There’s a massive amount of talent behind the bars of our city, and it comes through in a vibrant, varied rainbow of skill sets, knowledge bases, personalities and flavor profiles. Richmond has everything from reliable watering holes to boundary-pushing cocktail lairs. No matter the mood, there’s someone on the other side of the glossy wood making a beverage you’re bound to enjoy. These much-beloved, big-energy bar managers share their thoughts on ingredients, mixology and life.
The Cynosure
Katie Stuart, Foo Dog
Anybody who claims the Instagram handle “Bar Daddy” is someone we want to know, and Katie Stuart — half swagger, half humility, all magnetism — has taken the title at Foo Dog, as well as for her nearly 200,000 thirsty TikTok fans. As a service industry presence, she is pure, unadulterated, blue-haired fun, and she makes a mean margarita.
Her backstory is gritty, like her shift drink of choice (a PBR and a shot of Jameson). Her first job was at Fredericksburg’s Fun Land arcade at age 16, working in the kitchen, followed by gigs at Buffalo Wild Wings and Chuy’s in Short Pump, where she was told that she “had the right attitude for the bar” and was promptly put behind the stick as soon as she turned 21.
“I don’t know if the ‘bar attitude’ thing was good or bad,” she says, laughing. After Chuy’s, she moved on to Halligan’s in Shockoe Bottom. “That was probably the most eye-opening bartending experience ever,” she says. “I loved and hated that job with every fiber of my soul. It taught me to be tough, confident, to stand my ground — that this was my house. I got fast, efficient. And I had to learn to relate to all walks of life.”
After a stint at Fatty Smokes, she was offered the bar manager spot at Foo Dog, and the combination of pandemic timing and creative freedom opened the floodgates for the development of her flair-drenched style. She also started posting drink tutorials on TikTok. “I want to teach people to make cool cocktails for parties, or for special dates,” she says of her videos where colorful liquids pour through the air, good songs play and people learn a thing or two.“It’s educational content for home bartenders.”
Stuart is in her most natural state smiling and doing her thing behind the bar. A Foo Dog customer recently asked her to make a drink the color of her hair, and the Yuzu Talkin’ to Me — a yuzu-ginger moonshine version of a lemon drop with a punch of blue Curaçao — was born in an instant. It’s now one of the most popular drinks on the menu.
The Composer
Steve Yang, Brenner Pass and Black Lodge
A story on Steve Yang has to start with his success in the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild World Class competition, repeatedly placing as a finalist over the past four years among the top 100 bartenders in the country. His most recent competition entry, The Fine Bone, a citrusy gin and oolong-infused and -smoked concoction that he served with a hot towel and tea sandwiches, undoubtedly reveals his style.
While accolades speak to his skill, the soul of his work is too intricate and tender to be explained by an award, no matter how prestigious. Food and cooking are deep wells of inspiration for Yang, who occasionally makes pop-up kitchen appearances crafting dumplings and steamed buns — perfect little bites with flavors imparted by a childhood spent in a Chinese restaurant. Rather than tweaking cocktail recipes to pair with the food he loves, he goes straight for the food itself and develops from there. Black trumpet mushrooms, roasted pistachios, yogurt, soy sauce and lemon oil are all ingredients in his drink repertoire. One heavy hitter on the Brenner Pass list, The Devil Is a Lie, uses mascarpone to substitute for egg white.
With complex ideas, Yang is truly an artist. Pushing the craft beverage industry forward, he continues to work on what he hopes to see more of in the future: Asian-inspired flavors. “Outside of Japanese influences,” he qualifies, which are already widely present. “At the end of the day, keeping it fresh and making new flavors is fun.”
The Conjurer
Paul Halstead, JewFro
See your future in the purple, smoke-filled crystal ball — er, bubble — atop the Oshun’s Potion at JewFro, home of Paul Halstead’s cocktail sorcery. Experimentation and boundary-pushing are Halstead’s modus operandi. He managed the bar at two locations of the Michelin-starred Fiola (first in Washington, D.C., then in Miami) before heading to Richmond and having some fun with the Jingle Belle Christmas pop-up put on by the team who opened Jewfro. His time-intensive, house-made peanut butter rum was the star in a marshmallow-topped holiday delight there, and its success, along with his creative drive, landed him in conversations about the bar menu for the Jewish-African concept Jewfro. Halstead set out to develop cocktails that would mesh with the restaurant’s experience of marrying both cultures, incorporating curry, beets, sumac and other less utilized ingredients to complement the dining menu.
The fat-washed Elijah Craig bourbon and its cigar syrup sweetheart in the Elijah’s Ascension is a combination that makes Halstead proud. Like much of his menu, it’s got a hypnotic, magical element, too: smoke from a butterscotch-infused wood chip. “I want people to feel comfortable here, but open-minded, excited,” he says. “One of the main ideas behind the creation of the JewFro concept was to bring people together. It’s a safe place. We bring diverse groups of people in.”
