BRIAN BOWDEN VP Spirits, Beer, Tobacco, Beverages, GMM New Markets BevMo!

Brain Bowden got his start in the alcoholic beverage industry in 1981 working at Liquor Barn in California, where he stayed till 1991 as part of the store management teams in Northern and Southern California. For the next four years, Brian worked in the wine industry representing small Sonoma County wineries with sales and distribution. In 1994, Brain started working for BevMo!, where he is currently the VP of Spirits, Beer, Tobacco, Beverages, GMM New Markets.

Brian has received his CSS in spirits and is currently working towards a Cicerone certification.

TED CARMON Head Spirits Buyer BevMo!

With over 18 years of retail and liquor experience, Ted is the lead buyer for BevMo!, the leading specialty spirits retailer in the western United States with over 130 stores. He is responsible for product selection, category management, promotional activity and all pricing related to the spirits category, which has experienced double-digit comparable store sales growth during his tenure at BevMo!.

A veteran of the retail beverage industry, Ted formerly held key roles in the management of several categories for California-based chains Safeway and Longs Drugs, including category management, centralization and analysis of the spirits and beer. Additionally, he served as a category manager for Southern Wine & Spirits. Ted is a Certified Specialist of Spirits awarded by the Society of Wine Educators.

DAMON BOELTE Bar Director Prime Meats/ Frankies Spuntino

Over the course of his rapid rise, Damon Boelte has worked in various corners of the industry, collecting countless accolades along the way. StarChefs named Boelte Mixologist of the year. Wine Enthusiast included him as one of the top 40 tastemakers under 40. Eater.com called him one of the best bartenders in NYC. Food & Wine won’t shut up about Boelte’s gin & tonic recipe and The New York Times has given him untouchable praise. You can read about him in pretty much every publication with a thirst for great cocktails and spirits, as well as many lifestyle magazines(with a few nods regarding his personal style). While a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit, he also shares his cocktails and techniques with New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out, Imbibe Magazine, Businessweek, GQ, Edible Brooklyn and Manhattan, Saveur, La Cucina Italiana, Elle, Vogue, and Travel & Leisure. His cocktail and bitters recipes are scattered amongst the pages of Bitters by Brad Thomas Parsons as well as numerous other cookbooks and cocktail guides.

Boelte has consulted for many bars and restaurants in New York City and beyond, and during his 6 year tenure as the bar director for Frankies and Prime Meats, Boelte has fused to his love of legendary 19th and early 20th century bartenders with modern influences —all while developing his own recipes and methods. He’s consulted on the development of new spirits, taught extensive classes on bourbon, cheese, wine, bitters, and rare spirits, and even developed a trailblazing customer service and classic technique course for Stumptown Coffee baristas based on the 1900 book Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Guide For Hotels and Restaurants.When he’s not mixing, writing, riding motorcycles or playing shows with his country band, you can hear him talking shop on his radio show, The Speakeasy on Heritage Radio Network, the only show of it’s kind covering the vast universe of all things liquid. Each episode is an entertaining, enlightening, and educational look into the world of spirits, cocktails, beer & wine, but most importantly what it means to be a knowledgeable and welcoming bartender and host, as well as an informed and respectful patron. Each week the live show on Heritageradionetwork.com reaches an international audience of over 500,000. It’s clear to see why he has received all of his praise and accolades over his career; Damon Boelte is a bartender’s bartender.

SPIRITS TASTINGCOMPETITION JUDGES

NATHAN GREENE Assistant General Manager TAG Bar @ The Linq

A relative newcomer, Nathan Greene has only been working the stick since 2010. But in just a few short years, he has made his mark on the mixology world with his rising talent. After graduating from the Crescent School of Gaming and Bartending’s beverage management program, Greene has devoted all of his time to the cocktail industry, studying and honing his skills while competing in cocktail competitions.

A four-time national cocktail champion and former Nightclub & Bar U.S. Bartender of the Month in May of 2012, Nathan opened Vanguard Lounge and Rx Boiler Room and also ran RM Seafood’s beverage program the last 3+ years. Greene is now opening several new venues in Las Vegas: one, as a consultant and a part-time bartender at the upcoming Imperial just off The Strip; and two, as an AGM for TAG & Squeeze bars, respectively, with Caesar’s Entertainment at the newly developed Linq. He is responsible for all three of the aforementioned cocktail and spirits programs.

