Chatting With “World’s Best Bartender” Charles Joly
We catch up on the 10th anniversary of Crafthouse Cocktails, the Oscars, home cocktailing tips, favorite Chicago bars — and include a summer cocktail recipe you can make.
Globally celebrated master mixologist Charles Joly worked his way up through Chicago’s bar scene, really making a name for himself first at the now-closed Drawing Room in the Gold Coast and then at the Aviary, chef Grant Achatz’s experimental cocktail lounge in the city’s Fulton Market neighborhood. There, he was part of the James Beard Award-winning team for 2013 Outstanding Bar Program. He’s been named one of the 10 most influential bartenders by Bon Appetit, named best bartender in America by NBC, bartender of the year at Tales of the Cocktail, and is still the only American to win the Diageo World Class Global Competition, making him the best bartender in the world in 2014.
He has since launched one of the first bartender-driven, quality bottled cocktail brands with Crafthouse Cocktails, traveled the world to judge competitions, educate rising bartenders, and explore international cocktail scenes. He continues to design and deliver cocktail programs for the Oscars Governors Ball, the Emmys and Grammys. And now, he sat down with Something Glorious to discuss his wild ride. We met up at New Wave Coffee and then, after it closed and we had to leave, walked across the street to Webster’s Wine Bar, where we posted up at the bar for vermouth and wine.
The full podcast will go out to paid subscribers later this week so if you want to hear the conversation in its entirety, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription if you haven’t already.
In conversation with Charles Joly
Something Glorious: So when it’s time for you to have your first cocktail of the day, what are you thinking about making? Or what's a go-to for you?
Charles Joly: The first drink I have is probably with dinner, quite honestly. If I'm going out to a restaurant, that's probably the first time I'll have a sip of something. Honestly, I'm thinking about the last couple meals I've been out — and it’s a beautiful warm spring here in Chicago — so I've been just drinking some crushable white wines to start and then I might dive into the cocktail list. But, I've been keeping it kind of light and easy.
Something Glorious: I love crushable white wines — what are you liking these days? What varieties or regions?
Charles Joly: It depends on the food I'm eating. So, like Rose Mary in Fulton Market has a really interesting wine list with an Eastern European influence. And I just went to the new location of Daisies in Logan Square, which is a wonderful independent restaurant with all handmade pasta. I had some really nice wines sitting at the bar. I love crisp Spanish whites or a vinho verde. But you go on the cocktail side of things and there are bright, simple, classics like a Tommy's Margarita or a beautiful classic daiquiri or something like that. Something with three or four ingredients.
Something Glorious: I’m glad you mentioned cocktails with three or four ingredients, because that's something I had been thinking about. A few months ago I noticed how many places have six-to-eight ingredient cocktails. When I'm reading through these drink descriptions, I don't understand how a lot of these things go together. So I end up ordering an Old Fashioned or a Margarita, depending on where I am.
Charles Joly: Imagine how someone who is not really into food or drink, how intimidating it must be to them.
Something Glorious: What’s your feeling about the multi-deep ingredient cocktails?
Charles Joly: Let your creativity flow — as long as everything plays a role. I do think you can intimidate people away from your cocktail list. So if you have the type of venue where you have time to engage with people and kind of be their guide, then I think it's OK. I don't mind a complex cocktail, as long as it's complex because it needs to be and not for the sake of being complex. Sometimes you read words on paper and you think it reads great, but then you taste it and don't get any of those flavors or the nuance. At that point, you're wasting your breath a bit on it. So, if it doesn't play a key role in a cocktail, pull the ingredient out.
Something Glorious: What advice do you have for people who get excited about making cocktails at home? What do they need to have — even if they don’t have every ingredient or fully stocked bar?
Charles Joly: I encourage people to still try to make the drink, even if you don't have every ingredient. Don't get scared away because there is always something you can substitute. It's not going to be the exact same thing the creator intended, right? For example, when I create cocktails for the Oscars or the Emmys, the drinks I'm going to make at the events will have some housemade ingredients. It's a big party and I can't phone it in. So the cocktails we're making will have some level of creativity to them to be special for that occasion. I always then offer the easy at-home version.
