Julie Reiner is stirring up the bar business
Julie clearly loves what she does
I met Julie Reiner at the Women in Hospitality meeting hosted by Margarita Sader from MS Bar Trends and Paradiso. At the Campari Academy, I had the chance to learn more about this groundbreaking entrepreneur.
Hi, Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Julie Reiner, and I am a bar owner in New York City.
You live in New York but you were not born there, tell us more.
I was actually born in New York state but I grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. People often report that I was born in Hawaii because they don’t know, but my mom grew up in upstate New York.
So how old were you when you moved to Hawaii?
I was in kindergarten, and I lived there until I graduated from high school.
You run three bars in New York-- can you just give me the names and tell me how they’re different from each other?
The Clover Club crew
Well, the oldest of the three is Clover Club, opened in June 2008, 16 years ago. Clover Club is a very classically styled bar: the bar itself is an antique built in 1897 in a small coal mining town in Sugar Notch Pennsylvania. It was built into the ground floor of a building where there was a dancehall on the 2nd floor and top floor was a shelter for the miners to sleep. It’s very much a neighborhood bar but with a global following-- the menu is pretty extensive but it really focuses on families of mixed drink like swizzles, sours, cobblers, juleps and the like. We have two other private spaces; one called The Parlor and we just debuted a space next door and we’re calling that The Saloon at Clover Club. So we have places to do pop-ups and all sorts of other things as well as food—it’s also a restaurant. Then I have Leyenda across the street from Clover Club and my partner Ivy Mix is the personality of that space-- she started Speed Rack with Lynette Marrero. That place is all things pan Latin and focuses on south of the border spirits. Jorge our chef is from Mexico, and the food is amazing. Leyanda just turned 9 years old.
Bar manager and business partner Ivy Mix celebrates 9 years of Leyenda with the crew
Our latest spot is called Milady’s and it is in Manhattan in Soho on the corner of Prince and Thompson Streets. It’s an incredible location and the bar itself had a ton of history. It was open for 70 years and then closed-- you know I was not looking to work harder (laughs) and open another space, but it kind of dropped into my lap. I used to go there in the late 90s and it was such an amazing spot-- I’m a very firm believer that spaces have like an energy and a soul to them and I was like: how do we not do it? First of all, the space was great and I loved Milady’s, but secondly, we’re a women-owned business so I was like-- we are Milady’s!
Izzy Tulloch and Julie Reiner celebrate their spot for Milady’s in 50 Best Bars of North America in April 2024
Was that the previous game or did you name it?
It was called Milady’s on that corner for 70 years and even though they had totally gutted it, we put the bar and the seating back exactly as they had it but with a reimagined vibe. We had female designers-- the majority of the people who worked on that project were women in their 50s which was really amazing.
Is all your staff women?
Not all, but my management team is all women, and the ownership outside of our chef Sam, who is the only male partner there (Milady’s). On the bar team we have Izzy Tulloch, the head bartender and we have a few male bartenders and servers.
Is the clientele mixed?
Yes, it’s very mixed with people from all over and a lot of tourists as well because of the neighborhood. We are also open for lunch and brunch on the weekends.
What kind of food do you have?
We have American fare-- one side of the menu is called dive and it’s like those things that you would have had at the old Milady’s, burgers and chicken fingers and potato skins but super elevated and very well done. I had to cut myself off from eating those chicken fingers! Then the other side of the menu is called high dive, with items like Duck Liver Pâté and Crab Mac & Cheese so we are able to offer two different styles of food, all very delicious.
As far as management style, do you consider yourself a hands-on person or person good at delegating?
.Both. I would say that learning to delegate is a very important skill. I am extremely hands-on.
But a control-freak hands on?
No, not at all. That’s the difference-- because you can’t do it all yourself. You have to be able to delegate and trust in your team. I just try to pop in and be there for very important moments or where I need to edit or give advice on running things. I do like to empower my management team and my bar team to be a part of the process. They’re more a much more invested if they feel like they’re helping to create the story rather than just being like this is what you’re gonna say and this is what you’re gonna do and here is the drinks list. They just become like soldiers, it’s not fun and you have a lot of turnover. You know, at this point in my career I find that I’m now 20 years older than a lot of the staff; I’ve been doing this a long time. So now I sit down in meetings and I say, “What are you guys excited about?” and what they’re excited about is sometimes stuff that sounds excruciating and horrible but if you’re excited to do it, let’s do it!
Sadie, the karaoke queen at Milady’s
Can you give me an example?
I sat down with the team at Milady’s and they wanted to do a karaoke night once a month in there and they wanted me to buy the stuff—I saw like the light in their eyes. One of the bartenders has hosted a karaoke evens, so I was like: OK so Sadie’s going to host, we’re going to have different themes to the nights and so on. We’ve done a few of them and it is the most fun—it’s crazy because for me, thinking of being there all night long listening to people sing terribly sounded anything but fun, but I go and I just sit there and I watch and they have really enjoy themselves. I think that this generation is dealing with so much negativity and war and pandemics and social media that they just want to let loose have a good time. And that is kind of how I felt in opening Milady’s. I wanted a place that was just fun and silly and didn’t take itself too seriously, so that is what it’s about.
