Music and Booze With Mo Mo Herms

Thomas Moore IV started out chasing $1 tips at the Superdome, and now leads the drink program at the Elysian Bar in New Orleans. Part of the Turning Tables program (which gives opportunities to black and brown bartenders), he graduated from churning out beers to becoming a mentor as well as a competitive (and winning!) bartender. He also makes his own personal soundtracks which inspire his cocktail creations - the latter of which have won notice from Tales of the Cocktail for the Elysian Bar. Check out his Bartender's Menu Mix here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/498TMPLVScvHxebPR4qUBR?si=3675a845158f4784

Claire Swenson was a regular at iconic Minneapolis dive bar and music venue Palmers and eventually wound up on the other side, serving drinks to patrons who considered her "the new guy" for several years. Claire does online radio shows (sometimes from Palmers), plays the rubber chicken in a band, and dishes on proper dive bar etiquette (on both sides of the bar) while also teaching us about the weirder side of music. Check out her special l'il music mix for us here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/56mFLfMnJVKOBWehbEPPc7?si=9b4674a87f7d49cd

Millita Gonzalez grew up in a family of music bookers & club owners, so of course she started bartending at her dad's Latin dance club as soon as she could! (Her tales of conquering high volume crowds with only a blender are amazing.) She worked her way through Nashville and NOLA, catching the fine dining bug along the way and happily mastered craft cocktails. She currently leads the program at Asheville's Little Jumbo Bar,  making playlists on the side... like this one that will keep you dancing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2UWhpreySy1l9EAj1z73CX?si=8fd3ca9581b54cce

Adri Ramos is the bar manager at LA's Employee's Only and the founder of FLAG LA, a female led apprenticeship group to empower other women in the LA bar industry. She's a fan of moody vibes and great cocktails, and wanted to bartend so badly when she was young that she took classes before she was 21 just so she could get some practice! Her natural skills landed her in some of LA's most creative spaces and her love of music may have influenced some of her cocktail creations too. Check out her 13 hour (!) playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0UNGw8Pco1bW2mbzQoKZm0?si=1228206dd17f4b3f

Sebastian de la Cruz of Bangkok's Tropic City loves to create a vibe with both his cocktails and his playlists, as being a DJ has been as much a part of his life as bartending has. From his humble beginnings as a barback in Stockholm (his mom got him the job!) to being inspired by the NYC craft scene and then finding himself an expat in Thailand opening a bar in a burgeoning creative district of Bangkok, Sebastian has experienced a lot within the hospitality scene, becoming quite a musical mood maker along the way. Check out this sexy grooves playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7CWpCW9tvC7sAXcXK10dEu?si=3bd6fdb132b54a1e

Ash Murray, head bartender and main playlist maker at Meteor in Minneapolis, talks their journey through the world of coffee into the world of spirits by jumping from one top tier destination to another, finally landing in a music lover's bar owned by musicians. Not one to shy away from a challenge, they applied those mood making skills to curating tunes for the bar and helped create a cozy community along the way. Check out their playlist (don't shuffle it!) here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3xU8S5sRUSjLMttA4Uxd8T?si=b28d574e874e42bf