Juyoung Kang Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine.
Today, we are bringing you another episode of our travel mini-series Destination Cherry Bombe. It's the last of our Las Vegas episodes. Although, there are so many women from the Vegas scene I would still love to interview, so who knows. But for now, we are wrapping with a true original Juyoung Kang, the award-winning director of beverage development at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. I met Juyoung for the first time when I was in Vegas the other week, and was blown away by her and her creations. I visited the China Club restaurant and the Azul Bar at Fontainebleau to try some of her cocktails and mocktails, and they were layered and thoughtful and creative with ingredients I'd never thought of playing around with in a cocktail like almond milk and tea. Also, in honor of our conversation, and I might have to apologize to Juyoung for this, but I had my very first espresso martini at the resort's Bleau Bar. I know I'm pretty late to the espresso martini party, but I now understand why it is the most popular cocktail in Las Vegas. Juyoung has had a fascinating journey through the beverage world starting in Philadelphia. She is representative of the new wave of culinary creatives in Las Vegas, and I can't wait for you to meet her. Stay tuned for my chat with Juyoung Kang.
This special Destination Cherry Bombe series is presented by Las Vegas. I visited Las Vegas last month and had the best time. I'd been watching all this amazing Las Vegas activity from afar, and having lots of FOMO, new resorts, the sphere, all the great residencies, and most interesting to me, all the new restaurants and incredible female talent, from chefs to restaurateurs, mixologists, and pastry chefs. The city has become such a culinary destination that the 2024 World's 50 best restaurants awards took place there earlier this month. Las Vegas is packed with an incredible array of restaurants, and you can find the best of the best from around the world right in this one city. Truly no matter what you're looking for, from omakase to steakhouses, dinner and a show, lively poolside cafes or fab food halls, Las Vegas is fully focused on hospitality and making you and your taste buds happy. Plus, whatever your food and drink preferences are, there's something for you. Zero proof, vegan options, gluten-free, it's all there. If you're like me and plan your trips around food, then put Las Vegas on your must visit list. Learn more and plan your trip at visitlasvegas.com/culinary. And thank you to everyone who joined us at our Destination Cherry Bombe event at the Fontainebleau’s La Fontaine on Monday night in Las Vegas. I was so happy to be back and meet lots of new folks from the scene. Check out my Instagram. I am @kerrybombe to see where the team and I ate and drank while we were there and to see some party picks. And thank you to everyone for your hospitality. I can't wait to come back to Vegas.
Now, let's check in with today's guest, Juyoung, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Juyoung Kang:
Thanks for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
I read that you were named the most innovative bartender of the year a few years ago by the United States Bartenders' Guild. That's a cool title. How did you win that?
Juyoung Kang:
So the bartender competition circuit, they go in certain levels. When you make it to the next level, and then the next, each one of those brackets are called something else. And there's always different titles, and that's where it goes in.
I think I came in second for the whole thing, so I got to compete in what they call the Pan-American Cup. First place when I went to the World Cup. It goes into that direction. It's overwhelming when you go to the next level. You have to figure out what that market is. Your original drink may not win, so you change it a little bit, so it does.
Kerry Diamond:
Were you doing all the mixologist competitions?
Juyoung Kang:
At that time, I was. It's a way for brands to recognize you and also put your name out there. And I find as a female you have to so that they can realize who you are. I feel like sometimes if you're not as dynamic as everyone else, you do these things to get there so people can notice you. Although, I've never been told I'm not dynamic.
Kerry Diamond:
So you're from Philly, amazing food and beverage scene in Philly. We've got a lot of friends there right now. What drew you to food and beverage?
Juyoung Kang:
I was part of this program called Russell Conwell. It's for anyone that's going to college outside of the normal curriculum from their families. So a lot of my family were professionals, either they're lawyers, doctors, accountants and things like that. And it was the first time that someone in my family was going towards arts, so I studied filmmaking, digital media. I needed a job to pay for books and all the different things, and I was like, "I need a job that's flexible with hours." My very first job that I actually got a paycheck from was auditing parking lots. I was literally in a cubicle just counting cars on a video, and I was like, "I can't do this." I'm like, "This is driving me insane."
A friend of mine was like, "Oh, why don't you just go work in the food industry?" I was like, "But I don't don't know anything about food." And they're like, "Oh, it's easy." So we looked through newspapers for the jobs, and my sister was like, "Oh, I found one in the Philadelphia Inquirer." She's like, "They're looking for anybody at this fancy club." And I was like, "Okay." Not knowing what it was, and then realized it was a business club where members only, so it was tuxedo and everything. And she went to interview first, and she's like, "There's no way I got in." And then I went. And she's like, "Did you get the job?" I was like, "I did." And she's like, "How? You don't have any experience either." I was like, "You got to know how to talk."
