Jonny Gray

05/05/2021

This I’ll be dreaming of drinking a Batanga with .lara and friends at in again. Salud! 🥂

04/27/2021

Like many today I’m so saddened to hear of the passing of the legendary Tomas Estes.

Founder of and and the man behind the very concept of terrior in tequila, this man also wrote the quintessential book on Tequila and his love for agave spirits shine throughout it. It’s hard to find, I got mine sent to me via in Australia but man was it worth the read!

I met Tomas once, in a Tequila market hall in the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans in the summer of 2017, during . At the time I wrote this:

“I could not be more appreciative of the fact that my life has led me to this spirit and these people”

To this day the conversation I had in that room with Tomas has had lasting impact on me, as we shared a common passion over a glass of

You will be missed Tomas, you were a maestro and a gentleman 🥂🎱

04/13/2021

A couple of fantastic agave spirits heading out across the GTA today to some of our guests at .ca. Have you signed up for updates yet? New products, programs and events are being announced imminently!

04/10/2021

Have you checked out ORDINARIO yet? Here’s a pro tip, the link is in my bio and this is an example of some of the delicious products we carry!

El Tequileño Gran Reserva Reposado
$110.00

Made with estate owned highland agave, which are transported to their distillery in Tequila, Jalisco, where they are cooked in an autoclave, fermented in concrete tanks, distilled in copper stills, and brought to bottling strength with spring water from the Volcan de Tequila. El Tequileño Reposado Gran Reserva is aged for at least 8 months in American oak and blended with a little añejo tequila.

Notes of light oak, vanilla, nuts and toffee. Best enjoyed on the rocks, or in a Mexican Old Fashioned.

CATEGORY: 100% Agave Tequila
BRAND: El Tequileño
REGION: Jalisco, Mexico
AGAVE: Blue Weber
ABV: 40%

03/29/2021

I’m excited to announce that a project I’ve been building on evenings and weekends on the last several weeks is finally live: Ontario’s first purpose built stand alone virtual bottle shop ORDINARIO, is now open!

I’ve been talking to almost every distributer we know, and several incredible brands directly, to bring you the best selection of agave and Latin American spirits in Ontario and we are launching with a small selection of these to start. Keep an eye out for special editions and limited releases to be added when they come in.

On top of the bottle shop we will be launching tequila and mezcal cocktail kits, and tasting flights in the very near future as well as events like more virtual distillery tours and a subscription service called the Tequila Tasting Club.

Hope you all like what we’ve built, and that it serves its purpose to make great agave and Latin American spirits more accessible to you all 🥂

Sign up on our website for updates and new releases ✔️

www.ordinario.ca ca

03/03/2021

1 year ago (or was it a lifetime ago?) hosting the cocktail competition at !

We saw a great mix of veterans and novices at this intimate afternoon event, that was very reminiscent of the competitions that helped me build a name in the industry all those years ago (😶). I remember well watching the support that these great contestants offered each other throughout this completion. The community vibe in this room was amazing.

The top prize of a limited edition Agua Santa Madrecuixe went to of for his cocktail “Matatlan Sunset”!

Looking forward to getting back to these wonderful intimate events soon. Salud!

02/28/2021

The starts today (running from Feb 28 - Mar 3) where top hospitality & foodservice industry experts will be providing the insights, solutions and ideas to help feed the recovery of the hospitality sector.

Don’t miss my session: Discover El Tequileño, Mexico´s Best Kept Secret, alongside Master Distiller Tony Salles, live from the Distillery in Mexico, on Monday, March 1st at 2pm, where we’ll taste the incredible Reposado Gran Reserva, ahead of its imminent launch at the ! Register to attend through the link in my bio, to learn about some incredible, award winning tequila, and for a chance to win a $250.00 gift card to Restaurant

02/14/2021

Been working in a side hustle, it’s shaping up nicely
to

02/13/2021

Throwback to spending Valentine’s Day at Hacienda with my then fiancée on this day in 2018. and I were treated like royalty on this trip, we learned to much and enjoyed some incredible tequila along the way. But most importantly, this was an opportunity to introduce Rachel to one of my greatest passions; a passion we now share.

Huge thanks to for making this happen and giving us these amazing memories. Great times 🇨🇦🥂🇲🇽

02/10/2021

One of the best tequilas you’ll ever try. Still strength and still so smooth!
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•
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El Tequila destilado a 48º de alcohol volumén

02/05/2021

Wow! we can’t tell you how much the appreciates your donation and your support, this is absolutely incredible! From us all, and the Canadian Hospitality Professionals this will help, thank you! If you ever want a mixology class let us know, it’s on us! 🥂🙏🇨🇦
To the list of legendary mixologists, you can now add , and me. It just takes some and a little courage 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇬🇧





                   

01/26/2021

Thanks for the tasty treats !

