learning as much as I could barbacking. And the rest is history after that. I've been in the business now for coming up on 14 years this year. Yeah. five years in Pennsylvania. And then the rest here is in Las Vegas. Yeah. I grew up in a small town called Milford. It's around the border of New York and New Jersey. Okay. Yeah. Um, moved to Harrisburg when I, when I had transferred schools out of New Jersey, which was the architecture school moment. Um, and then spent, Again, like the end of my college career and the start of my hospitality career in Harrisburg. And then I eventually, through a small career in pharmaceutical sales, was taken here to Vegas. They kind of introduced me to the scene. I was on a product launch trip. And while salespeople are very fun, at 23 years old, I wanted to mingle with what I knew. I hung out with bartenders and ended up extending my trip through the weekend, getting to know what the bartending scene was. Truthfully, Harrisburg scene was not bubbling like New York or Miami. I was exposed very quickly to an entire another layer that I had never seen before. It put a spark in my mind like, hey, if you want to come back to bartending full-time again, this is where you should do it. And I ended up putting a full two years in sales, quitting my job and then moving to Vegas, kind of on the whim and making a life here ever since.

Jonathan:
Wow. So you started working in bars and restaurants when you first came here, shortly after not working in pharmaceutical anymore. Yeah. And then when did you start getting into social media?

Chris:
I mean, I've always had like a thing with social media, like when Instagram started back in like 2000, 2007, 2008 era, it was more photography driven. I had picked up a camera. I was really into like taking like street photography and landscape type stuff. I also practiced a little bit in the restaurant back in Harrisburg, taking photos of drinks. I entered some cocktail competitions and used photographs from my camera to be part of my submissions. And eventually I just started following guys who already did it full time. There are a couple of guys that come to mind. There's a guy named Elliot from Apartment Bartender, who kind of for me was like the first guy I discovered doing it specifically for bars and cocktails. And then Miguel from Holy City Handcraft. Jordan from High Proof Preacher. Those guys were kind of like icons for me. And I had tried posting and gaining like some more organic reach with it. It just never really happened. And then the birth of TikTok's explosion, I would say, in 2020 with videos becoming a big primary during the pandemic. I was consuming a ton of content. I was seeing what the opportunities were. And at some point I decided there's a format on TikTok where you can go side by side with the video. And a lot of chefs were using it. Either make commentary, make jokes, whatever, but there was nobody doing it for cocktails specifically. And I picked a strategy by finding and searching the most viral cocktail videos and then just deciding to say what I liked or didn't like about the video, giving a rating at the end. Hilarious. I made three and I went to bed. And then the following morning, I woke up and one video had cracked a million views overnight. Come on. Yeah. And I had gained like 5000 followers within that time, too. And I was like, holy shit. And knowing how the algorithm works, you have to keep going. So they were very easy to knock out because they took however long the video was. And most videos on TikTok were like under a minute. And so I was doing anywhere from like three to 10 videos per day per day. And I did it for like a month straight. And then I had cracked over 100K followers on in one month with with TikTok. And then I got kind of bored with the format and like. A lot of the stuff felt pretty repetitive.

Jonathan:
Did you get to the point where you were starting to, because I know that TikTok ends up that like you can start to get paid for views. Were they doing that at that time?

Chris:
Not for that particular feature. You could do really well and get a lot of organic growth. Yeah. But the pay-per-view model has changed. in about two different phases on TikTok. They did a creator fund, which was paying very, very little for videos that, you know, had like if you did a million views on TikTok, you're lucky if you got like 50 bucks. It was about like, there's a lot of metrics that go into it, but it was just not paying off because it's short form. And that's not really the game for TikTok. But then they ended up adjusting and going into a totally different model where they wanted you to post videos longer than a minute. And if it's past a minute and you added value, there were better payouts for that, but it's still kind of a work in progress. They've also now adjusted their model to be about like shopping. And they've got like this QVC element to it that most people that now use TikTok absolutely hate. It has ruined the experience for a lot of people. So. In that time, Instagram has adjusted what they've done and has also promoted video quite a lot. And I've seen explosive growth on Instagram, which was weird. I did. I started posting on Instagram just because I was just taking the same video that I started making for recipes. And I would just post on both platforms, not really thinking about it.