If you can't get this specific tea I've sourced, here's one you can get at Whole Foods or whatever. There’s always something that can get you close enough. So even an armchair bartender at home can sip along. There’s always a substitution. So don't just look at a recipe and say, “I don't have this,” and then not make a cocktail. Even if you find something online, you can maybe shoot the creator a message on Instagram or something or ask your favorite bartender.
Something Glorious: How did you get connected with the Oscars and the Emmys? Those are huge gigs for you.
Charles Joly: I have been doing those since about 2015 and every year now. I create the official cocktails and design them for the Governors Ball, which is the event that follows the ceremonies. It spun off when I won the World Class global bartending competition. I made some contacts and some of those brands that sponsor those big parties came to me to create and execute the cocktails at the event with some friends from an events company called Liquid Productions. So after I won the competition, it opened a bunch of doors and they keep inviting me back. So knock on wood, every year we get the call.
Something Glorious: Winning World Class had to be an incredible moment. And correct me if I'm wrong, you just celebrated the 10th anniversary, or going to this year?
Charles Joly: It's coming up. The 10th anniversary will be next year, 2024. We had our 10 year anniversary for our company Crafthouse's Cocktails this year, and it'll be 10 years since the global cocktail, which I can't even believe.
Something Glorious: And it’s also 10 years since you were the head of the program at the Aviary, where you all won a James Beard Award. So how did all that — the James Beard Award, launching Crafthouse and then being named World's Best Bartender — impact you? What are some of the things that came out of that for you that you're still reaping the benefits of today?
Charles Joly: It certainly opened a lot of doors and helped with getting notoriety in some ways domestically and internationally. I got a ton of travel from it. I’ve now been to somewhere like 45 or 50 countries, most of that spinning out of that event. It allowed me to go independent as well. As much as I loved being behind the bar, I did 18 years of six- to seven-day weeks. That’s 50-, 60-, 70-plus hour weeks working for other people. So yeah, it opened doors and allowed me to go independent, which has been great, but it’s scary to take that leap and walk away from a steady paycheck every two weeks. It’s very worthwhile and I wouldn't have it any other way in retrospect.
Something Glorious: You mentioned earlier that it’s the 10th anniversary of Crafthouse. You released the Coffee Old Fashioned for that and teamed up with Dark Matter, a local Chicago coffee roaster and Traverse City Whiskey Company. How did those two relationships come about and how did you decide that you wanted to do a bottled coffee old fashioned?
Charles Joly: I've been doing smoked coffee old fashioneds for a long time, just as a cocktail I do at events or what not. I enjoy it as a drink. I met Jesse [Diaz], one of the founders of Dark Matter when I was at my first cocktail bar, The Drawing Room, around 2007 when they had one shop in Ukrainian Village. He turned me onto my first real coffee. That was the first time I met somebody who looked at coffee the way we look at booze or cocktails. And I was like, “Oh, wow,this is a whole new world.” We used Dark Matter coffee at the Drawing Room and we nerded out about it to the point where they sat with whiskey and we tasted different coffee strengths and different strains, beans, and roasts and picked a coffee we thought specifically went great with the whiskey and with the other flavors.
Something Glorious: What about Traverse City?
Charles Joly: We've had a relationship with those guys for a long time. My business partner at Crafthouse (Matt Lindner) has known them. So we were able to pull, I think we pulled about a dozen barrels out of their aging warehouses. And then we made the bitters up there as well from scratch. The guys from Dark Matter also have a chocolate company called Sleep Walk Chocolateria. We used that cacao and then cinnamon and bitter orange peel and made the bitters.
Something Glorious: What are some of your favorite places to drink in Chicago?
Charles Joly: I live in Logan Square, which is a hotbed for bar crawls. Lost Lake didn't come out the backside of the pandemic, which is super sad, because that was always the first part in the bar crawl I would write down for people. Then to Longman & Eagle. Then like, as we're sitting in Webster's Wine Bar, which is wonderful, and across the street, Billy Sunday, is one of my favorites in the city. It’s still so good and I think it's an underappreciated place with a vintage amari selection that’s off the hook. The vintage selection at the Office at the Aviary was something I was very proud of being part of. The Office is one of the most special bars in the city. It has one of the best spirit selections in the country and globally, really. It has one of the deepest chartreuse selections and verticals of different whiskeys.
