We had the good fortune of connecting with Jose Baez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I’m from the San Gabriel Valley, specifically a city called Baldwin Park. During the time I grew up in the 90s, the city had gang violence and as a kid you had a choice to either join the gangs or do sports or study hard to find a way out. I think my family was like many other families in Baldwin park, you know? They would always want the best for you or their kids and that came from working hard. So I got a job, worked hard, and got paid well. No one ever told me or suggested that “you could become a businessman or start a business”. I remember making cocktails or at least what I thought were cocktails in highschool for friends at functions where we would get together, you know like when we were graduating. I did this so no one was too intoxicated and then would drive and kill themselves or other people. After highschool, I went to college for art design and I found myself to be a literally starving artist. Then a friend of mine recommended me to go with her to a Bartender school that’s been in Covina since 1994. We went to school together and learned the basics of Bartending. We then took our new talents to people’s homes and house parties and eventually landed our first job with El Cholo Cantina in Pasadena. This is really where I learned the great culture of bartending through Diego Fernandez and my bar master, Ricardo. These two men taught about cocktail creation and great customer service. They told me how to entertain guests with my great personality and delicious drinks and let’s not forget they even gave me my name: Elvis. This is what gave me the confidence as a bartender and made me recognize my roots and culture as a Latino that’s been working in restaurants, in the back of the house, and just in the hospitality industry in general. That’s why I wanted to return the favor by opening up a bartending school that can teach Spanish and other people how to bartend and how it can change their lives.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I believe in my Academy. I believe it is our mission to make a better society of bartenders working in our hospitality industry today.  I feel by training people in the correct way of creating cocktails, being creative, having personality and knowing how to entertain guests makes a difference. I think there’s lots of people out there that love to have a good time, but you can make money doing that behind the bar so I trained those with speed, accuracy, and confidence to perform for their guests to make a steady income. Some bartenders can make a very very lucrative career through bartending. I also feel it’s my duty to warn them and guide them into a safer outcome by talking about saving, self-care, and work awareness.  Growing up as a bartender I’ve seen some great bartenders fall into alcoholism and drugs. I wouldn’t want my students to step on those loose stones on their path to greatness. I’ve also had moments where I would get the door shut in my face. I would always be told I was overqualified and I would be given the runaround so we teach our students confidence, pride and show them how they can stand out and catch an employer’s attention. It’s been seven years. We got through Covid and I am still teaching trainees today. The Academy hires our trainees in the private events we do.  Many bars and restaurants and lounges always call for potential employees from Prestige. I am a strong believer that the proof is in the pudding and my Prestige Academy bartenders are few, but they are the best. Hearing about their adventures and successful jobs is a real payback for me. That makes me feel professional about what I’m doing here.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Favorite city to hang out? Any place that has a Prestige Bartender making drinks and a good DJ will get me to hang out! So far those cities are Pasadena, Claremont, Covina, San Dimas, Pomona, Whittier, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, Ontario, City of Industry, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Honolulu. I love to see my students making drinks, and ask for one of their creations.  This is where the joke “Prestige Worldwide!” from the movie stepbrothers comes in.  No, we didn’t name it after them.  If anybody came to see me from out of town, I would ask him to join me at my bar in Pomona called Krazy J’s; I have the best music and DJs.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Who do I owe thanks to for building me up or giving me the confidence and strength to become the Bartender instructor I am today? Well if it wasn’t for my friend Lisa, I wouldn’t have come to the school and then bought it and turned it into Prestige Bartender Academy. I am a strong believer that everyone enters your life for a reason; Whether it’s a positive or negative lesson, it’s a lesson that’s needed. So with that being said, thank you to my family and friends for believing in me and being worried that I may become something different in their eyes. Thank you to those that opened the door for me when people saw something different, They believed in me. To start off, I want to thank the amazing crew and staff at El Cholo Cantina, in Pasadena: Diego, Sean, and a big shout out to Edgar for giving me hell in order to make me a better bartender. I want to say thank you to Carlos for giving me an opportunity in the nightclub that helped me get my name. Carlos could’ve made me a doorman, but he remembered how good of a Bartender I was at El Cholo with him and he gave an job behind the bar at a place called Ambiente in Alhambra.From there, I got to be with Dennis Bandy and his family. They gave me work all the way from Vertigo in Los Angeles to Luna in Diamond Bar and we still continue to work together today at Muchas Gracias in Whittier. I saved the best for last, when I left the Los Angeles bartending scene and started in Pomona around 2008 or 2009 (time goes fast as a bartender, haha): to Jerry Najera, John Pena, and the ultimate coolest boss of the old 90s nightclub, The Hop, Nick Besipi; Thank you so much. When I felt like I needed to achieve more, I want to thank Jeff Darvell for giving me the opportunity to help run the Fox Theater in Pomona where I got to learn so much and the skills of becoming more of a bar manager than just a bartender. These were steps that put me on the path of becoming a business owner and bigger things.After a few years of running ‘life behind bars’, I got to settle down and I got to co-owning a bar that I was part of in Pomona with Jerry and John. Last and most importantly, thank you to my awesome wife, Dr. Jeanette, because she helped me start the curriculum for the bartender academy known as Prestige.I know I missed lots of people, but you know I love you and I couldn’t have done it without you.

Website: Www.prestigebaracademy.com

Instagram: Prestige_bar_Academy

Yelp: Prestige Bartender Academy

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