Jonathan:
I just thought that was after that was after you were doing the duets. Right. And you were like, all right, I kind of want to change things up a little bit.

Chris:
Yeah. Cause a lot of people were asking me like, well, who the hell are you to critique these people? And I was like, well, I've been in the business for a long time and I can't keep saying that in the videos. I had to show them. Yeah.

Jonathan:
Jinx. Yeah. Perfect. That's, that's beautiful. Yeah. So showing them, but in, in a very specific stylized way, I don't know if it started that way or if you kind of gained traction with doing it. I mean, it's not, it's not flair. There's a little touch of functional flair in there and showmanship.

Chris:
I think who I took inspiration from a lot were the food creators that were doing really well. It was a very common theme that I was noticing because food creators are more ubiquitous. People love food. Cocktails, you're always going to have a very specific audience. But what people were noticing, what I was noticing about in comments was that people were watching my content without drinking, they were not drinkers, but they loved getting to know me and like, see, just watch me work. And so there's an element of entertainment that goes into it and also like attaching your own personality to everything that I thought was way more important to show. Uh, so I, I tinker with different formats. I make things like time to music and with a ton of different angles. And I also go through and I explain recipes. I talk about inspiration. If it was one of my recipes or just kind of like how this is my first time having it. And I've, I've, I've had more cocktails on my, on my channel now that I've never had before that I just find through recipe books that I've done. I'm like, well, I've never had it. Why not? Why not like give it a shot and see what people think or if I like it at the end. Um, so there's. My style now has definitely changed. It changes constantly, I think, where I'm just trying to get better at engaging and filming so that I'm never boring to watch. It's not the same expected thing, because I think A lot of it was trying to like gear, like gain enough skills to like start doing things that are really not seen on these platforms that I do for cocktails specifically. Like I do a nightcap series where I don't say anything. Right. And it's not, it's music driven, but it's more emotionally tied to the visuals as well.

Jonathan:
I mean, I've watched a couple of those and it feels like you're welcoming someone into your living room, you know, and like you're getting ready to share a cocktail together. Yeah.

Chris:
And that's, that's kind of the direction I want to start going in more is, is showing that there's so many more sides and elements to, to everything that we do as people in hospitality, but like really emotionally tying into, uh, what's, what's possible for, for displaying this sort of content. So, yeah, I love that.

Jonathan:
Um, and so you said that you sometimes take recipes from different books. and use that as inspiration and make those. Sure. Do you happen to have the newest Mr. Boston Bartender's Guide? The newest one? No. The 75th anniversary one. It's about 12 years old now, but that's my book. Oh, no shit. Yeah, I'll have to give you a copy of it. Please.

Chris:
At some point. I was gifted a very vintage one. I have a bunch of those too. Like just the small manual style ones with like very, very old font and cool little illustrations. But yeah, somebody found it for like a few bucks at a thrift store. They ended up gifting it to me. It was really thoughtful gift. Yeah.

Jonathan:
Like 12 years ago, they asked me to edit the newest edition. And it's great. And it's the last time they're ever going to print it.

Chris:
Oh, shit. That's really cool. Yeah. Sorry if cursing is not OK.

Jonathan:
Cursing is abso-fucking-lutely OK. Oh, I love that. Let's fucking go. Um, yeah. So, um, man, I, I love, I love watching your videos and I love what you do and I'd love to, I probably don't have time this time, but next time I'd like to come visit you at your bar. Um, and I'd love to stay in touch and maybe we can collab. Is that what they say?

Chris:
That's what I think. That's the lingo these days. Yeah. Collab. We are collabing right now. We are.

Jonathan:
Yeah. Well, um, Chris Levitt, thank you so much. Podcast. Yeah. Cheers, man.

Chris:
Cheers, man. Cheers. Click.

