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May / June / July 2007 |
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Junior Merino |
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Junior Merino has always been exposed to the freshest of spices, fruits and vegetables, and he believes these were what initially inspired his creativity and led him to a career in mixology. |
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Junior was born in Teocomatlan, Mexico. He moved to the United States in 1993 when he was only 15 years old, and immediately found a job working at Boulevard Café. Five years later he landed himself a gig behind the bar and was soon developing his own award-winning wine and cocktail menus. Junior is a certified master sommelier, a winner of the Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, and a master mixologist. Most recently he has been spending his time traveling and competing in various cocktail competitions, from New York to Orlando, Mexico and Tokyo. He has been teaching seminars to educate the public on the cocktail as an art form, and even has a book on this topic to soon be released! Surprisingly, Merino rarely drinks himself. He is more interested in being on the other side of the bar, using a variety of uncommon ingredients to create and serving libations to others. Merino likes to “give the right to the guest to decide what they like,” and claims that there is no bad liquor: what is the best to one person may not be the best to someone else. For Junior, inspiration comes not only from the ingredients he uses, but also from the time he spends researching them. Merino believes that any mixologist who knows his ingredients will be valuable to his guests, the producers of the liquor, and everyone who is involved in the process. Just like any good chef, he spends a great deal of time researching all of his products. “To me a cocktail is like a dish, a liquid dish.”
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