11/25/2024
Hey all, Taylor here.
Today marked Tannin & Oak's 1 year anniversary. Mostly today will pass by generally unmarked, but for me, today is a big deal.
Working at and running the day to day operations at Tannin & Oak has truly been a blessing to me. It was a year of deep lows and tremendous highs, and every single one of those depths and heights carries with it a tremendous weight in value, in memories made, lessons learned, and relationships formed.
Obviously I love bartending and mixology, and in the 38 months since I started across the street at the , I feel that I've taken to it decently well. I'm not the best or the most knowledgeable or the fanciest. But I love it.
As much as I love bartending, the things I value about Tannin & Oak more than anything else are the relationships I've formed and the great friendships I've found myself in. The parts of bartending that I really love are the parts that let me meet people and talk with them. For those, I count myself a lucky man indeed. In fact, one of the first times I met the woman who is now my fiancee was at Tannin & Oak. There are too many others to list, but I'd like to thank a few people by name:
Mahrie Ohren, the owner of Tannin & Oak, for giving a skinny young ginger (with no restaurant experience whatsoever) a chance, and pushing him to screw around with whichever weird cocktail thing he wants to try.
My fiancee, Sharayah Slavik, for her endless love, advice, brainstorming, and support, and for always being there to bounce ideas off of. She's a constant rock, unmoving and full of clever ideas on both aesthetic and taste.
The almighty Patrick Thorn of The Wine Company, for his constant availability, encyclopedic brain, basically putting together my liquor wall, and the sole reason I'm into Mezcal.
Sean and Mel Skinner, for their bottomless well of knowledge, advice, encouragement, and constructive criticism.
You. Every regular, and each person who has come in and given us a chance. Everyone whose story I've gotten to hear and whose name I've gotten to fail at remembering.
Thank you.