What happens when two bartenders reunite after a decade…and finally talk about a night when things went sideways? This episode dives deep into the highs, lows, and healing of life behind the bar
This week, I was truly lucky. This is an episode near and dear to my heart. Chris Milligan is a force to be reckoned with. He has more depth and encyclopedic knowledge of bar lore and mixology than any human I have ever met. Here is a glimpse into how everything started for me. Secreto bar, my time as a barback. We don’t hold back from nodding to our booze consumption back then, and we finally get to make amends for past disagreements.
Expect to learn just how working in a busy bar doesn’t mean you’ll be happy. Expect to hear how life often does seem sweet on the other side of a bottle. And expect to hear what happens when success, ego and alcohol mix…and why some of the most respected people people in the industry feel at a loss sometimes.
Notes:
Chris mentions Reiki and Ho’oponopono.
If this sounds like your kind of conversation, please like, subscribe, and share—it really helps!
And…that’s it for this week! Thanks for listening! My name’s Andrew.
I record strange, fun things and try to make sense of this weird, beautiful life. You can find more of my written work at my blog. All of my social links are at the bottom of that site. You also have a contact page there. Please let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, or notes for improvement!
I’m just here, taking notes as I go, trying to figure out what it all means.
Cheers!
Transcript
in the bar world. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And yeah, I will most likely drop that bomb here and there. Sure, sure. Because why the fuck not? So actually, one thing I did want to ask you about, I mean, you haven’t talked at length since I left. And I don’t think I ever understood how you ended up in Taos. Well, it was all it was it was all a personal move. I met a woman, a beautiful woman. We’re still together. It’s coming up on nine years. Congratulations. Thank you. And her daughter, her daughter’s father lived in Taos. She was living in Pilar. I was in Santa Fe, and she moved down to Santa Fe for a work opportunity. And you know, long story short, we decided to move up here so she could be more a part of a co parent situation with her with her ex husband. Got it. Yeah. So my son, you know, was, you know, into his teens at that point and becoming independent. So I did not feel bad about leaving him, you know, a mere 64 miles away. But and we got together and still get together fairly regularly. Yeah, how’s the bear? He’s doing good. He’s graduated. He is working. Yeah, sorry. And is he’s gonna become a journeyman in the plumbing community? Wow, that’s incredible. You know, I still remember him as a little kid. So that’s why that’s why I said, wow, there. I’m like, Oh, you know, it’s it’s that moment when you see the ID that says 2002 and you serve them, it’s keeps hitting me over and over again. Well, Andrew, I gotta tell you, he’s about two inches taller than you. That’s crazy. Yeah. Well, I think when I last saw him, he didn’t come up to my waist. Yeah. Yeah, he was he was and he had a mohawk at the time. Oh, man, nine years, nine years is crazy. You know, my eighth anniversary is coming up this in two weeks, actually. Oh, happy. Yeah. Yeah. What mean you got socialized around the same time, I guess. Yeah, pretty much, you know, we, you know, it was right after I left the Hotel St. Francis, the credit lounge, you know, just needed a break from the world, which sometimes happens, you know, when you’re when you really need deep into in the bar world. Sometimes a break is needed. I took a break for a couple of years and slowly worked my way back into the food and beverage world. But, you know, it was right about that time that you and Anna, excuse me, were getting together and moving to Tulsa. You got married very quickly, if I remember. We did. Yes. I’ve never been one for forethought or restraint. I think you’ll probably remember that. She did ask if I have known you once you set your mind to something. It just happens. For better or for worse. I, you know, I got to bring this up. When you won, went into the last, the last round of last slinger standing. I saw that in your face. Natalie Bovis was going to coach you a little bit. And I tapped her on the shoulder and I said, he’s in the zone. And you’re not walked out of there. So I know that when you set your mind on something, you’re there. That was a crazy night. Yeah. Oh, man. I still remember we were drinking for the laser after that, doing shots till God knows when. Well, as soon as all the rest of us were eliminated, we started doing shots. Then fair. I was a late joiner. Yeah. You know, Anne