Alex Jump - Head Bartender, Death & Co Denver; Co-Founder, Focus on Health
Alex is the Head Bartender at Death & Co Denver, one of the world’s leading institutions in the craft cocktail industry. She’s also the co-founder at Focus on Health, a company offering health and wellness resources for the hospitality industry, and a brand ambassador for Seedlip, the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits brand. Outside of the “office,” she’s a lover of motorcycles, yoga, and supporting small businesses in her community. Above all, she’s a champion for the health, safety and wellbeing of her peers in the food and beverage world and beyond.
The Basics:
Hometown: Chattanooga, TN
Current city: Denver, CO
Alma mater: University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Degree: B.A., Religious Studies
Very first job: Babysitter
Hustle: Head Bartender, Death & Co (Denver); Co-Founder, Focus on Health; Brand Ambassador; Seedlip
The Interests:
Babe you admire and why?
There’s so many, it’s so hard to pick. I have to say my best friend Bri. She’s constantly inspiring me to live my life to the fullest and to be my honest self, and she’s always encouraging me to continue on the paths that bring me joy and fulfillment. She also introduced me to the joy of riding motorcycles, and I’m so inspired by her ability to find happiness in life.
Podcasts you’ve been loving lately?
I really love the No-Proof Podcast by Joshua Gandee, which is part of the FOH family. I also listen to Start Here with Brad Mielke pretty much every day on my way to work. For a long time I didn’t listen to the news, and I just felt so disconnected to what was going on, so I’ve started listening to some news podcasts to stay up-to-date and informed. And of course, I have to mention the Focus On Health Podcast, which I host, haha.
Favorite way to unwind after a long workday?
If it’s a long work night behind the bar, honestly I just go straight to bed. But if it’s an administrative day or a day when I’m not working behind the bar, then my favorite way to unwind is with a glass of wine while cooking dinner at home with my partner, Stuart.
Favorite drink to make (and/or drink) at the moment?
I’m a big fan of the freezer martini. We batch a bottle of martini at a time and keep it in the freezer to pour it ice cold—straight from the bottle into a glass. No fuss, no mess, and extra cold.
The Hustle:
Tell us about your hustle, providing a summary of your roles and the work you do daily.
I’ve been the Head Bartender at Death & Co Denver for three years now, where I mostly manage the bar team. I place liquor orders, input invoices, communicate with distributors, write menus, host cocktail classes, tastings and trainings, and attend weekly manager meetings. I also bartend 3-4 nights a week, depending. Back in the day (pre-2020), I got to travel for pop-up bars all around the world, teach at cocktail conferences, compete in bartending competitions, etc., and we’d also host guest bartenders in Denver for pop up shifts. At Focus on Health (FOH), I work alongside my Co-Founder, Lauren “LP” Paylor. We host a lot of virtual events, panels, discussions, and trainings, often aligned with a theme for the month (ex:, for Women’s History Month: Reclaiming the Past, Rewriting the Future). I host panel discussions or hop on IG live for Talk Therapy, where I chat with therapists about what’s going on in our industry, and host guests in all areas of either wellness or the food and beverage world. Our conversations revolve around health, wellness, and workplace culture in our industry. These conversations are oftentimes a bit vulnerable, and always really really rewarding. As a brand ambassador for Seedlip, I spend time in my market helping with brand recognition and awareness, so I might be tasting bar owners on our products or working with bar managers to help with non-alcoholic options on their menus, or training staff of bars and restaurants on the products, and so much more. The fun part about being an ambassador for a brand you love is that often it doesn’t even feel like work as much as just getting to spread the love.
When and how did your bartending career begin? What brought you to Death & Co., and what has your career trajectory looked like since?
I got into bartending as I was getting ready to graduate from college. A few things fell in line in my life really quickly that made the world of food & beverage just so intriguing. I started dating a chef, for one. We would travel to Atlanta and Nashville and I got to experience what the industry was like as an insider, which was a really formative experience for me. I also studied abroad in Florence, where I somehow landed myself an internship at the biggest Enoteca (wine shop) downtown. I got to pour tasters of wine and slice meats and cheeses for tourists, and that was really my first taste of what it was like to work behind a bar. When I returned to Tennessee, I found a job as a server with the promise that I’d become a bar back. Once I got behind the bar, I felt so at home and so excited that I didn’t ever look back. The thing about learning to bartend in a smaller market is that with enough determination and effort, it didn’t take me long to rise through the ranks of the industry there. So in a few short years I had really found myself at the top of a fairly low ceiling. My boyfriend at the time and I considered opening our own restaurant, but I was terrified of the idea of doing so at 25-years-old. When I heard that Death & Co was opening their second location in Denver, the decision to move was a no-brainer. I wanted to continue to learn, and I wanted to not be the smartest person in the room. I also wanted the opportunity to work at a bar—and not a restaurant that had a really good bar program—because I knew that that would be a unique experience that I hadn’t had before. I moved, was hired on the D&C opening team in the beginning of 2018, and we opened in May. They’ve taught me so much about what it means to be a great leader, and most importantly, they’ve shown me how truly great it is to work for a company that is transparent, communicative, and supportive.
Tell us about FOH. What prompted you to start it, and what has its evolution looked like so far?
Not long after opening Death & Co, I started going back to therapy for the first time in a very long time. My anxiety was at an all time high, I was in a very unhappy relationship that had severely deteriorated through the opening of the bar, and my body image and internal voice was at an all-time, worst-case scenario. As I went back to therapy, I started sharing about my experiences on social media. I figured that since I worked at an internationally recognized bar and was given a slightly louder proverbial microphone to yell into the void with, I might as well do a little bit of good and share my whole truth. In doing so, I found a community of people that started to share their story with me too, and I realized that for so many of us, just knowing that someone else is going through what you’re going through is so damn powerful.