Kerry Diamond:
So you talked your way into that job. What did you learn on that first job?
Juyoung Kang:
Everything. We had to sit down to learn about the menu with the chef. And he's going on, all these words. Now I know they were all French. And I'm like, air quote, "I don't know what you're talking about. Julienne vegetables, who's Julienne?" It was very much like an eyeopening experience. My mom only cooked Korean food at home, and my dad tried to mimic American food, which actually he was very good at, or Italian food and things like that. So I was very much up on it, but I didn't understand how or what made them that food, what it was and how it was made. And then from that job, tasting the different foods and everything, learning from the chef, I was just like, "Okay, this is interesting. There's a lot to learn." And I found it to be more interesting than going to school, but I had to finish school, otherwise I'd be a bad Asian kid.
Kerry Diamond:
I also read you decided to start a career in bartending after tasting Johnnie Walker Whiskey.
Juyoung Kang:
While I was in this job, learning all of these fun things, and one of my captains and my service director was like, "Maybe you should go take some wine classes, take some of these other classes." And they're like, "And then you can learn more things." I was like, "Oh, okay." They're like, "Oh, you can have a whole career out of this." I was like, "Oh, this is cool." So I started going to these wine classes. I went to a Robert Mondavi tasting the champagne tasting, and they were fantastic, but anytime I wanted to learn something from a somm, they just didn't give me an answer. And I was like, "What is it with these somms? I'm like, "Aren't they supposed to professors? They want to help you." And it just wasn't the case.
Kerry Diamond:
What was that all about?
Juyoung Kang:
I don't know. Some of them are very snooty, snotty, that whole thing, but it's funny. I'm not sure if that was just at that time an era on the east coast or not, but as I've moved out west, I find them to be very helpful. It's a difference of personality and people just understanding what hospitality is sooner or later, in a sense, because all the psalms I meet now are amazing, and they're very helpful. But at the time when I was coming into the industry, it was not the case. My one captain, I remember it was like, "Do you want to go to a really fun tasting?" And I was like, "Okay." He's like, "Oh, it's going to be at this really cool building." He said, "Just meet me here." He's like, "And we'll take it in."
I was like, "Okay." So I go with him, and I walk into this space. I think it was a big Johnny Walker tasting, which I know now, but didn't know at the time, but it was like all these men in the kilts, and they're playing bagpipes here. There's bottles of this going there. And there's all these contraptions all set up, and I'm like, "Wow, what is this?" Everyone's just having fun. There's food, drinks going around, and they're all learning. And I'm like, "Can I write all this down?" They're like, "Oh, you don't have to. We have stuff for you." And they started giving me all these things. And I was just like, "Oh." They didn't mind me asking a billion questions. And he had an answer for everything.
And I was like, "Oh, how do I get to learn more about this stuff?" I was like, "This is fascinating." And they were like, "Well, you have to be a bartender." They're like, "Well, you could be a brand ambassador, but bartending is where you start." So the next day, I went back to work and I asked my bar manager if I can bartend. She goes, "If the opportunity comes up, I'll give it to you." I was like, "Okay." So I just waited until someone didn't show up to a wedding, and then I had to learn from there.
Kerry Diamond:
On the spot.
Juyoung Kang:
On the spot.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you leave Philly?
Juyoung Kang:
I just didn't want to do the things my friends were doing. You know how sometimes you know that you have more to learn, but you feel a little stagnant? That's where I was going at. I was working in a lot of small bars and establishments and venues and restaurants, and I wanted to do a larger volume, but in a different setting, and so I tried to get into hotels, but in Philadelphia, a lot of hotels are union based.
You can interview, you can get the job, but if someone else's family member gets in because it's a union, then they kind of give a grant of, okay, this is your son, we're going to let him in. I'm like, "But I have experience and he doesn't." So it became frustrating to get in a different establishment when you want to learn. Because at that time, it didn't seem to matter. And I had a girlfriend of mine who was actually living in California in Los Angeles, and she was like, "Oh, there's tons of hotels here. It's easy to move up here." At the time, she's like, "They're all here to be actors and models." And she's like, "And you just want to do this." I was like, "Well, yeah." I was like, "I think I've chosen what I want to go to." So I moved to California just to work in hotels.
Kerry Diamond:
When you say you wanted to work in hotels, you wanted to work in mixology or bartend in hotels or you wanted to work in hospitality in general?