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

01/26/2021

It’s ! The night we celebrate and all things Scottish, and my ancestral roots are tingling!

These pictures were taken at one of my all time favourite Burns Night celebrations; last year I was hosting a Scotch tasting through my consultancy company, as part of a series called the Spirit Experience. Introducing a range of spirit categories to general consumers was an absolute pleasure, I loved these events so much! This was a year ago today at one of the best bars in the city and I can’t believe it was so long ago/it feels like yesterday.

We had a fantastic range of blended and single malt Scotches to try, chef made a delicious Scotch egg feature to support through the kitchen and the incredible of showed up to astound us with his bagpipe skills!

Sounds like fun right? It really was!

Happy Burns night people, treat yourself to some good Scotch today, looking forward til we can all get together to share a dram and a story or two in person again soon!

Sláinte! 🍻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

01/25/2021

Just remembered that spring is around the corner (it’s in the air today) and it made me pretty damn happy! Thought I’d share the good vibes with a nice picture of some swans, happy Monday y’all!

01/22/2021

Who doesn't like a big cheque!

managed to raise over $4,000 for the through sales of our delicious collaboration lager, the Winter Spiced Blonde over the holidays. Thank you to all who bought a can or three. Huge thanks going out to for all his support and work in getting limited brew off the ground.

This was a fun and productive collaboration from start to finish, a real pleasure throughout. And the lager was pretty darn good too!

The Bartenders Benevolent Fund supports hospitality professional across Canada through a variety of funds based on your needs, check out our website for more information and to apply:

www.bartendersbenevolentfund.ca

01/20/2021

Last week the legend that is offered and I the chance to offer a very unique evening to some of the best bartenders across Toronto: a virtual genever tasting! To those who don’t know, genever is the precursor to gin, and it’s an extremely unique and tasty product. The evening was a blast, with a boat load of faces I haven’t seen in far too long. To make it happen I drove around the city and (socially distanced of course) and handed a few samples out to these guys.

By way of a thank you for that, Charles sent me this incredible bottle of genever (one of my favourites from the selection we tasted!) and I’m so happy about it - thank a bunch mate, this is awesome!

This BEAUTY is a bottle of . An old style Genever (meaning it contains a minimum of 15% malt) made form 100% malt, with no sugar, neutral alcohol or additives added. This particular bottle is the Bartenders Choice Rome edition, made on collaboration with the team at with the purpose of recreating the original style of genever referred to in all those early cocktail books we all read when we were starting out - particularly featuring a higher ABV. Although I’m likely to only drink this neat as it’s so special.

Thanks again team, this whole experience was a big win, hope we can do more in the future 🍻🇨🇦

01/20/2021

I love the numbers because they give you indicators and markers. Hitting a milestone can give you a huge sense of pride and this is certainly one of moments. The circumstances that led to reaching this number are not ideal and that obviously demands that this is not a celebration of any kind. But in addition to the 1700+ successful applicants this number represents, it also represents the combined effort of dozens of volunteers, hundreds of large-corporate and smaller-individual donations, a bunch of free advertising and press, word of mouth, competitions, good ideas, concerts, hard work, auctions and a general combined effort of an entire community to support itself during an unprecedented time of need. And that’s definitely something that should be celebrated. A half a million dollars that had a positive impact on over 1700 hospitality professionals. That’s pretty amazing.

The new website and targeted funds just launched. If you or someone you know in the hospitality industry requires supper, go to: www.bartendersbenevolentfund.ca/funds (link in bio)

01/15/2021

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a big fan of good sodas. So I was very pleased to be offered some of these great tonics to try!

They are unique in several ways, most interestingly, they are South African! The flavours are complex and inviting, here I’m using the Rose & Cucumber, but the regular Tonic and the Grapefruit Tonic are also great. And hey also have just the right amount of carbonation, which is so important because sodas that boast massive carbonation are often not so great when they go flat, as the pressure is used to hide poorer flavours or excessive sweetness. So moderate-high carbonation = 👍

Here I made a Loretta simple but banging cocktail with the Pink Tonic:

1.5oz Blanco
0.25oz Aperol
0.25oz Grapefruit Juice
3oz Rose & Cucumber Tonic
- Grapefruit Zest

Delicious! Hope you find and get to try some of these tasty sodas soon.

01/12/2021

This Anejo old fashioned is a well earned TREAT after a tough Monday. As ‘one of those days’ draws to a close I decided it was FINALLY time to take advantage of a fantastic holiday gift from !

