It’s July, and in the cocktail world, that means one thing: It’s time for Tales of the Cocktail. This year’s event kicks off next week, and for this episode, we chat about the contemporary history of Tales with the co-chairs of the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation Board of Directors, Neal Bodenheimer and Gary Solomon Jr.
The annual Tales of the Cocktail conference kicks off next week in New Orleans. Tales has gone through many changes over the past 22 years, and for this episode, we explore some of the recent history of the event, and its influence and philanthropic efforts around the globe, with Tales of the Cocktail Foundation co-chairs Neal Bodenheimer and Gary Solomon Jr.
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EPISODE 103: THE MODERN HISTORY OF TALES OF THE COCKTAIL, WITH NEAL BODENHEIMER AND GARY SOLOMON JR.
Paul Clarke
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe magazine. I'm Paul Clarke, Imbibe’s editor in chief.
And I've mentioned during the past couple of episodes that this podcast is marking its fourth anniversary this summer. What I didn't mention is that one of the big reasons this podcast exists is because back during the summer of 2020, with the pandemic shutdown going on, we recognized that we were all missing out on what's probably the biggest celebration, educational, and networking event in the spirits and cocktail world: the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans. With Tales having moved online that year, we wouldn't have the same opportunities to catch up with friends and colleagues and to hear about all the great work they've been doing. So this podcast came together as a way to try and bridge that gap.
But now it's July 2024, and at the time you're hearing this, I'm probably pulling together my packing list and filling out my schedule for Tales, which fortunately emerged from the pandemic and resumed in-person gatherings a couple of years ago. Tales has been around for 22 years now, and I've attended every Tales of the Cocktail since my first trip down in 2006. The event's grown enormously in that time, and it's also changed in other ways—maybe most notably in 2018, the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation came under new leadership. Guided by longtime New Orleans bartender and bar owner Neal Bodenheimer in partnership with the Solomon family, the foundation refocused its mission. This change affected not only the annual conference in New Orleans, but it also introduced and expanded a range of initiatives and philanthropic efforts for drinks industry projects that span the globe.
For this episode, I invited Neal Bodenheimer and Gary Solomon Jr., the two co-chairs of the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation's board of directors, to take us through the recent history of Tales of the Cocktail and how the event has evolved in the past few years, and to share with us their reasons for why this annual event is still a highlight of the year for so many of us in the drinks world.
Before we get started, I should note that this episode is sponsored by Tito's Handmade Vodka, celebrating over two decades and the folks that got them there. Head to titosvodka.com to learn more about the distillery’s past, present, and future. And if you'll be at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, be sure to RSVP to Tito's cocktail mixer on July 22nd from 2 to 5 p.m.. Get details at talesofthecocktail.org’s conference agenda page.
And now here's our conversation with Neal Bodenheimer and Gary Solomon Jr.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Gary, Neal, welcome to Radio Imbibe.
Neal Bodenheimer
Hey, Paul, How’re you doing? Thanks for having us.
Paul Clarke
It's great to have you guys on and I'm really pleased to have both of you on the podcast because it's July, and if our listeners have worked anywhere near the spirits and cocktail space any time in the past two decades, July means one thing and that it's almost time for Tales of the Cocktail. Neal, you and Gary's family have been guiding the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation now for more than six years, including not only the annual conference in New Orleans, but a range of philanthropic efforts and relationships within the industry, and steering all of this through a changing cultural landscape, not to mention a global pandemic that came up along the way. So I wanted to have you guys on and share your perspectives from the past few years to give folks kind of a recent history of Tales of the Cocktail. So to start off, have the past six years gone entirely as you first anticipated? [laugh]
Gary Solomon Jr.