Juyoung Kang:
Hospitality in general. A different establishment. I just wanted to be on track with management at first. I think at the time, even the mixologists getting up there, it wasn't really a thing. Most establishments didn't really care. I worked it a martini bar in Philly, and I helped them make their menu. Did I know exactly what I was doing? Absolutely not. I think I poured this much, I counted this, and that's what we're doing. There was no recipes. We were just pouring things in going, "Yep, that feels right." And we went with it. So it's difficult to teach now with bartenders how to feel the bar making the drink, because back then, that's what we did. And now, there's exact recipes, and so everyone just follows that. And they don't know how to get that creative edge.
Kerry Diamond:
So you learned a more intuitive approach?
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah. And it's hard to teach that now.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so interesting.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah. I'm like, "You can feel the ice break." And they're just like, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. You moved to California. I read that you loved learning about all these fresh ingredients. You started incorporating them into cocktails.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah, because at the time when I was bartending in Philadelphia, a lot of it just were liqueurs and flavors that came in a bottle. The fruit that was fresh was just for garnishing, like a orange slice, a lime wedge, the neon cherries. So there wasn't much of the fruit going into the drink. And if it felt like it was fresh, it wasn't. It was powdered stuff that went in. You think it was Country Time Lemonade and Tang into a drink?
Kerry Diamond:
No?
Juyoung Kang:
And it became a flavor. Oh, there's a place in Philly that used Tang, and it's like a-
Kerry Diamond:
I guess that could be kind of genius.
Juyoung Kang:
And it goes back to your childhood growing up.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my god, Tang and Country Time Lemonade. You're taking me back.
Juyoung Kang:
But when I was in California, I noticed they're closest to farms and everything else. And they're like, "Well, if you want an apple, you just put an apple in it. If you want it to taste like cherries, just put cherries in it. If you like strawberry, just put strawberry in it." I'm like, "What?" It was so random. And they're like, "Yeah, put tomato in it." They're like, "Why would you not?" I was like, "Well, I guess we don't have that availability." But in California, you're spoiled. You can get all that. And then I realized that in America we're just spoiled. Now you can just Amazon it and get it, where a lot of my friends in other countries, they don't have that access. They're like, "Oh, I get limes three months out of the year." I'm like, "What?" So wild. I'm like, "I get it a full year."
The way you bartend, the way you get creative is based on availability. And I think that perception changed the way I create.
Kerry Diamond:
What made you move to Vegas?
Juyoung Kang:
Well, besides rent being really expensive in California, I think I just got bored. I just wanted something larger or just something more. I think that has to do with me just being very ambitious, and I wanted to do more volume. The pace was too slow for me. My mind wasn't turning.
Kerry Diamond:
What made you zoom in on Vegas? What was it about the Las Vegas scene?
Juyoung Kang:
I had actually had several places in line. I was either going to go out of country or go to New York or back to Philly, maybe Chicago, but.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a big map.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah, nothing holding me down. I didn't have anything. I was like, "I can just go wherever."
Kerry Diamond:
What countries were you thinking of?
Juyoung Kang:
Spain. Obviously London popped in because it's English and the language is pretty easy, but I learned Spanish for a little bit, but I don't practice as much, so I don't know it as much, but if they speak slow enough, I kind of understand it. I wanted to be in a different environment, but I had a friend of mine I was working with in L.A. whose mother lives in Vegas, and she was like, "Oh, you can have the same world experience in Vegas, but it is on a large scale." She was like, "If you go to Vegas, then you can go anywhere else after that." I was like, oh, okay." So at the time the ,Cosmopolitan was the newest casino being built, and they were the ones hiring the most. So she was like, "Oh, you can just go in there and see what's available."
But at the time, I think a lot of the positions were already filled, and I came a little late to the game, but the one restaurant from L.A. was opening in Cosmopolitan, Comme Ca. And I couldn't get into the Comme Ca in L.A., so I was like, "Oh, maybe I can get into the one here." I was like, "I heard their restaurant and program was really well." I worked in French restaurants before. I was like, "So okay." This is how funny stars align, in a sense. I interviewed with the AGM at the time, And he was also from Philly. So he said he pulled my resume out of the pile. Because he's like, "There's only two kinds of people in Philly. They either work really hard or they suck." He's like, "So I had a 50/50 chance picking you or not. It was going to be an easy interview."
I didn't know that, but okay. He's like, "But you're also a girl bartender." He's like, "We need girl bartenders." Oh, I was like, kind of cool. I'm taking a position because I'm a girl. I was like, "There's one that adds up."
