by Madison Rutherford | photography by Thomas Ingersoll
“At the end of the day, bartenders are storytellers,” Jason Asher says. Given the immersive, multi-character narratives he conjured at acclaimed drinking dreamscapes UnderTow and Century Grand, this statement makes sense coming from the cocktail trailblazer. But following his December departure from Barter & Shake, the pioneering hospitality group he co-founded in 2015, and his severing with the aforementioned bars, Asher’s own self-made story is the one that most intrigues Valley cocktail fans. The next chapter? Consulting. At his new venture, Juniper & Jigger Hospitality Co., the former busboy and GQ profilee offers a full suite of services to restaurant and bar clients, from glassware selection to menu design to the cocktails themselves. One notable client: Joey Maggiore, with whom he’s developing a “massively immersive” concept in Las Vegas. Asher takes us behind the bar to discuss his new role, Phoenix’s food and beverage scene and how to create captivating narratives through cocktails.
What led to your decision to leave Barter & Shake?
As time went on, it became clear that chapter of Barter & Shake had come to an end and the next evolution for me was finding amazing entrepreneurs and chefs that wanted to join forces to do amazing F&B but really pull the “F” into that entire picture, which had been absent from everything that we had done thus far. There was really no clean way to approach that fork in the road without parting ways or divesting… With a lot of confidence, I parted ways very amicably and with a lot of high hopes that they will carry on the legacy that we instilled.
Why did Juniper & Jigger feel like the right name for your new concept?
Juniper represents resilience and is a key component of our home state. Juniper is also, of course, an important and essential piece of crafting gin. For us, it represents the key piece of crafting experiences and cocktails and really curating amazing hospitality. The jigger is about precision. I think that over nearly 30 years of experience within the industry, we have found a lot of opportunity to be precise and deliver precise guidance to anybody that we’re working with to achieve, at the end of the day, a successful business.
What trends in the hospitality industry do you think will define the next decade?
I think that bartenders are beginning to develop drinks with stories, finding inspiration in a cocktail… from experiences. I think you’re going to find a lot more storytelling happening through the liquid in the glass… I think there’s a lot of ways to really bring experience to a guest, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be within an immersive environment. It can be as simple as a couple ingredients or a perspective.
What’s your dream project and location to consult on?
[Phoenix] is still home. Doing something here in Phoenix would be amazing because I still think there’s a lot of room in Phoenix for food and beverage. Let’s be real, Phoenix is booming. But to be able to work with somebody like Joey [Maggiore] to bring a concept at the scale that we’re thinking to Las Vegas would be a statement as to what Joey and I can do together. Those are two big goals for me.
If you were to make a cocktail to represent this next chapter of your career, what would it be and why?
I think a martini is probably the best example, because not every martini is the same… and not every project we’re going to face and encounter is going to be the same. Every gin represents a new challenge, just like every project will represent a new challenge. I think the expertise and the execution and development of that drink with ice and dilution, it represents our ability to adapt, to learn how to work within the boundaries that we’re given… It’s all about precision and flexibility and understanding, in this case, what my clients want from me and learning how to adapt my approach to fit their mold.