I don't think the last six years went entirely as anybody anticipated, especially those middle third and fourth years, right? Look, first, thanks again having us here. Neal and I are thrilled to do this together and to talk about and reflect on the last six years. And it's a great opening question. I think our first two years, right, where we're getting into our new seats and rebuilding the trust of the industry in this organization and what Tales means and what its potential was. And we were ready for year three, right? And we had no idea that year three was going to be the start of a global pandemic. And we spent the next two years having to reimagine how does this foundation support the industry without an annual conference in person in New Orleans in the traditional format? And I think it called us to even lean more into the mission of advancing and educating and supporting this industry than in any of the first two years. And that pandemic gave us a lot of unexpected twists and turns. But we came out of it, I think, strong and stronger as an industry at large in the last two years. And now our third post-pandemic year is going to be exceptional at Tales in New Orleans
Neal Bodenheimer
Yeah, it certainly kind of feels like we're like we're getting another shot at year three, at our first year three. So it's it's pretty exciting right now.
Paul Clarke
Right. I want to walk through each of those points a little bit. So let's take us back to those early decisions that you made when you first kind of stepped into your positions. Now, Tales was already an institution at that point. What kind of value did you see in Tales of the Cocktail in what it meant to New Orleans and to the larger hospitality community that encourage you to take action? And what were your initial plans and goals for the event and the foundation when you first kind of mapped out its future?
Neal Bodenheimer
So that's a really interesting question because I think Gary and his family came at it from a slightly different perspective than I did. And in kind of eventually both of our visions kind of combined into one holistic vision. So the Solomon family, they were looking for a great opportunity to go through and give back. So they were looking for an event that created revenue where we could give the revenue away to do good in the community. Right. And then for me, as someone that was a long time Tales attendee, and I also saw what Tales did for the New Orleans market, I thought it was really critical to save it. I genuinely believe that it could not be rebuilt, that it was too big. It had grown up with the at the same time as the industry, as the industry has become more diverse, bigger. It would be harder to fit everybody under one umbrella. And so I felt like it was really important to save for New Orleans, number one, but also for the industry at large. You know, I feel very proud that we've been able to do both of our goals, right, that we were able to give back and that part of our give back is actually what we do for New Orleans in July. I mean, it makes a huge difference for the community here.
Paul Clarke
Right. Right. And you know, what you're talking about also incorporates change. And not everybody appreciates or adapts to change. Were there concerns you heard voiced early on about these kind of new directions that you had in mind? And how did you work to ensure that the many brands and speakers and volunteers and participants and everybody who made Tales what had been still felt included and kind of part of the process.
Gary Solomon Jr.
We took it in a slightly different angle. One of the best memories I'll have of this process was Neal and I going on a road show before we did assume leadership, before we made the decision to acquire from the founders and put it into the foundation. And Neal and I went and talked to so many stakeholders around the world. Sponsors, active participants, people who made Tales what it was up to 2018. And we asked them what were the changes they wanted to see in it. And I think that our vision got clearer and clearer with every conversation we had. And as I reflect on the changes that we've now made, right, some of them were in the very, very first year, right? They came right out of conversations that we heard from people who had made Tales successful up to that point and wanted to see change. And so the things we leaned into right around the establishment of our board of directors, the establishing of a code of conduct for all of our attendees, creating Beyond the Bar, which our health and wellness sector of the foundation and of the event, and specifically the mission statement, right, about educating and advancing and supporting the global hospitality industry and leading impact. Those changes came directly from the conversations that gave us the confidence to start this journey together. And I'm really proud that those conversations and those changes, I think will long outlast us.
Paul Clarke
And, you know, one thing that I reflect on, you know, when I, I've been to every Tales of the Cocktail since 2006, I think, and, kind of seen the population change over the years as people come in and kind of discover it and everybody discovers it for the first time themselves. And, you know, Tales had always been kind of a bartenders conference, you know, something by bartenders, for bartenders and other folks within the industry. As you developed the foundation's direction and some of the projects that it engages in, such as the Beyond the Bar initiative and some of the philanthropic efforts, how did you look beyond this initial base for expertise and guidance so that you're providing a lot of value to the people who come in?
