Michelle LaBorde is Sommelier and Bar Director at Dancing Bear Lodge & Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, TN. Recently, Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro was named among the Best Fine Dining Restaurants in the US by Tripadvisor, in part due to Michelle’s incredible contributions to the beverage program.
Located just beside the Smoky Mountain National Park, Michelle greets guests from all over the world looking to experience the beauty of the mountains. Dancing Bear works to welcome their guests and educate them on this unique area, which is part of Appalachia. As such, Michelle uses her incredible background and experience to educate guests about the impact that the area has had on distillation processes. She has curated an archive of whiskey that showcases the contributions Appalachia has made on the industry, as well as bottles that demonstrate the different phases of distillation in the area; she has also built an impressive library of exclusive allocations that has further elevated the whiskey program at Dancing Bear. She’s also a Level II sommelier (and working on Level III), applying her degrees in fermentation and chemistry to the process of winemaking.
BARTENDER Magazine is grateful to be a part of the Starback 2024 Competition sponsored by Don Julio. This was our second year being a part of the competition and it was huge success!
This year, we did eight total stops around the country where one winner would bartend Hollywood’s Biggest night with Global Bartending Champion, Charles Joly! One finalist from New York, Chicago, Tampa, Phoenix, Columbus, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Austin would compete in the finals in NYC!
This year’s competition was not only bigger but also had new fun and engaging rounds for each competitor to showcase their creativity with Don Julio Tequilas.
For the first round in the regionals, the competitors had to make a “Daytime style” cocktail using Don Julio Rosado, which was a great way to kick off the competition. Next, they were asked to make a cocktail with the newest member of the Don Julio Family, Don Julio Alma Miel! Finally, their last drink had to be a “high-energy” cocktail featuring Don Julio 1942! After these three cocktails were made our amazing judges at each location tallied up the scores and named a winner.
These winners were:
Ivan Toxqui, NYC
Santiago Cobar, Chicago
Ki Choe, Tampa
Brenda Juarez, Phoenix
Michael Ching, Columbus
Orestes Cruz, Atlanta
Dakota Davis, San Francisco
Bridget Kimbell, Austin
Each of these amazing finalists was flown to NYC to compete at the World Famous, Dead Rabbit!
For the finals, our amazing finalists were tasked with three final rounds and judged by an incredible crew. BARTENDER Magazine’s own, Jackie Foley, Charles Joly and the 2023 Starback Winner, Tia Barrett!
The stage was set and round one challenged each competitor on their speed and efficiency as they had to make a Don Julio Blanco Marg, Don Julio Repo Paloma, and a Don Julio Anejo Old Fashioned. For round two, the finalists were able to showcase themselves in the glass as they were allowed to use the full Don Julio Portfolio to make their own original cocktail. Finally, to prep them for the grand prize, they were asked to make an award-worthy cocktail using Don Julio 1942. The judges tasted some incredible cocktails throughout the finals but there could only be on winner and Orestes Cruz from Atlanta was crowned the Starback 2024 Winner!
Thank you to everyone who helped bring this to life and to all who competed and judges around the country. We at BARTENDER are so grateful to have met so many amazing people during this competition and hope to see them all again very soon. Special thanks to Adrienne Smith, Lisa Petrella, Charles Joly, Tia Barrett, The Hunter PR Team and Don Julio Brand Team at Diageo.
Bethany’s maiden initials are BAR so it seems it was always meant to be. She started in the industry in 2006 as a server in a little family run Italian restaurant called Strings. She was working towards her fashion design degree at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. Bethany found passion in the fashion industry and quickly became the fashion club president at the age of 19. She ran the club for two years where she designed future trends, ran modeling calls, fundraised, budgeted funds, and put on fashion shows. Although she earned her certificate in design, it turned out the restaurant industry had captivated her heart and that became her career path.
In 2011, she started bartending at a corporate restaurant called Red Robin. She was obsessed with being behind the bar! She enjoyed leveraging her previous years of serving to foster more personal connections with guests at her bar. Before she knew it, eight years had passed and, in that time, she not only honed her bartending skills but also tied the knot with her husband and welcomed two out of her three kids into the world. Like many, life threw a few changes her way, and she realized she needed and wanted something more.
She embarked on a journey, gaining valuable experiences at various fine dining establishments from Lincoln to Sacramento, eventually landing in Granite Bay, where she currently bartends.
In 2021, she secured a spot at Hawks Restaurant in Granite Bay just as the restaurant began to reopen after pandemic shutdowns. She quickly fell in love with the overall concept, serving classically prepared, seasonal dishes and drinks with fine dining execution. She was graciously welcomed by Mike Fagnoni and Molly Hawks (chef owners and operators of Hawks) and proved herself quickly, creatively developing drinks for the bar program.
They inspired her to intertwine my design talents and love for the craft. Just as their dinner tasting menu, her cocktails follow the seasons, with fresh ingredients provided by local vendors for Hawks. She styles each cocktail in a way that is both well-balanced and visually stunning!
