The Philip Duff Show
Liquor, bars, cocktails: the people and companies who make them, sell them and drink them, plus everything & everyone in-between, with your host, globetrotting spirits guy and escaped bartender, Philip Duff.
#119, Christian Delpech, 19 x world champion flair bartending, bar director Presidente Miami, bar consultant

I first met Christian, who is Argentinian, in 2000, at the Quest for the Best world bartending championships in Orlando.Â
I'd competed in Quest and Roadhouse and other contests like those quite a few times, but when many of us saw Christian that year - who competed in the Rookie division - a lot of us just decided to retire from competition and become judges!Â
He was that good; next-level, Michael Jordan-good.Â
And he was just getting started: Christian went on to utterly dominate flair bartending contests, becoming practically unbeatable, not just in exhibition and...
#118, Ian Burrell, global rum ambassador, author, “Rum: A Tasting Course”, founder, UK RumFest, co-founder Equiano Rum, EduTainer

I've judged many a cocktail contest with Ian, and he's got a new book out AND just been awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by Tales of the Cocktail, so it was time for us to catch up over a rum or two.Â
Having played basketball in his native UK, and rapped - he still gets royalties from a song of his featured on the soundtrack of "Space Jam" - Ian built a career as the self-styled Global Rum Ambassador, evangelising the whole category at a time when there was very little education about, or even respect for, r...
#117, Timo Janse: opening bar manager, door 74 bar; owner, Dutch Courage bar, Perfect Serve Barshow and RevolutionCherry; co-founder, Flying Dutchmen Cocktails bar, Belly of the Beast bar, Amsterdam Cocktail Week; VP, the NBC (Dutch national bartender as

Timo has been a friend for almost two decades now: first he was the bartender who served me, then my employee, then my bar's manager, and then a bar owner in his own right, before founding a bar show, and several other excellent bars.Â
We could have gone for four hours. We've known each other through multiple marriages, got to know each other before my Dutch was good enough to switch from English, worked together, collaborated together...and always had a drink.Â
(Although his new skull tattoos are straight up fucking insane, WTF Timo)
...
#116, Kristiane Westray, UK-based drinks writer and LGBTQIA+ proponent, who also runs FAR too much

Krissy is a hilarious person that I got to know judging spirits contests together, and an accomplished drinks writer as well as being an outspoken proponent of the LGBTQIA+ community, so I wanted to catch up with her just as we round out Pride Month.Â
We had a great chat, not even that much about that community, because we both had a lot to catch up on, and she had a hard stop as she had to go do some heavy drinking in Bristol, which is entirely understandable.Â
But this was super fun!Â
I f...
#115, DNN - Duff News Network

It's been a minute since we went over the news, and I've been rocketing around the world doing interesting things, so here's a DNN episode!
We cover bar shows like BCBrooklyn, the Gulf Bar Show, the upcoming BCB London, the risers and fallers in the annual Millionaires List of million-case-selling liquor brands, Pernod's restructuring, the tiny cocktail trend, how I found the best cocktail bar at Disney Paris, and much more - enjoy.Â
Oh, and if you're doing something cool at Tales of the Cocktail, or if you want to be invited to the top-secret i...
#114, Lorenzo Antinori, founder, Bar Leone (HK), #2 W50BB 2024, #1 Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024

I've known Lorenzo since his days bartending at The Savoy in London, and have also had the pleasure of his drinks during his stint at Argo Bar (HK).
Now he's opened Bar Leone, which is the fastest-ever to get to #1 in Asia's 50 Best Bars and #2 in World's 50 Best, after opening in June 2023.Â
He's also about to open Montana bar in HK together with his fellow Italian, Simone Caporale.Â
We got together to catch up after a dizzying array of guest shifts and pop-ups on his part, and talked bars, competitions, London, Hong Kong, Da...
#113, Hayden “Woody” Wood, cocktail entrepreneur, world champion, author of 10 cocktail books (and Guy Fieri’s tour buddy)

