Q&A: Leandro DiMonriva aka The Educated Barfly

If you’ve ever searched online for a cocktail recipe, there’s a good chance you’ve come across The Educated Barfly. What started as a YouTube series from actor-turned-bartender Leandro DiMonriva featuring classic cocktails has transformed into an ever-expanding encyclopedia of bartending expertise. Since publishing his first video in 2017 (on the quintessential Gimlet), DiMonriva’s passion for cocktail culture and scholarship have helped turn The Educated Barfly into a fountain of behind-the-bar knowledge.

We spoke with DiMonriva about his experience behind the bar, translating it into a trustworthy source of cocktail know-how, and what he’d like to see more of in the year to come. (Also check out his picks for five classic cocktails every home bartender should know.)

Imbibe: You started your career in the film industry—how did you end up getting into bartending?

Leandro DiMonriva: That is a very long story. But essentially, I was working as a production assistant and as an art department coordinator for a few years. That’s actually where I met my current producing partner, Marius Haugan. But I was getting really sick of it. I was spending 20-hour days on set, mainly working commercials, and I thought maybe I could be an actor instead. It seemed like anybody could be a commercial actor. And when I started getting some gigs for that, I couldn’t keep up with the PA work. I was lucky enough to find a barback job at a place called King King on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

At the time [around 2007], it was really difficult to get a bar job. You really had to know somebody. You could make a lot of money in a short period of time, so those jobs were in high demand. I was working two nights a week there. But it was a nightclub mostly, so we weren’t making craft cocktails really. We were churning out vodka Red Bulls to folks lined up 10 deep at the bar. But it was great training for where I finally landed.

“I was lucky enough to land at Cole’s, where I had access to a lot of great mentors. I got a real education on cocktails…”

And where was that?

Cole’s French Dip, which was probably one of the best bars to land in, because in the back was a bar called The Varnish, which was sort of ground zero for a lot of the most important bartending going on in LA at the time. The Varnish was owned by Eric Alperin, who came from Little Branch in New York City. He was working with Sasha Petraske and Cedd Moses to really bring some glamour back to downtown. So I was lucky enough to land at Cole’s, where I had access to a lot of great mentors. I got a real education on cocktails, yes, but also their history, and how it connected to the larger history of the world. That’s what really fascinated me.

Is that what you were thinking about when you launched The Educated Barfly?

Yeah, eventually, after working at Cole’s French Dip for about 10 years—running the bar for four of them—I was thinking a lot about where I wanted this career to go. I couldn’t see myself behind the bar for much longer; I had a young daughter at home. And what I really loved about bartending was talking to people, providing that hospitality element, which was always more important to me than my own reputation as a cocktail maker. We tried to make a TV show, produced a whole trailer and everything. There was a lot of interest in the idea. But they just wanted to buy it off me—I wouldn’t actually get to be involved. So I decided I’d just do it myself, and we put it on YouTube.

So you’ve been in the bar business for nearly two decades, and producing videos for more than six years now (with quite the impressive following, no less). How has the cocktail landscape changed since then?

You know, we never set out to be the most popular channel, or even to get the most “views.” We never wanted to be one of those channels that was, like, melting Jolly Ranchers into watermelons, or dumping vodka and schnapps into a bathtub. Those videos do get a lot of views. But we did want to be the most comprehensive cocktail channel on YouTube. We wanted to be the most well-informed. And we wanted to look at it from a historical perspective and a technique perspective, which wasn’t necessarily happening in 2017 when we started. Now, I think especially with the pandemic, so many bartenders were stuck at home and starting YouTube channels—which is honestly incredibly inspiring to me. It’s a wonderful thing. But it did have me thinking about how to shift my approach since there was such a huge influx of cocktail content from other accounts.

At this point, though, you’ve built up an almost encyclopedic collection of cocktail recipes, history, and technique. Does that change how you think about what comes next?

I’ve been wrestling with this question. Like, I wanted to be the IMDb of cocktails. Even now, on our website, people can go there and basically submit me their cocktail recipes. And if it’s not completely ridiculous or a joke, I’ll actually make it. I’ll publish it on our website, because I do want to have the world’s largest collection of cocktails. So even if I’m not filming a video for every one [of the cocktails], I want to document them. I’d also like to start expanding into e-commerce, and providing access to some really good-quality bartending equipment. And I want to start bringing in some other voices, to further integrate other people in the industry into the videos on our channel. 

“The thing about The Educated Barfly that nobody really knows is that it was never really a reference to myself.”

Where do you draw your inspiration from? How do you decide what topic to cover next?

The thing about The Educated Barfly that nobody really knows is that it was never really a reference to myself. The whole idea was that we’re helping educate the person on the other side of the bar. I saw so much talent around me as a bartender and was so inspired. I always want to highlight what those people are doing. I make an effort to travel around, visit a lot of bars, meet people. I exhausted my own knowledge probably two years into doing this. So to look at the larger cocktail culture, and the history of cocktails, and choose what I want to learn to become better and more well-versed in—I love that I get to explore and share all of that. I really do this because I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge.

What do you think is on the horizon for this year in the cocktail world?

I can’t say what will happen, but I can say what I’d like to see more of. I’d like to see the interest in tequila continue to grow. I’d love to see spirits like charanda become more normalized. It’s a rum that actually sort of predates rum. It’s been made in Michoacán, Mexico, since the 1500s, and can only be made there, where the sugarcane is grown in this red clay soil that only occurs at this particular elevation. A lot of producers are making it locally, but they’re not exporting. And many of them are pivoting to more lucrative industries like growing avocados. I would hate to see this spirit go extinct because it’s truly incredible. I’d also love to see rum more broadly gain attention and understanding. I think it’s the most diverse category of spirit on the planet.

Is there a drink you reach for once the cameras stop rolling?

Yes, Malört and a pilsner! As far as cocktails go, Old Fashioneds always have a special place in my heart. It’s such an easy template to customize and play with. I once calculated that in my 10 years at Cole’s French Dip I had made something like 350,000 Old Fashioneds. I’d say I’m pretty good at it by now.