Kerry Diamond:
When you got here, were there a lot of women in mixology?
Juyoung Kang:
When the Cosmo opened, Marina was working at Chandelier as a manager there.
Kerry Diamond:
Who's at the Wynn now?
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah. Also another stellar person. Literally, the nicest person on earth. I've never seen her angry. Kristen Schafer at the time, she was at Bond Bar. Patricia Richards was, I think, at the Wynn at the time. And there was a few people here and there doing a lot of things. I didn't know them, I heard about them, but never got to meet them in the beginning. And then being at the Cosmo, they were doing an overview of all those spots. And somehow, when I was at Comme Ca, they were going to use another bartender, but Chef David Myers and Sam Ross was like, "No, we're going to go with her." And I was like, "Okay, I don't know what I'm doing." I was like, "I'll just do it."
And then from then it just went crazy, but that's when I started meeting everybody else, and then we just got friendly.
Kerry Diamond:
So it was a good community when you got here?
Juyoung Kang:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
They were accepting of outsiders and... That's great.
Juyoung Kang:
Way more welcoming than L.A. You could still hustle and do well, but still, it was a little difficult. It was easier to be a bartender in L.A. because of that, but other than that, they always felt like girls were servers, and bartenders were men, in a sense.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you feel that's changed? I know you're not in that market anymore, but was there still a little bit of that here when you got here?
Juyoung Kang:
Not really. I feel like here women take the server jobs because they pay more, tips wise. You make more money. You have a larger real estate. At the bar, you're sharing your tips with whomever you're working with, and you have 12 seats or 18 seats if it's a larger bar. But as a cocktail server, the landscape is much bigger, so you have eight tables, your square footage is much bigger to make money on.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you really start to get to flex your creativity?
Juyoung Kang:
I want to say when I started working downtown, Comme Ca, making one or two drinks, but it wasn't the flexibility that showcases it, but when I started working downtown, I helped open the laundry room, Commonwealth, Park Lane, Fremont with Ryan and all his establishments. And it's cool to work with somebody who just trusts you to do the job. He's like, "I'm not the expert in this." He's like, "You are. So you do this, or you learn to be creative, do this." And he's like, "And I'll have everything else to support." It's super cool to find someone who allows you to flex that, and then they figure out everything else. We'll figure out the cost thing, we'll figure out this, we'll figure out that. Even though I knew how to do it, but somebody else did it, just for me to focus on creativity. And then it was a big collaborative piece.
I was like, I worked with photographers, marketing people, PR people, and it's just trying to get the right names for the cocktails, and seeing how their brain works and stuff. And you're just like, "Oh, that's cool." And then you realize how storytelling works in certain things. And you're like, "How do I tell the story better so that it has an impact?" You get to flex those muscles as well as work in a collaborative environment, which is where that whole teamwork happens. I think that was kind of cool and that allowed me to have that space in Vegas.
Kerry Diamond:
That piece was missing for you in California.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I never thought about how much work you all have to put into naming those cocktails. Because a chef can do a roast chicken-
Juyoung Kang:
And call it roast chicken.
Kerry Diamond:
Or asparagus. And there you go, chicken and asparagus. They don't have to call it like Chick, Chick, Spar, spar, whatever. I don't know, whatever name they come up with.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah, I call it the Caesar salad theory. Every single chef can put their version of a Caesar salad on the menu and call it Caesar salad. People will still buy it because it's a Caesar salad. It could be your version. It doesn't matter, but it's a Caesar salad. People know the components of a Caesar salad is lettuce, cheese, the dressing. And they get it-
Kerry Diamond:
But you can still mess with it and call it a Caesar salad.
Juyoung Kang:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
You can't do that with a screwdriver or Cosmo, for example.
Juyoung Kang:
Right. And it's like if you change one little ingredient in a cocktail, all of a sudden it's a whole new thing. It's like now you got to rename it. I feel like there's some cocktails they're like, oh, it's just a corpse survivor number two. Number one sucked, so we changed it. Now it's number two.
And they got bored of naming something. And even back then they had too many names. And even now, it's like, how many banana hammocks can you have? It's like, no, there's a lot, and there's different versions of it.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you come up with names? Do you have a thesaurus? I don't know. Do you use ChatGPT to come up with names today? What do you do?
Juyoung Kang:
My trend is more so I name things either after music song titles or characters from book. If I read something interesting, and then I put something together with that. My names are good then, but some of the names I'm just like, "Oh, I don't know. I'm just going to name something." And I'm just like, "Oh, this is horrible." And I know majority of it's bad. I'm like, I wouldn't say of all the names, I would say 85% is horrible. I'm like, "Oh, this is just."