Neal Bodenheimer
Well, I think that's a really interesting question because, you know, we do have a broad community and we have a lot of talented people that are part of the community. Right. And so naturally, over the years, a lot of people have put their hands up to say, hey, I'm interested in this, or I can do this. And, you know, bartenders always believe in, bar professionals always believe that we can do anything, right? We can we can fix a toilet, we can solve, you know, DEI issues. Right? So I think for us, and I think this is one of the great things that the Solomon family brought because of their varied business interests, they're so used to relying on outside professionals, whereas small business owners and bartenders are like, I can do it, right. So it's, it was, it was really great to have their guidance to say, hey, look, no, we need true professionals to come in and to consult. If we're going to talk about something, we need to go find the best in the field to come talk about it. We can't just plug somebody in. Right. And so it has been a, I think it's been incredible for Tales and for the way that we do education. And just it's been a guiding principle of ours is to try and get the best people in the room, but also to lean on our community to help push out that message. Right. And so it's really, it's I think it's made a big difference for us.
Gary Solomon Jr.
Add to that, in addition to the outside professionals, we wanted to broaden the base of who were the industry participants that were driving the mission and the work of Tales. And I think if you look at some of the statistics now on the composition of our education committee, where 74% of it are from international destinations, 65% identify as female. 57% of our grants over the last six years have gone to BIPOC or women led organizations or individuals. Our whole focus has been, how do you pitch a bigger tent and how do you think about Tales as an ecosystem that supports bar professionals at every stage of their career and in every walk of life and in every corner globally where we can make a difference? And I think that the representation we have on our committees now is the best way we can show a proof point that diversity and including folks in the process that want to make a difference regardless of where they come from or where they are is the best way to advance the work at large.
Paul Clarke
And your leadership of the foundation has also coincided with the time in which the hospitality industry has had a kind of reckoning in terms of the ways it thinks about employee relationships and the responsibilities it owes its workers. How has this played into your thinking with regard to Tales’ mission and programs and health programs like the Beyond The Bar initiative, aided both employees and owners of management as they navigate their way through this kind of changing environment?
Neal Bodenheimer
As we look at the most important things that we can do as a foundation, we know that bartending and the professions around bartending and spirits professionals, that they have to become sustainable jobs and we have to find a way to make it so that someone can actually build a career in them. Not only is it a reckoning because we've looked at how employers treat employees, but it's also trying to make sure that team members and our professionals are doing what they can do to treat themselves well so that this can be a long term community. To me, as we're looking at it, Beyond the Bar really handles a lot of those discussions because I know I can speak for so many people in our community. We've lost a lot of people too young. We've had a lot of people wash out because of addiction. And we have to find a way for people to have balance in this business. And then when you also think about how people in this industry are going to get supported by their employers, it is really important to start to lay the framework of what the future is going to look like, right? Because you cannot have people that roll in and out of this career every 5 to 10 years. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work for us, doesn't work for brand partners who have to educate. And ultimately, I think it degrades the quality that we've all been working on so hard over the past 20 years of the cocktail revolution. You end up losing a lot of that knowledge as people wash out of the business. So really critical thing and we're excited to be a part of trying to make this a more sustainable career for people.
Paul Clarke
And, you know, we mentioned at the outset the COVID pandemic coming in after a couple of years into this, which threw everything awry. Looking back at it now from the safety of a couple years out, how challenging was that for the foundation when at first hit? I mean, was there the real potential that Tales could have been permanently derailed? And what did it take for your team to hold it together until the in-person event could come back in 2022?
Gary Solomon Jr.
Well, it wasn't just our team that held it together. It was the industry. And I have to give some special credit to a number of brands and partners that stepped up and said, regardless of there not being an in-person event, count on us for operating support contribution to keep this foundation together through this pandemic. They were brands and they know who they are that stepped up with meaningful funds to help us ensure the continuity of Tales and help us to do good, mission driven work through that pandemic. And as a result, we got through it and we got through it serving communities that really needed us the most in all, in new ways that we never imagined. Right. We shifted to a tremendous amount of, as everyone did in the event space, right? Virtual programming not only for the event, though, but year round about how we could help people who were navigating complex challenges of their own careers and their own workplaces and their own bars that they owned. And I guess we'll just close again in saying it was not that we did it on our own, we did it with the tremendous help of our committees, our brand partners, and everyone who looked to Tales. They really gave us the validation we needed to say, this is why we serve this community, because they need help. We're here to help them.