Jonathan:
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Jeffrey:
So Jonathan, while you were on the beautiful Las Vegas Strip, who else did you get to speak with?

Jonathan:
I know, we got to speak with Carrot Top. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just kidding.

Chris:
Oh, I was getting very excited.

Jonathan:
Oh. Can you imagine? I know. Can you imagine Carrot Top on our show? Yes, I can. Yes, you can. But no, actually, we ran into another good pal of ours, Natalie Miglierini, who is also known as Beautiful Booze on Instagram. We were in if you may if you remember from our interview with Paul and Basie from Barrett's ginger beer We're kind of in this little podcast booth cubicle type of situation where it is soundproof But since we have video we had the door open as well. So it's a little bit of an interesting setup, but um regardless we had a nice conversation with Natalie and she's also a social media phenomenon and takes amazing videos and photographs and And she was also on Drink Masters, which is that well-known cocktail-related competition show, which is coming back for another season. So it was a nice little chat right on the floor of the Access Live conference, actually.

Jeffrey:
Oh, so you did this interview while sitting on the floor?

Jonathan:
No, you were not.

Jeffrey:
Oh, no. Oh, that's not what you meant.

Jonathan:
Oh, OK. Dad, we were not on the floor. That is an expression that people use when they say they are in an area where something is going on, especially a conference.

Jeffrey:
Well, I wish I could have been with you because I like to do interviews on the floor and I love to do interviews and tiny little claustrophobic.

Jonathan:
You do you do really? I do. Wow. All right. I didn't know that about you, but great. And here's our interview with Natalie. All right. Well, it's Jonathan. That's me. We're here. Another episode of the Cocktail Guru podcast. But we are live on location in Las Vegas, Nevada at Access Live. And I have a very special guest here. We have Natalie from Beautiful Booze. I'm so glad that we're able to sit down in this pretty nifty podcast booth here live on the main floor and have a little chat.

Natalie:
Yes, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Jonathan:
Um, so we always ask our guests, Natalie, um, if there was a cocktail that would be your, uh, desert island cocktail, what would that be?

Natalie:
I think I would have to say a well-made daiquiri.

Jonathan:
Oh yeah, I like, I like daiquiris a lot. That's a, that's a really good one.

Natalie:
Yeah, I mean, I think it's very simplistic. It's easy for people to make at home and having the right ingredients, especially fresh lime juice is what makes or breaks this cocktail.

Jonathan:
Absolutely right. And, um, I'd love to maybe have a little chat about, um, you know, your origin story and, and how you got into really being one of the top influencers, content creators, um, in the world really. Um, because you're, you know, Instagram, beautiful booze, uh, TikTok also. Have you, have you dabbled in TikTok?

Natalie:
Um, only a little bit, just because, like, I'm really focused on Instagram, given that I work with a lot of brands, and brands aren't specifically on TikTok because of the age restrictions there. And also for me as a responsible content creator, I don't know what audience I would be, um, that would be receiving my content on TikTok, so I'm on the fence on that. I've dabbled.

Jonathan:
So how did you, um, get into this, have sort of the passion behind what you do at Beautiful Booze?

Natalie:
Yeah, I'll tell you a little bit. So I started 10 years ago. So I am one of the OG content creators for cocktails. And I started in Seattle just kind of making cocktails, teaching myself how to make cocktails. And my friends always want to know recipes that I made because I hosted a lot of dinner parties and I always had a signature cocktail. And so I started putting stuff out on Instagram just really for friends. And then it kind of spiraled from there. um into getting reached out to by brands and I literally had no idea what I was doing. I had been previously laid off from my job so I kind of spent every breathing moment that I had focused on cocktails and I mean content but what I realized when I started trying to figure out how can I make a living off this was it was about promoting yourself obviously and marketing I didn't come from that background and that's that can be a hard pill to swallow if you're not used to really putting yourself out there it feels like cringe a little bit and so just like overcoming that and just figuring out how do I move the needle forward in this if I want it to be my career and it's been self-sustaining for 10 years so I feel proud of myself but it's been a hustle of trying to figure out how to put all the puzzle pieces in to make it really work.

