#85 Dré Masso - 30 Years of Bartending, Creating Altos, Henry Besant, LAB Bar, Nusa Caña, Dick Bradsell, Potato Head

Dré Masso is one of the most consequential figures in the modern cocktail world — a British-Colombian bartender whose career has stretched from the epicentre of 1990s London to a beach club in Bali and a cantina in Cartagena. We cover the moments that shaped him: growing up watching his Colombian mother work bar and restaurant shifts, the revolution quietly being assembled at the Atlantic Bar & Grill under Dick Bradsell, formative years at LAB with Douglas Ankrah, a brief stint at Jamie Oliver's landmark restaurant Fifteen, and the Lonsdale Bar meeting that sparked a creative partnership with Henry Besant. We get into the tequila pilgrimage that changed everything — six months following Julio Bermejo around San Francisco, a 2004 trip to Mexico he describes as the best of his life, and the extraordinary story of how a visit to Destilería Colonial and an impromptu tasting session with maestro Jesús Hernandez became the birth of Olmeca Altos, now one of the biggest tequila brands in the world. Dre speaks honestly about the commercial reality of co-founding a brand as a bartender, the grief of losing Henry Besant in 2013, and how that loss collided with a new chapter running Potato Head's sprawling Bali beach club alongside one of the most visionary entrepreneurs he has ever encountered. We close with a tasting of Nusa Cana rum, a deep dive into the forgotten history of Batavia Arak, and Dre's plans for what comes next, including a very public desire to get back behind the stick.

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