Good Morning! I hope you are having a good week so far, and if you're a bartender getting ready for Friday service, I hope you just make a fuck ton of tips this weekend, and that your friends and regulars who love you come in. Hopefully, your bar back shows up, and when you have that first safety meeting of the night, it tastes incredible. 

Random tangent, but whose idea was it to send a bunch of rich female celebrities into space? Better yet, why would they think that with EVERYTHING else going on, we would care? Like that has got to be one of the most insane things right now, and that's saying something. Anyway, without a single shred of shame or regard for irony, let's get back to the newsletter that I think you should totally care about with everything going on. 

This week, I published one of my favorite videos so far. It came about because I was recently training a new bartender and I was teaching him round building and realized I had never made a video covering it. It is one of the most important skills in bartending, but is often overlooked. I hope you get something out of this video! 

One Of The World's Best Bars crafted a New NYC Bar— From Over 5000 miles away. 

Punch recently published an article that I found absolutely fascinating about how some bars and consultancies operate behind the scenes. One of the best bars in the world, Tres Monos in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was contracted to develop and design every last detail for a brand‑new bar 5,000 miles away in New York City called Papa San, a Peruvian and Japanese fusion concept. From the look of their social media, website, and menu, the space they’ve created genuinely looks incredible. It’s exactly the sort of spot I live for—a Latin American / Japanese fusion bar? That sounds incredible.

What makes it so impressive I’ve chatted with folks in the bar‑consultancy world before, and it always amazes me what they have to go through to craft recipes that someone halfway across the globe can execute flawlessly. You need to understand what spirits, fresh ingredients, and kitchen tools will actually be available on the ground, and then lean on the kitchen’s own stock to cross‑utilize ingredients whenever possible. That’s a ton of pressure! How do you know whether they’ll get that rare Peruvian pepper or the exact amaro you specified?

Tres Monos: bar, school, consultancy It turns out Tres Monos isn’t just a cocktail bar—it’s a three‑part system:

1. A world‑class cocktail bar known for inventive twists on classics and hyper‑seasonal recipes.

2. A hospitality school right in their own neighborhood, training locals in everything from clarifying and fermentation to service etiquette (read more about their school here).

3. A consultancy arm that advises coffee shops, restaurants, and other bars on menu development, program design, and team training.

That trifecta means when Llama Group’s Juan Correa and Erik Ramirez reached out in 2022 to build Papa San’s bar program from scratch, Tres Monos had all the tools to deliver—not just recipes, but a full training curriculum for a brand‑new NYC team.

R&D across continentsOver roughly six months, the crew in Buenos Aires whipped up 30+ cocktail drafts inspired by izakaya culture and Peruvian flavors, then narrowed them to about 15 finalists in tasting sessions with Papa San’s owners. They didn’t just ship over off‑the‑shelf drinks: they built each recipe around ingredients Chef Erik Ramirez would already be using in the kitchen—aji amarillo in their curry powder for a clarified “Golden Curry” cocktail, giant Peruvian Alfonso olives in a mezcal‑and‑tonic mash‑up they call the “Misticollins,” and so on. The result? Cocktails that make perfect sense in the restaurant’s ecosystem.

Hands‑on training—and ongoing supportA couple of weeks before opening, Aguinsky and his team flew to NYC to train Papa San’s bartenders on everything from back‑of‑house prep (macerations, clarifying, ferments) to front‑of‑house classics (Negronis, Margaritas, Old‑Fashioneds). Then, rather than check out, they set up weekly video calls with the head bartender and fly back every 45–50 days to troubleshoot service, refine recipes for spring and summer, and roll out a custom brunch program.

The real takeaway: global collaboration lifts everyone – Papa San’s New York team got a crash course in Latin American ingredients and techniques. – Tres Monos’ consultancy arm sharpened its educational and menu‑design skills. – Guests in Manhattan get to experience cocktails that weave together Peruvian, Japanese, Argentine, and bar‑school DNA into every sip.

All of this reminds me why I’m so passionate about education in the hospitality space: when you build bridges between cultures and teams, everyone benefits. If you haven’t yet, check out Punch’s two deep dives—one on the Papa San collaboration and another on Tres Monos’ own bartending school. Next week, I’ll be testing some of these cross‑utilization ideas in my home lab and sharing recipes you can try yourself. Cheers!

And upon reading the article I also discovered that Tres Monos aren't just a bar, they are also a hospitality school as well, and there is also this article about what that means. Which I love! I am all about education especially in the hospitality space.

The real takeaway for me is how global collaboration can lift everyone involved. Papa San’s New York team got exposed to Latin American ingredients they’d never used before; Tres Monos’ consultancy arm got to flex its educational muscles and sharpen its menu‑design game; and, most importantly, guests in NYC get to experience cocktails that tell a story of two continents in balance. I cannot wait to visit the next time I'm in NYC in a few months. 

List of the 100 Best Bars in North America Officially Released! 

Well, at least the first half has been announced. You can find 100-51 below with the rest of the List being released April 29th! There are so many incredible bars in North America, and 50 just doesn't cut it. This extended list gives more bars more exposure and an opportunity to be featured.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIfB7FaMk5o/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIg_NhNs2WW/?img_index=2

(They are age restricted so I cant embed them unfortunately, but click them its worth the read)

A notable mention to me is Boston's own Equal Measure coming in at number 80, that place is awesome and I love it. And we’ve written about it before on our newsletter here. 

Best Things We’ve Seen This Week

The Cocktail Man, Danil Nevsky, has lately been posting some of my favorite things on social media about bartending. I love these posts and this one about what the bar industry is actually about really hit me right in the feels. Guests are number one, and always will be. Maybe this sounds preachy but that's why I tagged Danil’s post, because he puts it quite well. 

Read through the slides, dammit. Now!

And another good recent one he posted was this one: 

In Other News:

• I think I have done a pretty solid job of covering the ongoing drama in the tequila world, but The Spirits Business posted a pretty great overview of what's been going on, but their article is actual journalism with real quotes and stuff, so you know. If you're curious, check it out. 

• The Spirited Awards, put on by the folks from Tales of The Cocktail published their nominees to their annual awards given out during the convention in July. Okay, I get it. Not everything is about awards for bars and best of lists. It just happened that both happened this week. Anyway, rant over. 

• Kevin Kos recently published a video on the 10 Modern Classic Cocktails you need to know!

• Buffalo Trace distillery partially reopens after flooding