Josh Davis, Founder of Brown and Balanced, Chicago

After years of not seeing people who looked like him as a bartender, Josh Davis decided to create a community for minority mixologists called Brown and Balanced. Now, Josh has won multiple accolades and is an industry powerhouse for creative and unique serves as well as a beacon for what hospitality means in a world rife with change. We sat down with Josh to learn more about how he got into the industry, why highlighting Black bartenders is just the beginning, and where he’s going next.

It actually happened by accident. It really did. I have a little bit of a checkered past; I was doing some things I probably shouldn't have been doing. After having my oldest son, it kind of turned me into a responsible adult for a change. So I was like, I gotta do something; I have to be a provider for him. I don't need to get in any trouble. I don't need to do anything stupid anymore. So what can I do?

A friend of mine had some contracts, and he was head of security at a few nightclubs in Chicago. And so I started off as a door guy and bouncer. That's how I got into the industry. So at a club I was working at one night, the owner said, “Hey, man, I need somebody just to go on this back bar. Somebody called off.” There were five bars in there, and it was the slow bar. I told him, “Dude, I don't know how to make drinks. I know how to drink. I could do that. I could drink all night. We got that covered. I don't know how to make no drinks.” He was like, “We’ll put you on the back bar. I'll put the waitress back there with you. You'll be fine. Nobody will come back there. They probably just be beers and shots. No big deal.” I thought, “Well, fine. I don't have to break up any fights tonight…I can just go back there and relax; talk to some girls. Hey, that’s a great night for me.” Right?

It was the busiest night of my career to date.

I've never been that busy ever since. I always tell people I subbed Long Island Iced Teas since they used to come pre-batched in 750s. So it had all the spirits for that already. So all I had to do in nightclubs for that was pour the Coke and top with that. Everybody got a Long Island Iced Tea that night. I didn't know what I was making. If you wanted a gin and tonic, cool. I poured a Long Island with a tonic on it. If you wanted a Rum and Coke, cool. You got a Long Island. You wanted a Hennessy Red Bull — Long Island and Red Bull. I didn't know what I was doing. I hope nobody died of alcohol poisoning that night because I had zero idea what I was doing. I literally just got thrown in the fire and just had to work.

But I thought, “If I make this amount of money, and I have this much fun, and I don't know what I'm doing, maybe if I take it seriously, I can turn this into something.” I enrolled in bartending school that next Monday. Three weeks later, I was bartending at another nightclub in Chicago called the Players Club. And that's how I started.

I am a hospitality professional. That's how I look at it. I'm about service first. I tell everybody all the time, “You can teach anyone how to make a drink.” Even if they are not a bartender. But with the right person, you can teach anybody just to follow a recipe. You know cocktails are just like cooking — if you follow the recipe, for the most part, you really can't mess it up.

So to me, I'm more worried about your experience. I want you to always walk into my bar, my event, or wherever I’m mixing drinks at, and when you walk back out, I want you to feel better when you leave than you did when you came in. You know, in the last few years, people are just stressed out. I've always been about service before, but 2020 really showed us all the problems and mental health people are dealing with. And there's so much going on in the world, and people are affected by that. If you can come in for an hour and order two cocktails, and you sit there, and you forget about all your problems outside — I did my job. It’s not about what's in the glass; it’s about what I'm bringing to you around the glass.

It's about connecting and meeting people. I think a lot of times in our industry, because we're so competitive and everybody wants to be the best in everything, some of that collaborative energy has gone away. And I think now for the pandemic, people are starting to get back to the essence of what hospitality is. It's collaborative. It's fun. It’s making sure that we're giving our guests, our customers, and our clients the best possible experience you can give.

Brown and Balanced really started because there was a very big disparity of people who look like me. I've been going to bars for a long time. And where I live is in Southside Chicago, and I am proud of my city, even though we got a little bad rap on my side of town. But, I'm proud of my city. I love my city— it’s tattooed on my arm. And at the bars I went to all the time, I saw all different types of bartenders. I saw the old school barmaids, I saw the young bartender, I saw older bartenders, and I saw the lounge bartender.

