Featured Mavryk: Jay Stapleton

We sat down with Jay Stapleton, he's bartender at San Diego's most popular Whiskey Bars, Seven Grand. He began his bartending career 16 years ago and plans to continue on this path for years to come. His knowledge on the industry is impressive to say the least, and he provided us with a few cocktail tips to keep in our back pocket. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Jay Stapleton beyond the man behind the bar?

I’m Jay, I moved to San Diego around 6 years ago from London. Ive been working in Seven Grand pretty much ever since.

Why do you do what you do?

I was asked to ‘work the bar’ at a friend’s art show about 16 years ago, which involved me standing behind a table opening cans of lager and cracking jokes, I had the time of my life and have been a bartender ever since. I was at university so I got a bar job to pay the bills and couldn’t wait to get out of class and start work. I still get that buzz stepping behind the bar or setting up for a shift, wondering what kind of characters you’ll meet or which direction the night will take. A bar is a very unique ecosystem and each shift is different, it’s such an interesting thing to watch. 

No matter what I’ve gone through in those 16 years the bar has always managed to give me a platform to be social, confident and focused. It has given me so many life skills that I would have gone without, had I chosen a different path.

Bartender VS Mixologist. What's the difference and where do you fall?

Bartender. The title mixologist started out as tongue in cheek term, which nowadays people tend to take a little too seriously. Out of the hundreds of tasks a bartender is doing at any given moment behind the bar, mixing the drink is probably the most straightforward. So to focus on that part and name the whole profession after it is doing a disservice to the craft. A mixologist will make you a drink, but a bartender will make your whole night.

If you had to grab one bottle in a zombie apocalypse - which would you take with you and why?

I have thought about this question way too much over the past five years, and at Seven Grand we actually have a zombie apocalypse procedure. This basically involves us each grabbing a bottle and watching everyone die from the safety of our smoking patio #Hospitality! I would grab Highland Park Freya — a sweet, smoky, and fruity malt. Just a beautifully balanced whisky. It would be like listening to classical music during the carnage.Pick your poison. What is your go-to drink of choice?

Whiskey is pretty much always in my glass. If I’m at home i’m generally making Manhattan’s for me and my partner. It’s such a great drink to mess around with. Replace one ingredient and you totally change the direction of the drink. I like mine with an Islay Scotch {Rob Roy} or with a splash of Absinthe and Benedictine {De La Louisiane}.

(Seven Grand San Diego)

What is one drink everyone should know how to make? (And how do you make it?)

The Old Fashioned. It’s currently the oldest cocktail known and spawned the entire ‘aromatics’ category of drinks. I make mine with a raw, un-bleached sugar cube, 3 dashes of an aromatic bitters (such as local San Diego company R&D No.7), muddle that into a paste, add a lengthy 2 ounces of whiskey, I tend to go for a high proof Bourbon like Russell’s Reserve. Add ice and stir, but only for about 7-10 seconds as the drink will dilute whilst you’re drinking it and you want it to start out pretty pissed off and strong. Then garnish with a lemon and orange zest, which sounds like overkill but using both really gives the drink a bouquet of citrus zest when you go in for your first sip.

If you could drink with anyone, dead or alive, who would that be?

I’m going to cheat a little and say two people as they tend to come as a pair.... My Mum and Dad. It’s a sentimental answer but they’re 9,000 miles away so I don’t get to drink with them as much as I’d like. When I go home I always take a few bottles of whiskey with me and we sit around every night drinking, laughing and putting the world to rights. It’s honestly one of my favourite things to do.

---

Also in The Journal