Since the pandemic the perception of the food and cocktail world has changed and, in her opinion, people want to taste with their eyes first and want a photo-worthy experience. Bethany thinks the guests “want to feel special with a gorgeous drink in front of them, as if that drink was conceived with them in mind.”
During her journey at Hawks Restaurant, she welcomed her 3rd baby. Like most of us in the industry she couldn’t do what she does behind the bar without her amazing bar team.
She has an amazing program where they all get together and collaborate seasonally on new cocktail menus. Marc Jensen oversees our bar program as the beverage director and head Sommelier. Greg Miszti is the bar manager and has really taken Bethany under his wing and showed her a lot throughout the years on how to correctly execute a balanced cocktail. Luis Garcia and Jamie Wie are my fellow bartenders. Hawks has allowed her to grow tremendously and for that she is very grateful.
After 18 years in the industry and 13 years as a bartender, she decided to enter the Barboss competition where she quickly realized how many people love to see my creations. She was incredibly humbled to make it into the semifinals where she was able to create her cocktail using Dos Hombres Mezcal.
The feedback and support she received was overwhelming, and is very appreciative for the opportunity to share her craft with the world!
We cannot wait to see what is next for Bethany and will be watching closely!
On King Street in Charleston, S.C., Brian Barna serves as the Bar Manager in a cocktail bar called Proof. With over a decade of experience, he mentors a small crew of bartenders and bar backs to create their own cocktails through inspirations from movies, music, and culinary recipes. What brings him to work everyday? The simple answer is love.
A love of creating a nightly vibe through music, conversations, and wonderfully executed cocktails. A love of spirits from zero proof all the way up to high proof whiskey. Finally, a love of educating the highly inquisitive enthusiasts of cocktails, and new bartenders that are finding themselves behind the stick in a cocktail bar.
Featured Bartender Seth Gibson Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland in Hanover, MD
Seth Gibson is the Director of Beverage at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland in Hanover, MD. He has spent his entire life working in the food & beverage and hospitality industries, with the last two decades dedicated to making mixology magic behind the bar. Seth manages the development of drink menus for the various restaurants and bars throughout the Live! property, Maryland’s largest tourist destination. What keeps him coming back to work every day? The people, the stories, the creativity, and the chance to teach guests and team members something new about their favorite spirit or cocktail.
Harvest Time in Jalisco
1.5 oz. Patrón Barrel Select Añejo
2 oz. Spiced Apple Cider
2 dashes Hella Ginger Bitters
Fever Tree Ginger Beer
Garnish with a Clove studded Apple Slice
This cocktail features a private barrel Patrón Añejo that was aged for 16-months in Hungarian Oak and hand selected for Live! Casino & Hotel. But feel free to substitute your own favorite Añejo or Reposado. Combine tequila, cider and bitters with ice in a Boston shaker. Shake well and strain into an ice filled collins glass. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with a clove studded apple slice
Diana Ly is the beverage manager at Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs, located within the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, she moved to Florida in 2015, joining Morimoto Asia in August 2021. In addition to her day-to-day front of house manager duties, she works with the restaurant’s chefs on pairings for special events, assists with the creation of well-balanced cocktails, and builds relationships with compliance beverage partners.
Gingerbread Manhattan
1½ oz. Gingerbread cookie infused Knob Creek
½ oz. Lazzaroni Amaretto
½ oz. Carpano Antica
1 dash Bittermen – New England spiced cranberry bitters
1 dash woodford orange bitters
➜ Grab a large container, pour all the gingerbread cookies in the container (crush some of the cookies up), add the bottle of Knob Creek (keep the bottle to refill it). Make sure the cookies are fully submerged in the bourbon. Let the infusion sit for about 4 hours – stir every hour to make sure all the ginger bread is completely broken down. Strain with a fine mesh strainer on top of a Shinwa strainer for a double strainer effect in another container and use a funnel to refill your bottle back up. Just make sure to have about an inch and ½ of cookie settlement in the bottle.
Head Bartender
Cafe Riggs, Riggs Hotel, Washington D.C.
Tom Martinez was born and raised in the Bay Area, California, and he lived a lot of life before settling down behind a bar. A few years in Oregon, a few years in Africa, and a lot of time traveling the globe. He worked jobs including, writing, photographing, community organizing, and working both in front of and behind a live camera, before landing in Washington D.C.
As Tom traveled the world he’d found that he connected with people best in bars and hotels – so it only made sense to start working in them when he returned home. Since then he’s spent over a decade in some of D.C.’s best bars, including Columbia Room, Room 11, and Allegory, and now as the Head Bartender at the Cafe Riggs in the Riggs hotel, where he’s entering his 3rd year.
Opened by the Lore group in 2020, the Riggs Hotel was built in the historic headquarters of the Riggs National Bank, which dates back to the mid 1890s. The bank inspired the hotel’s design with sweeping views that recall the golden age of banking and the roaring 20’s. The Riggs has quickly earned a reputation as one of the best hotels in the nation’s Capitol. Located in the heart of downtown D.C, just steps from the National Portrait Gallery and the Capital One Area, the hotel has brought a new element of Glamour and Luxury into a neighborhood that has revitalized itself after covid.
