#75 Zev Glesta, spirits specialist Sotheby's New York, ex-bartender at The Modern, The Fat Duck/Dinner

The Philip Duff Show

Zev's had one of the most interesting career arcs of any bartender I know, but when we finally sat down to tape an episode, it turned out to have even more twists and turns than I thought!
From Brooklyn to Melbourne to Montreal and back to NY, and from bartending for Heston Blumenthal Down Under to manning the shakers in the Meyerverse* that is Union Square Hospitality Group at it's Michelin-starred The Modern, to a COVID-era swerve into working as one of less than half a dozen spirits specialists worldwide at Sotheby's (who had just auctioned off a $44m T-rex skeleton the day before we met up) where he values whisky and other liquor that sells for five-figure sums, Zev has tales to tell and kindly supplied vintage whiskey to fuel the storytelling as well.
(I still think he's actually a spy, tho).
Many thanks to Sotheby's New York for hosting us, and the whiskey book Zev recommends in this episode is "Collecting Scotch Whisky" by Emmanuel Dron.
*Danny Meyer, that is. #IYKYK
Zev on IG: https://www.instagram.com/raisezbar/
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