Woody, a New Zealander, has been a fixture in Australian bartending for as long as I've been in the business, and he built his flair bartending and cocktail catering firm into a massive business there, wrote ten best-selling cocktail books, toured with Guy Fieri, burned out, came back, and has now founded a new solution to revolutionise the import-distribution of liquor in Australia, Drinks Network.Â
Clearly, we were overdue - enjoy!
Hayden on IG: https://www.instagram.com/mrliquidkitchen/?hl=de
Hayden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenwood639Â
...#112, Josh Harris, founder, Trick Dog (San Francisco), Pig & Punch, and forthcoming Quik Dog

Me, Josh and a bunch of other people (including Julio Bermejo and Mauro Mahjoub) were together in Yerevan for Yerevan Cocktail Week (YCW), so I took the chance to tape an episode with Josh, who I always run into at Tales of the Cocktail, but never get to sit down and chat with.Â
Josh is best known for Trick Dog cocktail bar in SF, a perennial award winner and two-time World's Best Cocktail Menu winner at Tales; in fact, Josh taught a class at YCW on cocktail menus.Â
It was a special trip for Josh, wh...
#111, Patrick Pistolesi, owner Drink Kong and Nite Kong, Rome, co-founder NIO Cocktails

Taped live in an annoyingly child-ridden park on a lovely day in NYC, myself and the rock 'n' roll Irish-Italian Rome-based cocktail bar owner Patrick Pistolesi cracked some all-American tariff-free beers, washed 'em down with mezcal and 'Murican single malt whiskey, and talked about Japan, billionaires, awards, his adventurous Irish mum, bars, cocktails, and the profusion of guest bartending, plus looots more stuff - enjoy!
Patrick on IG:Â https://www.instagram.com/_thepisto_?igsh=aDhxczI2YXJyOGU=
Drink Kong bar on IG: https://www.instagram.com/drinkkongbar?igsh=MXN1N29sdDRiYjVzdQ==
Nite Kong bar o...
#110, Ektoras Binikos, founder, Sugar Monk, Bitter Monk and Atheras Spirits

Ektoras Binikos opened Sugar Monk cocktail bar in Harlem just 9 months before the COVID lockdowns kicked off, after a career in both art and mixology, having emigrated to Manhattan from his native Greece. While weathering the storm of the lockdown, he and his team started making and selling amaros and liqueurs, and this venture has blossomed into a company, Atheras Spirits, which has a distillery and a cocktail bar/tasting room, Bitter Monk, in Industry City, Brooklyn.Â
We sat down on a gorgeous day and talked about his career, opening a bar, trying to keep the wheels t...
#109, Tony Sachs, Philip Duff Show regular, drinks writer, bon vivant

Regular listeners will know New York drinks writer Tony Sachs, who occupies a place in The Philip Duff Show universe somewhere between "henchman" and "drinking buddy".Â
It's been a while since we convened to drink our way through the literal lakes of booze Tony is sent on a daily basis, and because he was off to drink Direct Martinis from the hand of Alessandro Palazzi that evening, we started out with a nice run of tasting no- and low-alc drinks, including new low-alcohol gin Second Sip from Leo Robitschek & Nick Strangeway, St Agrestis' Phony Negroni, Three Cents' s...
#108, Warren Bobrow, creator KLAUS THC beverages, cocktail book author, cannabis advocate

Warren has written six cocktail books - including on cannabis cocktails, as well as more conventional cocktail tomes - and he was way ahead of what is now a trend of quitting alcohol, back in 2018, during Tales of the Cocktail, which is like quitting skydiving mid-jump.Â
He's recently created a range of delicious cocktail-inspired THC beverages named KLAUS, so it was high* time we sat down, guzzled a little Klaus, and caught up on the state of the world and the long, strange journey that took him from being a trained chef, a pasta entrepreneur, a private b...
#107, Rob Husted, flair bartender, competitor & judge, co-creator “Shaken & Stirred” flair documentary

Me and Rob have known each other since the early early days, back when I was still a competitive flair bartender in the 1990s, and together with fellow OGs Dean Serneels and Deborah Richards, he's just created and premiered the world's first documentary about flair, "Shaken & Stirred", so it was high time we had a chat.Â
We talked about the wild network that was flair, before this Second Golden Age of mixology was properly underway: travelling the world, yard days, why - and how - flair makes you humble in a way mixology does not, why revolutions s...
#106, Hayden Lambert, owner, Above Board (Melbourne), jet-set bartender