Jonathan:
So what was the moment or the point in your career where you were like, well, I think I can, you know, maybe do this indefinitely, make a career out of it?

Natalie:
I think it was like right from the beginning when I got laid off from my job and I was like, I don't want to go back to that job. It was more like a grant writing government job. I really want to do something creative. And I think being able to combine your creativity with your job is like a win-win. So I didn't per se have like that moment, but I will say it was riddled with anxiety trying to figure out how do I sustain myself in this world that I have that I know nothing about.

Jonathan:
But also, you know, a lot of us are in the midst of this kind of hustle culture, you know, and came about around the same time. Do you have advice for people who maybe want to start doing this, get into it? And then also, two-part question. Second part is how do you manage the balance between the hustle and you yourself, Natalie. Those are two completely different things, I know. So we can start with the advice first and then go to the, like, kind of the managing.

Natalie:
Yeah I think it's like all about being like flexible and being versatile and I feel like the way that I've succeeded in doing this is I haven't limited myself to say like content creation. I've also gone on a limb when brands have been like can you host this event or can you do this and I've always said yes even though I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I figure out a way to make it work as i did with the whole business i just kind of went with the flow and i studied really hard at the beginning like how do i market myself i went to like help a reporter out and did everything i could to push myself forward essentially doing pr for myself so i think for me it's been all about showcasing versatile content, different styles of content, and just making yourself marketable in that way. Saying yes to opportunities that are scary because that's the only way you can move forward and do different things within this job. That's what I believe. And consistency. Consistency and hard work always pays off when you're showing up for your audience on Instagram or whatever social media site you're on. People like that connection. And if they're constantly seeing your face, they're drawn towards you as a member of your community.

Jonathan:
Um, yeah. And then, and then, so the second part of the question, how do you manage that balance between the Natalie beautiful booze and also Natalie at home personal life?

Natalie:
And I'll say, I'm not going to lie, I don't necessarily believe in work-life balance. I don't feel like that exists. I think things go up and down. And I will say from my perspective, I have gone in a direction where I feel like this job does really define who I am, which I think could be a toxic trait. But it's really hard when you own your own business and you're trying to make money from it and make it work and you You're a freelance person, so you're paying quarterly taxes, you're paying your own health care, and there's a lot of stress that comes with that. And when you're responsible for bringing in that money to cover all of those things, I think, for me, that's constantly in my mind and it never goes away. And so I'm working more towards having that, I guess, work-life balance, but it's just, I don't see a way forward with it. I mean, I just I'm trying to be honest like I'm not saying like I wake up at 6 a.m. And I hustle until midnight, but like I had a day a couple weeks ago where I stayed up until 4 a.m. Doing stuff and it's not because I procrastinated it was because I that's what the job entails of being self-employed, and I'm just trying to be realistic about it. I've personally been at fault for letting this job define me. So if this job went away, like, I guess I would be laying outside in a ditch.

Jonathan:
I doubt that because you are a person of many talents. But Carrie, our producer, was agreeing with you when you said you were up till four in the morning. And that's because I was actually up at the normal time that I wake up to get my kids to school at like 6.15. And I was scrolling, and then I guess Carrie could see when I'm scrolling on TikTok or something, is that? I sent an email, that's where I was. And then Carrie texted me, why are you up? And I said, well, why are you up? It's three in the morning where you are. And she was up, you know, doing podcast. Yeah. So that's that's the story that I'm telling right now.

Natalie:
And I'll say one more thing that people find this on social media, this like perfect content. And I feel like TikTok, we've gotten away from that, like super perfected content. But it's still curated, even though it looks like it's supposed to not be. So what you see on social media, you don't see you see the finished product. And that goes with any kind of thing like this podcast or whatever. You're just seeing the finished product. And people don't understand how much work it actually takes to do all of these things.

