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What was your first job in the beverage or hospitality industry ? My first job in the hospitality industry was working at my stepmother ’ s coffee shop when I was 13 . My first bar job was right at 21 in Chicago in Ukrainian Village .
What is your favorite spirit to work with at the moment ? Unaged and aged grape brandies from different regions ! I ’ ve been pretty stuck on working with Cognac , singani and pisco for a little while .
JoJo ’ s Beloved offers fun , garishly colored drinks . What ’ s the inspiration for or strategy behind them ? We think that the modern cocktail-making methods
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and techniques are awesome , and the exploration of different base spirits has expanded the creative and flavor possibilities pretty vastly . However , drinks stopped looking fun for a while , and were taken very seriously .
We want to take those elevated spirits , ingredients and techniques and bring them back into the ‘ drinking cocktails is fun because they taste good and look fun ’ realm . With the aesthetic that JoJo ’ s has , nothing makes more sense than loud and bright cocktails .
What are some of the specialty shots you ’ re offering ? We ’ ve noticed over the years that even in your most upscale establishments , the customer often
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wants a shot / shooter that is composed and goes down easier than straight whiskey or tequila . We realized that our cocktails are great as shots , so we ’ re offering a few of our house cocktails ( the SOS , Bluetsey Collins and Saggitarian Sour ) as shots to provide a consistent , elevated and fun experience every time .
How does the retro theme of the bar translate to the wine program ? While seemingly passé now , the king of wine lists that I found from the ‘ 70s and ‘ 80s was Champagne , Napa and Burgundy . Old hat to my generation , but in the ‘ 70s the drama of “ The Judgement at Paris ” ( the 1973 Paris Tasting that brought international recognition to California
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wines and the Napa Valley ) was still fresh and controversial . To me , I want to explore and celebrate those classic styles of wine in an environment where they would have felt brand new .
What ’ s your current go-to cocktail or beverage ? I ’ m pretty hung up on real Cognac Sidecars and French 75s lately . They ’ re just so lush and pleasing to drink !
Would you share one of the most popular at JoJo ’ s Beloved , or one of your favorite drink recipes ? A runaway favorite at JoJo ’ s has been our Bee ’ s Gees cocktail , a mashup of a Sloe Gin Fizz and a Bee ’ s Knees .
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