Check Out Bryan Tetorakis’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Tetorakis. 

Hi Bryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Started working in kitchens when I was 15 and decided I wanted to become a chef. I enrolled in a local vocational school (Lorain County JVS) to pursue culinary arts. After high school, attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC, where I continued to grow as a young chef. With larger ambitions, I moved up to DC to join a kitchen that specialized in modern technique as well as charcuterie, which at the time was very interested in both. They also had the most amazing bar team and were doing next-level cocktails that I had never had the chance to experience. After work, the whole staff went for cocktails, an idea foreign to me as I was your typical beer and a shot guy after a long kitchen shift. They bought me my first Manhattan, and I was hooked! 

I became obsessed with the idea of craft cocktails and began making them at home. I would buy any book the bar manager recommended and began to build a small home bar. A new restaurant was getting ready to open, and they were in search of a literal “bar chef” this seemed the perfect transition to use my culinary skills behind the bar. Prior to opening, I was sent to the Columbia Room, the best bar in DC to apprentice under Derek Brown, who was also consulting on the restaurant’s beverage and spirits. The formal training and outside the box concept really opened my eyes to the possibilities of making cocktails my new career path. After a year and a half, that small bar in the back of the restaurant earned a James Beard Nomination for Outstanding Bar Program. 

After several years in DC, I decided to jump coasts and head out west. Moving to San Diego, I worked as the AGM of Polite Provisions for my two-year stay before moving up to Los Angeles. Spent about 5 years in Los Angeles, most of which as the General Manager of Cole’s and The Varnish. After Covid restrictions loosened, I returned to the company (Pouring With Heart) and reopened both of the bars. They asked me if I was interested in helping reopen and rebrand a couple bars that were in the same building, Slipper Clutch and Bar Clacson. Slipper Clutch was a Punk Rock/ Hardcore bar with draft cocktails, and Bar Clacson was to be rebranded into a Midwest Cocktail Dive Bar, so naturally, I was a perfect fit! 

Life in Los Angeles was wonderful, but my wife and I had always wanted to move back to Cleveland to be closer to family and start one of our own. We moved back in October of ’21 and linked up with longtime friend Will Hollingsworth to assist the reopening of Spotted Owl. Being my favorite bar in town, I was happy to assist. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
My life and career has been like navigating the roads and potholes of Cleveland. If you are driving in a straight line, you’re doing something wrong. 

Right out of college, I was met with the recession. Charlotte, being a banking town laid off a significant amount of employees, and most restaurants had to brace for impact. The market was flooded with the culinary school pumping out graduates, and everyone was expendable, and competition was fierce. I was very lucky to be working with a hotel group at the time and had a decent level of job security. 

Swapping career paths from chef to bartender led to many interesting challenges. The etiquette of the front of house was much different than the rambunctious group of chefs I was used to. Memorizing recipes was also an extreme challenge. As a cook, we make food by feel and seldom recipe. My fast track to be an actual bartender, skipping being a barback led me to constantly playing catch up and having to learn on the fly. There was so much to learn even being an avid enthusiast, but the amount of knowledge required at even the most basic of cocktail bars was tremendous. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work in specifically cocktails. Anything where I’m blending more than one liquid with flavors. 

My skill set is incredibly diverse from the different styles of bars I’ve worked with. I’m known for my savory concoctions and using almost a food palate for drinks being dubbed the insufferable moniker “chef tender.” A cute term given to me with love, but later became unbearable as the term evolved to become a bartender in a leather apron with tweezer and 30-minute cocktails. 

I’ve worked in everything from high-volume cocktail bars, Japanese-style cocktail dens, “speakeasies,” cocktail dives, and modernist bars (think The Aviary). I can make you a great highball as well as the best martini you will ever have. 

I would say I was most proud of my time at The Varnish. I’ve always held the Milk & Honey lineage in the highest regard as they were bars I looked up to from early in my career until now. The impeccable quality of cocktails, the attention to detail in every aspect of service and production were unmatched. I learned a lot in every bar I’ve ever worked in, but the knowledge from running Cole’s and The Varnish really shaped who I am today. I learned a ton about being a host, being a leader, and running a successful business. 

The one thing that sets me apart is programming. I have opened (and reopened) about 7 bars in the past two years, and a lot needed a new look. I love taking a space and idea and creating a cocktail identity to it. It’s extremely challenging, and my favorite thing is to dig deep and really find the perfect harmony. 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Humility and gratitude. There is so much ego in the food and beverage industry as well as toxic leadership, and I hope to help change the narrative. I worked in the “old school” kitchens where you were constantly berated and belittled, threatened, and hazed. So many wear it as a badge of honor, but we truly never looked at it as a problem until now. 

I’m very proud to do what I do for a living and even more proud to be able to teach others to grow into professionals themselves. I was very fortunate to have so many amazing mentors to show me the new way and how to get the best results out of everyone. 

Respect is a mutual term, and it has to be earned as it’s certainly not a given. 

Contact Info:

• Website: spottedowlbar.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yescheftender/

Image Credits
Heidi Rolf