Hayden's been a mate for ages, and his bar, a gorgeous, tiny, stripped-back speakeasy-type Mecca in Melbourne, is almost ten years old and has been winning awards and getting on lists quite a lot, so it was time we got together and shot the shit. This tiny little bar in Australia's second city got #100 on the overall World's 50 Best Bars list - not bad, eh?
I had no idea about Hayden's Euro ski-resort Flugel-drinking past, as he'd only popped up on my radar after his rather more seemly stint at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, and then...
#105, Jonathan Downey, cocktail bar empire builder and hospitality entrepreneur

Without Jonathan and the London-based international Match Bar Group he built, spanning 40+ venues at one time or another, cocktails in the UK would look very different today.Â
Jonathan, a cheerful Mancunian former lawyer, invested heavily in bartending expertise when building his group: his first head bartender for Match bar was the legendary, late Dick Bradsell, he hired Dale de Groff to be a training consultant and partnered with the much-missed Sasha Petraske to open only the second-ever Milk & Honey, in London. Match Bars opened in Ibiza, Chamonix and as far afield as Melbourne, shaping the careers of l...
#104, Nico de Soto, co-owner Mace (NY), Danico (Paris) Kota Pandan Liqueur, globetrotting bartender & consultant

I've known Nico since his time at Experimental Cocktail Club Paris around 2008, and he's very much the mixologist's mixologist; most people would say - I agree - that he's one of the two or three best mixologists working today.Â
He just launched Kota Pandan liqueur with a banging party in Mace NY, so the next day we sat down to talk bars, pandan, awards, the state of the business, how he almost opened a place in Singapore, the importance of hiring, burning out on cocktails, his guest bartending odysseys, and our love of arrack - plus a w...
#103, Salvatore Calabrese, bar maestro, The Donovan Bar, Velvet by Salvatore (London), Igiea Terrazza (Palermo), Stravinsky (Rome), author, public speaker

Few people in the cocktail world are as well known as Salvatore; you don't even have to say his surname before people begin talking about his many achievements in bartending, dating back forty years to his youth on the sun-kissed shores of the Amalfi Coast. He really is the Maestro, and it's been a privilege to call him a friend for several decades now.Â
From inventing the Direct Martini (while at Dukes Hotel, for guest Stanton Delaplane, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who himself invented/popularised the Irish Coffee, depending on who you ask), to running ce...
#102, Maxwell Britten, award-winning NY beverage director, cocktail book author & documentary producer

Maxwell is an old friend who came to prominence with the drinks program he curated at Brooklyn's amazing Maison Premiere, winning James Beard awards, World's 50 Best Bars listing, and Tales of the Cocktail awards, to name but a few. (It is also, and to this day, a magnificent place for dinner or a cocktail). He's also co-authored a cocktail book and created one of the first modern-era cocktail recipe apps.Â
Maxwell recently finished working on a great project - more below - plus we'll take any opportunity for a chat and a drink here at the Philip Du...
#101, Dolph Lundgren, MA (Chem. Eng.), karate champion, vodka entrepreneur, Hollywood movie star

It's nomination season!
If you enjoy The Philip Duff Show, take a minute to throw our hat in the ring for an award that is guaranteed to annoy everyone - link to nominate us for "Best Broadcast, Podcast Or Online Video" here: https://spiritedawards.secure-platform.com/aÂ
(Nominations deadline is February 13th, at 1159pm New Orleans time!)
Dolph's been a legend in Hollywood for almost forty years, from his first role in Bond movie "A View To a Kill", to his breakthrough as Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV", and more recently in "The E...
#100 David Gluckman, creator of Baileys, Tanqueray TEN, The Singleton, etc., author of “That Shit Will Never Sell” (2nd edition)