Tom settled naturally into the hotel, where he found his previous life traveling the world gives him countless opportunities to make connections with the guests who visit the bar. Listed in the Michelin guide, the Cafe is an all day, every day space where there bartenders are equal parts expert cocktail makers and ambassadors to the city.
The Cafe has established itself as a force in D.C.’s thriving restaurant scene no matter the hour. On weekends you’ll find boozy bottle service mimosa brunches, power lunches and locals working during the day, and a bustling cocktail bar late into the night. Drop by in the evening and you’ll almost certainly see guests around the bar imbibing a Nitro Espresso Martini, which has become the hotel’s signature drink – in the busy season they’ll sell over 1,000 of them a month.
Conor is bringing Europe to Austin in a glass, as he has been tasked with leading Austin, TX hotspot, Here Nor There’s business’s consumer cultural immersion program, one that is at the core of the organization’s positioning. The task? Bring European service and mixology to the city of Austin, in the form of original, elevated food and cocktails.
Here Nor There, located on East 7th and Brazos Street in Austin, just celebrated it’s 5th anniversary on Sunday, June 18th. The Speakeasy, hidden under their sister venue, In Plain Sight, is often a challenge to get into and reservations are always needed, in no small part due to the atmosphere, friendly staff and most importantly, the innovative menu created by Conor O’Reilly.
It all started back in April 2018, when Conor, an already established bartender in Dublin, moved to Austin to support the opening of Here Nor There. It is here that he created the bar’s first conceptual menu titled ‘Colors’ – a menu that emphasized colors as a universal language that sparks feeling without voice. “We used color to heighten the experience of each drink, showcasing how we feel about each color emotionally and our interpretation of how a color could taste”, says O’Reilly.
Since then, Conor has participated in a number of global cocktail competitions, including reaching the final 15 in the US for Diageo World Class in 2022 – one of the most renowned cocktail competitions. His craft doesn’t stop there. In Plain Sight has been nominated for Tastemaker Culture Map Best Bar Award and Tales of the Cocktail’s “Best New Bar in the US” ‘23 nominee thanks to Conor’s contributions and vision.
Conor is currently embarking on his next creative journey for Here Nor There by co-creating a new conceptual menu that will be released in late July 2023.
Jason Lam, the Head Bartender at Zuma in Boston, recently won the 2023 Boston Bartender Battle, competing against contestants from top restaurants throughout the city.
His winning cocktail, the Thai ChiliVesper made with tequila and mezcal(see recipe below), was inspired by his personal drinking experiences at home, as well as witnessing the evolution of Boston cocktail trends.“I was never a huge fan of tequila or mezcal, and I rarely made a tequila cocktail that wasn’t a margarita,”Lam says. “But as tequila grew in popularity, and I grew as a bartender,I fully embraced the change and constantly looked for ways to innovate a spirit that was so attached to shots and margaritas.”Playing off of the spicy margarita trend, Lam’s idea for the Thai Chili Vesper was to create a spicy martini, with an Asian twist.
Having worked in several Asian-themed restaurants, he noticed that Asian inspired cocktails tend to lean more Japanese, so beingVietnamese, he wanted to incorporate some Southeast Asian elements.“The moment came to me when I saw some Thai chili peppers growing in my mother’s garden and I picked a bundle to experiment, resulting in a pretty spicy week for me. I felt like the chilies played perfectly with the cocktail and given that Boston has such a huge number of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, the flavor would be familiar toBostonians. The added touch of vanilla helps round out the spice,” he says.
Serving as Beverage Director at Oliva Restaurant Group, Demario Wallace oversees the wine, beer and cocktail programs at Italian market café Bellina Alimentari, modern Israeli restaurants Aziza and Rina, Atrium – a Modern American restaurant with European influence and an extensive cocktail program – and Carmel, a new restaurant inspired by California and Yucatan shores.
Each beverage program embodies the respective restaurant with rifts on classic cocktails through a culinary lens. Leaning on his upbringing in the kitchen and hospitality industry, he uses the best ingredients in cocktails and a slow food method for extractions, infusions and housemade bitters and syrups. At every restaurant, the beverage teams he oversees set out to make focused cocktails that all have unique and strong narrative arches and provide the best experience throughout the glass, from the first sip to the last drop.
Prior to Oliva Restaurant Group, Demario spent nearly a decade tending bar at restaurants throughout New York City and Brooklyn. Prior to the hospitality industry, Demario worked in music, organizing and running festivals and events.
Demario’s Nahua Daiquiri
1 oz. Capital rum
0.50 oz. Paranubes
0.50 oz. Rum Bar Silver
1 oz. Pepper syrup
0.75 oz. Lime
Serve in Stemmed Glass over Pebble Ice. Garnish with Lime / Dried Chili