TCGP EP 16 - "The Beachbum" with Jeff Berry

On this episode of THE COCKTAIL GURU PODCAST, Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, bar owner and restaurateur, acclaimed drinks historian and author, and a globally recognized authority on Tiki culture, tells hosts Jonathan & Jeffrey Pogash the technicolor tale of how the Los Angeles native went from writing for the screen in Hollywood to becoming the North Star of the tropical cocktail galaxy and slinging drinks in New Orleans. Brought to you by Plantation Rum, Denizen Rum, and J.P. Wiser's Canadian Whisky.

THE COCKTAIL GURU PODCAST is produced by 1st Reel Entertainment and distributed by EatsDrinksTV, a service of the Center for Culinary Culture—Home of The Cocktail Collection, and is available wherever fine podcasts can be heard. The Center for Culinary Culture—Telling the Story of Food & Drink…One Taste at a Time.

GUEST BIO

One of Imbibe's “25 Most Influential Cocktail Personalities of the Past Century,” Jeff “Beachbum” Berry is the author of seven books on vintage tropical drinks, which published for the first time anywhere the lost recipes of Tiki’s golden age—from the original Zombie, Jet Pilot, and Pearl Diver to the Navy Grog, Saturn, Three Dots & A Dash, and many others.

Esquire calls Jeff “one of the instigators of the cocktail revolution” and Food & Wine “one of the world’s leading rum experts,” while The New York Times cites him as “the Indiana Jones of Tiki drinks” and The Los Angeles Times as “A hybrid of street-smart gumshoe, anthropologist, and mixologist.” Jeff’s been featured on the Travel Channel’s “Food Paradise” TV series, The Discovery Channel, PBS Television, and National Public Radio; he’s also been profiled in The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times, and Wine Enthusiast.

Jeff’s original cocktail recipes have been printed in publications around the world, from Bon Appétit and The Huffington Post to over 20 international recipe books, including the venerable Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide. And now Jeff’s drinks are being served at his restaurant in New Orleans, Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29, which has won critical acclaim in Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Houston Chronicle, GQ, Travel + Leisure, Town & Country, Southern Living, New Orleans, and the Food Network.

With Martin Doudoroff, Jeff co-created Total Tiki for iPad and iPhone, a drink recipe app which Macworld calls “beautifully rendered and, thanks to Berry’s tireless reporting, impeccably sourced.” Jeff’s also co-created a line of Tiki barware with Cocktail Kingdom, which Imbibehails as “especially notable because it revives old styles of essential glassware that were previously almost impossible to find.” While this is all way too much work for a bum, Jeff also contributed 29 entries to The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails and lectures about tropical drinks across the US, Europe, and Latin America.