Erick Castro/ San Diego, CA

Voice of the Industry

Erick Castro is the quintessential community builder. Erick’s weekly Bartender at Large podcast hosts top industry talent including distillers, spirits experts, cocktail historians and of course many, many bartenders. His documentary by the same name is described as a “love letter to the art of bartending” from the perspective of a beverage enthusiast’s road trip across the western U.S. Catchy, energetic, and informative, the podcast and the movie emphasizes the bartender’s central role in the craft cocktail revolution.

Entrepreneurial Exploits: From Acclaimed Bars to the Revival of Gilly’s Cocktails

A bartender at heart, Erick uses his talent for team building to good effect in choosing the right business concept. In 2013, he co-founded Polite Provisions, the San Diego bar that’s been showered with accolades, including a nomination for the James Beard Outstanding Bar Program award in 2016. Erick sold his share in Polite Provisions in early 2023, feeling his tenth anniversary was a good time to pursue different opportunities. He still co-owns another highly-regarded San Diego bar in the Consortium Holdings family, Raised By Wolves (No. 19 on North America’s 50 Best Bars list in 2022).

This holiday season, Erick is embarking on yet another venture — the revival of the San Diego institution Gilly’s Cocktails. In San Diego Magazine, Erick describes Gilly’s House of Cocktails as, “An honest neighborhood place where you can walk in and play some pool and darts and watch the game, and then you’re like, ‘Holy shit, that’s a great old fashioned . . . with clear ice . . . What the —!’”

Left Coast Legacy

Erick and The Perfect Purée go way back. A southern California native who was 14 when he started working in the hospitality industry, Erick migrated north for a time. “[The Perfect Purée] came on the scene at the same time when I was in San Francisco and we were using them I remember at Bourbon & Branch and Rickhouse,” he says.

Fast forward through a career designing award-winning coast-to-coast bar programs, and Erick remains loyal. He used The Perfect Purée Tamarind and Prickly Pear at Polite Provisions and Passion Fruit and Blood Orange Concentrate at Raised by Wolves. Pomegranate Concentrate is standard in house-made grenadine. “Honestly, it just makes so much more economic sense,” he says. He cites Pomegranate Concentrate as an example. “My grandpa used to grow them in his back yard in the Inland Empire. I love the taste of fresh pomegranate and here in California they grow pretty prolifically but good luck trying to source fresh pomegranate year round. Hand-squeezing pomegranate is a brutal thing. The juice will ruin all your clothing.”

Crafting Unforgettable Flavors

Blood Orange is part of Gilly’s debut menu in a drink called “Scorpion King.” Erick swaps rum for blanco tequila. Next comes lemon and falernum, a citrus-clove liqueur. Blood orange simple syrup deepens the citrus color and flavor. “Winter citrus sells so well and Blood Orange is something we’ve featured on holiday menus before,” Erick says.

One of Erick’s favorite drinks is the Saturn, a classic, fruity gin cocktail with lemon, orgeat, Passion Fruit and falernum. “We sell so many Saturns. I drink Saturns all the time,” he says. They’re a particular favorite at Polite Provisions, where Erick says the bar is packed by noon on weekends. “It is a sport here in San Diego. You get home by 5 p.m., you’re fully sober and you wake up with no hangover.”