Flash forward to the spring of 2019, when I decided to enter the Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender competition. I had an absolutely stunning cocktail that I was so proud of, but as I went to fill out my application, I realized that they were asking questions that I hadn’t been prepared to answer: what made me unique, and what inspired me outside of my work, etc. I realized that I had very little outside of my work—which scared me so much that I almost didn’t enter into the competition at all. Thanks to some really wonderful friends, I focused my platform on the issue of health, mental health, wellness, and lack of work/life balance in the F&B industry. What inspired me was finding ways to make this industry a better place to work and live, and ensure that it could be a long-lasting career. Most importantly, I asked the question: what’s the point in competing in competitions like this and proving that I’m the best at what I do, if I can’t even f*cking survive it or if I don’t have a life to live outside of my work? I didn’t just want to be Alex Jump the bartender. I also want to be so much more. From there, I developed the idea for Focus on Health, I joined forces with my friend LP, and we started the company together. It’s grown a lot in the year since we launched, and we’re still learning about what we want to do and where we want to go from here.
How have your past professional and academic experiences and lessons prepared you for the work you do today? How have they not prepared you?
I think above all else, my academic experiences prepared me to be able to express myself through writing, as I’ve gotten to do so both professionally and personally. If I could change anything about my academic experiences it would be taking more management and business classes in college. When you think about it, though, it’s absolutely crazy to think that at 18-years-old, we expect anyone to know what they want to do for their career. Professionally, I’m constantly grateful to everyone who took a chance on me as I was coming up in this industry. People believing in my abilities and giving me a chance when I was young really helped me be prepared for where I am today in a lot of ways. That being said, it’s tough to ever feel prepared for the task of learning to manage people. There’s a lot that I wasn’t prepared for, because unfortunately, our industry is notorious for having a lack of training for management situations. I wish that there were better systems in place to have trained me on HR, how to handle situations when it comes to managing people and managing stressful situations. A lot of that has been learned by making mistakes and growing from them.
How has being a woman impacted your professional experience? What can we collectively do to support and empower women in your industry today?
I’ve been very fortunate to have spent most of my career surrounded by strong, powerful and inspiring women leaders in our industry. From the beginning of my career I’ve worked alongside female chefs, general managers, sommeliers, event planners, etc. Thanks to them, I have always seen my potential in this industry as boundless. Sure, I’ve been in situations where I felt like my authority as a manager—either by an employee or a customer—was not respected, but I have never let that change my work ethic, my commitment to the pursuit of excellence, and my commitment to achieving my dreams. Moving forward, I hope that bar and restaurant owners, brands, corporations, etc. hire people based on the quality of their character and the merits of their work, while also paying attention to the diversity of their team members, from management to line staff.
What are some of your favorite Denver spots to frequent outside of your place of work? What can we typically find you drinking or eating when you’re OOO?
I absolutely love Brass Tacks, Lula Rose, The PS Lounge, Run for the Roses, Bruto, Uncle, Hop Alley, Union Lodge No. 1, Ft. Greene, Middleman, Annette, Bastien’s—the list could go on and on!
What are some brands in the spirits industry that you enjoy supporting due to their brand mission, values or commitment to philanthropy?
Amass Gin, Cathead Vodka, Siembra Valles, Tequila Ocho, Leopold Bros, Bombay Sapphire, Bacardi, and St. George Spirits
Who are some women in your field that you look to for inspiration?
Robin Nance, Lauren Paylor, Mary Allison Wright, Devon Tarby, Talia Baiocchi, Shannon Tebay, the women that run Support Staff (Laura Kelton, Kristina Magro, and Mony Bunni), Haley Traub, Ivy Mix, Steva Casey, Jessica Sanders and Hassel Aviles—to name a few!
What’s one thing you’re proud to have accomplished in your career so far?
Learning to speak up for what I want. I’ve stopped being afraid to ask for what I want, and if I don’t get it, that’s okay—but at least I made my ambitions known. Learning to verbalize what I want, learning to be my own biggest advocate, and believing in myself have been, more often than not, the reasons why I’ve gotten the job, won the competition, or been given the opportunity.
What’re some of your favorite ways that you practice work/life balance and/or recharge?
I learned how to ride motorcycles last year during quarantine, and now it is absolutely one of my favorite ways to get away from work. It’s almost like meditation on the road, because you have to be so disconnected from your phone, and completely focused on the task at hand. Through riding motorcycles I’ve gotten to really explore a new part of myself, and explore all over Colorado—which I hadn’t really taken advantage of before. Additionally, I’ve practiced yoga for 15 years now, and it’s a massive part of who I am. Getting into the studio and on my mat allows me space to clear my head, center myself, and really just focus on the simple task of breathing. It’s the number one way I manage my mental health.
Final words of wisdom?
Believe in yourself, stand up for yourself, and speak out about what you want. Be your biggest champion, because if you won’t, then who will? Most importantly, it’s okay to take a step back and live your life. This lesson is one that has been invaluable for me over the last year or two: learning and accepting that in order to be a better manager, a better employee, and a better bartender, I actually do need—and deserve—to take some time away from work to just be myself. Having that balance means that I can come back to work with a clear head and more energy for the tasks at hand. It’s time that we 86 the work-until-you’re-dead culture.
In partnership with: Mover & Shaker Co.
We’re stoked to have partnered up with our friends at @moverandshakerco—a bartender + hospitality lifestyle brand dedicated to cultivating a positive industry community—for a limited edition merch collection in honor of Women’s History Month! Learn more about our collection here, and stay tuned for more BWH x M&S content throughout the week!
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