Join Agave Road Trip at Tales of the Cocktail
Tales of the Cocktail return for its 19th year from September 20-23 in a hybrid digital and in-person format with FREE digital programming.
Agave Road Trip is hosting two unique sessions that bartenders and agave lovers won't want to miss. Learn more about them here and below.
An imperfect guide to the art of celebrating culture(s)
September 21, 2021
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
In the 2020 Tales of the Cocktail panel “Appropriation vs. Appreciation: Showing Respect for Latin/Latinx Culture and Contributions,” Misty Kalfoken talked about how she asks herself, when traveling to communities beyond her own, "Why am I here?" "How am I helping – or harming – this place?" With this seminar we want to apply a similar approach to designing and hosting bar and restaurant events.
We believe restaurants and bars around the world can both build their businesses and at the same time benefit the cultures they celebrate by going beyond the “sales pitch” – by investing the time it takes to present the actual culture, as accurately as you can, even if your target audiences don’t fully understand it at first.
When channelling the cultural aspects and championing a country’s identity and cuisine – especially in cases where members of a historically dominant culture take aspects from a country that has been systematically oppressed – it is incredibly important to execute due diligence, respect and acknowledge that there is an existing privilege.
In this 90-minute session, we’ll suggest how a business can celebrate a different community in a way that is both culturally appropriate and financially successful. We’re at a juncture in time when people are better able to discern authentic from inauthentic – we’ve been handed plastic so often, we know it when we touch it. We’re also at a juncture in time when we don’t need to be inauthentic – we can reach out to communities thousands of miles away with just a few keystrokes and receive back answers, feedback, ideas, and images that build a true story, one that is aimed at the heart.
Some of the questions we will be addressing are:
How do we delineate which bars are respectfully appreciating, which have unintentionally appropriated and which bars are intentionally offensive?
What are the steps that need to be taken when opening a bar concept that celebrates or borrows from a foreign culture to ensure that boundaries are not crossed?
How can we - as industry professionals – keep each other accountable and help each other improve so that problematic venues will cease to exist?
How Not to Kill Your Guests, an Agave Road Trip webcast
September 21, 2021
10:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Lou and Chava, the hosts of the award-winning podcast Agave Road Trip, talk with emergency-room physician Ryan Aycock, MD, about all the different ways that bartenders can send guests to the emergency room. That dry ice looks great in your cocktail, but … maybe not the best idea. And there are expiration dates on your packaged juice for a reason, so … what expiration dates should you apply to your fresh-squeezed juice? And did you know there is such a thing as an agave allergy? This and more during the 30-minute session, "How Not to Kill Your Guests”!