Nominate The Philip Duff Show for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards - “Best Broadcast, Podcast, or Online Video Series” category: https://spiritedawards.secure-platform.com/a
David’s a legend in the liquor business, ever since he and his business partner came up with the idea for Baileys Irish Cream, easily the most succesful liquor brand created in the last half-century or so.Â
He followed up with brands like Tanqueray TEN, The Singleton, Smirnoff Black and many more, and wrote about them all - including his failures - in his brilliant and funny book “That Shit...
#99, Adam Montgomerie, former bar manager, Hawksmoor New York

Adam, a native Scot, spent a decade working for the Hawksmoor group, including a five-year stint opening and running the bar at their first-ever US branch here in New York, and he's just moved back to London, so I thought we'd have a chat.
It was a lot of fun and we got into a ton of different stuff, including US tipping culture, the "Sopranos"-esque nature of doing deals with American liquor brands, what it was like moving to first, London, and then, NY, plus a bunch more.Â
Enjoy!
Adam on IG:Â https://www.in...
#98, Caitlin Bartlemay, Master Distiller at Clear Creek Distillery and McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt

Caitlin makes some of America’s best eaux-des-vie, as well as America’s first-ever single malt whiskey, McCarthy’s.
(American Single Malt was only recognized by the US government’s TTB as a legal category about a month ago, but McCarthy’s started distilling in 1985. )
This is a nerdy one.
It was a great chat, though, discussing Caitlin’s unconventional path to being a master distiller, who’s drinking eau-de-vie, and wr had a tasting of some of the Clear Creek distillates and a six-year-old McCarthy’s that knocked me on my ass. Enjoy!
Caitlin...
#97, Oisin Davis, owner, Great Irish Beverages (Ireland), ex-bartender, drinks writer, brand consultant

I'm not sure exactly where me and Oisin met, but we definitely had a drink to hand!
Born in New Jersey, he moved to Ireland when he was just 10, so he's lived there for far longer than I have - in fact he moved there more or less precisely as I left - and has done far more cool stuff there than I ever did, from running great Dublin bars and music venues, to writing an award-winning cocktail book, to promoting Irish spirits (especially whiskey) around the world as a consultant and ambassador and, latterly...
96, Steve Schneider, co-owner Sip & Guzzle (NY), Elysian Cafe (Hoboken), Employees Only (Singapore) & The Odd Couple (Shanghai)

Ever wondered what'd happen if I sat down with Steve Schneider for three hours over half a bottle of whisky and numerous beers?
Wonder no more!
Steve's been a friend since his time bartending (and later managing) Employees Only NY, and I've had the pleasure of drinking with him in EO Singapore, which he co-founded.
His newest place, Sip + Guzzle in Manhattan, is a second project with Shingo Gokan after they opened The Odd Couple in Shanghai.
We go into detail of how Steve got into bartending, how he made the step to bar ownership...
#95, Giuseppe Gallo, ex-London bartender, founder of the Italicus rosolio and Savoia vino aperitivo brands AND Roma Bar Show

Giuseppe's an old friend, so when I heard he'd be in NY we made time to sit down and catch up over a negroni or two.
Yet another Italian bartender transplanted to London, Giuseppe worked at some of the OG cocktail bars back in the day, was the global ambassador for Martini & Rossi, founded onpremise agency Italspirits, created Italicus and Savoia and, more recently, the hugely successful Roma Bar Show.
And we talked about aaaaaaaall of that...and then went to Sip and Guzzle for some more beverages.
Giuseppe on IG: https://www.instagram.com...
#94, Alex Kammerling, London cocktail OG, author, liquor entrepreneur and training consultant

Simon Difford once described Alex as being an even better mixologist than his mentor Dick Bradsell, and it was in the pages of Simon's print magazine CLASS than I first came across Alex, first being written about, and then as a writer for CLASS himself.
After bartending at the birth of mixology's Second Golden Age in 1990s London, Alex went on to work at one of the world's first cocktail consultancies, IP Bartenders, wrote cocktail book "Blend Me, Shake Me" in 2004, worked as a Grey Goose ambassador and founded his own British amaro brand, Kammerlings, which changed...
#93, Mark Reynier, talking about Waterford Whisky and Renegade Rum entering (and hopefully exiting) receivership