Jonathan:
Right. I mean, if you look at your content on Instagram at Beautiful Booze, you see the finished product, you see the beautiful garnish being laid on top of the drink, you see the glass, you see the, you know, the light, the sunlight hitting, you know, hitting the glass just in the perfect way. And people don't realize that there are spills, there are breakage, there's lighting, there's all kinds of issues. You know, you get pulled in another direction, someone rings the doorbell, you get a phone call, all of this stuff.

Natalie:
Yeah, I would say like filming in my neighborhood in New York City specifically like the sound is just really hard to navigate there because you're getting sirens and a lot of traffic and horns and there's just like all these behind the scenes things you don't really realize until well you're behind the scenes and I do try to give a glimpse of that in Instagram stories but it's really not the whole picture because you're thinking about creating these cocktails and it's like oh somebody didn't see me go to the grocery store five times a day because I forgot all the ingredients because my mind is elsewhere like you said so I think just like the time it takes to curate and I do believe like My regular followers are always thinking like what are ways we can support like our favorite creators? And it's as simple as liking comment sharing and saving a post which it just takes a little bit of time It's free. You don't have to put any money towards these people But that's really a way that we survive over here because a lot of people don't realize that brands look at all of our numbers throughout the year on our social media posts and that's how they decide who they're going to work with. It goes beyond the content. And I am definitely a perfectionist when it comes to content, like rounds and rounds of stuff I do to make sure the content I It's perfected in the way I want it to be perceived, and it's hard getting away from that. So when you think about the TikTok style of content that's supposed to be uncurated, it's hard for me to go in that direction because I want everything to look polished and beautiful because that's my business, beautiful booze.

Jonathan:
And so we should, I mean, we need to talk about the opportunity that you had maybe a year and a half or two years ago and a little cocktail TV show called Drink Masters. Oh yeah, you remember that? Okay. So you were on that show and it's a great show and I think they're coming back with another season. But can you let us know how that came about and your experience on the show?

Natalie:
Yeah, I forgot about that. I put it in the back of my mind. I also wrote a book and I forget these milestones that are really important to celebrate as a self-employed person. But yeah, Dream Master. So we filmed that in 2021 in Canada, near Toronto. And I kind of took a mental break because it took a whole year for it to come out. Like it came out in November, October, November 2022. And the I just got reached out to by a producer of Drink Masters, and then there was the process of, like, auditioning. And so, like I said previously, I try to say yes to opportunities that are very scary. And this was a very, very, very scary opportunity for me because it consisted of molecular mixology, which is not something I really show on my account. I show accessible cocktails that you can make at home that normally people can make it home and I have not had the experience of being a bartender or working in a bar so I was really nervous about making cocktails at volume levels which or timed time challenges that's not my uh that's not who I am that's not what I do I may take as long as I want to make a drink and so that was really daunting to me and um you know the audition process was long and I was actually surprised at the time when they called me and they said, we're, you know, casting you on this. I was like, oh my God, now here it goes. And so I spent like a couple months just like trying to make, memorize classic cocktails and make them as fast as I can and practice molecular mixology techniques because I had no experience in doing so.

Jonathan:
And you mentioned about a book. Can you tell us a little bit about the book?

Natalie:
Yeah, I mean, I will say this about Being an author like I've been approached many times through my career as beautiful booze on Writing a book and it sounds very glamorous and it sounds fun and it's like yes But always read contracts always read contracts if contracts don't work for you Don't sign them and don't feel like just because somebody offers you a book It's going to be a good opportunity because you signed your life away on a contract. But with that being said a Publisher reached out to me and they were very flexible. They let me do whatever I wanted to do for this book, which was very valuable for me because I wanted to do a book that was beautiful booze. It's called Stylish Cocktails to Make it Home, an extension kind of of my Instagram account. It was really important for me to have a cocktail photo with every recipe that was really beautiful and on brand for me. And so, um, that book came about and I'm trying to think of the timeline but it came out in 2000 during COVID so that was very challenging but I'm super proud of the book and the recipes and it's done really well and that's another opportunity that was given to me just from my account and working hard

Jonathan:
And at Beautiful Booze, you work with your partner in business and in life. Is that not right?

