The Educated Barfly Hates the Video That Made Him Famous

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Leandro DiMonriva started bartending in Los Angeles the way I expect a lot of bartenders get into it there — as a way to make money and bide their time in-between auditions. But DiMonriva did something that I expect very few people do: monetized his bartending skills through a YouTube channel that now has more than 450,000 subscribers.

His channel, The Educated Barfly, teaches people bartending techniques like shaking and stirring, provides foolproof cocktail recipes, and even gives some product reviews, like the best molds for making clear ice. And just like many great bartenders, DiMonriva’s charming personality makes his channel very easy to watch and love. I caught up with DiMonriva to talk more about how his YouTube career got started, what cocktail he makes to unwind and four things you must do to take your home bartending skills to the next level.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

InsideHook: How did you get into YouTube?

Leandro DiMonriva: I came to L.A. to be an actor, and I quickly realized I needed a job to keep me occupied during the night so I could have my days free to audition for commercials. I had a friend who was working with me in production who had an in at a nightclub, so I got in as there as a barback. That’s sort of how I got into bartending, and I quickly realized I wasn’t that into the film industry or business at all. Although I enjoyed being on stage and doing short films and stuff with my friends, I really hated the process of auditioning. It just wasn’t for me.

It sounds grueling.

It really is horrible. It’s a really rough business and kind of a tough life. Even for celebrities, it’s a really rough kind of existence — although the perks for them are a little bit greater than someone struggling in an apartment in Hollywood.

True.

I ended up having a falling out with the owner of the nightclub, so I went to downtown L.A. and got a job at a wine bar. Through that, I met some people who were working at a bar across the street called Royal Clayton’s. And when Royal Clayton’s closed, they all moved to this place called Cole’s French Dip. A friend of mine got me a job there, and that’s where I started learning about actual cocktails and real bartending. Fast forward seven years — I’ve been at Cole’s for a long time. I was looking at my options, and I didn’t see myself as a brand rep or owning a bar, which are the next step from being a bartender. But I just had my daughter and didn’t want to be on the road all the time, and I couldn’t see myself shilling for one particular brand.

I was casting about for something to do, and at the time, Chef’s Table was really big on Netflix. And I was like, why aren’t they doing this for bartending? So I raised $10,000 and I got some film friends together, and we shot a trailer for a TV show that we were calling Drink. We got a bunch of meetings with different production companies. They were like, “This is a great idea but you guys are nobodies and we’re not gonna help you.” My friend who’s now my producing partner on The Educated Barfly, Marius Hagen, helped us out with some technical stuff. And I believe to this day, I think it was Marius who said, “We should start a YouTube channel.” I was a bit skeptical because I’d never used YouTube for anything other than a tutorial to fix my sink or change the battery on my car key fob. But we just started making these videos, and I saw a hole in the market because at the time there were no bartenders with YouTube channels that had any real training.

I came up in a bar that was very famous for their Old Fashioneds. I think I calculated I’ve made like 360,000 Old Fashioneds over the course of my bartending career.

– Leandro

DiMonriva of The Educated Barfly

Did you ever think you’d become so popular? Did you think that your channel would get so big?

I mean, no, but I was hoping something would come of it. It seems like the people who do that are extraordinarily lucky, like Brad Pitt moving to L.A. and becoming a movie star. The odds are very slim that your channel works. So going in, we just decided to give it the old college try and see what happens, and we did it for six months before anyone took any notice at all. We were about to quit.

Wow, really? What made you change your mind?

We made this Negroni video, and when I watched it back, I didn’t want to release it because I thought it sucked. I feel like I’m rambling in it. I feel like it’s not coherent. So we sat on this video for a while and got into a position where Marius was going on vacation and misjudged how many videos we needed. So Marius suggested we release the Negroni video. I was hemming and hawing about it — and then that was the video that went viral for us. Our videos were getting like 800 views or 200 views or 100 views. And that video went up to like 10,000 and then 30,000 and then 50,000, and that’s when all of the people started subscribing to the channel. It started happening pretty fast.