Kerry Diamond:
But those 15%, golden.
Juyoung Kang:
And I always tell people I'm like, "It's only 15%." Because it's one out of 20 drink third. I'm like, "That's a good name."
Kerry Diamond:
Are you the reason for the bars at the Fontainebleau? There's a Daft Punk quote in the menu, and then there's an F Scott Fitzgerald quote. That's you. Okay.
Juyoung Kang:
They wanted me to write intros for these menus. I feel like a lot of copywriting is done to sound not just generic, but more so acceptable. Acceptable doesn't put you into history books. No one said, I accepted this and then got an award for it. It just doesn't work. You did something dynamic, and then you accepted an award. You have to drive the page to get somewhere. And most real estate, I feel like people just sell the space as opposed to selling the bar personality.
Selling the space doesn't make me want to go in, but selling the personality does. So I wanted to give each of the bars, if it was a person, who would it be? And so with Collins, with the whole F Scott Fitzgerald quote and stuff was based on it being an old school style bar, and it is part of history and it revises itself. And so, there's a forgotten classics page and things like that because I wrote it in the terms of looking through F Scott Fitzgerald's eyes and ears, and then Ernest Hemingway's. So if you see the quotes, some of the words, they're excerpts of their novels from “A Farewell to Arms,” to “The Gatsby,” and things like that. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote everything about America from the northern side point of view, and how he had to go away to come back. Ernest Hemingway did the same thing, but he went south and came back.
There were both authors that looked out looking in into America. And then it became the revolution. And I think that told a better story. And there are two very different point of views, but they're all very American.
Kerry Diamond:
You're blowing everybody's mind. There's so much to these drinks. A drink is not just a drink at Fontainebleau. So you're in Vegas, you're doing incredibly well. You're the most imaginative bartender of the year. You're also named Nevada Restaurant Association's bartender the year, so you're a star. How do you wind up at Fontainebleau?
Juyoung Kang:
I was at Resorts World before I interviewed for Fontainebleau. I think I was made aware of the position from my distributors and brand people. And they're like, "Oh, you can really flex stuff here." One thing I have to say is my dad taught me how to keep relationship. He taught me how to harness that and adapt and to keep that. He's like, "That's going to get you somewhere." Because you don't get somewhere because you're good at your job. You get somewhere because you know how to foster relationships. You have to work with people.
Kerry Diamond:
I feel like we can end the episode right there. That is golden advice from dad.
Juyoung Kang:
My dad was very good at explaining things in layman terms, in a sense, for you to understand. He'd take very difficult situations and knew how to explain it. I think that also had to do with because he was a teacher. And he always had these little sound bites of advice that you didn't realize he was teaching you until he did. And he did a lot of comparisons and a little storytelling. I understood what he was talking about. And then he was like, "You don't have to work as hard if you know how to manage talent. You have to be able to recognize the potential and then make it work for you."
In the beginning of your life, you're going to be the talent, and you have to figure out how to manage that. He goes, "But you also have to utilize other people's talent to work with yours to get somewhere." What I got out of that is regardless, you think that you're working by yourself, you're still working in a team. I remember I told someone one time, and this was my answer to why I got into Tales of the Cocktail in their CAP program, they asked me, "What's your favorite book?" And for most bartenders, when they read that as a bar centric program, they'll write like, Imbibe! by David Wondrich. And thinking, people go, "Oh, you read Imbibe!" and think that you're a credible bartender. And I took it as a personal question as to what's your favorite book that relates to the industry? And I said, Plato's Republic.
And they were like, who reads, first off, Plato's Republican says that's the book that connects to hospitality. And I said, because there was a section on division of labor, and it said that you can't survive in a community without the division of labor. And that's literally true in hospitality. There's every person in every position, which is every division of labor that makes that place run. And in a hotel resort setting, you have housekeeping, you have food and beverage, you have front desk, all that working together makes this resort hum. And if one of those hums are off, now it's broken. Then I realized it's like you have to be able to work with everyone to get there. And one of my hotel managers I worked with said, "Be friends with everyone in every department because you never know when you need them." He's like, "You never treat them horrible because you learn have to utilize their talents." And I find that very true. So my biggest pet peeve is when someone mistreats other people.
Kerry Diamond:
Fontainebleau, one of the busiest projects that's hit Vegas. We heard about it in New York that it was happening, and everybody was really excited. And we heard about all the dining concepts and all the bar concepts that they were going to have. They ask you to come in as what role?