When I got into this industry, we started going to all the cocktail events around the country. It seemed like what a bartender was portrayed as was a young white male with a bunch of tattoos, a mustache, tight jeans, with suspenders on, and the bow tie. And I was like, “Well, I don't look like that.” But I think I'm a pretty good bartender, and I know there are a lot more people who like me that work in this industry because hospitality is built inside Black people. Because when we were brought here, we were forced to be the chefs, the bartenders, and servers, and all the hospitality is just built inside of us to be that way. So why am I not seeing enough of us?

I started meeting people. There was a group of us, maybe about 10-12 of us from around the country, including Tiffanie Barriere, Aaron Joseph, and myself. Just a bunch of us where we all came to know each other, and we became friends and bounced ideas off each other. And it didn't seem like enough. I was just like, “It's gotta be more. I know it is. I know it's more.”

I started working with Lush Life Productions in late 2016, early 2017. I traveled the country with them, doing all their pop-up events. And I was the only Black person teaching, but there were a lot of Black bartenders in the crowd. So one night, I had a crazy idea of doing a Black bar takeover in a city. So we go to a city, whatever city it is, I'm gonna do Black bartenders, Black chef, Black DJ. And we're just going to take over a bar and show our culture to the bar.

I feel like with a lot of events, we have to adjust ourselves to different cultures, which is totally fine. But there's nothing for us to make us stand out and show we do. So I decided we're gonna have some Hip Hop, we're gonna have a dope time, with good food. We're just going to show what we do, what I do in my backyard when I'm hosting at home. We’re gonna make it a cookout.

And it was a crazy idea. I didn't think it was gonna work. I didn't think it would take on this life as long as it has. On August 2, 2017, me and Micah Anderson did it at Shoals in Dallas, Texas. We have six bottles. That was it. We have branched out since then. Shout out to George Dickel — thank them for believing in us early when nobody else did. We literally had six bottles, and we threw the best party of the week, in my opinion. And from that to now, coming up on our five-year anniversary, it has grown in leaps and bounds in ways I never saw it happening. To me, it's become a staple in the industry; it has become something that's very important. To me personally, it answered the industry, and it's the best party in the industry. I think we’re rivaling the Bacardi parties. I'm gonna try to get on their level one day.

Our bar is like Cheers. Our bar is a very heavily personality-driven bar. We have about seven bartenders. So basically, you get one bartender every day of the week, and you might get somebody twice in a week. We do have cocktail menus and just basic classics. We didn't want to dive too deep into our cocktail menu because we always want the bartenders to have creativity. So when you come in, I’ll say, “Hey, I'm Josh. How are you doing?” And they’re gonna say, “Can I see a menu?” I'm gonna say, “Hey, just tell me what you like. Give me flavors you like. Let me create something personalized just for you.”

And I think that's the one thing that separates our bar from the other ones in the area. Everybody's so cocktail menu focused. We want to be off the cuff; we want you to have an original feeling. We want you to have just a great time and want something just for you. You're not going to get it anywhere else. People say, “Well, what if you're not here? Can I come back and get this?” No, because when you come back and see Lisa, or Sherry, or Ashley, or Candice, or any of our bartenders, you'll get a whole different experience. You'll get a different thing. So that's kind of our focus at our bar. It's all about creativity and just having fun.

I mean, that's all we want to do — we want you to have a good time. So many bars have gotten so far away from having a good time. Everybody is so focused on education and knowing everything so much that we forgot the essence of what bartenders are. I mean, Sam Malone is my favorite bartender of all time…I never saw Sam make a drink. But everybody had a good time; his bar was full. So he was doing something right. That's what my focus always is. And we don't want to hinder anybody's creativity. Our bar is all about creatives and having fun.

We just started a series where we have Black artists come in every three months. We rotate the photos in our bar out, and all the pictures and all the aesthetics and our bar, we roll those out to the artists. And when the artist comes in on their first night to unveil all the artwork, we create cocktails that night for them.

The Boulevardier. That's the test for me. If you can't make a Boulevardier, I probably don't want to drink at your bar. I don't care where I'm at, what city I'm in; that's gonna be always my go-to just because that lets me know the bartender has some skills. If you can make that, and if you can make it close, I'm not a critiquer like that. If it’s close and it tastes okay, I'm happy. But if your personality comes through even more, even if you don't know. I love seeing a rookie bartender stumble over it. I see them run to the bathroom because I know they went to look at their phone and look up what a Boulevardier is, and that's okay. But the effort is what I like to see, and then we can coach you through the rest of the way.