Mark, founder of the ground-breaking terroir-driven Waterford Whisky in Ireland and Renegade Rum in Grenada, is going through the grinder of both being in receivership*, and made time for a chat with me.
Mark is very open on the 'pod about the factors that led to the current situation, and there are some real nuggets in here, such as Waterford being French powerhouse distributor La Maison du Whisky's 5th best-selling whisky, why Waterford never did private casks, why you need to go deep, not wide (especially in the USA) and why whisky before the OPEC crisis of 1973...
#92, Rob Cullins, liquor industry titan, current CEO of Disaronno and former CEO of Stoli Group

I've known Rob for several decades now; we met in Korea when he was MD for global liquor distributor Maxxium, and I was doing cocktail seminars there for bartenders.
We've had personal and professional intersections - not to mention more than a few martinis here and there - ever since, as he racked up a truly stellar resume in the liquor biz: Diageo, Shaw-Ross, Maxxium, Gruppo Montenegro (where he was also MD), and Disaronno, where he's currently CEO.
But, as he's a former Stoli CEO, I thought I'd have him on this week, as Stoli USA filed f...
#91, Se Busca Barmaid Week (Barcelona) with organisers Bianca Grisolia, Laura Alonso and Meritxell Coll

An unusual one!
My friend, and top-rank bar PR guru Bianca Grisolia organised the first-ever Se Busca* Barmaid Week recently in Barcelona, and I thought it was a great opportunity to have a discussion about mezcal, ladies in bartending, and bar weeks in general, with Bianca (of PR firm BG Communications), Laura Alonso (Global Agave Director for SE Busca mezcal and Villa One tequila) and Meritxell Coll, brand manager for Se Busca at Spanish distributor General Goods.
This is a little Frankenstein's Monster - it's two chats stitched together - but I think it's great, and I...
#90, Dr. Nicola Nice, sociologist, entrepreneur and author of “The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought The Cocktail Home”

I met Dr. Nicola, an English expat, just a couple of weeks ago, but I'd been hearing about her - and her groundbreaking book detailing the forgotten history of women's involvement in the cocktail's evolution, especially in the home - for quite a while, since before the book came out, in fact.
We say down for a nice long chat about what it's like for expats like us to have American kids, how university is mostly about networking now and not education, how women cleverly got themselves a seat at the table by recreating the amenities of...
#89, Ambre van de Berg, founder of Lala Tequila, wellness consultant & yoga instructor (but definitely not woo)

I met Ambre at the infamous pre-Bar Convent Berlin networking hosted by Thorsten Husmann a couple of years ago, and learned she had just founded the first woman-owned tequila brand in the Netherlands, Lala.
Ambre is fascinating: a wellness guru but not woo-woo (very likely due to her no-nonsense Dutch upbringing) who came to love great tequila after living and teaching fancy yoga classes in Williamsburg (of course!) Brooklyn, she got the idea for Lala after avocado toast brunch and many a glass of good tequila, and she now lives and runs the company from Amsterdam.
We h...
#88, Robin Robinson, author, whiskey guru & brand sherpa for craft liquor brands, NYC

Robin's been a fixture of the spirits education world for as long as I can remember - I think we first met when he was still shepherding Compass Box Whisky for the US, at a bar show in Paris.
He's a remarkable raconteur - like a lot of the ex-actors littering the spirits industry - and a true expert across the broad world of spirits, but what really sets him apart is his structured, masterful approach to actually selling, a skill he learned in Silicon Valley and took with him to the liquor industry.
Unlike most people...
#87, Emily LaRuffa, New York hospitality veteran and founder of Oracle Hospitality Consultants

Emily LaRuffa has scaled the dizzy heights of Manhattan hospitality business, from bartending to managing and being a GM at every kind of NY joint from rock 'n' roll bars in Hell's Kitchen to the five-star luxury of Loews Hotel, The Baccarat, Major Food Group (and cheerful pirate Brian Miller)'s The Polynesian, and Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group's Manhatta bar-restaurant.
She's now founded an innovative consultancy, Oracle Hospitality Consultants, to share her knowledge with owners and managers who lack the time or experience to stop working in their business so they can work on...
#86, Alice Lascelles, award-winning drinks writer and author of “The Martini: The Ultimate Guide To A Cocktail Icon”