Juyoung Kang:
I applied for the position director of beverage development. That ended up being the title. When I interviewed, it was like, I don't think there was an actual title. I'm not exactly sure. I don't remember it, but I remember having an interview, and then doing a tasting. So I had to create these five cocktails to pair with a coursing for a banquet. I created these five cocktails. And they said, "Oh, this company is very global," and they mentioned a bunch of details to go with it. And with that information, create something out of it.
Because they say it was global and it was in these countries, I made each cocktail based on that country. And the inspiration that came from and utilizing that main ingredient from that country and putting it all together, and telling this whole story. Some parts of it I had to make up because it wasn't enough detail. And I said, oh, because your first contact was with... Your first outside U.S. office was in London, and then your final was in the Middle East. I made this whole thing up. And whenever I do projects like that or any kind of creative outlet of that sort, I create my own little thing with it. I guess other people call it going above and beyond, but I found it necessary to tell the story. Those are the little details, making sure you had all your glassware, making sure you had everything down to the napkin and printing a menu.
In our bartender world, it's easier to explain the cocktail that you're making, and then tell everything about it, but I know with the way my memory is and most people's memory, the attention span is very short. You can tell me all the ingredients right off the bat, and I'm like, 'Aha, aha, aha," but I didn't comprehend any of it. I find it easier when people want to follow if they read it, which is why people still want to read menus. So I always say use your words carefully when you put in things in menu because it means a lot whether you put in a lot of thought or not, even if one person finds it, and I know that sounds very romantic, but I think it makes a difference. I've had people that, they're reading it, they go, they're like, "Oh, it's from this thing." I'm like, "Yes." And it's cool when one person gets it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's walk through all the bars. You've got China Club.
Juyoung Kang:
A fine dining Chinese restaurant concept from Alan Yau. That menu was probably the most fun to work on. I got to work with Alan's brother, Gary, on that. It's interesting to work with somebody who pushes you further, and wasn't afraid to say, no, this is not going to work. Where everyone just goes, "Aha, aha." When my first competition, someone was like, "Oh yeah, you did great." I'm like, "But I didn't learn anything. How do I fix this problem?" I feel like some people are afraid to say those things, and I want to hear it. This is not going to work. And tell me why. Construction criticism to me makes sense. I know some people don't like to hear it, but to me, I'd rather you tell me than not.
Working with him, it was putting complication into the simplest form. And I think that's what that menu is. There's a lot of prep involved, but you can taste why it is what it is.
Kerry Diamond:
What do I need to order?
Juyoung Kang:
I would say Bloody China. It's a batch that we make to get it clarified. I think it says what, 24 cocktails on that menu, so there's quite a bit, but we also have six zero proof cocktails that are very interesting that you can also add alcohol to, which is what a lot of people do, they find ingredients interesting.
Kerry Diamond:
Then there's Bleau Bar.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
What makes that unique?
Juyoung Kang:
It's the monster bar. It's 24 hours. It's a beast. I don't know how the bartenders do it there.
Kerry Diamond:
That's the one that sits right in the middle of the casino.
Juyoung Kang:
Right in the middle.
Kerry Diamond:
Beautiful light fixtures.
Juyoung Kang:
Oh, yeah. It's the centerpiece. It's unbelievable. But those bartenders, they're machines. They just work really hard. I can't believe they churn out this much.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you have to keep the cocktail simpler because of that?
Juyoung Kang:
It's more so I need to make the cocktails enjoyable for any time of the day. In some places, if it's mostly at night, you gear towards ingredients that work well at night, but this one had to be, you can have that same drink at 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM, would someone enjoy this at this time? And it's like-
Kerry Diamond:
So interesting. It's the same thinking that goes into an all day menu.
Juyoung Kang:
Would someone want to eat pancakes all day? You're like, they would. So that's what we also have our classics menu. Our core classics are just classic cocktails, old-fashioned espresso martinis, cosmopolitans.
Kerry Diamond:
Why is everybody still obsessed with the espresso martini?
Juyoung Kang:
I actually don't know.
Kerry Diamond:
How many of them do you think you make a day at Fontainebleau?
Juyoung Kang:
I don't know about a day, but so far from the time we opened to now, we've made 10,000.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow.
Juyoung Kang:
That's a lot.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a of martinis.
Juyoung Kang:
And that's a lot of espresso.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a lot of espresso. Do you batch it?
Juyoung Kang:
You have to. But it's funny because our bartenders there wear white. And when they make too much, you just see espresso all over their shirt. I did see a ticket one time because someone posted it in one of our chats. And it said there was an order for 28 espresso Martinis at once.
