Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Julie Reiner arrived in New York in 1998 after a stint bartending in San Francisco, following her wife to a city she'd always wanted to live in, and found a scene stuck on sour mix and nothing fresh, years behind the coast she'd left.
In this episode we trace the accidental, instinct-led arc of one of modern cocktail culture's defining bar owners: from cocktail waitressing in Waikiki and freewheeling San Francisco service through to Flatiron Lounge in 2003, the bar that introduced her to jiggers, consistency, that spearheaded the culinary cocktail movement, and that ran almost entirely on female talent in a scene that had never seen anything like it.
We talk about the partnership with Dale DeGroff and Audrey Saunders that led to Pegu Club — a training ground that sent bartenders like Phil Ward, Sam Ross, Toby Maloney and Jim Meehan on to shape the industry's next chapter — and the move to Brooklyn for Clover Club, built around a 130-year-old antique bar and a classically-focused menu, nominated five years running before finally taking Best American Cocktail Bar. We get into the ventures that didn't survive too: the ahead-of-its-time tropical concept Lani Kai, and Leyenda, built around Ivy Mix's expertise in agave spirits, which closed after a ten-year run.
We finish talking about Milady's, the revival of a beloved 70-year-old Soho dive bar, why nostalgia has to be earned rather than just served up, and how, after roughly ten bars and twenty-five years, she's settled into running the ones she loves rather than chasing the next opening.
00:00:00 – Arriving in New York, 1998
00:00:58 – The cocktail scene on arrival: sour mix and nothing fresh
00:01:19 – San Francisco in the 90s: women behind the bar and the dot-com boom
00:02:26 – Why bartending had no status yet
00:03:08 – First jobs in New York: LA, Baiano, C3 Lounge
00:04:31 – From high-volume bartender to craft cocktails: the jigger moment
00:05:38 – Getting noticed: Dale DeGroff and the making of a reputation
00:07:18 – Hawaii roots: where the culinary approach came from
00:09:11 – The cocktail revolution: kitchen ingredients move behind the bar
00:14:07 – Flatiron Lounge: an almost entirely female-run business
00:15:15 – Building a bar where women felt safe
00:16:18 – New York's cocktail scene, 2003–2005
00:18:27 – Pegu Club: partnering with Audrey Saunders
00:20:14 – Pegu Club as a training ground for the industry's future stars
00:23:32 – Clover Club: moving to Brooklyn and spotting the gap
00:24:40 – Building Clover Club around a 130-year-old bar
00:29:26 – Five years nominated before finally winning Best American Cocktail Bar
00:30:45 – Staying relevant as a legacy bar in a fast-moving industry
00:32:36 – Balancing ambition and dedication in recruitment
00:33:39 – Lani Kai: a tropical concept ten years ahead of its time
00:35:21 – Trusting your instincts, and what failure really teaches you
00:38:35 – Leyenda: an offer from an old-school Brooklyn landlord
00:40:23 – Building Leyenda around Ivy Mix's passion for agave
00:41:49 – Why good bars still close
00:43:16 – Gentrification and the changing shape of a neighbourhood
00:46:16 – Milady's: reviving a beloved Soho dive bar
00:52:12 – Nostalgia done properly: dive bar energy for a new generation
00:58:10 – Where she is now: consulting, judging and picking her travel
01:01:11 – Timing, instinct and reading a city's mood
Episode Sponsors:
🍸 Ford's Gin - for the best martinis in the world
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
Julie Reiner arrived in New York in 1998 after a stint bartending in San Francisco, following her wife to a city she'd always wanted to live in, and found a scene stuck on sour mix and nothing fresh, years behind the coast she'd left.
In this episode we trace the accidental, instinct-led arc of one of modern cocktail culture's defining bar owners: from cocktail waitressing in Waikiki and freewheeling San Francisco service through to Flatiron Lounge in 2003, the bar that introduced her to jiggers, consistency, that spearheaded the culinary cocktail movement, and that ran almost entirely on female talent in a scene that had never seen anything like it.
We talk about the partnership with Dale DeGroff and Audrey Saunders that led to Pegu Club — a training ground that sent bartenders like Phil Ward, Sam Ross, Toby Maloney and Jim Meehan on to shape the industry's next chapter — and the move to Brooklyn for Clover Club, built around a 130-year-old antique bar and a classically-focused menu, nominated five years running before finally taking Best American Cocktail Bar. We get into the ventures that didn't survive too: the ahead-of-its-time tropical concept Lani Kai, and Leyenda, built around Ivy Mix's expertise in agave spirits, which closed after a ten-year run.
We finish talking about Milady's, the revival of a beloved 70-year-old Soho dive bar, why nostalgia has to be earned rather than just served up, and how, after roughly ten bars and twenty-five years, she's settled into running the ones she loves rather than chasing the next opening.
00:00:00 – Arriving in New York, 1998
00:00:58 – The cocktail scene on arrival: sour mix and nothing fresh
00:01:19 – San Francisco in the 90s: women behind the bar and the dot-com boom
00:02:26 – Why bartending had no status yet
00:03:08 – First jobs in New York: LA, Baiano, C3 Lounge
00:04:31 – From high-volume bartender to craft cocktails: the jigger moment
00:05:38 – Getting noticed: Dale DeGroff and the making of a reputation
00:07:18 – Hawaii roots: where the culinary approach came from
00:09:11 – The cocktail revolution: kitchen ingredients move behind the bar
00:14:07 – Flatiron Lounge: an almost entirely female-run business
00:15:15 – Building a bar where women felt safe
00:16:18 – New York's cocktail scene, 2003–2005
00:18:27 – Pegu Club: partnering with Audrey Saunders
00:20:14 – Pegu Club as a training ground for the industry's future stars
00:23:32 – Clover Club: moving to Brooklyn and spotting the gap
00:24:40 – Building Clover Club around a 130-year-old bar
00:29:26 – Five years nominated before finally winning Best American Cocktail Bar
00:30:45 – Staying relevant as a legacy bar in a fast-moving industry
00:32:36 – Balancing ambition and dedication in recruitment
00:33:39 – Lani Kai: a tropical concept ten years ahead of its time
00:35:21 – Trusting your instincts, and what failure really teaches you
00:38:35 – Leyenda: an offer from an old-school Brooklyn landlord
00:40:23 – Building Leyenda around Ivy Mix's passion for agave
00:41:49 – Why good bars still close
00:43:16 – Gentrification and the changing shape of a neighbourhood
00:46:16 – Milady's: reviving a beloved Soho dive bar
00:52:12 – Nostalgia done properly: dive bar energy for a new generation
00:58:10 – Where she is now: consulting, judging and picking her travel
01:01:11 – Timing, instinct and reading a city's mood
Episode Sponsors:
🍸 Ford's Gin - for the best martinis in the world
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
