Good Morning Friends! Happy weekend to you. I hope you all had a great week, i had to have emergency dental work done this week which has completely thrown off my whole week. I have gotten almost no content recorded and the tooth ache has been brutal. but hey it is what it is.

The Dec 4th Tequila Dinner I am doing with our friends at El Tesoro at my bar, Ember & Alma, has completely sold out! I didn’t even get a chance to link it here because as soon as I posted about it on my IG stories people bought all 50 tickets up very quickly. If you missed out, don’t be too upset! We will most likely be doing another one in the coming months once things have settled after the holidays.

And for those of you who did buy tickets.. Oh boy you’re in for a real treat of an event! Cant wait!

People are drinking less. Could that be a problem for bars and restaurants?

Lately everywhere I look I seem to stumble on an article talking about how Americans are drinking less, and how overall young people and specifically gen Zers are drinking less and less. And that binge drinking isn’t as prominent. Like this one from Gallup, and this one from the Washington Post or even this one from Forbes about how Gen Z is drinking less and what it means for the alcohol industry.

When I was a teenager, I know I drank way too much, many nights drinking in basements and house parties and looking back it probably wasn’t the greatest choice for my health. In college the trend continued. Truthfully, I'm glad young kids are drinking less and binge drinking is becoming less of a problem. What astounded me was how overall drinking as a part of American Culture has gone down significantly over the last 30 years

Obviously alcohol is poison and its bad for you, I’m not advocating for people to continue drinking excessively and how its terrible for human health and mental health. Overall I truly believe this trend is a good thing! I have talked about my interesting relationship with this poison and why I still drink, in this video.

These articles got me thinking, could this be a problem for our bars and restaurant culture?

For so long in America, bars and restaurants were our main third places. Places of community, places where we would unwind, catch up with friends and make new ones. And that idea of being a community oriented third place was and is one of my biggest reasons for opening a bar and restaurant. To create a community space with incredible cocktails and food you can't find anywhere else.

Humans need community and while bars and restaurants aren't the only places that are community spaces, they were some of the most prominent and most consistent.

That being said, I understand that with the cost of literally everything going up, it's not as sustainable to go out for drinks more often such as weekly or nightly, nor would I advocate for that.

What that trend has shown me, and it's also why this articles title was actually a bit click-baity on my part, is that I think bars and restaurants need to evolve. What these articles are showing me anyway is that it's not necessarily about abstinence for everyone but more about moderation, and that bars and restaurants can still be those centers of community but they need to change. And cater to new audiences.

They need to adapt to the times. So many bars in the last 5 years have added really incredible non-alcoholic options, and treating NA Cocktails as real cocktails, and giving them the attention to detail, development and care that they deserve which I think is a hugely positive move.

We've seen the rise of women's sports bars (not women only sports bars, but women-sports focused bars) and dive bars getting into better beers and cocktails but keeping up the same vibe (check out Gilly's house of cocktails in San Diego). I think were in a really interesting time for bars and restaurants where concepts are shifting and evolving.

With the rise of THC drinks, could this be a whole other avenue for bars to evolve into. What would a marijuana smokers bar look like? Would there be a smoking lounge area, which would be a throw back to bars of the past? but instead of tobacco, people could gather and smoke some J’s? I don’t know! I think there’s so many possibilities.

I think we are in a Post Modern, Bar era. Where all of the crazy, experimental, high end concepts have been done, and now there’s no like clear path that a bar should take. because at the end of the day a Bar doesn’t just serve drinks, it serves an experience, a Vibe, if you will. It serves a place for people to gather.

So many bar concepts have been created and experimented with and there’s now space for all of them to thrive. What I am most excited about is the resurgence of the Neighborhood bar and how that can evolve to continue being a community space, while catering to a larger audience.

How Fortaleza Makes the Pappy Van Winkle of Tequila.

This amazing article was written by someone I'm now calling a buddy and heck even friend, spirits writer Dylan Ettinger (follow him on IG).

While I don't fully agree with the use of Pappy Van Winkle as a true comparison with The Fortaleza Winter Blend, especially because I find Pappy quite overrated, whereas the Winter Blend of any year has always been one of the best expressions of tequila ever. I think overall his article was spot on on so many things. Such as why it's so hard to find, what makes fortaleza so special, and a good overview of the trip him and I were on together back in August for the release of this amazing edition.

Anyway, go read Dylan's article if you're interested in learning more about the elusive and insane to find Fortaleza Winter Blend 2024. And if it makes you want some, well good luck but I do know of on place that will have some. That's right, my Bar, Ember and Alma 😁😁 

Best Video we saw this week:

Doug from the Gave Social club made this video giving his thoughts on the CRT Drama and I think it's well worth a watch.

One of the ideas he touched upon and I found so fascinating was the idea that "There doesn't need to be an enemy" and I found that to be so poignant. Tequila is meant to bring people together.

And one thing I do know is that attempts were made to bring people together and like Doug said, the way the CRT handled certain things are definitely not correct. But that being said the CRT also does good things for tequila as well. Though I do personally think currently they are listening too closely to what the big brands want.

Overall thought his take was grounded, level headed and while maybe not fully diving into the specifics was a nice view of it all.

Also! Doug just posted the 100th episode of his podcast The Agave Social club and his episode with Lalo Gonzalez from Lalo, is out now! Go give it a listen and go congratulate him on hitting that incredible milestone!

100 episodes is a major feat especially for a long form podcast.