Paul Clarke
The COVID pandemic was obviously a significant challenge for the event and for the foundation. But it's not the only challenge that comes along, because anytime you start any kind of new project or take anything in a new direction, you're going to run into some challenges. What other kinds of things did you run into, maybe unanticipated challenges that have come up for the foundation along the way? And how have you navigated your way through those years? Because, you know, this is, we can look back from the luxury of several years now.
Gary Solomon Jr.
I think the best reflection of the potential of Tales is sometimes looking at the challenges that Tales faces on behalf of the industry. Right. We have a global reach. We have such a diversity in who participates and looks to Tales for advancing and supporting their careers, their lives. And the challenges that we get faced with sometimes are incredibly surprising to us, especially Neal and I, who live, you know, we live in New Orleans, right? We come from a certain place. We live a certain lifestyle in a certain way. We go to certain places and we don't see the global corners of the world where people have challenges on a daily basis that are not personal to us. But what surprises us often is that when there is a macro event in the world, whether it's Roe v Wade, right, whether it's LGBT rights in certain places in the world, whether it's a racial reckoning that we went through here in the United States where there was discussion about health and wellness programs and how we take care of employees, maybe better in certain countries than in our own. It is always surprising to me the things that the community reaches out to Tales for support, and I think that the world at large thinks Tales is a huge organization, right? With endless resources, knowledge, and the ability to respond to things that are truly world events. And we try to translate those needs into actionable programming that you then see show up in our slate of seminars and in the year round content that we create to support bartenders and bar professionals. So those changes have always been coming. They keep changing daily. The surprises are always what keep this thing fresh and we look at it as an opportunity to continue to evolve the programming and advance the work of the foundation,
Neal Bodenheimer
Yeah. And just to echo that, there is never a dull moment at Tales in there. There is always a semi-crisis that we're, dealing with. And it's it always makes sure that we're engaged.
Paul Clarke
It's you know, it's a very hands on operation. And Neal, you know, you've run bars for a number of years, so this is, you know, it's just a different kind of pipe that stopped up sometimes.
Neal Bodenheimer
Yeah, it's just a toilet's overflowing every, you know, every few months.
Gary Solomon Jr.
You know, every once in a while we have to look at it. And I don't mind saying this to your listeners, sometimes we look at the issue and say, this is something we can't respond to, right? This is something for you in your own place where you live with your own politicians and your own lawmakers that you need to advocate for yourself. This is not a place we can make a meaningful difference.
Paul Clarke
Right?
Gary Solomon Jr.
And we try to empower those that look to us for help with ideas and resources of how they can be empowered to go make a difference on their own sometimes. But wherever it comes in to the crosshairs of our mission, we're there to do it. And whenever it goes out of the crosshairs of our mission, we're there to try to give them pointers on how they can make a difference on their own.
Paul Clarke
Right. Right. Well, Tales has become kind of that platform and that place for people to share their thoughts, their ideas, their complaints, their everything. And it's, you know, because it's the one time every year when we all see each other in the same place for several days. And so, like you say, it's a time to share some ideas that can be continued through and can be reflected in Tales of the Cocktail. But also, you know, you can't be a platform for everything. There's only so much that one organization can do.
Neal Bodenheimer
Amen.
Paul Clarke
We're coming up on the 2024 event. This will be the third year post-pandemic that the in-person conference is taking place. I'd imagine that your thinking now is less in crisis mode and more looking at continuing the foundation's original mission, as well as looking for future opportunities and mapping the future. With the years of experience you now have in heading this foundation and organizing this conference, what still excites you about Tales of the Cocktail and what keeps you engaged in planning it out?