For others, I love to make Old Fashioneds. I love everything brown, so Old Fashioneds, Manhattan's, you know what I mean? I think those are also a true test; that tells me that the bartender cares. If you know those classics, that lets me know that you actually care about what you're doing. The bartender is not a hustler; it is not just something you're doing to pass the time. You're just not here to get tips. You actually care about what you put in the glass in front of the clients.

If you can do that. I'm good. I can sit here all night with you.

The Bureau Bar and Restaurant I love — my brother Kenny Johnson is the owner there. It’s a Black-owned restaurant. Soule is a black-owned restaurant in the West Loop. You have Windy City Ribs in the South Loop. M Lounge. There are so many places. I can name places all day. The Park Supper Club on 55th Street, right in the neighborhood. XS Tennis is a tennis facility, which is where we're doing the Bridgeton Experience; they're actually in the process of procuring a liquor license. So there'll be events and things happening there. I'm just all about anything Black-owned; I'm gonna push everybody to it.

This is what I love about my city — it's such a big lounge, bar city. So State Street kind of runs through the middle of the city and divides east and west in Chicago. You can start at 75th and State, and you can just go from there all the way to the lakefront, which encompasses about 30 blocks. And it's literally bars and lounges all up and down the street. It's all Black-owned. Most of them have been here for 30, 40, 50 years, and they've been passed down generationally. It'll take you two or three visits to hit all the bars here, but Bureau Bar, M Lounge, 16th Street (of course), Park Supper Club — those are all really, really nice places in the South Loop in Downtown that are all Black-owned. You're gonna get some great service at, great cocktails, and great people.

With a home bartender, the most important thing is to have variety on your bar. When I was building my bar in my basement two years ago, I would go every Friday, and I would buy different bottles. Even though I'm not drinking much, one Friday, it'd be a vodka. One Friday, it’d be a gin. One Friday, it’d be a cognac and then a rum and so on.

And that's how I built my home bar. Once I started to get all my base spirits, I started focusing on the liqueurs. You need to have great mixers and great liqueurs on your home bar. And then start playing around with fresh juices; I'm squeezing and juicing everything. I don't buy orange juice from the store anymore. I squeeze it fresh, just like my lemon and lime juice. So I think that's the best way to get started to build your bar at home and just build some quality drinks at home. You can definitely do that.

You gotta have good base spirits and great mixers. You need to make sure you have some Campari, Grand Marnier, Aperol, and a really good triple sec like Cointreau. Once you have all of that, you can try to play around with the different flavors and find what you like.

You gotta be crazy as hell. This industry is not for everyone. I think if you're not naturally a people person, you should not work in this industry. I love bars where I can get a great cocktail, right? But sometimes, it's so technical that it's super stuffy. And I'm not enjoying myself with the bartender. So I really feel that, while the cocktail was great, my experience wasn't.

So sometimes I rather go somewhere where the cocktail probably needs a little work, but my experience was better. I really think that the main skill you gotta have you have to be able to talk to people, and you have to be a great multitasker. If you're not a multitasker, this is not for you. Because I'm shaking one drink. I'm stirring one drink. I'm talking to a person over here. Taking care of the register over there. I'm putting out a fire over here. I'm telling the DJ to turn the music down. Multitaskers and people-people are the best people to work with. If you're not that, this might not be for you.

I won Bartender of the Year recently. I had no idea I was going to be nominated. I found out I was nominated after I found out that I was one of three finalists. Then I found out who nominated me, and I was humbled. I never got into this industry for any accolades. I never got into this industry to be known or to be doing interviews. I just love what I do. You know what I mean? So to get that recognition, it felt really good. Winning the award also came on the one-year anniversary of my father's passing. So that week was so emotional. It was just crazy.

It was our first in-person Brown and Balanced event in three years. We were doing virtual events. But we came back with Bartenders Weekend this year, and they had an in-person event. We blew it out of the water, left San Diego, went straight to Las Vegas, and won the award. So it still hasn't really sunk in. It was a lot of emotion. It was a lot of fun. I'm appreciative of those who nominated me; I thank them both all the time. And I really feel like, “Okay, well, I accomplished this. Now I need to accomplish something else.” I need to continue whatever I did to get me to this point. Now I need to go into overdrive because I want to see somebody who saw me on that stage be on that stage in the future.