Alice, an old friend from way back when, is one of the best drinks writers based in the UK, has won multiple awards for her writing about spirits, wine, beer, cocktails and bars, is often to be found on UK radio & TV, and just published her new book "The Martini: The Ultimate Guide to a Cocktail Icon", so we sat down over a martini (or in my case, some fine rum drunk out of a martini glass - beggars can't be choosers when you're staying in an AirBnB!) to talk all things martini....
Alice on IG: https://ww...
#85, Kara Newman, award-winning drinks writer & author, New York City

Kara defected to writing about spirits, cocktails and bars after starting out writing about matters financial, and finance's loss is cocktail's gain!
A New York native and friend, Kara has written seven spirits- and cocktail-related books as well as her newest venture, The Cocktail Cabinet, decks of beautiful playing cards themed around a particular spirit - the first two, Gin and Whiskey, are already out in the wild - with cocktail recipes curated and in some cases created by Kara on each card.
We sat down to talk about Kara's 14 years (and counting!) run as the...
#84, Chris Cardone, sober advocate, founder Continuous Beverage Solutions, Diageo World Class USA winner, NYC (flair) bartender & mixologist

I've known New York (well, Long Island) native Chris for over two decades, since we met at a flair bartending contest in the Cayman Islands, and he's maintained his rep as a flair bartender while becoming an accomplished mixologist as well, getting sober, winning Diageo World Class USA in 2017, crafting the Via Carota range of bottled cocktails and - just now - founding Continuous Beverage Solutions AND all this while still holding down regular bar shifts at i Sodi here in Manhattan.
We sat down - over a St. Agrestis Phony Espresso Negroni, in my case, 'cos i...
#83, Iain McPherson, owner, Panda & Sons, Hoot the Redeemer, Nauticus, Edinburgh.

The Cocktail Panda himself comes on The Philip Duff Show!
I've known Iain for years - he entered the G'Vin Gin Connoisseur Program which I used to run - and he's built a mini bar empire in Edinburgh so it was time to catch up on his adventures guest bartending for his uncle in Korea, celeb liquor, how he got his start in the bar business and what he'd do differently now, plus how he got famous for inventing new ways to create flavour.
(We also drank some seriously odd stuff; I had a gin martini f...
#82, Marshall Minaya, beverage director Valerie, Madame George and Lolita, New York City.

Marshall - and the three top-notch places he runs the beverage programs for, Valerie, Lolita and Madame George - is one of Manhattan's best-kept secrets.
If you come to New York, I'll take you to one of these places (or all three, as they're conveniently located right next door to one another), and I guarantee you'll be blown away by the quality of the cocktails and the hospitality his team emanates in Midtown.
Despite me being insanely congested, we made time to sit down and chat about why it's always rum's year, the politics of selling...
#81, Tim McKirdy, managing editor, VinePair, recovering chef, host of the Cocktail College podcast

Myself and Tim have been threatening each other with a podcast taping for over a year, and we finally found time to sit down, beverages to hand, and make it happen!
(This is a satisfyingly lengthy episode, clocking in at over 2.5 hours, and we'll do more of such chat fests in the future, too).
We talk about Tim's path into the industry as a cook and chef in some very high-profile restaurants in his native UK and then in Argentina, moving into drinks writing, the rise of spirits designed to be mixed, the delusions we must all...
#80 Simone Caporale, co-owner Sips & Sips Esencia (#1, W50BB 2023), Amaro Santoni, Canaima Gin, MUYU Liqueurs & The Art of Shaking

Simone has come a long way since his Italian childhood in Como: while part of a legendary double-act with Alex Kratena, he led London's Artesian Bar to an unprecedented four #1 listings in World's 50 Best Bars.
Simone's post-Artesian career is even more impressive: Sips, his Barcelona bar together with business partner Marc Alvarez, was crowned #1 in 2023, he bought the revered classic Barcelona bar Boadas, the spirits brands he has co-founded, Canaima Gin, Amaro Santoni and MUYU liqueurs, go from strength to strength, and the online training portal he created, The Art of Shaking, reaches thousands of aspiring bartenders daily...