After Gregory Rodriguez got injured during his college football career, he was left to ponder what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Looking for work, his cousin got him a job as a barback working in an Irish pub in Miami. Rodriguez quickly learned the amount of hard work that goes along with the industry, but he also realized that he wanted to stay in the industry and he eventually worked his way up to bartender. "I came to realize bartending is the one thing that I really enjoy and I was pretty good at," he says.
Today, Rodriguez is the bar manager at Oak & Ivy at Container Park. He moved to Las Vegas in 2014 for a change of scenery. Working at bars along the Las Vegas Strip for a couple years, in 2016 he jumped at the opportunity to work at Oak & Ivy.
"This was the exact opportunity that I needed and wanted," he says. "I could really express myself creatively here. "It's the most unique bar I've ever worked in—it's a tiny bar with like eight seats with over 250 different spirits inside a shipping container."
After all his years of bartending, Rodriguez confidently labels himself as a "cocktail nerd." He's always done a ton of research on the subject, consuming as much knowledge as possible. You can feel the passion behind his words and see the passion behind his pours. Rodriguez is a bona fide lover of all things cocktails and bartending. "I'm doing it because I'm really incredibly passionate. It's not about the money, the glamour. For me, the perfect world is—I'm clocking in every day and I do the perfect shift at Oak & Ivy."
The Savory Coast
While Oak & Ivy is technically labeled an American whiskey bar, Rodriguez likes to say it's a full-on cocktail bar. Passion and imagination lies behind each handcrafted cocktail. One such example is the Rodriguez-created The Savory Coast. "The Savory Coast is a martini variation," he says. "I found inspiration from James Bond. What if James Bond was in a boat going down the coast and he sees his rendezvous waiting for him with a martini in hand. What would that martini be?" It's a blend of Grey Goose vodka, Fino sherry, local honey and a few spritzes of a house-made bay leaf tincture. Stirred, not shaken.
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