Post Shift Podcast #111 - April Wachtel, Cheeky Cocktails

If you are or ever inspired to become a hospitality entrepreneur, than this episode with April Wachtel, CEO and Founder of Cheeky Cocktails is for you. Her tenacity, her resilience and her push are inspiring and help you to formulate and launch your own brand.

WHO IS APRIL WACHTEL?

April Wachtel is a 24 year veteran in the beverage and hospitality industry. She is an experienced mixologist, a cocktail and spirits instructor, Founder and CEO of Cheeky, Host of the Movers and Shakers podcast, and Director of Programming and Education for the Enthuse Foundation.

April worked in every role from busser to bartender to beverage director to brand ambassador to beverage consultant. She has developed recipes for the likes of Lincoln Center Kitchen and MetLife Stadium, and has taught cocktail classes to over 5000 students at 5 different schools (Astor Center, ICE, Haven's Kitchen, Murray's Cheese, and Audrey Claire Cook.) Her classes and personal philosophy of hospitality were featured in The Wall Street Journal and on the Sundance Channel. April has made multiple appearances on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, and on various shows on Heritage Radio Network. She has been interviewed for Forbes.com, MarthaStewart.com, FastCompany, GoodFood, Men's Health, and Refinery29 among many other outlets.

April founded Swig + Swallow in 2015 as a cocktail batching and delivery service for spirits brands and transitioned it into a line of consumer-facing fresh cocktail mixers with co-founder Gates Otsuji, in spring of 2016. Swig + Swallow launched to the public on Kickstarter in May 2016, meeting the funding goal in less than 30 hours. After 3+ years in operation, selling in Whole Foods, on Amazon, on Minibar and Foodkick, Swig + Swallow rebranded to Cheeky Cocktails in April of 2020.

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.