A lot of people ask me, “why is your channel called ‘U Mix Cocktails’?” . Well, it is an interesting story…

My background really isn’t one of bartending or liquor at all, really. I started my life, my career as a graphic designer. Since middle school, I found a passion for video games. I figured I would make it a career, and become the best game designer in the world! This was all fine and good, but as time went on… there was something more. Something missing.

See, I went to a vocational high school for game design. These four years were interesting. I did my work and all, but there was something about being in front of a computer without talking to anybody, that bothered me. I thought, “oh, I just get bored easily”. It was a sign that I decided to ignore.

Just about as high school was wrapping up, I had to pick a college to go to. In my heart at the time,  I wanted to find the best game design school out there to be able to learn at. I ended up going with Bloomfield College, a private college that was ranked as one of the highest quality game design programs in the state of NJ. I chose this because I did not want to leave the state necessarily, and was looking for an affordable option. This was great. My time there was exciting!

I took the program and designed several games while at the College. I also ended up finishing my Bachelors in Game Design in three years, as opposed to four. This was a blessing as well, because I figured I would be able to work earlier, and get a head start on my career.

This last year of college, is what became very interesting. My senior year, I was working hard to get school done and finish my thesis — which was a game I designed with my team. It is called Treehoppers (https://www.facebook.com/treehoppersgame/). With all the fun I was having to develop this game, I also was working hard on the weekends at Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen, in Morristown NJ (my home town) to get some extra money in my pocket.

The restaurant industry has always been like that for me, since I started at 17 years old. It all started for me from an idea my father had. As my father first came to this country, the only job he could find was working in restaurants. This led him to build his way to finding better positions and learning the language a lot better. That being said, he advised me to start working in restaurants, during high school and college, because it was a great way to earn some money to support myself. The rest is history.

So I started as a busboy, (the guy who cleans the tables after people are done eating) and worked up to food runner (person who delivers food to the tables). This was an amazing experience for me, because I learned what it means to actually TALK to people. I was a very shy kid growing up. Very much sheltered from the outside world, no knowing much of how to interact with people or how to deal with social situations.

Being in the restaurant/hospitality industry, I was thrown straight into the fire. So if I wanted to move up in that industry, I had to face my fear of talking to people, of expressing myself. So I did, but not before having several awkward interactions with guests and scripted responses to them. I never was really sure what to think of it, and just proceeded to be awkward all the time.

UNTIL, I realized that dealing with people, interacting, and talking, is a key part of any industry. After all, what good is any business, without the people right?

I moved from restaurant to restaurant in the following years. Until I ended up at Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen, in Morristown. That was the turning point. It was a great staff, powerful leadership, and a lot of room to grow within the company. There, I started out as a food runner, due to my experience in the past delivering food to tables and being organized with ticket orders. After a few months, I became increasingly interested in the bar…

See, I have always been a creative, and cocktails seemed (continues to be) a fascinating medium for creativity. With that being said, my manager came to me one day and said, “Jonathan, would you like to be a captain’s assistant (the head server’s second in command)?” I was flattered. But, in spite of the offer, I was feeling the need to go another route. I said, “actually, I am very interested in becoming a bartender”. And so it went.

I began bar backing (bartenders’ assistant who gets their glassware and keeps the bar clean) about a month later. This was a very interesting position for me. I had always been part of a squad, a team of people who ran food WITH me. With bar backing, however, it was more of a “lone-wolf” position. There was nobody to collaborate with, nobody to lean on when things went wrong. It was all on ME to get the job done. Sure, the bartenders are obviously part of the team, but they are busy making cocktails already! So this prepared me a lot for what was in store for the future.

After a while of bar backing and learning what I could to get ahead, I decided it was time to test my knowledge, and skill. I feel I had broken out of my shell of shyness, and grew into somebody that could contend for big things. It was time to enter a cocktail competition….

When I took this decision to enter, most people laughed at me, and said how could I ever think of doing that if I never bartended a day in my life. Funny right? A bar back entering a state-wide cocktail competition. I didn’t see it as funny, as much as I saw it a way to prove to myself and the restaurant, that I was ready.

At this point, going back to college, it was my senior year. So I was really focused on getting my thesis project finished AND preparing for the end of the year finals. A lot was on my plate. But I decided to keep pushing, and felt deep down that I was capable. Mind you, I was only 20 years old at the time….

I will go deeper into the competition on another post, as I see this one is a bit long as it is. So, back to the question in the beginning, “Why ‘U Mix Cocktails’?”. Well, when I started making drinks, and really falling in love with the liquor industry, people asked me all the time, “you make drinks? But aren’t you a game designer?” Almost everyday I was getting this question, and I responded honestly that I just loved being creative, and this was a way of expressing my creativity alongside the games I was designing. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

Besides the old question of “Jon, you mix cocktails??”, there is also another reason for the name of this channel. It is due to the fact that since the beginning, I said to myself: When I make it, and when I grow to become the best bartender I can be (liquor professional), I will give back. Give back to the other young guys and girls who would like to learn the same way I did, through persistence and being an autodidact. It is a vision of mine to be a trusted resource to all who sought it out to learn cocktails and bartending.