Favourite Spirit | BrandyFavourite Juice | PomegranateFavourite Classic Cocktail | Savoy TangoFavourite Part of the Job | Mentorship and education are what tickle me the most these days.Favourite After Work Drink | WaterFavourite at Home Drink | Old FashionedBest known for | Not so very long ago, I went to a bar in Toronto the night before ToCC. The bartender and I got to chatting, as one does, and I mentioned I lived in Sudbury. Amazingly, he asked if I knew “that guy up there from the states that teaches everyone classics.” I had to reply “Well, I think that’s me.” So, I suppose I’m that. I’m that American ex-pat in Northern Ontario who just wants to teach everyone about cocktails!Favourite “at work” memory | There are so many! I watched a man call the police on himself because I wouldn’t serve him. I got to help Dale DeGroff batch drinks once. Bartending is amazing because every shift you are invited to someone’s best night out that week, that month, or that year. Lately, I’m trying to value the small moments – happy guests, a moment of human connection, the silent “oh, cool” people sometimes whisper after their first sip of a new cocktail.What do you collect? Aside from booze and booze-related paraphernalia? Plants, actually. I love having life surrounding me, and the winters here are long, so houseplants are a much larger part of my life than I ever anticipated.Favourite thing about your city? Untapped potential, and a fierce generation of young people dedicated to maximizing it.What was the last photo that you took? Here is a breakdown of photographs on my phone, in descending order: cocktails, my daughter, the cats, hand-written notes that I don’t want to lose (or type), accidental screenshots, memes.Any claims to fame? I’m a recovering “gifted child” so there’s a whole bunch of weird stuff I used to be good at, and “important” people that I’ve met. Though I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that wasn’t important. Chat with me about geopolitics, camping, particle physics, D&D, architecture, martial arts, psychology, or the myth of unskilled labour.Camp Runamok Spring ’19Certificate in Canadian Whisky, March ’22National Champion (Canada) – Torres Brandy Zero Challenge 2022