Josh’s introduction:
Every time we have done Independent Study Day, there have been new faces in the room. This is great. It’s also great to have regulars, so whether this is your first time or your 15th, we appreciate you coming.
We created Independent Study Day because there are enough brands doing a one directional education program. The sort of thing where someone that works for a brand stands in front of a room and tells you about distillation and botanicals and barrels and history and in the case of Hendrick’s Gin, a whole bunch of really fun whimsical stuff. We want to thank Hendrick’s Gin for sponsoring us this month. But Independent Study Day is not that.
We saw, from going to tastings and guest spots and from running Toronto Cocktail Conference that as much as that organized angle of education works, there is a charm… nah, a bolt of electricity when two or three or 30 people are in a room sharing ideas and practices that work at their bar. Sharing approaches or impressions can help you build your career or even better, your personality. So thanks for coming to Independent Study Day.
This month we are addressing something that comes up a lot in the suggestions jar.
This month, we are going to talk about how to work with brands.
All things being equal, I didn’t want to do this topic, which is why it has taken 19 of these to get here. The reason I was hesitant to talk about this is that I think a lot of bartenders are skipping steps. A lot of bartenders are trying to run events and get sponsorship for podcasts or bar hops or guest spots without having done the work to make sure they understand flavour or bar technique or even knowing how to do a cash-out. I have seen people that haven’t dialled in their grip on a bar spoon trying to organise cocktail competitions.
Anyone in the room that hasn’t done a deep dive on me, I used to be the Hendrick’s Gin Brand Ambassador for Canada. It was ten whole years ago and a lot has changed with Hendrick’s and their local distributor PMA. But the reason I got that job is because I had already been a deep cocktail nerd for 8 years at that point. I don’t know gin because I had the Hendrick’s job, I got the Hendrick’s job because I knew Gin. I knew cocktails. I knew distillation and vapour infusion and I knew that balance is way harder to achieve than flavour. And how to hold a barspoon.
But everyone keeps asking us “How do you work with brands? If I want my cocktail list sponsored, how do you do that?” And we thought “You know who has a different perspective on this…Kate!”
Kate Boushel is part owner and beverage director for Barroco Group in Montreal. That means Atwater Cocktail Club and Bon Delire and Milky Way and Fugazzi Pizza.
Kate has also been named Bartender’s Bartender by 50 Best North America in 2024 and she knows every word to at least 3 Salt’N’Pepa songs.
Mostly though, besides working with brands on her venues and guest spots where she flies all over the world to do things like dress as a wrestler, Kate comes from a marketing background so she speaks Brand fluently.
See the interview HERE