This Christmas, on top of some great tequila, I got a gift basket (the single best kind of gift!) from my sister which contained this AMAZING local honey (hence the half consumed jar) which I really wanted to put to the test on a drink. Of course the obvious logo connections played their part, and I’m pleased to report this cocktail is bee-lishous! 😬🐝

Here’s the recipe for your interest (FYI I like to taste the spirits in my cocktails):

2.5oz Tequila Patron Anejo
0.5oz Beezy Honey (diluted 1/5)
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir-🥄🧊🥃

I rarely put an Anejo tequila in a cocktail, but in this case I’ve very glad I did. Thanks for the gift Zak, much appreciated amigo! 🇨🇦

01/10/2021

This was one of all time my favourite memories!

I love teaching, I love connecting with an audience and showing them something new. I always take a lot from each class as an experience myself. This was one of my favourite experiences in teaching, when a student gave me the gift of a bottle of Altos Tequila as a thank you at the end of a 10 week spirits course: Maison by Pernod Ricard.

Three years ago I was the Altos Tequila Brand ambassador for Canada, and the instructor for excellent Maison for the east coast. When I took it and when I was teaching it I was impressed by its breadth and detail. I really hope it, or an updated equivalent, comes back one day soon.

After 10 weeks you tend to form a pretty decent bond with most of your class, and to know one of them enjoyed this so much, and took so much out of it, felt absolutely incredible. This is a great memory.

01/06/2021

We’re pretty thrilled to be featured in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of as one of 75 incredible “People, Places and Organizations Working to Build a Better Drinks World”.

This one goes out to all our amazing volunteers, thank you! 🌎🥂

01/04/2021

I’ve been working hard alongside and this weekend to get the new website finished for its launch next week. Lots of incredible new additions in here including additional funds and the start of some incredible programming including WSET scholarships for marginalized and underrepresented communities.

This afternoon I was making the absolute best of this heavy workload with my favourite mug of tea and a solid football game - sorry Chelsea! Sunday afternoons at their finest!

Check out and www.bartendersbenevolentfund.ca for imminent updates.

12/31/2020

2010 - 2020 - 2021. What a difference a year makes.

12/29/2020

Happy birthday to the incomparable Desmond Payne! 🍸 🇬🇧

This picture was taken at the tale end of in 2017 at the infamous Alibi. It was 1am and we were the only guys at the bar, and I was dying from the previous few days. But we knew many friends were about to join, so as I was complaining about my constitution, Desmond ordered me a Beefeater Gin martini and told me to power through! 30mins later I was having the time of my life in a packed bar. Thank you Desmond; you are part gent and part rockstar. Have the happiest of birthdays sir! 🎉🥂

12/25/2020

Merry Christmas! Hope your day is filled with love and laughter, and tequila.

12/23/2020

It’s still got that new car smell on account of it being brand spanking new! Welcome to the family Deloris Van CARtier 💕

12/22/2020

Not mad at this gift at all! A huge thanks to the team at for this gold medal winning Anejo Gran Reserva bottle and tasting kit. It was a pleasure to join you all with master distiller Antonio Salles in a guided tasting this weekend.

This tequila is made from 100% blue agave from the highlands of Jalisco, and produced in the lowlands using copper pots and that fantastic mineral rich volcanic water. Ages in both American and French oak, this anejo is going to be my supper of choice on Christmas Day; so excited to tuck into this beauty. Thanks team El Tequileno!

12/20/2020

Wishing my beautiful wife and favourite human a very happy birthday today! No better person to be locked down with; your talents, love and eternal support will always be appreciated and today I’d like to make a special point of celebrating that. Here’s to you, from me and the dogs, and here’s always getting to start Christmas a week early! Love ya ###

12/18/2020

A phenomenal meal that tastes all the better for supporting my friend’s businesses! This chicken from is INCREDIBLE! And this Winter Spiced Blond from in support of the is the perfect accompaniment. I’m in HEAVEN over here! (So is Evie by the looks of it 👀!)

🎉❤️🍻

12/18/2020

There once was a bar called Linwood
Which made drinks that were crazy as they could
They took hot buttered rum
And made it more fun
By adding more ingredients than they should.

And this was the result:

Hot Buttered Fun:

- Anejo Reserva
- Popcorn infused
- Salted caramel butter
- Angostura whipped cream

Linwood Essentials was one of my final bartending gigs, around six years ago. And what a creative place it was! Grated frozen snickers will always be my go-to flip garnish after this. Together with .ca we developed both the Ultimate Vodka Soda (house made Soda and vodka blend) as well as the iconic Single Plum Floating in Perfume, Served in a Man’s Hat. I remember his suggestion at a cocktail development session one time that says it all: “it’s good but it needs more fire”! Great times with you Jake and fantastic memories. Salud mate 🥂

12/17/2020

How I negotiate.