Natalie:
I do. I do. That's another challenge.

Jonathan:
Yeah, I wanted to ask. So James, Little Lane Media, what is that situation like working with, you know, someone that you're business partners with, but also in life, your personal life?

Natalie:
I will say so.

Jonathan:
It's okay. He's not watching right now.

Natalie:
I don't care. He already knows how I feel about this. So I brought him on eight years ago because I was really struggling to push my business forward and he had more experience in running businesses than I did. And then he learned everything from content off of YouTube. We started upgrading our cameras and our video equipment anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah. We have very defined roles in this business. Otherwise, I don't think it would work. I think we have different strengths that help us propel the business forward and they're different. We both work on different things and I will say I do the majority of stuff with Beautiful Booze. He helps a lot with the business and the content and so we have different responsibilities and that's how it works. Otherwise and I'll tell you it's not always glamorous. I want to lose my mind. It's hard to draw a line like I told you I already have a problem with letting go of this business to have my own personal time. So that's a big issue in our relationship is having that split like this is business time and this is personal time and you will see me on personal time talk about business and say did you answer this email? I'm like a control freak. I don't know what else to say.

Jonathan:
Like, that's just how I kind of think I am, too. I feel like I'm a little bit of a control freak, but I work with my dad and it's he's not a partner in the business. And so I basically just tell him what to do and he does it all the time.

Natalie:
That must be nice. I tell James what to do and he doesn't do it all the time.

Jonathan:
This is great. We're going to leave it on that note. And then you can, you know, when this comes out, you can deal with that later. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be something to deal with later. Well, Natalie, thank you so much. And I know we'll see you doing some activities here at Access Live in Las Vegas. And it's been a pleasure to chat with you. Yes.

Natalie:
Thanks for having me. This is great.

Jonathan:
Okay, welcome to another Tipple Time. Jonathan Pogac here. I wanted to talk today about vermouth, more specifically vermouth from Spain or a sherry-based vermouth. We've got the Vermouth Lustau, great friends of the Cocktail Guru podcast. I wanted to make a dry martini, a simple dry martini that will enhance the flavors of the vermouth, like that sort of nuttiness, brininess that's going on with the Vermouth Lustau, their dry vermouth. So I'll go ahead and add three quarters of an ounce. of my Vermouth Dry from L'Eau Stout to my mixing glass. We'll take some gin. We're doing two ounces of gin added to my mixing glass. And that's it. We're going to stir it. But before that, let's go ahead and get our cocktail glass from the freezer. And here is just a really nice, elegant cocktail glass. Now this is an interesting concept for vermouth. It's a sherry-based vermouth, right? Made from manzanilla sherry. Again, picks up those yeasty notes, the brininess from a dry martini. It makes a really great alternative to other vermouths as a base in any cocktail that contains gin or vodka or mezcal. Like I said, classics, the dry martini, the bamboo cocktail, which is, of course, a variation on the classic martini. So now we add ice. We'll give it a stir. This drink is full of character, of course, full of delicious silky texture. We'll probably pair really nicely. I know that it would pair really nicely with oysters, olives, things that have some good saline salt to them. And that is nicely stirred. Right now, we'll just strain that into our little coupe glass. And I'd like to put just a simple lemon peel. just like that, but to kind of add a little bit of showiness, uh, these are my lovely, uh, garnish scissors. You see, it creates this really nice, these like little teeth almost. I love that. Yeah. Beautiful. And we'll squeeze it over the top, rub it around the rim. I'm going to lay it right on top and take a sip. Okay. You ready? Mmm, delicious citrus zest on the nose. And there goes my peel. Oh, really nice, delicious texture. Luxurious, full of character. It's a classic dry martini with the Vermouth L'Eustal. Cheers, everyone. Martini dreams, champagne wishes, right? That's what they say. All right, well, thanks for watching. Happy shaking.

Jeffrey:
Tipple Time was brought to you in part by Gloucester Vermouth Dry.

Jonathan:
That does it for today's show.

Jeffrey:
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Jonathan:
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Announcer:
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