actually asked me to remind you, you remember right before we moved, we did all these garage cells and you ended up with the drying rack. I don’t remember that. I did. Yeah. So why think it was that rack for years. I mean, it literally fell apart. Yeah. Well, that’s all man’s stuff is very high quality. And that means it lasts forever. It means eventually it just all collapses into dust. Literally, it just said, I’m out. Yeah. So actually, you know, I want to backtrack a little, you mentioned Socretto and I thought it’d be cool. Like, can you tell the people listening how me and you met? Because I think that’s pretty cool. It kind of sums up a lot of what came afterwards to sure. So we opened a Socretto lounge at Hotel St. Francis as, you know, kind of this premier craft cocktail bar that began that became known for, you know, this garden to glass cocktail program. And, you know, we were, you know, I was the third manager and, you know, we were open for almost a year. And I was the third manager coming into the first anniversary of the place. And one night I was not only managing, but I was still actively attending bar. And you had taken a job in the adjoining restaurant working for Stefan Garcia. Chabla de los Santos. Chabla de los Santos. And anyway, we were we were weeded. I mean, we were just beyond it was it was one of the first nights that the bar really began to rock and began to catch on with the locals as well as the tourists. We had a really incredible marketing and PR department that was doing heavy pushes on, you know, the very unique cocktails that we were making. And, you know, one night we cut we were just getting slammed. And I walked down the hallway and you were standing there and I said, Hey, you want to put in a couple extra hours, make a few extra bucks and, you know, bar back for me for a couple hours. And you’re like, Sure, no problem. And you jumped in and I hands down within two weeks. You were the best bar back I had ever seen. You know, just so gung ho so interested, so focused in everything so hospitable. And that was the number one thing that I remember. It will always remember about you as your hospitality. And, you know, you just jumped in and you got to a point within just moments that, you know, moments, meaning a couple of weeks, that you were reading over the shoulders and handing them not only the glassware, but the bottles, they needed off the back bar so they never had to move. All the while you are busing all of the and washing and polishing all the glassware, refilling all of the syrups, you know, restocking all of the booze. I mean, you were doing the job of four people. And very quickly moved into a bar position working the well and serving the 142 seats that we had around the hotel. Yeah. No, that bar was wild. So just to kind of paint the picture for someone listening to, it’s an entirely fresh fruit, fresh juice bar, nothing pre-made essentially. So you get in order for 20 cocktails that have cucumber and jalapeno. That’s when you’re going to cut them up and start muddling them. Everything was fresh. There were no flavored vodka’s. You know, if you wanted a citrus vodka, you know, we muddled the lemon peels into the vodka to create that flavor better than anything that’s ever been put in a bottle. I mean, we worked and worked hard. You know, the wait time for a drink was an easy 20 minutes on a busy night, but everybody understood that they were going to have one of the greatest drinks they ever had. Yeah. No, when that patio was full, when the restaurant was full, that was some wild Friday and Saturday nights, that’s for sure. It was. Yeah. So I must have been a bar back. You said quickly, but I feel like I was bar backing for at least a year. I think I wasn’t 21 at the time that I started, if I’m recreating that correctly. We fortunately were able in New Mexico to, you know, we were able to use you. Right about the time you turned 21 was maybe the day you turned 21, you became a bartender. And that was right about the time the law changed here. That is, that’s right, because there was like a memo like right after my birthday. Yeah. So someone, someone was looking out for me, one of the hospitality gods. Oh, yeah. No, I don’t, yeah, I’ve often asked myself, you know, how would things have been different if I not said yes and helped that night, you know, because I think it was, if I remember correctly, I think it was the holiday season. I think I’d stayed behind and most of my friends had gone back home. That sounds, I would have, I would not remember that because I really didn’t know you that well. Personally, I mean, we passed each other in a hall, but you were working in the restaurant, I was in the bar, you know. I think I just like had nothing to do. So I was like, sure, I’ll take some money. Yeah, that sounds, that sounds very familiar. Now that you’re now so, so you were there. Gosh, you must have been there for almost a solid 10 years. 