The Philip Duff Show

I met Eric in Amsterdam in 2019 just before he moved to Mexico City to open his first bar there, and our paths have crossed a good bit since then, most recently at the Maybe Cocktail Festival in Sydney, where we got to hang out for almost a week. 
Eric started off in the world of basketball, training and playing in the US, switched to hospitality after returning to the Netherlands, and rapidly learned his craft, winning the global finals of Bacardi Legacy in 2018 and moving to Mexico City in 2019 to open a bar there. 
His second bar in CDMX, speakeasy Handshake, opened in 2021 and within just six months was on the 50 Best Bars list, winding up as #1 in 2024 and maintaining the top spot for 50 Best Americas in both 2024 and 2025. 
In late 2025 he finally opened the European cafe-style Shakerato in his native Amsterdam.
This is a great episode, as Eric speaks with typical Dutch honesty on some of the tougher challenges he had on the road to opening a W50BB #1 bar. 
Eric on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ericvanbeek.carino/
Handshake Bar: https://www.instagram.com/handshake_bar/
Shakerato Bar: https://www.instagram.com/shakerato_bar/
Ahorita Bar: https://www.instagram.com/ahoritacantina/
(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  
And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/
Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff
Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter
Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com

Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos
Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...

What can you say about the extravagantly-bearded Norwegian Sven Almenning, who at one stage owned the world's largest bar agency, based in Sydney, running best-in-class bartender engagement programs at scale, and has since morphed into a tycoon of the Australian cocktail bar scene, with 8 or so top-notch venues in Sydney, Melbourne and the like?
Well, quite a lot it seems!
We talked about savant vibes master Max Greco (quite a bit, in fact), what it takes to create a great bar now in Australia vs 16 years ago, banter becoming an endangered species, the death of staff-hugging, what changed with bartender contests, and how he bribed his kids with screen time if they did exercise, only to see them regulate their own screen time as they began to enjoy exercising more and more, while the IG they created (link below) to share family High Intensity workouts exploded to 644, 000 followers, with another 260, 000 on Facebook (link also below). 
It's a great chat with an old friend, recorded while we were both in the same time zone, thank God. 
Sven's Speakeasy Group: https://speakeasygroup.com.au/
Family HIIT workouts on IG: https://www.instagram.com/fam_hiit_squad/
Family HIIT workouts on FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealFamHIITSquad/
(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  
And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/
Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff
Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter
Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com

Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos
Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...

God help me, I've known Tobin for thirty years now, having met when we both competed in flair bartending contests, starting with the legendary Quest for the Best in Orlando many moons ago. Tobin went on to co-found the Flair Bartenders Association (FBA) and later moved to Las Vegas, where he still (mostly) hangs his hat. 
He went all-in on bar design decades ago, and has completed a book, "Bar Design Essentials" that he started writing in 2007, and which is as seminal and definitive for bar design as "Roundbuilding" is for making rounds of cocktails, and as "The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails" is for, well, spirits and cocktails. 
If we design bars better, so bartenders can work faster, better and injury-free, we're setting those bartenders up to be true hospitalitarians - so why don't we?
We down all the rabbit holes we could find, and then invented a few more, from the complexity of modern cocktails to cotton candy machines, his favorite bar shape, the redheaded stepchild of hospo, the state of training these days and his many, many injuries - enjoy!
Buy "Bar Design Essentials": https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Design-Essentials-Bars-Everyone/dp/1732648255/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3C0RU5C7EQITE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.wCArtZBcOpz-miH-Y7KqWRgbb0njE3tMWljJBB7TxcUccMb9qb2TxdLoiUq4ZCfjzyemQLFQz-S1aHy3DYykR1QPkyI0m0nshOeKlgSmx-Mt27wsBAkV7b01g7W3GkbJ.7-ENn58hVESjGOMFLpJwszH7mpptAujNNUioZHWxd5E&dib_tag=se&keywords=tobin+ellis&qid=1774708898&sprefix=tobin+ell%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-1
Follow Tobin on IG: https://www.instagram.com/tobinellisdesign/
Check out Studio Barmagic: https://www.barmagic.com/
(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  
And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/
Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff
Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter
Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com

Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos
Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...

I met Andrew several years ago when he came to hang out at an Old Duff Genever evening I was hosting at Berlin’s marvellous Zyankali Bar, and the good people of Rachel Harrison Communications recently recommended I get him on, which struck me as an excellent idea. 
Turns out he’s fourth-generation American liquor royalty, with a mother from the Hiram Walker family, a great-grandfather who bootlegged during Prohibition, a grandfather who legalised the business, and his father, who built US liquor distribution juggernaut Breakthru Beverage Group. 
As well as a lifelong love of hospitality that started with a teenage stage at the three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, Andrew was very successful as an investor, in startups that included Seven Rooms reservations & CRM software, which had a lucrative exit. 
We chat Chinola, Empirical, Great Jones Distilling, his time at Proximo , the liquor and hospitality biz and a lot more - enjoy! 
(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  
And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/
Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff
Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter
Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com

Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos
Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...

TJ Lynch is one of the most genuinely hilarious people I know, but the success he and business partner Richard Knapp have had with cocktail dive bar Mother's Ruin - four branches, a fifth and sixth on the way, plus separate concepts in Folly Beach and Johns Island South Carolina - is no joke. 
And it all started with a little bar on Spring Street in Manhattan that they opened in 2011 for the princely sum of $185, 000. 
We talk about his switch into bartending from cooking, then into management, then ownership, what's changed since the first Mother's in 2011, his and Richard's philosophies for running a bar, reinventing the slushie, and how they deal with investors. 
It's terrible audio quality because TJ was on location helping some of his staff revamp yet another bar, but it really rewards a listen - enjoy!
TJ on IG: https://www.instagram.com/tjismyhero/
Mother's Ruin NY: https://www.instagram.com/mothersruinnyc/
Lowlife Bar: https://www.instagram.com/lowlifebar/
Lost Isle restaurant: https://www.instagram.com/lostislejohnsisland/

(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  
And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/
Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff
Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter
Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com

Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos
Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...