If you read about drinks at all, you may know the relatively new NYC bar Hello Hello for its famed, elevated riff on a vodka Red Bull. But there's so much more to unpack about this intriguing concept: Its day-to-night model as a café and bar, its three-pronged business approach as a coffee shop, bar, and distillery and how those prongs complement each other and are balanced to run smoothly; its overall high-dive design and atmosphere; and, of course, its creative cocktails. I chatted with Hello Hello's director of food and beverage Luis Hernandez about all of these factors and why they work especially well today.

David Nilsen is a writer, educator, consultant, event host, and podcaster focusing on beer and artisanal chocolate. There's more than enough to dig into with his prolific, insightful work for outlets including Wine Enthusiast, Pellicle Magazine, VinePair, Eater, Craft Beer & Brewing, and more, and with his engaging classes, tastings, and pairings he leads in Ohio and beyond, but just in time for its latest issue to hit preorder, we're really diving into the zine David created with his wife Melinda Guerra, Final Gravity. Final Gravity harnesses the community-building, DIY spirit of zines to bring poignant, fascinating, narrative-driven stories centering around beer to life, from some of the world's brightest writers. In this episode, we talk about why now is a perfect time for zines, what goes into bringing Final Gravity to life, and why these stories are so vital.

Check out David's work and event schedule at davidnilsenbeer.com. Preorder the latest Final Gravity as well as past issues and other zines (including my Beer Tarot zine!) under Bean to Barstool's publishing umbrella at BeanToBarstool.com. Enjoy!

Imbibers are engaging with beer in a more personal way than ever before. More than category loyalty or education-driven geekery, people seek meaningful connections, stories from the personal to the cultural to the historical, and ways that they can relate to a particular beer, brewery, or style. Enter beer industry veterans Jenny Pfäfflin and Shana Solarte—with experience working for the Cicerone Certification Program, Omega Yeast, John I. Haas, and Dovetail Brewery between them. They've teamed up to present Bier Omakase, a tasting event series and Substack that frames beers in fascinating contexts like Korean fermented beverages, baseball, the year 1988, and Belgian brown cafés. This framing of beer feels more relevant now than ever, and if anyone is going to deliver this, it's Jenny and Shana. We get into all things Bier Omakase in this episode—check it out and join in on the fun yourself!

Subscribe to Bier Omakase on Substack: https://bieromakase.substack.com/

Follow Bier Omakase on Instagram to catch an event: https://www.instagram.com/bieromakase/

Image credit: Steph Byce