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Hello friend,
It's been a minute since I've sent an email. Couple reasons for that:
- Many evenings spent prepping for the One Night Cocktail Bar
- Lots of time spent planning for our 4 month trip that starts in 10 days
Needless to say, my evenings and weekends have being well-spent away from writing and email, etc...
This email is about the One Night Cocktail Bar 'experience' we hosted on January 31st. If you were able to make it, thank you and I hope you had a good time.
If you weren't there, I hope to see you at my next one!
What Happened?
We had fun! That's what happened. Over the course of the evening:
- 35 people attended
- Our doors opened at 6:30pm and the last guests left around 11:45pm
- Close to 100 cocktails were made
- My friend Ross jumped in as talented bar-back and was indispensable
- My two youngest kids helped serve drinks
- One guest flew up from Los Angeles for the evening
- Lots of people met someone new
- It was a far smoother experience than the first time I did it!
- The menu featured some of my best and most advanced drinks yet:
Biggest Takeaways:
Kirsten and I LOVE doing this. To show the progression, I'm sharing last year's takeaways from the recap of the 1st ONCB and the equivalent takeaway from this year:
- 2024: We learned that this idea is even more fun in real life than in our heads.
- 2025: Doubly confirmed. We knew it was going to be good and were able to enjoy it even more as we did a better job preparing.
- 2024: I low-key want to become a bartender / mixologist now...I love the art and history of them, as well as the conversations and depth great cocktails and their settings help enable.
- 2025: I've made so many drinks in so many environments in the last year, this is no longer a big desire...but I do love doing it for fun!
- 2024: Ideas like this are impossible to pull off without friends. I'm so thankful for deep relationships and the ability to create experiences together.
- 2025: So true. ALL the clear ice for the evening was made by my friend Ross and his help was crucial. My wife and her sister Emma were also crucial is helping prepare.
- 2024: This idea, or versions of it, resonates with people. Multiple friends shared their OWN plans to create similar experiences for others.
- 2025: Didn't hear the same feedback this year, but I know it's still true and I can wait to collab with some of my talented friends for sourdough pizza / cocktail combo evenings down the road!
- 2024: Hospitality is a lot of work, but it feels so good to use the resources we've been given to love and serve and laugh with other people!
- 2025: Couldn't love it more. I love being behind the bar and getting people excited about the history, techniques, and flavors that craft cocktails bring to the forefront.
- 2024: It's important to create space to dream out loud with others. I can't recommend it enough. This wouldn't have happened if Kirsten and I didn't go on dates ourselves where we dream out loud together.
- 2025: Still so true. Our upcoming 4 month trip to Morocco, Spain and Croatia was a date-night conversation about 2 year ago. In 10 days, it begins.
What's Next?
My mind is already working on future cocktails and slight tweaks to the evening. That means there are more to come ;)
I'll be sending more emails than I normally do over the next few months as I document our trip and share lessons from the journey.
If you ever have questions about the adventure or just want to say hi, feel free to reply.
Finally, if you think a friend might enjoy my emails, you can suggest they sign up here: https://sameitzen.com/
PS. if you got my '5 Riddles' email a couple weeks ago, here are the answers:
- Piano
- Candle
- Rope
- Fingernail
- Pencil
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