Kerry Diamond:
No. All right, so Bleau Bar, super exciting, beautiful, beautiful bar. You mentioned Collins, the signature drink there is the Tom Collins.
Juyoung Kang:
It's called JS Collins. So John Collins. John Collins is basically a Tom Collins with bourbon and not with gin.
Kerry Diamond:
I have to confess, I never had a Tom Collins.
Juyoung Kang:
Tom Collins is literally just a gin sour with soda water, like a tall fizz, but they call it Collins. But Tom Collins can be made with gin or vodka, but originally it was with gin, but the John Collins was with bourbon, and then when we found out that the bar was going to be called Collins after Collins Avenue, when I looked up Collins Avenue and the history, his name was John Collins.
So I was like, well, then we have to make it a John Collins, but it's JS Collins. So I was like, the S can stand for whatever. We wanted it lighter, brighter so people can drink it, whatever. So we added muddled strawberries to it, so it's basically a John Collins with strawberry.
Kerry Diamond:
Then there's Nowhere.
Juyoung Kang:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
What's Nowhere all about?
Juyoung Kang:
Nowhere's on the second floor. Actually, when you come from the elevator and you go on the second floor, it's right there. It's our live music venue, more jazzy. For some reason, and I think because we kept talking about it, and it leaked out that it's supposed to be our speakeasy but not a speakeasy. So I guess people just associated it being a visible speakeasy instead of a hidden one, but we called it Nowhere. So it's like, "Where were you?" You're like, "I was nowhere." And so it became kitschy, in a sense.
So when people go there and they hear the jazzy vibe, they expect prohibition style cocktails. So they want a lot of bourbon, a lot of gins, and things like that. A lot of those drinks work really well. I think majority of the public refreshing cocktails, and I think it's because we're in Vegas, whether it's winter or not, they still prefer something refreshing. I think they feel like they're on vacation, but the vibe in there feels as if you're going back in time a bit or you're in someone's house that is a little dark and moody.
Kerry Diamond:
It's such a cool space.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
That's the one with the pool table and the stage. I heard you have some cool folks stop by from time to time as a surprise. Okay. Then there's the tequila and mescal bar. Azul?
Juyoung Kang:
Azul.
Kerry Diamond:
What a beautiful bar.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah. We like to say it's more of an agave centric bar because we don't just have tequila and mescal, we also have other agave spirits like Bacanora, Sotol, Raicilla, but we also carry other things so that people can come to a bar and not feel like it's only tequila mescal. We try to be inclusive. We do have a lot of people that still like whiskey, and so we carry a few items here and there just for that. It's more like a love letter to Mexico.
Mexico is thriving in the whole bar scene and everything else, and the country itself is just trying to expand and grow. And they're like, "We don't just make tequila." They're like, "Mescal came first." They're like, "And then tequila." And we had the governing to create all this stuff. Then we realized that you can make all these other different things if they're not in the states. And they were like, well, "We can grow corn, now we're making rum." They're like, "We're making whiskey. We're making..." You're just like, "What? Gin now?" And it's like, there's so many things they can do.
Kerry Diamond:
I love champagne cocktails. What should I get, and at which place?
Juyoung Kang:
Ooh. Actually, at Nowhere we have the Millionaire's Row. It has a little bit of gold dust, and so it's like you feel a millionaire.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm down for that.
Juyoung Kang:
Almost every one of them has a little bit of something. I think at La Fontaine we have quite a few different mimosas. There are more French centric flavors.
Kerry Diamond:
I know we talked about the espresso martini. Has the spritz taken over? There are some days in New York when the weather's really nice where it looks like every outdoor restaurant is only serving an Aperol Spritz. It must be driving the bartenders crazy.
Juyoung Kang:
I don't know. I find it funny here. Here, at some points, the spritz take off, but not really. Some people will ask for it, but my God, espresso martini, you just can't get away from it. We sell espresso martinis and Old Fashioneds the most. I feel like every place I've worked, no matter what, the Old Fashioned sells I cannot get away from the Old Fashioned. And I'm like, it's so crazy, the Old Fashioned is everywhere. It doesn't matter. Your style, their style, whatever, other take styles, it's always, any variation of whatsoever, always there.
Kerry Diamond:
But the spritz has not taken over Vegas?
Juyoung Kang:
For the amount of time I've bar tended, I've made very few.
Kerry Diamond:
So interesting how it's regional.