What about the Negroni video do you think really drew people to it?

I think the only thing that could have drawn people to it is authenticity. And quite honestly, what I’ve noticed about YouTube over the years is that people who are enthusiasts for something tend to do a lot better with the public than people who are very knowledgeable for whatever reason. I think people like to see nonprofessionals trying something. So if I had it to do it over again, I think I would pretend to be an enthusiast because it works so much better, views-wise. But I’m glad we filled the niche of being a professional channel where people can go for information that really teaches you something.

What is the most popular type of content on your channel?

I think the most popular content we do is what we call “list videos,” which are several cocktails in one — think six simple cocktails with gin. Those are the ones that perform the best with the general public, not just our viewers.

People love a list, right?

People love a list, yeah. And they love simple drinks. People will bend over backwards and do all sorts of gymnastics to make food, but when it comes to drinks, they usually don’t want to put a lot of elbow grease into it. There is definitely a demographic of people who do want to put elbow grease into it, but they’re a small portion. Most people just want to have something delicious and balanced when they’re tired to unwind. And so I think that, by and large, is why those videos do so well.

What is that drink for you — your go-to, “I can throw this together super fast and just relax” drink?

Historically it’s been an Old Fashioned because I came up in a bar that was very famous for their Old Fashioneds. I think I calculated I’ve made like 360,000 Old Fashioneds over the course of my bartending career. The other drink I like is the Queen’s Park Swizzle, which is basically a Mojito but with Demerara rum and an Angostura bitters topper. So if I’m in the mood for something that’s shaken, citrusy and refreshing, I’ll usually go for a Queen’s Park Swizzle.

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Whether they are a subscriber or stumbled across it just for a single recipe, what’s the one thing you want people to know about bartending at home? What do you want people to take away from your channel?

I want people to know that bartending and cocktail-making isn’t rocket science. If you attend to a few details, then your drinks will go from good or meh to the next level.

What would you say are the top three details everyone needs to know to greatly improve their cocktails?

Measuring your drinks is probably one of the most important. I think the cardinal sin of a lot of people making drinks at home is they’re free-pouring. Measuring out the quantities of each ingredient is going to greatly increase the chances you’re making a balanced drink.

Ice quality is really important because it makes up 50% of your drink. And that’s not to say just using purified or filtered water, but also making sure there are no trapped gasses in the ice. I’m a very big proponent of that. And the ice size and type matter. If you make a drink with a big rock of ice, it’s gonna affect the rate at which it dilutes. And it’s going to affect the overall taste of the cocktail, especially because the water is proofing it down and lengthening the flavor. You want to do that properly so you can have your cocktail experience during the course of 20 minutes without drinking water that tastes like whiskey or drinking something that’s so intensely flavored you’re missing all the nuances of the drink.

I think using functional garnishes, like being able to express oil out of a [citrus] twist properly, is going to greatly affect the overall quality of your cocktail, as well as using proper tools.

Very sound advice. As with anything, mastering the basics is really what launches you to that next level. And then you can experiment. Then you can have fun.

Yeah, 100%. All cocktails are based on the ratios of six drinks. If you master those ratios and those classic drinks, you can start breaking the rules. For example, a lot of bartenders have started adding citrus into stirred cocktails, which completely negates the whole “stir when it’s just booze and shake when it’s citrus and sugar” [rule]. But people have noticed if you add a little citrus into a boozy drink and stir it, you can get the benefits of the acid to balance out some of the sugar and bitters and give it a silkier mouthfeel. But that’s going to confuse someone who hasn’t mastered the why of stirring and shaking drinks.

Our channel has never been about recipes. I want our channel to answer why you’re doing what you’re doing. Because if you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, then you can master something, right? I want people to understand how to use technique. Why do we stir this way? How do you properly stir? How do you properly shake? These are the things I think people really need to know in order to make great cocktails.