I was authentically myself. That was the one thing that I made a point to say in my speech, I was me. My father raised me to never conform, never fall in line with everybody else. I'm not a follower. I'm a leader; I do my own thing. Even if people don't like it, that's okay. As long as I can look myself in the mirror, and my kids love me — I come back to the hood, and they still love me — I'm good. And that's just how I typically move. A friend of mine was at the event. She said, “Another bartender saw that you got up there with a pair of Jordans on, and you didn't have a suit on. You have some Jordans on; you got a Death Row Records t-shirt on. You were authentically Josh the whole way through, and look what you accomplished. Somebody's watching that, and they're gonna see they can do that.” And that means more to me than winning the award, to be honest with you. So that was dope.

It still was a great, great thing. From that, opportunities are coming. I got the opportunity to manage all the bars at the Bridgerton Experience in Chicago. I still haven't watched Bridgeton. I don't know what's going on. I have zero idea what it is. It's kind of cool. I love the medieval time period. But I'm more of a Game of Thrones guy — I like all the action and all that stuff. This is a little more elegant, but it’s a lot of fun. I'm enjoying that we have a 95% black staff. So now I'm showing young black bartenders that you can do this as well. And that was super important because where the Bridgeton Experience is being held is on the south side.

And it's in a neighborhood that 20-25 years ago was where the project buildings were. And now, where the buildings used to be, where there was violence, there's a state-of-the-art tennis facility that's owned by a Black man here in Chicago. And now Netflix's having an event there. So it was super important for me to be able to staff it with people from the neighborhood. So they can see all this is possible, you can do it. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do this because it can happen. So I feel really good about this. It's a lot of work. It's a long project and a lot of work. But I feel really, really good about it.

While Brown and Balanced is always going to be bar-focused, I'm starting to move into a little more community aspect. I had a little checkered past. I did some things in my past that I’m not necessarily the proudest of, but they all shaped me to be me. So I wouldn't be here without some of the mistakes I used to make. But what I'm trying to do now is grab younger guys that are either in trouble already, or they might be just getting out of juvenile, or they might be a step away from going to the big house. And I want to grab them and show them that hospitality and bartending can be a viable source of income. You don't have to have a degree to do this; you don't have to have a degree to be a brand rep. It's not just bartending; you can grow in this and do a lot of different things. So I wanted to try catching these young guys around 18-19 when they’re either coming home or going into the juvenile facilities and start teaching them hospitality and bartending and different things like that. Just giving them another outlet.

And then, if that's a success, which I'm pretty sure it will be, I want to start catching guys that are coming home. My older brother, unfortunately, won't have the opportunity to come home. So some of the guys that have the opportunity to come home, I want to give them that option too. I want to say, “Hey, I know you don't want to go work at McDonald's. I know you don't want to do that. I get it. And I don't want to see you go back inside because you feel like you don't have enough options.” So I want to move around Brown and Balanced into helping those guys as well. I want to be able to say, “Hey, man, as long as you're not a violent offender, as long as you don’t have theft and things like that, let me show you how to get into this bar industry.” And I can make a really positive change in my neighborhood.

That's the next thing that's coming soon. And we're gonna have a Brown and Balanced cocktail book coming soon. Brown and Balanced has gotten so big. In the last few years, there were bartenders in years one, two, and three that people started to forget about because a lot of people caught on to Brown and Balanced late. So I want to make sure those bartenders get their flowers because they were there in the beginning when not that many people believed in what I was building with Brown and Balanced. So I want to make sure they're in the book, and they have their recognition and their shine. They created some really dope cocktails when I had no sponsorship. They created some really good drinks. So I want to make sure that's out there, and they have it. It's coming. I just need some days to sit down and get on the computer and just write, but it's coming soon.

Like I said during my speech for the Bartender of the Year — all you young bartenders out there, especially the young Black and Brown bartenders, make sure that you stay true to yourself and stay your authentic self. Having morals and having accountability and doing it the hard way is not always the easiest. You always get pushed to conform. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, you don't have to do it. You can always be authentically yourself and still have success. It's the road less traveled. But it's way more satisfying in the end. And you can look at yourself in the mirror and know you did it your way.