Neal Bodenheimer
I am always excited. I have always, you know, just before Tales is when I start to get excited. So I'm right in that lead up right now where I'm like, actually starting to get excited again and it never fails to affect me that all of our community comes together here, or at least a whole hell of a lot of it you know, as we go through and as we meet and we reconnect and we meet new people, it really makes a huge impact on me. Our conference theme this year is Inspire. Right? And I think that's the thing that I felt every year that I've been involved with Tales, whether it was as an attendee or as a co-chair of the board. As I always leave inspired. And so I am very excited for this year, like we mentioned earlier, this is, it feels like another crack at our third year with a few, you know, with two years behind us of in-person. It feels like we're going somewhere where we should have been before. I'm excited as this, as our industry has become more and more global. I am super excited to see what this continues to bring for our industry. And I find it really humbling to be a part of something that has such an incredible reach.
Gary Solomon Jr.
And Paul, echo Neal says, and I'll use a word from your question, which was future. We have a whole new program this year called the Futures Lab. Right. And that's what continues to be so cool about Tales is every year there is new opportunity to enhance the programming and expand it. And Futures Lab specifically, right, is going to be on Tuesday, July 23rd this year, it's going be short format, thoughtful discussions about the future, the drinks industry, topics from AI and hospitality to cannabis beverage and beyond. And these are topics that six years ago those words would never have been even used, right, in the context of Tales. And so the programming slate continues to evolve to meet the needs of the future and anticipate the needs of the future. And that's what continues to make me so excited about Tales, as you never quite know what idea is going to get sparked at Tales and how it's going to inspire someone across the globe just through the work that we do. This one little week here in New Orleans in July.
Paul Clarke
We’re moving toward the exit here. Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our audience?
Gary Solomon Jr.
I'll close with gratitude. Look, I think this has been a journey for me personally that has been one of constant discovery. And the thing I think I discovered the most, because I'm not from this industry, right, Neal was the skeleton key, the incredible pass, the hall pass into the industry. And it was great to have a buddy like Neal to bring us into it. But the thing that I've discovered is that the hospitality of the hospitality industry is endless, and the way that they've made our family feel like a part of their industry just humbling. Every day, I'm really proud of what we do and more than proud and very grateful for what we do.
Paul Clarke
Neal, any anything to share?
Neal Bodenheimer
Well, I certainly don't think Gary could have said it any better. I mean, we are extremely grateful. We have an incredible community here and we're here in service of that community. And that's why we do what we do. I really genuinely believe in the work that we're doing and the good that we're trying to put back into the world. But we're only as strong as our community. And so, you know, we feel very fortunate that the industry wants to come here in one of the hottest times of the year and spend a week with us and do good for New Orleans and do good for as many people as we can do good for in the industry. It really is humbling and we are exceptionally grateful and we're always excited to host so many attendees from all across the world here in New Orleans. And it means the world that everybody still believes in Tales and wants to come.
Paul Clarke
Fantastic. Neal, Gary, thank you so much for taking the time out of a super busy schedule as we get ready for Tales of the Cocktail 2024. I appreciate you being on the podcast and we'll see both of you in New Orleans very, very soon.
Neal Bodenheimer
Thanks, Paul, see you in New Orleans.
Gary Solomon Jr.
Thank you so much, Paul.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Tales of the Cocktail kicks off next week starting July 21st in New Orleans. You can find the full schedule and all the details online at TalesoftheCocktail.org. And if you're in town for Tales and you happen to run into me at a party or a seminar or a tasting or just while I'm sipping a Mai Tai at Latitude 29, please stop and say hello.
And that's it for this episode. Subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We've got our full back catalog of podcast episodes online, along with enough articles and recipes to keep you busy all summer long, on our website at Imbibemagazine.com. Check us out on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Threads for all our social media coverage. And if you're not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then come along and join the party with us. Just follow the link in this episode's notes and we'll be happy to help you out.
I'm Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe Happy Tales of the Cocktail, y'all. I'll catch you next time.