2009 to 2017. So eight years. Eight years. That’s incredible. That’s yeah. Oh, sorry, you go, you go first. Sorry. No, I was just gonna say, it’s a wild ride. Yeah, well, I was gonna ask, you know, most people, especially service and hospitality jobs, don’t have that kind of tenure. What do you think is unique about you that let you stay there? Or why’d you stay there for so long? Well, there’s the good answer and there’s the bad answer on that question. The good answer. Because it was unique. It was fun. I enjoyed the popularity of the bar. I, you know, on the negative ego side, I enjoyed the popularity you brought me. You know, it was a weird time when that whole marketing and PR thing was happening because Facebook and, you know, all social media was just beginning to blow. And I mean, you know, food blogging or cocktail blogging was less than five years old at that point. It was a very, very, very new thing. So, you know, a bar and a bartender getting recognition. And I started looking for that recognition before I started working for Socretto. I had a blog called the Santa Fe Barman. And that blog and that bar and me all kind of became the same entity. And I rode that wave for a really, really long time. And I enjoyed, I enjoyed every bit of it. You know, you know, there were some downsides to it. But it was, it was a good run. I had a lot of autonomy. That was the other thing. Because of the popularity and the profitability of that bar, I was given a lot of autonomy with the company that ran the bar. And, you know, so we really didn’t, it didn’t feel like a hotel bar. And it never felt like that to any of the employees. I never thought it was never expressed to me, you know, until, you know, something, you know, corporate came, you know, barreling down, but, you know, it would last a day. And then we were right back to wherever we were, you know, what we were doing, you know. And so it never felt like, you know, like I said, a hotel bar, it was, it was a craft cocktail bar with a lively atmosphere. No TVs, no, you know, no entertainment. I mean, the entertainment was the people and the experience that you had while you were there. Yeah. Now, yeah, as you’re talking, I’m having these visual flashbacks to that bar. And, yeah, I had forgotten just it had been long enough that there were no TVs, but that was something that was really unique. It, not, not every space in public needs to have a TV, not, not everyone, most is fine, but not, yeah. And that, you know, I never did think about that. But now that I am kind of in a more corporate environment and plugged into bureaucracy, I don’t, I don’t always have to deal with it day to day, but there was a lot of freedom in that bar. As long as the drinks kept flowing and people kept coming and they did. And they did. And they did. And it’s in you too. And it’s, you know, even, you know, you’ve been gone from there from since 2016. I left in 2017. I think I was right. 2016. Somewhere in there. Yeah. And, you know, we, you know, it’s still, you know, it still has a beautiful reputation. And I love that you and me and the rest of the crew that was there, there’s so many names, you know, Todd and John, obviously, Katie, Bianca, Jackie, you know, just everybody, everybody just all contributed to something. And it’s still, it still thrives. Yeah, that is, that is cool. You mentioned downsides. Are there any downsides you could talk about or anything that’s actually passed the statute of limitations, that sort of thing? You know, the downside is, is that, you know, I got caught up. It doesn’t happen to everybody, but I got caught up in that, in that life, you know, that, you know, this, you know, this hot bartender, you know, who knows a lot about cocktails and odd about cocktail history, you know, well, you know, that, you know, I lived the party life amidst that. And there’s a good 15 years of my life that I really don’t remember because I was drunk the entire time. You have an ego. I mean, I have one too. Yeah. You know, I mean, it’s funny. I never really considered myself, you know, a celebrity in any way, but it’s real amazing when you get, when you go too far in a vocation, in too far with a passion, that it can become detrimental to your health and detrimental to your family. And, you know, I lost, you know, I lost a wife in that time. I blessedly found, you know, a new relationship a few years later, tried a few times in between, but, you know, getting caught up in the booze and just finding the bottom of the bottle way too many times. Blessedly, I don’t drink spirits anymore. I stopped doing that on