#128 Calliope Draper: How Do You Reach Nationals Without Ever Bartending?
#128 Calliope Draper: How Do You Reach Nationals Without Ever Bartending?
Most people entering the bar industry think the sequence is fixed: get hired, survive two years of bad habits, learn technique from whoever happens to be on shift, and then maybe compete. Callie Draper ran it backwards and it worked better. Callie learned bartending as a guest from a world champion, entered Diageo World Class with zero shifts behind her, and made national finals before she'd ever been on payroll. This episode covers competition strategy, cocktail construction under constraint, mentorship, building a bar career in a small market, running an independent hospitality magazine, and the labor statistics for trans workers in Canadian hospitality that reframe what "industry culture" actually means.
Expect to learn:
- The competition-entry rule set that forces better drinks than an unlimited bar does and why Callie still uses those constraints on menus with no rules at all
- The one trait Callie says can't be taught, and the specific question she asks new bartenders before recommending a single book
- The two-step order she builds every cocktail in: get it backwards and you end up with a technically correct drink nobody orders
Links:
- Callie Draper on Instagram: @placesyouarecallie
- Places You're Welcome magazine
- Email: callie@placesyourewelcome.com
- Cantina Concha — agave bar, Old Port, Montreal
Service starts now.
Follow the show: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube
I talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!
Classic Episodes You May Like:
- Doug Frost MW MS
- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
- Steve Schneider & The Best Bar in North America
- Edward Slingerland's Masterful work on Intoxication
- Andrew Hurley of Vegas.Wine
- Chris Tunstall of A Bar Above
- Tony Abou-Ganim
- Bobby "G" Gleason
As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.
Cheers
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