The Haymaker Bar Podcast Episode #1- "What's in the Name?"

AB: Good afternoon to you folks. It's #AB from a night shift podcast. This is not a night shift podcast but that is what I'm from and I am a small business fan, a fan of small business entrepreneurship, not a big box fan, even though I got to admit I do go to Walmart. But I like to to get around the country and interview businesses from all different types of genres that are small businesses. The real people who who put it, to put it to the ground, you know, every single day and got with one of my guests. I've got Josh from the haymaker. How you doing, Josh?

JOSH: Good

AB: Awesome. Absolutely. Him and I, to give you guys, give you guys just a quick little a quick little explanation. Him and I decided it would be a good idea to put a podcast together for The Haymaker, which I think that's the neatest name for a bar. And I think The Haymaker podcast is a is a good name too. But we got together and we decided that we were going to discuss, you know, different parts of the bar, like from where the name came from to what good drinks or you got the decor. Where did the idea of that come from? We'll talk some events like the, you know, events that they they do. So we've got plenty to talk about. Why don't you tell everybody, introduce yourself and tell everybody about you and the Haymaker?

JOSH: Yeah, my name is Josh Gagne, the managing partner, bar manager, head of janitorial services, anything and everything at The Haymaker in downtown Raleigh, NC So we're a cocktail focused bar. We've been there about 7 1/2 years and have a lot of fun with it.So you know at the at the time when we opened was kind of the peak of these, you know, newer style cocktail bars opening throughout Raleigh and we have somehow made it through a lot of different things, COVID included. And we we, yeah, we we still rocking it out down there. So downtown Raleigh has changed a ton and and we sort of picked the spot we did anticipating the growth and kind of you know do anything and everything as long as cocktails are sort of the the you know the basis of what we're doing. We we're a pretty welcoming bar overall and in regards to you know our clientele and and what we go after.

So you know you're you're standard cocktail bar come in sit down kind of get treated as sort of a restaurant style service with a with a server and all that we we kind of did away with with most of that sort of formatting and and kind of relied on just your comfortable bar where you know you can kind of you don't feel so boxed in as to this staged out type of service throughout you know your time there. So yeah we we've we've been experimental we've we've gone back to to classics. We've gone very simplistic changes with the seasons our menus always adapting and you know I love the creativity that bartenders really sort of search for when they are coming onto A to a bar like ours. And and what I found over the years is that people just want to be creative and they enjoy bartending and and what I have always enjoyed was kind of giving them an outlet to showcase a little bit of creativity. So we have fun there and we're still still rocking it up.

AB: Right. Well Speaking of creativity and kind of will be one that after we got a good intro from you. So everybody hear about what you guys are about. The bar's name. The haymaker. I mentioned it. Yeah. The bar. Tell me a little bit of what's behind that. Where did you come up with the name? You know, what's what's the story behind it? What?

JOSH: So easiest way to I guess explain this is a if you are familiar with the term haymaker in the boxing world, it is a knockout punch and you can kind of tie that in as to where the cocktail thing comes from. So we have always done large format punch bowls which a lot of people associate them with, with fish bowls or like you know Beachy plastic bowl drinks. These are large format but we we follow a lot more of a classic build in regards to what a classic punch actually is. So the the goal for us was to bring people together and whether it's celebrations or after work or whatever that is and a punch bowl kind of is a symbol of that and and we sort of paired it all together loved the the boxing thing in regards to just branding and and having fun with with our drinks and sort of a story behind stuff that we do. So it all kind of made sense. It's it's sort of a funky blend between cocktails, boxing and hip hop. But you know, 7 1/2 years later, that's the thing that people love the most. You know, in the early days it was like, that doesn't make sense. What does boxing have to do with hip hop but, Or cocktails? So now that's kind of our identifier and what people kind of appreciate about the bar and and the things that we put out of there. So a knockout punch is the the easiest way to put that.

AB: When I when I when you first emailed me and then I went back and looked at your stuff, that's exactly what I thought on my table. Yeah, yeah, I think it's definitely unique. Well, that's awesome. Well, like I said, we're going to have four, actually 5-4 or four more podcasts. This is the first one where we kind of explained a little bit about what we're what we're doing, what the haymaker's about and where the name came from. So next next episode, I believe we're going to talk some of your signature cocktails, right?

JOSH: Josh, that's good.

AB: Good. All right. Well, good deal. Thanks a lot, Josh. You have a great afternoon and this is the Haymaker Podcast. I'm AB and that's Josh. Have a good afternoon.


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