Estereo is also awesome with killer music and great vibes and an amazing agave selection — beautiful tequila and mezcal. There’s really so many. And I love a neighborhood bar. You got gems like Archie's (Iowa Rockwell Tavern) in Ukrainian Village. It's going to be 80 years old this year and they’re on their third generation of family owning and working the bar. That's incredible. Sitting in one of those old Chicago classic bars, a tavern tucked in a fully residential neighborhood, is pretty awesome.
Something Glorious: People always talk about or seek out trends in the cocktail world. Do you see any trends emerging for summer?
Charles Joly: I'm going to take my stand against trends <laughs>.
Something Glorious: Uh oh….
Charles Joly: When people chase trends too much, it is the first sign of the death of a good movement. But in terms of some trends, seasonal slushy machines are going to start swirling again. High-quality frozen cocktails are delicious. The lower-ABV drink movement is still red hot. And non-alcoholic drinks, which I am a full proponent of, is an important category.
Something Glorious: Yeah it’s great you can go out to a bar or a restaurant and now people are actually putting more thought into their non-alcoholic drinks.
Charles Joly: Honestly, if you're an operator and you're not doing it, it's bad for your bottom line. From a business standpoint, do you want to sell a soda or a cocktail you can charge more? And from an experience standpoint, you want people to come back and feel included. Why wouldn't you give something to everybody that's sitting at that table? That's why we have jobs as bartenders because it's not the customer’s job to know how to make all this stuff. Even if I could cook like my favorite chefs, I would still go to their restaurants. But I can't so I'm very happy they've spent their lives mastering their craft so I can enjoy a beautiful meal at their place.
Something Glorious: Well I'm happy that you have spent your life mastering your craft to give us some delicious drinks, whether behind the bar, which you don't really do that much anymore. But with Crafthouse, your events, and other things. So thank you for that.
Charles Joly: I appreciate it. And I'm glad to be able to share it with people through that. That was the reason we did Crafthouse. If you couldn't be at the bar with us, try to get you as close as possible,
Something Glorious: Charles, thank you so much for the time.
Charles Joly: So good to see you.
Something Glorious: It’s always great catching up. It's been too long.
Cocktail: Charles Joly’s Yellowjacket
Inspired by the Bee’s Knees, Joly made this for the finale of “Yellowjackets” in partnership with Abstract Ice (but you can use any single ice cube for yours).
Ingredients:
1½ oz. mezcal
¼ oz yellow Chartreuse
¾ oz lemon juice
¼ oz honey syrup (2:1 honey:water)
Abstract Ice Infinity Sphere (or any large rock)
Instructions:
Prep: Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain over an Abstract Infinity Sphere in a rocks glass. Mist with lemon oils and garnish with manicured lemon peel.
Glass: rocks / double old fashioned
Garnish: manicured lemon peel
SG LIST: What I’m loving this week
David Lebovitz’s Strawberry Spritz: With strawberries in season, grab a bunch and a bottle of white vermouth, some quality tonic water and enjoy. Grab David's recipe.
Hatch Mixing Glass from Crate & Barrel: Shaken or stirred? For many cocktails, you want to stir to help dilute the cocktail just enough. This heavy, etched mixing glass is the perfect vessel to do it. And it’s only $9.95! While you’re at it, grab a bar spoon — Cheers!
Pride Power Hour in Fulton Market: To support Brave Space Alliance, the first black and trans-led LGBTQ+ center on the South Side of Chicago, a number of Fulton Market restaurants will each donate 50 percent of sales from a special cocktail. The event, sponsored by Breakthru Beverage, takes place:
Sunday, June 18: Alla Vita, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Monday, June 19: BLVD Steakhouse, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Tuesday, June 20: Rose Mary, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Wednesday, June 21: Proxi, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Thursday, June 22: Aba, 5pm-7pm
Friday, June 23: Cabra, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Saturday, June 24: Estereo FM, 4pm-6pm