Ken Gray, Inside the Shaker
As one’s thirties mildew into one’s forties many bartenders listen to their stiff backs and sore livers and begin to explore other avenues within the industry. This often infers bar ownership, consulting, and brand management. Ken Gray’s casual west coast demeanor doesn’t subdue a charismatic ability to relate. His laurels have led him from high volume and fine dining in San Francisco, to the manager and head bartender at Ward III in Tribeca, and now to a bevy of post-drink-slingin’ options.
“I’ve gotta TV show called Inside the Shaker over at BRIC arts media. It was actually through a bar that I consulted with, Bed Vyne. I went on one of BRIC’s shows (BK Live) to promote Bed Vyne and make some cocktails on air. Afterwards, I got to talking to one of their producers who was looking to do more cocktail stuff. I told him that I knew a bunch of people and could introduce him around. Then low and behold he emailed me asking if I could come back and do BK Live on a regular basis. So I did that for a little while and it turned out the executive producer was a huge cocktail nerd. He would talk to me after the episodes and ask questions like, ‘Hey, I really like Boulevadiers. What’s your recipe? How do you do this and that? What’s the technique?’ And then after a couple of months he asked me, ‘If you had a show, what would you do? Would you wanna make cocktails on TV?’ And I said, ‘No, honestly that might be kind of boring. I would wanna go out and talk to people… Talk to bartenders about stuff we actually discuss like techniques, new products, new bars, stories, and all that kind of stuff.’ He told me to run with it. So we got six episodes of Inside the Shaker in the can. Shooting the show has been a lot of fun. You know if I could be the Bourdain of booze that’d be fantastic.”
Ken’s career started in the Seattle area. “I started bartending in the late nineties, early 2000’s. It was the easiest thing to do working the shortest hours and making the most money. I was going to animation school on and off down in San Francisco and that’s where I really got into bartending probably around the mid 2000’s. Initially, I was just working in bars to help me go to school, but after I graduated, I realized that animation’s really tedious. I enjoyed the story telling part of it, but I didn’t really enjoy sitting in front of a computer. I believe I was 30 when I graduated, so I didn’t want to be hanging out with 19-year-olds drinking Mountain Dew and eating Cheetos all day. The cocktail scene was really taking off in those years especially in San Francisco. My then mentor now good buddy Alex Bachman had gotten his masters in the history in spirits and booze. He was one of those guys who would say, ‘Oh French 75, let me tell you the history of where that comes from and why it’s called that…’ We were working at this really high-end restaurant, Lafitte so we had access to all these crazy machines.”
The qualities of history and experimentation has been an element throughout Ken’s career, and is a theme he is working to bring to his show, “I get to learn something every show. Every time I talk to somebody there’s something that I figure out or that clicks for me. Especially when we visit a distillery I get a little more clarity about the chemical processes. Yesterday, I was doing some editing for the Kings County Distillery episode and it’s just a beautiful space in the Navy Yard that’s two hundred years old. There are these rickhouses up on the top floor that used to be where the sailors had there dance hall. Anyways, I get something out of it. I hope the people watching will be entertained and be able to learn. That’s what I like about Bourdain is that he brings a little history and politics to his show.
The influence of Ken’s San Francisco experience and his relaxed but sincere personality begs the question as to why he’s been in New York running one of the bed rock bars of Tribeca. “I met a girl (Ariana Vitale). She was one of the first people to bring the mixology stuff to San Diego, owned her own place, and after 2008 moved to Portland. Three or four years ago we both were at Speed Rack in Seattle. We actually didn’t meet that night, but the next morning we went to a Japanese whiskey tasting, saw each other, chatted a bit, and sat next to each other during the whole thing. There was a Bowmor tasting later on that night so we spent the day together. And the rest, ya know, is history.”
Bartending is a profession notorious for destroying relationships. Sometimes if you double the equation it can negate the complications but sometimes it can double the speed of the whirlwind. “I mean the difficulties are probably that you drink to much. But, honestly, it’s the only way I’ve found that works. Being on a similar schedule. Where we both are gonna get off at two or four in the morning, we can go to the diner and have dinner together and it not be weird. I’ve dated great people, but when I’m getting home at four in the morning and they’re getting up to go work at seven... it’s tough. And they can get angry with you because you don’t wake up to go do stuff on the weekends but you’re really fucking tired. So yeah, for me the only way that really works is to find somebody that’s in the business and understands.