any kind of regular basis other than just, you know, tastings at, you know, because they’re required in the job that I do now. The very occasional shift drink and maybe a glass of wine with dinner. But I’ve quit drinking as a sport. That’s good. It’s a sport where you don’t see a lot of old people, you know? No, you really don’t. Yeah. I don’t know. We didn’t really talk about this beforehand, but I don’t think I’ve told you I’m pretty much quit drinking too. So right now, no, thanks. I mean, I’m proud of you too. I didn’t realize how much you’re drinking. You know, you do the shots after work at the matador and it’s just like, you only have an hour left, so there’s only so many shots you can take. So yeah, you don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the 24 hours of the day, you know? Sure. No, it was like, in the morning and, you know, boozing on a bottle and entertaining and, you know, after parties and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, you know, getting the matador, we gotta mention something about the matador and the name tags. Oh, I forgot about that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you go. You go. That’s perfect. But yeah, I mean, you know, you get there an hour before a legal last call and you got time for a shot of beer and maybe another shot or, you know, if you got there early, maybe another beer, but you never went past those two or three, you know, before you went home, you know. So, but yeah, after that, it was fair game once you were locked in your own house. Yeah, yeah. I think that it also says a lot about New Mexico that we have to say legal last call. We have to specify the legal limit versus the sometimes lock the doors and what happens after close in some places. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, the matador. So, you know, you were one of the first ones, you were the first one to hang your name tag at the matador. You know, we had these name tags because we worked for a hotel corporation, you know, we had to wear name tags and we, you know, we’re supposed to return them, you know, beforehand and nobody ever did. And anyway, you dressed up as one of the other bartenders at for Halloween. John Conkin. Yep, I did. And that name tag got just stuck to one of the coolers at the matador. Well, it just hung there and it was just there and everybody, you know, that worked as credit or just kind of saw it and they thought it was funny. And then when you somewhere amidst that time, that was the first one to go up. But there were others before you actually left that, you know, began to, you know, every time somebody left, we went to the matador, had a shot of tequila, specifically tequila. When you got promoted to bartender, you had tequila, when you left the credo, you had tequila. I don’t know how that happened. But that’s the way it is. I blame Todd for it. Todd Walker. Well, that’s below only $7 at the matador. And well, there you go. I have an adventure, I guess, that it probably still is. Probably so. At a tiny Coca-Cola bottle, glasses, tiny Coca-Cola glasses. But anyway, as the name tags began to appear, we started gluing them to the cooler. And there’s a line of about nine people, you know, in those years, that have their name tags up there. And as far as I know, mine is the last one to be hung. I feel like I was there that night. But I don’t remember, which is part of the problem of all the drinking at the matador. Yeah. Oh, man. Good time, so. That was the ultimate place to go to after doing craft cocktails for hours on end. That was, you know, that was the place. I mean, they’re in Evangelos. I’ll never forget taking you to Evangelos. Yeah, that was a weird bar. I liked it. Yeah. That is definitely, I don’t know, it was geared towards a different demographic, I believe. Definitely so. I’ll say it that way. Yes. It was the older dive bar, you know, in town. But Nick, Nick, Nick, the first time I’d ever heard Nick Clonus talk the way that he talked that night. And for that extent, but he gave you and I both a lesson about how to be a bartender. Yeah. No, I think it says, oh, sorry, reading the room. Oh, yeah. You remember? Oh, barely. I think it really is a, you know, beautiful thing that, you know, we have secreto that’s so focused on the craft aspect of it. And then we go to the matador, we go to Evangelos. And we see also another busy, very popular side of nightlife, just completely different, but still service-centric in its own unique way. It was. It was very much. And you know, what I’ve, really what I enjoyed most about the relationship with the staff and the owners at the matador that we had with them in all of the staff, secreto, is that we learned from each other. You know, they got interested in mixology and, you