Most recently, Greene, along with Roger Gross and Stan Stilwell, formed their own beverage consultancy company, Libation Restoration, LLC, having done bars from Portland to College Station, TX. “Our motto is restoring faith in humanity, one cocktail at a time,” Greene says. “I’m extremely excited for what the future holds.”

ANNE MAGOON Operations Team McCrackenTough

Literally born to be in hospitality, food and beverage; Anne’s mother, before retiring, was a restaurant “front-of-the house genius” and father, a chef. After running around restaurants, as a child, she took her love for the industry to the next level and quickly began climbing the career ladder in the scene. Anne quickly excelled as a barista, a hostess, a server, a floor manager and soon became a very young general manager at the age of 21.

While managing and opening very prominent restaurants in Southern Connecticut and New York City, she strayed towards her other passions and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where she obtained a B.S. in merchandising and marketing. After a brief and successful career in the fashion industry in New York, Anne was subcontracted to work for Nike on the West Coast, and was soon laid-off after the market crash.

Returning to her roots in the Seattle restaurant scene, Anne assisted with the opening of Branzino with Chef Ashley Merriman. It was through her Seattle Chef, Merriman; she was introduced to Chefs Brian McCracken and Dana Tough. Six years later and after opening four popular Seattle restaurants/bars (Spur Gastropub, Tavern Law/Needle and Thread, The Coterie Room and The Old Sage) with McCracken and Tough, Anne is now working as an Operations Director and Sommelier for the innovative Seattle Group. The restaurants/bars have received acclaim from Food and Wine, Gayout, Conde Nast Traveler, Cooking Light, etc. Anne has been featured in several Seattle publications, on New Day Northwest and in Tasting Panel magazine.

Her time off from the Seattle food and bar scene is dedicated to traveling and exploring restaurants, wineries, and distilleries in the U.S. and abroad.

CARLOS CUARTA Independent Bartender

Carlos Enrique Cuarta is a native of Venezuela. He has now been a long time resident of the USA and the great city of Chicago—11 years. From his beginnings in South America to the present he has collected an incredible amount of culture. His enthusiasm for life, and his inexhaustible curiosity are an example to many people he has touched in his career as one of Chicago’s finest bartenders. A note to the reader, Carlos has never worked behind a Chicago bar establishment, however, he has tirelessly pushed the limits as a bartender for many spirit brands, private clients, and catering companies. A notable accomplishment since it takes indisputedly more commitment and perseverance to pursue the art of craft cocktailing on one’s own time and dime.

That kind of tenacity has not gone unnoticed, however. In 2010, Carlos was the recipient of the Diageo Celebrate the Future Scholarship Fund, a scholarship that allowed him to continue his spirits education at the prestigious BAR (Beverage Alcohol Resource) in New York City. Over the years, during his involvement in the USBG Illinois Chapter, Carlos has been extremely active in supporting his fellow bartenders and mentor, Bridget Albert, at the Academy of Spirits, various charitable organizations, and also mentoring and financially assisting other Latino bartenders in pursuing our great craft. In his spare time, he continues to improve his skills by attending classes put on by the likes of industry icons like Dale Degroff, Steve Olson, and Junior Merino.

Those who know Carlos can personally attest also to his insatiable need to experiment with the elements of the cocktail. At home he is constantly working on various infusions, syrups, cordials and recipes for his own pleasure, but also in preparation for the many projects and competitions he has committed himself to. In fact, Carlos, though grounded in classical mixology, has never shied away from modern challenges. Though he has worked for brands in the Bacardi family, Beam Global, and Diageo, he has also developed cocktail recipes for PepsiCo, Wrigley Gum, and Red Bull.

