The NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias

Pictured above from left – Matthew Sharpe, Director of Operations, and Wayne Curtis, Head Judge of the New Orleans Spirits Competition.

This time around, we’re bringing you a preview of the 2024 New Orleans Spirits Competition, now in its 3rd year. We chat with Head Judge and noted cocktail author, Wayne Curtis, and Director of Operations and spirits industry veteran, Matthew Sharpe. They let us know about the competition, how it works, and lots of new and exciting things coming this year! We discuss how it all culminates with the final judging at Tales of the Cocktail with much...

Pictured above – various shots from French Quarter Festival and, upper left panel from left, Kenneth Spears, Director of Food & Beverage and Hospitality, Morgan Valier, Director of Marketing and Communications, and Emily Madero, President and CEO. Photos courtesy of French Quarter Festivals, Inc. and photographers Cedric Ellsworth, Zack Smith, and Justen Williams.

We’re happy to bring you our annual French Quarter Festival preview show! This terrific event starts this week on Thursday, April 11 and runs through Sunday, April 14. Featuring more than 20 stages scattered throughout the historic French Quarter along with dozens of food and drink vendors and othe...

Pictured above, from left, clockwise, Jackie Summers, aka Jack from Brooklyn, founder of Sorel, Crystal Lilly, key accounts manager, and Josh Davis, mid-US representative and founder of Brown and Balanced.

On this edition of The NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias, we welcome some of the folks behind Sorel Liqueur! We chat with founder Jackie Summers, along with Josh Davis and Crystal Lilly. Aside from telling you about Sorel, a Caribbean inspired liqueur connected to Jackie’s family history (and more!), we also talk about Brown and Balanced, an organization started by Josh advocating for black bartenders. Along th...

The NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias – Speed Rack and Winning Cocktails – 2024Ep03. Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix. Photos Courtesy of Speed Rack, Jim Vondruska, Erick Medsker, and Gabi Porter.

On this edition of The NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias, we welcome Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix, co-founders of Speed Rack! We talk about that terrific organization and about their upcoming cocktail book, A Quick Drink: The Speed Rack Guide to Winning Cocktails for Any Mood.

We’re pleased to welcome Lynnette and Ivy back to the show! They are both pioneering bartenders and drinks business entrep...

Pictured above – Group picture from left – Chef Richard Papier, Rich Szydlo of Calliope Beer Works, and Bryan Dias of The NOLADrinks Show at Calliope Beer Works in Uptown New Orleans.

We’ve talked beer a lot here on The NOLADrinks Show over the years. But this time around, more of our focus is talking about pairing beer with food. We’ve touched on it before but here it is a little more focused on the topic. We welcome Chef Richard Papier and proprietor and brewer of Calliope Beer Works, Rich Szydlo.

Please note – the featured i...

Picture above from left – Bryan Dias of The NOLADrinks Show and Turning Tables’ Geoffrey Wilson, Tyrē Brown, Ari Nicholas, Touré Folkes, Francisco Miralda, Chelsea Reid, and Shaun Williams at Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits in the Bywater of New Orleans.

Hey, All! We’re back with new shows here in 2024! And we’re excited to kick things off with one of our favorite interviews to bring you – our annual Turning Tables show! As we’ve done before, we chat with leaders from the organization as well as recent graduates from the program.

We are at the fine wine bar...

Pictured above from left – Kirk Estopinal and Neal Bodenheimer of Cure Co. along with Bryan Dias of The NOLADrinks Show at Cure in Uptown New Orleans.

This time around on The NOLADrinks Show, we chat with the co-founders of Cure Co., Kirk Estopinal and Neal Bodenheimer. Both have been on the program individually a handful of times, but never together! As Cure, their inaugural New Orleans hospitality spot, approaches its fifteenth anniversary and Cane & Table, their second spot, celebrates its ten year, it’s a great time to talk with them about their story. We cover a lot...

Pictured above – Happenings at the Old Fashioned Week 2023 preview event at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Lower right panel, from left – Lynn House of Elijah Craig and Heaven Hill and Caroline Nabors of the Southern Smoke Foundation. Some images courtesy of the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation and Foxglove Communications.

On this edition of The NOLADrinks Show, we’re once again talking Elijah Craig’s Old Fashioned Week happening from October 13th thru the 22nd! It’s easy to participate as either a hospitality spot or as a patron and it’s all a benefit for the wond...

Pictured above from left, upper-left panel – Chef/Owner, Jacqueline Blanchard of Sukeban, Saké Expert, Shaun William, and Bryan Dias of The NOLADrinks Show at Sukeban, Uptown New Orleans.

We’re back with a new show! This time around, we are at the terrific Uptown sushi spot and izakaya, Sukeban, talking saké and Japanese cuisine. We’re joined by New Orleans saké expert, Shaun Williams, and Sukeban’s chef/owner, Jacqueline Blanchard.

This is a fun and interesting show! It’s a deep dive into the world of saké. We discuss what it is and what it isn’t – the...

Pictured above – Author John DeMers pictured with the cover of his book (inset), The Vieux Carré.

On this edition of The NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias, we once again speak to an author from the terrific book series “Iconic New Orleans Cocktails” by LSU Press. This time around, we talk with John DeMers, a native of New Orleans, who recently penned a book on the classic Vieux Carré cocktail.

John, who has written nearly 60 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including numerous cookbooks, lets us know about his writing background and his New Orleans roots. We also dis...