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah, maybe because I don't work outdoors at times or whatnot, but I've never made that many spritz. I've made my share, but not as much as espresso martinis and Old Fashions.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there a drink at Fontainebleau that you are most proud of?
Juyoung Kang:
No. I think people hate me when I say this, but I think China Club's menu and Washing Potato's menu, it seems simple, but it took the most work. And I think because I had to be very centric in flavor, very centric in technique, uber curated to create a certain type of experience, a certain type of flavor. But also, I had to learn that certain flavors are, even in Chinese flavors are very regional. I didn't know certain flavors were very Hong Kong. And when they kept telling me, I'm like, "I don't know the difference between mainland China and Hong Kong." I'm like, "I don't know." I'm like, "I'm not Chinese." I was like, "So I don't know what flavors are very centric." And when I learned, I was like, "Oh, light cheese, very Hong Kong." Oolong tea, but this particular one was very... I didn't know that, how they make the Hong Kong tea and things like that. I didn't realize it was that minute.
And learning that detail, I was like, "Huh, interesting." And it's the way, I guess, where apples are grown or what kind of carrots people use, and things like that. I didn't realize it was that centric, even in Asia.
Kerry Diamond:
Have you had the chance yet to tap into Korean flavors?
Juyoung Kang:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Given that that's your heritage. I mean makgeolli and soju are having a big moment in New York.
Juyoung Kang:
I think soju has always taken off. It just hasn't been used because people just use it like vodka. When you infuse things in soju, it goes on a different take.. And I think people just misunderstand what soju is and I'm like, well, "It's not fermented, it's not sake." I am like, "It's distilled." And makgeolli, it is hard to make, but most Korean cooking is actually pretty easy. It's just very time-consuming, much making things with chemical.
It's very technical, in a sense. I've never made it. I've read a lot about it to make it, I just haven't had the time to go try do it, but I do like certain Korean flavors, and it's just something that I grew up... which is funny because I thought it was American growing up because we got it in America, but I didn't realize it was a very Korean thing. Growing up, my mom used to give me tomatoes with sugar. And then sometimes she'll cut strawberries in it as well. As much as I've seen strawberries and tomatoes together, and I've always known tomato to be a fruit, not a vegetable. So when I was in school and someone said it was a vegetable, it threw me off. And they were like, "Why would we eat tomatoes with sugar?" I'm like, "It's really good." Then I realized later on, everyone's like, "No, it's a fruit."
And then you start tasting it in differently, and different tomatoes make different things, but I didn't realize that was a very Korean thing. When I would talk to all the other kids at school, they're like, 'You're weird. No one eats that. You're supposed to use salt with tomato." But when I talk to other Korean kids, they go, "I eat tomatoes with sugar." I was like, "No kidding. Me too." It's pretty cool to see that connection. And I think I've gotten to learn more about Korean stuff as gotten older. Because when you're a child, when you don't fit in, you try to do things that you fit in. Even though as a child I didn't care, but at times I'm like, "Okay, well, I guess I'll to try to fit in. I can't alienate myself too much. Then I got to learn and meet new people that were Koreans from Korea, and then Korean Americans that also grew up like me trying to learn. And so it was cool to have that connection.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm going to ask you one last question. We usually on the show ask, if you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be? But I'm changing it up since I'm in Vegas. If you had to spend one night on the strip going out to eat, drinking blackjack, whatever your game of choice is, taking in a show or two with one food celebrity, who would you run around the strip with?
Juyoung Kang:
One food celebrity? I think people might think this is weird because I'm also Korean, but either Roy Choi or David Chang, only because they've brought Korean to the market. They held true to who they were to get there, even though they changed some of it to be accepted. That's interesting, and I'm trying to do that with beverage. And I know there's a lot of bartenders even in New York that are Korean. They're trying to bring that out. And we're trying to make a catch on... Koreans are having a moment now from beauty products, everything else, so I think I would probably go with either of them.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Juyoung Kang:
Because I feel like they're also very fun, but at the same time, they're not over the top. And so I feel like I would enjoy myself, but also I feel like strength in numbers.
Kerry Diamond:
Juyoung, I can't thank you enough. You are a fascinating person.
Juyoung Kang:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
And it's been really nice getting to know you.
Juyoung Kang:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe on Apple Podcast or Spotify and leave a rating and a review. Thank you again to Las Vegas for supporting our show. Learn more about Las Vegas and plan your trip@visitlasvegas.com/culinary. You can find the link in our show notes. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Elizabeth Vogt. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our content and partnerships manager is Londyn Crenshaw. Special thanks to Sticky Paw Studios in Las Vegas and to Joseph Hazan at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.