12/17/2020

12/15/2020

A PHENOMENAL gift from a wonderful friend! Madre Cuishe! Oh boy, this stuff is GOOD! Another incredible Mezcal from one of the best brands out there! I think it was supposed to be for the holidays but the seal lasted all of 30 seconds 🤭 I promise I won’t drink it before Christmas! Thank you so much, from and I, and wishing you Carmen and Liam a very merry Christmas!!! 🎉❤️🥂🇨🇦🙏🎄🇲🇽💫

!!! 🥳

12/13/2020

I’m very excited to be one of the first guests on my buddy ’s new radio show DINE & DASH next week! I’ll be sharing news and developments from the and introducing this little nugget to their audio kitchen party on . But because I like you all, you get a sneak peak below.

The show airs every Friday at 1pm, when the guys will talking food news, feature local PEEL & GTA region restaurants, interview key voices and leaders in the global food world and cap off each show with taking listeners through one of their fav recipes, here’s mine (guess what, it’s got tequila in it! 😉):

Mexican Eggnog

1.5oz Reposado Tequila
1oz
1oz Cinnamon Syrup
1 whole free range egg
0.5oz Cream
2oz Milk

Shake all vigorously without ice, then with ice, and strain into a heavy glass.

Garnish with fresh grated nutmeg & (Mexican) cinnamon

12/13/2020

This is Saturday night! After a rainy day day in Toronto, it feels good to sit back with this exceptional batch of reposado and one of my favourite Christmas movies 👌🎄

12/12/2020

This is huge! We’re thrilled to announce that our friends at have donated a whopping $150,000 to our fund in continuing support for our hospitality community across Canada. This is in addition to their pledge to match every individual donation (up to $25,000) until Jan 1st, 2021.

The recent support we have received from our partners and community is outstanding, and these will all go towards continuing our Emergency Relief Fund for bartenders, servers, bussers, chefs etc across Canada, as well as the additional funds that we will be announcing next week to better serve our struggling industry.

Grapes for Humanity are a seriously impressive organization, run by only two people, and their fundraising results - as evidenced here - are truly awe inspiring. Please check them out.

Thank you to Doris and Steven for all your incredible support 🙏

                                                       

12/09/2020

Check out this new, limited edition Mezcal Tasting Kit from the team at ! Perfect for the holiday season 🎁 :

Venture across different regions of Mexico to explore the varieties of agave used to make mezcal without ever having to pack a suitcase 🙌 Curated with both novices and enthusiasts in mind, this kit is designed for two people to enjoy 4 different agave varietals, each with a distinct profile to showcase the breadth of styles in mezcal 🇲🇽

Each sample is accompanied with a guided video tutorial explaining the provenance of all the mezcals and the production methods that make these hard-to-find mezcals - unique! All packed alongside a pre-bottled mezcal cocktail creation, two etched tasting glasses, and complementary chili caramel corn for snacking 😋

Use the Ambassador app link on our website to order this exclusive offering and spend the holidays discovering the world of mezcal from the comfort of home.

12/09/2020

Take a look at this new, limited edition Mezcal Tasting Kit from the team at !Ideal for the holiday season 🎁 :

Venture across different regions of Mexico to explore the varieties of agave used to make mezcal without ever having to pack a suitcase 🙌 Curated with both novices and enthusiasts in mind, this kit is designed for two people to enjoy 4 different agave varietals, each with a distinct profile to showcase the breadth of styles in mezcal 🇲🇽

Each sample is accompanied with a guided video tutorial explaining the provenance of all the mezcals and the production methods that make these hard-to-find mezcals - unique! All packed alongside a pre-bottled mezcal cocktail creation, two etched tasting glasses, and complementary chili caramel corn for snacking 😋

Use the Ambassador app link on our website to order this exclusive offering and spend the holidays discovering the world of mezcal from the comfort of home 👌🥂🎄

12/08/2020

In normal times, curating a tailored spirit experience is what I love to do the most. Designing and activating the perfect spirited event is a real passion. This time last year I was invited into a client’s home to present a tequila introduction, and tiered tasting, to a group of friends who were celebrating 15yrs of “spirits and steaks” at their annual Christmas party. I feel like I made 25 new ambassadors for this wonderful spirit category on this night, and had a fantastic evening to boot. Huge thanks as always to my partner in crime (and business at the time) who designed these stunning tasting mats which really elevated the entire experience.

12/04/2020

Caught that morning good light. Beard game on point.