know, making a good drink, even though that’s not what they were known for doing, but, you know, there were bartenders there that were interested. And when somebody walked in and asked for a negroni or an old-fashioned, they would get the, you know, a proper drink. You know, likewise, we always tried to keep that fun that you found at the matador at secreto. You know, we never got so hoity. I mean, we weren’t doing, you know, you know, Red Bull and, you know, Yeagermeister and stuff like that. But, you know, we, you know, we kept that, that, that fun in the bar where it was about people and interacting with people. Well, we weren’t doing Yeagermeister and Red Bull when you were there. I do remember there was the odd bottle, I think it was Ruppelmitz in the fridge for the longest time. And Todd would always make fun of it. We definitely drink a lot of Red Bull. I don’t know, I don’t think we served any of it. One thing I did want to talk about, too, if you’re game, the first time I left secreto. So this is something that, I mean, you haven’t talked about really at length since it happened, but I’ve thought about it since. So kind of disclaimer for everyone listening. So I was young and I was being a little shit is the way I’ve kind of realized. So I think, if I remember correctly, I was upset about the cocktail waitress or something. And then, I mean, you got into some sort of argument and then I ended up leaving right after that. Yeah, I remember, you know, in the moment, it didn’t strike me as anything weird. And actually, it did lead to some good things that led to the Milagro, it led to the Coyote, you know, a lot of things that came after. But I was thinking about this about a year or two ago, and I was like, man, I was such a little shit back then. So I’m sorry, just so you know. No need to apologize. I’m the one to shoot apologize. You know, yeah, it was it was about a cocktail waitress that was corporately thrown on me that I just had to suck up and smile and take it and try to convince everybody that this was the right thing. Nobody bought it. And, you know, I didn’t know how to sell it. Yeah. There was a thing going on one night. And, yeah, you know, and, you know, I will have to say that, you know, alcohol was involved in our conversation. Yeah. And at that time of my life, it was often involved in a lot of conversations. Yeah, so. Thumbus for both of us. But, you know, yeah, I thought, you know, I thought you were a little shit in that conversation. It was the first time I’d ever thought that in my life about you. And the only time I’ve ever thought that about you. And I’ve never thought it again. But I responded in a very angry, aggressive, fatherly way that I should not have done and shut you down. By simply saying, this is not the time or the place. And I said it really, really loud and practically silenced the room and walked out because I was so embarrassed by what I had just done. And I must say, I am sorry, Andrew. Well, it’s fine. It is one of those things that, you know, probably, I think it was like two years ago that I came back into my memory. And I was like, what was like, you know, as you’re getting kind of clean and drinking less. And I’ve noticed more and more that I could think back on events in my past that had all this emotional turmoil hold on my mind and with a little distance and just a little more clarity, think, oh, I was a little shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is weird. Alcohol is such a strange thing, isn’t it? It is. It is. There was more than alcohol going around that night, too. There was, I’m sure. There was, I think, Green Dragon was a part of that night. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Milagro. You know, I loved how we were able to resolve that situation. I am sorry that I embarrassed you that night. And I love it that we were able to mend and remain friends for 10 plus years after. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s the thing that you fear about those drunken nights, the people that you lost touch with because of them and you never talked to them again. Sure. You know, for ever Chris Mulligan, I’ve got who knows how many people, you know. Right. I’ve had very similar experiences recently with a lot of situations and have done all that I know to do to make those very immense. Well, cool. Yeah. Was there anything that you wanted to talk about? What was that? I said, it sounds like we’re talking 12 step, even though neither one of us are 12 step or something. No, no. I definitely think, you know, over the course of a life, you get a certain number of drinks that you can reasonably take and we just front loaded them. Yeah. So we’re just cleaning things up a little bit. You know, I didn’t I don’t think I ever really