Kiss My Glass: The thoughtfulness of taking care of somebody

Host Edwin Real eats a lot of food, but in this episode of Kiss My Glass, he lays his cards on the table saying his best meal of the year came from the pop-up dinner series called Tortoise.

A force behind the success of the monthly dinner series is Jason O’Bryan, who is also the Bar Manager at Lion’s Share, the restaurant that sits below the space where Tortoise is hosted.

It was one particular afternoon of fine dining in New York that set O’Bryan on a mission to create a similar experience in San Diego, where he said, aside from Addison in Del Mar (where his wife is a sommelier), the city is lacking high-end restaurants. Thus, Tortoise was born.

With the launch of the monthly dining series Tortoise, O’Bryan and his team pay as much attention to the customer experience as they do to the thoughtful seasonal menu.

We recently sat down with The Lion’s Share bar manager where he discussed the following:

Launching Tortoise
Seeking out The Lion’s Share
Lack of top notch dining experiences around San Diego
Thoughtful attention to detail in the service industry
“All my cocktails are operating at the limit of my current experience.”
Putting it all together: Flavor, glass, presentation
Favorite spirit to drink
How the kitchen influences cocktail menu development
Getting his start in San Diego food and beverage industry
Rising to the level of the people that came before
Master sommelier controversy
#WifeBrag
Where to go for cocktails
Eating and drinking around Normal Heights
Lion Share’s 7th anniversary
Upcoming dates for Tortoise dinner club
New cocktail menu release at Lion Share

Kiss My Glass is a collaboration between PACIFIC and Facebook group Eating and Drinking in San Diego. The podcast is hosted on the U-T Podcast Network.

Listen and subscribe to Kiss My Glass and sister podcast Dish It Up wherever you listen to podcasts, including iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Soundcloud.