Life Outside the Bar w Lex Cerino | Bartender at Large ep 519
Release Date: 10/06/2026
How to Actually Market Your Bar on Social Media with Rain Garcia | Bartender at Large ep 521 VIDEO
Bartender at Large
These days more and more guests skip Google and Yelp when they’re picking a bar. They search Instagram and TikTok instead. So how does a bar without a big marketing budget get found? This week we’re joined by Rain Garcia, founder of Garcia Media Works. Rain explains how she uses a SWAT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to find what makes a bar worth posting about. She also talks about why viral views in the wrong city are just a vanity metric, and how to use keywords, carousels, Instagram’s trial reels and pop culture moments to get more people through the door. So...
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How to Actually Market Your Bar on Social Media with Rain Garcia | Bartender at Large ep 521
Bartender at Large
These days more and more guests skip Google and Yelp when they’re picking a bar. They search Instagram and TikTok instead. So how does a bar without a big marketing budget get found? This week we’re joined by Rain Garcia, founder of Garcia Media Works. Rain explains how she uses a SWAT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to find what makes a bar worth posting about. She also talks about why viral views in the wrong city are just a vanity metric, and how to use keywords, carousels, Instagram’s trial reels and pop culture moments to get more people through the door. So...
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Goto's Bartender's Guide w Kenta Goto & Noah Rothbaum | Bartender at Large ep 520
Bartender at Large
This week we’re joined by Kenta Goto of New York’s Bar Goto and James Beard Award-winning spirits writer Noah Rothbaum to talk about their new book, The Goto Bartender's Guide: A Philosophy of Cocktails, Hospitality, and How to Make Great Drinks Every Time. Kenta shares why he waited until Bar Goto turned 10 to finally put his methods on paper. The two also dig into one of the most overlooked ingredients in any cocktail, water, and how matching your stirs and shakes to a spirit’s proof can transform a drink. Along the way, Kenta explains his philosophy of intentional bartending and...
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Life Outside the Bar w Lex Cerino | Bartender at Large ep 519
Bartender at Large
This week we are joined by bartender, spirits specialist and consultant Lex, who opens up about the hardest chapter of her life. For four years she worked 14-hour bar shifts while raising the little sister she adopted when she was just 26. She also fought for custody in family court on her own, often walking into the courthouse straight from a closing shift with no sleep. So tune in as she shares how she kept smiling for guests through all of it, and how the coworkers who stepped up carried her when she couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. She also explains why everyone deserves a...
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Storytelling Through Cocktails w Kapri Robinson & Princess Johnson of Allegory | Bartender at Large ep 517
Bartender at Large
This week we head to Washington, DC to pull up a stool with Kapri Robinson and Princess Johnson of Allegory, one of the most inventive bars in the country and a fixture on the North America's 50 Best Bars list. They take us behind the scenes of their famously ambitious concept menus, including their current book-length tribute to Ruby Bridges, complete with hand-built dioramas made from thrifted toys. Along the way, they break down the one-to-two-year R&D process behind every menu, how they keep egos out of the creative room, and what's next for Allegory, from new formats to "Club...
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Chief Mixologist and Spirits Educator for Total Wine: Molly Horn | Bartender at Large ep 516
Bartender at Large
Walk into any Total Wine & More these days and there's a good chance a bartender has had a hand in what you're seeing on the shelves. This week we're joined by Molly Horn, Chief Mixologist and Spirits Educator at Total Wine & More, who traded restaurant bartending for a role teaching both store staff and shoppers how to drink better at home. We dig into how bar trends take a few years to trickle down to home bartenders, how TikTok can send a drink like the Dubai chocolate martini viral overnight, why rum and mezcal are having a moment in certain markets, and how canned cocktails are...
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Palm Republic Rum w Eric Winter | Bartender at Large ep 515
Bartender at Large
Rum has long suffered from an image problem in this country, as too many drinkers still associate the category with sugary spiced bottles and sticky frozen drinks. But if tequila could go from a spirit taken by the shot to one sipped and studied, then why can't rum do the same? To help us make sense of where the category is headed, we are joined this week by actor and co-founder of Palm Republic Rum, Eric Winter. So tune in as he shares how a single pour of aged rum nearly twenty years ago set him down this path, and what went into blending Jamaican funk with rums from Panama and the US Virgin...
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Bar Design & Equipment w Corrinne Walenda | Bartender at Large ep 514
Bartender at Large
Bartenders spend their whole careers reaching into ice wells, pulling from speed rails and slamming glass door coolers shut a few hundred times a night, and yet most of us have never given a second thought to who decides how any of that gets built. To help us pull back the curtain on the equipment side of the business we are joined by Corrinne Walenda, Corporate Training Manager and Brand Ambassador for Perlick, who has spent nearly 15 years working in restaurant equipment and building training programs that translate between the people who make the gear and the people who use it. Get your...
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Bartender Finance w Dana June | Bartender at Large ep 513
Bartender at Large
It is no secret that our industry moves in cash and good nights, but very few of us were ever taught what to actually do with it once it lands in our pocket. Between untracked income, lifestyle creep and a social media feed constantly telling us how we should be spending, it is far too easy to make great money for years and still have nothing to show for it. This week's guest learned that lesson early, watching her mother lose her job in the 2008 crash after more than a decade of strong earnings behind the bar. So tune in as we are joined by Dana June, founder of How to Cocktail and author of...
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Global Bar Consulting w Chris Lowder | Bartender at Large ep 512 Episode VIDEO
Bartender at Large
This week we are joined by Chris Lowder, co-founder of Lowder-Tascarella Hospitality, two-time Tales of the Cocktail nominee for Best Global Bar Mentor, and one of Drinks International's 100 Most Influential Figures in the Global Bar Industry. After leading World's 50 Best-recognized bars across China, Chris co-founded LTH, now a team of 18 spanning New York, Miami, and Bangkok, with his latest work on display at Miami Beach's Shelborne by Proper. So tune in as we discuss why sustainable operations and financial literacy beat chasing accolades, his years bartending in Korea and China, and the...
info_outlineThis week we are joined by bartender, spirits specialist and consultant Lex, who opens up about the hardest chapter of her life. For four years she worked 14-hour bar shifts while raising the little sister she adopted when she was just 26. She also fought for custody in family court on her own, often walking into the courthouse straight from a closing shift with no sleep. So tune in as she shares how she kept smiling for guests through all of it, and how the coworkers who stepped up carried her when she couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. She also explains why everyone deserves a little grace, on both sides of the bar.
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Join us every Monday as acclaimed bartender, Erick Castro, interviews some of the bar industry's top talents from around the world, including bartenders, distillers & authors. If you love cocktails & spirits then this award-winning podcast is just for you.
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