talked to you. Did I tell you that they diagnosed me with graves? No. Yeah, the whole I thing that gets all like red and puffy. So that was the first time I actually stopped drinking for a long period of time. I had about a year and a half where I was having difficulty seeing. Wow. Yeah. If you ever if you ever see me, my left eye is still scarred. You can kind of tell that it’s a little, you know, fucked up. But it was it was long enough that it actually cleaned me up enough that it was actually like, I look back and I am so grateful that that happened. Like, yeah, I wish that would have happened. And if I had the same reaction when I was like 20, it would have been just life changing. But yeah, yeah. So yeah, you know, something happens, you lose you lose someone or you have a health scare and all of a sudden you start thinking, okay, what am I doing here? Right? Well, E, I can tell you for me that that that initial and it took years for me to really convince myself that I, you know, and get my ego out of the out of the equation that no, I don’t need this. I don’t want this. And it sure as hell can’t do it anymore. It took years. But the real first one was when my my best friend committed suicide over his alcoholism. That was that was my first wake up. And, you know, it took a lot of years and a lot of convincing and and a lot of my my current partner help and understanding and guidance and, you know, sometimes very tough love about it. Yeah, I’m sorry. That’s that’s rough. But it is, you know, it’s, you know, it’s gotten me to where I am now. And I feel good about that. That I’m able to, you know, openly talk about that, that I can, you know, and that, you know, things look better on the other side. Yeah, for sure. Have you ever been to any like therapy or anything? I recently started it’s helped a lot. Actually, I’ve done therapy off and on throughout my life since I was a teenager. For various reasons, you know, I come from an alcoholic family. You know, I never, you know, I, you know, watching my family, I think, you know, literally the entire family, I thought everybody drank that way and anybody else was lightweight, you know, and I grew up with that attitude from, you know, a very, very early age. So I can’t, you know, that was that was probably my biggest challenge, you know, with everything, you know, in that, but I’m sorry, I got slightly distracted. What was the question? Oh, it was literally, have you ever done any therapy? I just, I was curious. Yeah. With that, and, you know, in my, in my time over the years, I have explored a lot of, you know, a lot of metaphysical and, you know, spiritual guidance. I’ve found it to be a little bit more helpful to me, though I do do. I do. Yes, I’m active in therapy, but, you know, this is, you know, something that I find, you know, equally helpful. I’ve been studying Reiki. I’ve been studying Kooponopono. And I don’t, I don’t know either of those. What are those? Reiki is a Reiki. It’s Japanese word means life energy. And it, you know, a way of attuning to nature and to the natural world and to, you know, to find balance, you know, with not only the physical, but the emotional, spiritual, the astral and beyond and finding balance with that. You know, there are, you know, people who are considered masters, you know, who do treatments on others in passing this, they’re like a conduit. They’re not healers, but they are, they are, they are a conduit to help, you know, you know, another person receive that kind of energy. Laying out of hands is what Christians would call it this kind of thing. But it’s a, you know, it’s a focus on that kind of life energy. Kooponopono, at least modern Kooponopono is a type of forgiveness. And it’s a mantra of four, four statements. And it’s given to the world, but ultimately given to yourself because you are a reflection of the world and the four statements are, I am sorry, please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. And one of those things that teach that when in crisis or in conflict, you never say anything that does not reflect one, if not all four of those statements. So say, if you’re having, if I’m having an argument with someone, I do not want to say anything that’s not saying I am sorry, please forgive me. I love you and thank you. And how do you say that? Kooponopono or? Oh, oh, Po-no-po-no. It’s a Hawaiian. Po-no-po-no. It means to make right or specifically to make right, right. Ho-h-o, apostrophe O, to make Po-no, P-O-N-O, twice P-O-N-O, P-O-N-O, to make right, right. Okay. To make hope. I’m sorry, please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. That’s beautiful. Thank you. There’s a guy who became very, very famous. He’s a psychiatrist who practiced Ho-oponopono. He became very famous for this. Hugh