When you’re choosing a manager, what qualities do you look for?
Somebody who has really thoughtful communication. I think that it’s very important to have managers who think before they deliver information and not everybody can do that. I’ve had some situations where, during service, somebody has done something incorrectly and the manager calls them out right away. The guests at the end of the bar hear, the server or the bartender hears, and the person who took the criticism feels terrible and they are off their game for the rest of the night. So that’s a very important skill. Then, organization--you have to be good with numbers. There are so many different skills needed to be an effective manager. Just like my partners have strengths that are very different from mine, you need to have the same thing with your management team: you might have an Assistant General Manager who is great with social media and event flyers and managing the floor, but then the GM is more about the numbers and communicating and hiring.
How have things changed in the industry since you started about 20 years ago? What is the most glaring change that you’ve seen?
The way that bars communicate their story- you know when I started there was no Internet really it was just kind of beginning there was no social media—and PR, well I did my own PR. When I opened my first bar, Flatiron Lounge in 2003, I literally called the people at the New York Times and New York magazine who wrote about me and the drinks I was making and was like, “Hey, I’m opening my own bar, do you want to write about it?” And they did. Now it is such a different ball game with Instagram and travel but there were not opportunities like this one (Women in Hospitality May 2024).
A shot from the Women in Hospitality Conference in Barcelona where I interviewed Julie and other female icons.
Back at the Flatiron Lounge I was behind the bar five nights a week teaching everybody because there was no bar talent at that time, so I was kind of a slave to my space. I was there all the time- now bartenders, like Izzy from Milady’s travel around the world and I look at her and say, “you know what when I was your age I was not going anywhere” I was behind the bar 5 nights a week. So it’s a very different industry now. Also being able to learn-- you could be in some remote place and you can watch bartenders who are the best in the industry and learn from them. That wasn’t something that you could do before. I didn’t even know who Dale de Groff was; he walked into the bar saying “Hey kid, I hear you're making some good drinks,” I just knew that I wanted to put the best thing I could in a glass because I loved giving people cocktails and seeing their faces when they tried a drink I made them. At that time, I was infusing and using tea and that was groundbreaking (laughs): using fresh juice in 1998 was unheard of.
So tying into that, going back in time, what advice would you give to that Julie that was just starting out in the drinks industry?
Well the business is harder that I thought it was going to be. There were so many things I was very naïve to. I kind of knew that if I opened a place that I could fill it because New York at the time I was like people want the best of everything here and they want great drinks.
So you had that confidence behind you.
Yeah, I mean I was very “fly by the seat of my pants” and have always been, which is why I’ve done all these things. You know this is you know it’s very risky to open restaurants and bars—there are so many factors involved
But you would still tell that young Julie, go for it…
Absolutely. It’s just that you have to love it. If you don't love it, don't do it. I’ve always loved it; growing up, my mom entertained a lot in Hawaii and I was always passing mango margaritas for her that she was blending from the tree in the yard. I might tell myself to learn a little bit more about business
You’ve been on the Netflix show Drink Masters-- how has life changed for you after that?
The Netflix ad for Drink Masters
It’s been great. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it because I was like, “Ohh reality TV…” You never know how they’re going to portray you, but it has been a very positive experience for me. It’s been great for the bars-- it brought in people who may not have come to Clover Club especially because I demoed a Clover Club onthe show. I definitely have a lot of young fans and people who come up to me in random weird places and you know want to chat, but overall, been very positive for me personally and the bars.
What’s one of the biggest recent lessons you’ve learned while working in this industry?
I think I learned a very tough lesson on the impact of social media when I reacted to something that was said about women. When you put yourself out there, you are talking to the whole world, haters included, so you have to be prepared for a barrage. I’m not a keyboard warrior, so that was that was definitely a lesson to learn.
What’s something about you that the public might not know?
I feel like at this point, people know a lot of things about me but I will tell you my favorite place to be is on a beach, that is my church--looking out at a beautiful tropical place particularly anywhere in Hawaii maybe because that’s where I grew up, but that is my happy place.
Awards:
Wine Enthusiast named Reiner the 2014 Mixologist of the Year. The 50 Best Bars in the world included Clover Club on the list in 2022 and 2023. In 2013, Tales of the Cocktail named Reiner Best Mentor and the Clover Club Best American Cocktail Bar and Best High Volume Cocktail Bar. In 2022, Tales of the Cocktail Foundation awarded Reiner its Helen David Lifetime Achievement Award. For 2024, Milady’s is 44 on the World’s Top 50 Bars in North America, and Reiner was 58th on the Bar World International Top 100 list.