All in all, Carlos has dedicated his life to raising up the bartending craft and at no expense to his lust for life. In fact, they are one in the same. As Carlos says, “Always be sipping”

JP FETHERSTON Bar Manager Southern Efficiency

JP Fetherston knows whiskey. So much that he heads a whiskey bar, Southern Efficiency (Washington D.C.), and cycled throughout Scotland, visiting 27 different distilleries before apprenticing at Bruichladdich under Master Distiller Jim McEwan and his team. But that’s wasn’t his first trip to visit distilleries. He’s also traveled throughout the United States, sampling the best of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Before focusing on whiskey, he was a bartender and research director at Columbia Room in Washington D.C., consistently ranked as one of the top cocktail bars in the country. JP has master’s degrees in history from both the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

MAX SOLANO Head Mixologist / Beverage Manager Emeril’s Restaurants / Delmonico Steakhouse

Max Solano, Head Mixologist for Chef Emeril Restaurants and Beverage Manager for Delmonico Steakhouse, began his career with Emeril’s Restaurants in March of 2006 as a bartender at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop in Orlando, FL. He was promoted to Beverage Manager in late 2007 and was relocated to Las Vegas, NV. that December to open Emeril’s Table 10 Restaurant and set up the company’s first mixology program. Since then, Max has become one of Las Vegas’ most exciting and creative mixologists, as well as a student and teacher of the history and development of spirits and cocktails. He is currently pursuing a Master Certification of Mixology, as well, as a Master of Whisky Designation for both American & International Whiskeys.

The “Book Of Whisky,” created by Solano for the famed and award-winning Emeril’s Delmonico Steakhouse, is currently one of the biggest compilations of whiskey in the United States. It includes over 550 selections from eight countries and many allocations of some of the rarest and most highly-rated selections around. Furthermore, many industry experts, today, that have become familiar with Delmonico’s immense program, refer to it as one of the most extensive whisky-based mixology programs in the country. In addition to many accolades and awards throughout his career, in 2011, Solano was awarded Bartender of the Year in the state of Nevada by the Nevada Restaurant Association and Restaurant Bartender of the Year by Vega Seven Magazine.

Delmonico has been named one of the Top 10 Cocktail Bars in the country by Gayot in December 2012 and was inducted into the Bar Hall of Fame in 2013 by Vegas Seven Magazine. Lastly, Solano and his cocktails have been featured on television, magazines and online media such: ABC Television’s The Morning Blend, GQ Magazine, Saveur Magazine, The Tasting Panel Magazine, Las Vegas Weekly Magazine, Imbibe Magazine, Cheers Magazine, Las Vegas Review Journal, Vegas Seven Magazine, Hemispheres Magazine, LA Times and many more.

FRANK STILO Mixologist Standard Hotel East Village

Stilo is an award-winning New York-based bartender who has recently developed cocktail menus for Cafe Noir, Standard Hotel East Village, and is currently consulting. He has been featured in Tasting Panel Magazine and his cocktails have been included in spirits booklets and websites that include Sorel, Ricard, Avua Cachaca and the new Collectif1806 website.

JEREMY MERRITT Head Bartender Downtown Cocktail Room

Jeremy Merritt is the Head Bartender at the Downtown Cocktail Room in Las Vegas. Merritt creates favorite libations such as the Downtown Dill Bloody Mary, the classic Negroni and the Agent Orange. He is also the Director of Beverage and Training at the Future Restaurant Group, Nevada Ambassador for Castle Brands Inc. and member of the USBG. Merritt attended UNLV for Hotel Administration, Food & Beverage Management, and is a Certified Sommelier and is on pursuit of his Master Mixologist Certification.

TRAVIS NASS Spirits Guide The Last Drop

Shake up equal parts nostalgic cocktail curator and modern mixology provocateur and you’ll wind up with Mr. Travis Nass. You’ll find him slinging drinks at Lon’s at the Hermosa Inn’s signature bar, The Last Drop where his DIY approach to his own housemade bitters, tinctures, syrups and tonics to keep his craft cocktails on every must-drink list in the nation.

With more than 10 year under his belt buckle, Nass has been mixing drinks since the day he turned 21 and bounced a check to stock his first bar at home. Since then, his dedication to the craft has grown in an unconventional way; honing his craft not behind the bar, but rather inside a professional Japanese kitchen and later, under the tutelage of award-winning Arizona chefs.

Now, as stylish as his signature handlebar mustache and vintage garb, Travis’ drinks exhibit finesse with attention to detail, garnishing not to glamorize, but rather enhance the cocktail experience. Nass’ knack for pairing unique flavors using a culinary touch keeps the West wild about his drinks.