Lynn was his last name. Dr. Hugh Lynn, who cured 24 mentally ill felony inmates in a Hawaiian state prison without ever seeing them therapeutically. Just saying, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you and thank you. Finding the faults in himself that were reflected in them. So if this person is a murderer, what inside me would make me feel murder, make me choose murder? And I’m going to forgive myself for it. And that trans, you know, that goes to the others and everybody around and helps heal them by healing your… And that’s the, you know, it’s kind of the basis. Well, it’s cool. Yeah. See, the only cool thing I got is meditation. And that’s not that much fun. Everyone knows how to pronounce that. You know, it is a part of both of those. And, you know, like, you know, just meditating on those four sentences, you know, for five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, you know, however long. It’s amazing what will come to you about yourself that’s reflected in others. Well, cool, man. What are you up to these days? Where do you work again? Yeah, I’m still in the bar business. I am the manager for two tasting lounges here in Taos, New Mexico for a distillery called Rolling Still. Nice. So I hope to product develop, you know, a little bit of product development and helping out the owners with, you know, all the things that need to happen. You know, I will say that it is pretty incredible that I moved away, I think, three states over. And I still have Rolling Still, Red Chilli vodka pouring in my Bloody Mary. So we’re still repping you down in Tulsa. Yeah. I just moved up here. So we’ll have to see if we can get it up in Omaha too. But it may take some time to get distribution up there. So yeah. So does we CAD, we will. Sure. So I’m guessing you probably work most weekends and the normal stuff. I am fortunate that I don’t work behind the bar anymore. Last Saturday, past Saturday was the first time in three years that I have been active behind the bar. It was our sixth anniversary party for the lounge and, you know, needed an extra body and I was happy to do it. It was fun to get behind the bar again and see if I could still, you know, rock it with the young kids. You know, yeah, man. Being 56 years old now. Right before we jumped on this call, I was telling you, we have someone new training the bar and I got a few minutes to jump on the well. Just about. Oh yeah, I can still do this. Yeah. It’s not all Excel. Not anymore. Always feels good to get back there for a little bit. But so yeah, I’m usually, I work daytime now. So I’m not out at night anymore. I am home with my family and taking care of them and our little yard and our little place out here in Tows. Nice. Do you have any big projects or anything fun coming up? Well, it’s coming up on rafting season. So that’s, you know, that’s always a big thing. Jody and I bought a pull behind camper trailer last year. And so we’re looking forward to not only getting down to the river, but to other rivers this year. You know, that’s, you know, on personal projects. The business projects, we’re moving into a new building here very soon, we hope. And being able to expand our distillery where we’re going to be able to not only complete our bottling line, but also put in a canning line for ready to drink cocktails. Oh heck yeah. That is the thing that is, that is, it’s already the future if not, you know, getting into the past, but it’s not going away. It is TikTok’s version of the bar. That’s right. Ready to drink. You know, I tell you what, there is nothing, you know, like I said, I don’t, I don’t drink spirits anymore and it’s occasional wine, but you know, there are a couple of those RTDs out of the market that I don’t mind and will take one, you know, down the river with me just for fun, you know, or for after when I get off the river, drag it behind my boat in the cold water to keep it cold the whole time. So yeah, but, well, hey Chris, I remember how much you loved rafting when we worked together, so that’s really exciting. Yeah. And it’s really good to hear that y’all are expanding production because we might be able to get some in Nebraska. Let’s hope. Well, hey, I’m actually gonna, gonna hang up soon. So, you know, I wanted to take a second and thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. It was really a pleasure. The pleasure was mine, Andrew. It’s great to hear from you and great to catch up with you. And I look forward to, you know, hearing more about what’s happening with you next time. Well, you know what they say, I love you, please forgive me. I’m sorry and thank you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. And I love you. All right, there you go. Thanks.
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