Today we’d like to introduce you to Leandro DiMonriva.
Leandro, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The story of how this all began is a little roundabout. It kind of started as a result of why I became a Bartender in the first place. At the time I was working as an assistant in the Film Industry, mainly on commercials, a few television and reality shows. Previously I had been an actor, but the daily grind of auditions really wore me down, it wasn’t something I could learn to love and so I had decided to take a break and look into other avenues.
After a couple of years working behind the scenes, I convinced myself I wanted to return to acting, and I needed a more flexible job. Another assistant I was working with had a second job at a nightclub, and he hot me in with him, so that’s how I started. I diligently worked my way up from the entry-level position of Barback and through a series of events I ended up at Cole’s French Dip where I learned to make cocktails and love the profession of Bartending.
I have been there ever since, and at some point, I decided to buckle down and master classic cocktails and learn everything I could about their history. The Educated Barfly came about because I began to really get itchy to make films. It seemed to me to be a really good way to merge two things that I was passionate about which are making movies and teaching people about cocktails.
While I am behind the bar, it is just my natural inclination to want to teach people about what they are drinking, and luckily people who love cocktails are very receptive to that. I found out that I was very good at talking about the History of the drinks as I made them for people and by and large people were interested. The history of classic cocktails is fascinating because it ties in so well with the history of America, to the stories of the people who built this country in the early days.
To be able to pick up a drink that they would have drunk is like stepping into a time machine. It’s amazing! The initial idea I had was for a television show about bartenders, and I set out to shoot a trailer as a proof of concept. I began by pitching the idea to friends to see who thought it was a good idea and would be willing to help. That I way, I assembled a team, and we shot a two-minute video to start pitching around.
I was so confident that we had such a great idea that I didn’t realize how difficult it might be to get off the ground. I was fortunate enough to have a couple of amazing and talented partners which were willing to see it through to the end with me. After pitching the idea around to some production companies, it was clear to me that although it was met with enthusiasm and interest the people.
I was pitching didn’t really see the value of what I was pitching in the way that I did. I knew that we were going to have to start smaller and that’s the idea for a YouTube channel came about. Making a YouTube channel was a great way to start small, pool our resources and be able to do something proactive. I felt that if we could build a large enough social network we could prove the value of what we were doing.
What I wanted to start with was cocktail tutorials, that seemed like the natural place to start. So I got together with my partners Andrew and Marius, and we started doing research. What became immediately apparent was that although there were a few cocktail channels out there most, if not all of them were done by cocktail enthusiasts and not industry professionals.
Initially, I couldn’t find one channel done by a person who worked as a bartender and so I thought there was a void which could be filled. The idea for the channel was to show people that they could make really great cocktails at home and on somewhat of a budget, that it is attainable. We decided that each episode would revolve around the history of the drink and focus on the technique of building them.
One of the most important things about a cocktail is presentation, for me, presentation is key because the first impression of the drink builds up the expectation of how it will taste. Cocktails should be beautiful, and so if someone wants to make cocktails well, there are a bunch of little details which should be attended to.
It was my ambition to show people these little tricks of technique so they too could make something at home as well if not better than what they would get at a high-end cocktail bar. I also wanted (and still do) to be the most comprehensive cocktail channel on the internet. I have learned A LOT of recipes over the years, and I am lucky to know and have worked with some of the top people in the industry.
So I wanted to not only share an insane amount of classics and modern classic cocktails but also to bring other bartenders as guests so they could show off their skills and people at home can truly learn from the best. And I think that takes us to the present day. I am very proud with what we have accomplished, and after a year we have grown bigger than anything I could have initially imagined. It really blows me away on a daily basis.
We’re now busily making plans for a few new segments, and I’m so happy that we have built a network of people who are engaged with what we are doing and speak to us on a daily basis. It turned out better than I could have hoped! Now the idea is to turn our channel into something of a cocktail network with a few different segments revolving around the cocktail industry.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think when you’re trying to make anything there are challenges that you encounter. We have tried a lot of things that haven’t worked out the way we thought or at all really. But the thing that is helpful is that we learn something valuable about each little failure that helps us to learn how to better what we are doing.
Everything we tried that didn’t work helped us hone the craft of what we are doing into a style that works for us today, so they were invaluable learning experiences. As of yet, we haven’t had anything too major to struggle with but some of the challenges that persist to this day were about learning how to build a YouTube channel that works. We had no idea how to run a channel when we began, or how analytics and SEO works.
So when you start, you’re really shouting into the void. For six months the growth was very slow, and you have no idea if you’re reaching people or if what you are doing is resonating with anyone. It really is tempting to quit because it just takes a while to catch on, so in that time we were constantly wondering if our content was any good. But that pushed us harder to figure out how to position videos, use tags and market ourselves. What we learned was invaluable, so I’m glad we stuck with it.
The Educated Barfly – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
So our company makes a show on YouTube called The Educated Barfly. It is a series of tutorials which teach how to make great cocktails at home and the history and technique behind them. I am the co-creator, co-producer, co-director and host of the show.
I am, I guess a pretty well known Bartender here in LA and I run the cocktail program at one of the oldest and most iconic bars in Los Angeles called Cole’s French Dip. What really sets us apart from others (I think) is that we focus on history and technique, and show people how to fuss over the important details of a drink when making them.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think my proudest achievement has been that we built a large network of subscribers in a relatively short amount of time and that they are so engaged with what we offer!
Contact Info:
- Website: theeducatedbarfly.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @theeducatedbarfly
- Facebook: facebook.com/theeducatedbarfly
- Twitter: @educatedbarfly
- YouTube: youtube.com/theeducatedbarfly
Image Credit:
Marius Haugan and Jon Endow
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