“When we met, she was already planning to move out to New York. So we did long distance for eight months. I came out to visit a few times. I had a buddy from Seattle, Charles Veitch who I had worked with and who was working at The NoMad. He introduced me to the bartenders at NoMad and a bunch of us went out drinking afterwards. Will Peet and I hit it off and he was adamant, ‘You’re moving out here. My roomate’s moving out the month.’ That’s where I still live today. We moved our girlfriends in, we got two couples in a two bedroom, and it’s cheap as hell… It’s worked out really well.”
It can be difficult once you’ve established yourself in one town to uproot and start over again in a whole new city on the opposite end of the country. “I mean overall, people are people. It’s the same everywhere. New York just has more of everything. There’s more assholes; there’s more amazing people; more dickheads; more geniuses. But the bar community is small across the board. After you’ve done it for a couple years, it’s not that hard to meet everybody. And that’s been the fun thing about coming New York. I get to meet people like Pam Wiznitzer in person who I’d heard and read about and now where we’re on a first name basis and hang out… Sometimes it’s easy to see people with starry eyes. ‘Oh that’s a Startender who’s really famous. Oh my god.’”
Ken’s network of colleagues and reputation has helped him transition to different cities, as well as provided consulting and development opportunities. “Consulting’s fun… well, it can be fun. I mean it’s great in that somebody’s paying you to tell them what you think about things. But it sucks sometimes when you go back 6 months later and realize they didn’t listen to anything you said. That’s the hard thing about just going in and consulting when you don’t actually have your hands on things. You just have to look at it in a different way, ‘Hey, I’m here and willing to give you the best… I’m gonna set you up the best way I can, but if you don’t listen to me then there’s nothing I can do about it.’ That’s one of the hard things about running a space it’s always personnel. You can love something and have a passion for it, but relating that to someone else and having them take ownership and pride in it is always a test.”
A resume like Ken’s suggests a feasible future in ownership, “My girlfriend and I talk about it a lot. We’ve got three or four different concepts that we’re always kind of detailing out, getting drink names and cocktail specs for… When we have time off we’re going to second hand stores and antique places buying things, ‘Ya know that would really work either as a utility piece or something to hang on the wall.’ We’ve learned a lot and have made a lot of connections over the years. So it feels like we can totally do it, but owning a place is a lot of work especially after the last… well, I’ve been managing bars pretty much my entire career. You work somewhere for six months and they ask, ‘So hey, uhh, you wanna take on some more responsibility?’ I’ve been at Ward III for two years… it’s great, I love it. It’s a fantastic bar. But that being said I’ve been organizing events like Whiskey Monday’s, doing inventory, and then bartending three, four nights a week on top of consulting and the show. It’s a lot. I love it, but… you get tired after awhile. It’s a tough business, but when you do it well and you make people happy, it’s a good time. I think at the end of the day we want to go back to the Northwest. It’s nice when you don’t have to force it. Who knows... if the stars align, we could open a place tomorrow.”
For the time being, Ken is focusing on expressing the arcana of booze culture creatively through his show, “I remember getting done with some of the shoots and thinking to myself, ‘That was the most fun day of work I’ve ever had.’ We did one about South American spirits. I had Jared Sasso (from Pisco Porton) and my girlfriend (Ariana Vitale, brand ambassador for Novo Fogo Cachaça) come in and talk about Pisco and Cachaça. It’s super easy I just have to guide things in a way where people who know nothing about the subject or people who have a PhD on the topic are able to get something out of these shows.
Ken’s personable proficiency has garnered a number of opportunities for the next chapter of his life. Juggling these options while prospects solidify can take its toll, but keep an eye out for this gentleman’s next move.
“There’s something great about bartenders, if you’re in this industry after awhile there’s something about you that wants to take care of people. And I mean your job is hospitality. Your job is to have a chat with somebody; cheer somebody up; celebrate with somebody; find the lonely people at the bar and get them together. There’s something about you that really does love people, and the people in this industry are just fun, amazing people to hang out with.”