Post Shift Podcast #92 - Dale DeGroff, King Cocktail

This is my huge 200th episode of the Post Shift Podcast and I wanted to make it as big as possible, so I had to get the King Cocktail himself; Dale DeGroff. This was an amazing episode, I fanboyed out hard obviously listening to Dale regale on stories of old New York and talking about why almost 20 years later, he decided to update the Craft of the Cocktail. This was an epic episode that could have gone on for hours.

Dale DeGroff is known as King Cocktail, is an American bartender and author.

The New York Times in 2015 called DeGroff "one of the world’s foremost cocktail experts", and wrote that his book "The Craft of the Cocktail" is considered an essential bartending reference. From 1987 to 1999 DeGroff rose to prominence in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York City. He is the founding president of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans, and a partner and consultant in the Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR) group.

The James Beard Foundation awarded DeGroff the 2009 Wine & Spirits Professional Award, and in 2015 inducted him into the Who's Who in Food & Beverage in America. He received the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from Nightclub & Bar Magazine, the 2008 Tales of the Cocktail Lifetime Achievement Award, and along with his BAR partners, the 2007 Cheers Beverage Industry Innovator of the Year.

He is the author of two best-selling cocktail books: The Essential Cocktail, winner of the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Spirit Award for Best New Cocktail/Bartending Book, and The Craft of the Cocktail, winner of the 2003 IACP Julia Child Award in the First Book category.

In 2005 he founded The Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans, an eclectic collection of cocktail artifacts, books, and memorabilia.

Share a dram with the hospitality industry’s top global talents: bartenders, venue owners, distillers and industry aficionados. Shawn Soole has lived, breathed, and imbibed hospitality for decades. Now, he delves into the advice, opinions, and provocative stories that are helping to define the creative, culturally-necessary space of ‘modern hospitality’—covering topics from front-of-house service, to back-end business operations, and every inch between.