Bar owner Joshua Gonzales knows secrets of handcrafted cocktails
Joshua Gonzales is a mover and a shaker.
Customers can often find him mixing and mingling with thirsty crowds from behind the bar at his Thunderbird operation in Fountain Square.
After working as an outreach and communications director for a health and wellness program in the state, Gonzales decided about five years ago to learn everything he could about the craft cocktail game.
Gonzales conceived Thunderbird about three years ago and says he was fortunate enough to find the right partners. Open since February 2014, the speakeasy-style urban watering hole serves up Southern-tinged cuisine washed down with creative, and potent, hand-crafted cocktails.
Gonzales oversees a wide range of responsibilities as Thunderbird’s owner. He usually arrives at the bar in the late morning to handle paperwork and emails, then meets with liquor reps in the afternoon while helping prep for evening service. Once the doors open, he helps run food and drinks, seats guests, clears tables and makes cocktails during shifts that sometimes run until 2 or 3 a.m.
“My job duties are anything and everything,” he said. “I create cocktail menus, train staff, handle orders, unclog drains and try to keep my head above water.”
Question: What makes your job cool?
Answer: “I think there’s a misperception of what it means to be a bartender. People think we live in some sort of never-ending party. In reality, making drinks is just a small part of what we do. Most of the shift is spent prepping and cleaning. Shifts can run 12 hours, and it’s a very physical job. It’s cool in the sense that we don’t have to sit in front of a computer sending emails for eight hours a day.”
Q: What’s not so cool about your job?
A: “Excel spreadsheets.”
Q: What’s something people would be surprised to know about Indy’s local cocktailing scene?
A: “That we are making a mark on the national scene. There are a handful of young bartenders in Indy who are putting in the hard work, attending the right events and networking in a way that’s exposing Indy’s cocktail scene to a larger national audience.”
Q: What are a couple of your most memorable experiences as a mixologist?
A: “My best experiences are when I get to bar tend with my staff on weekends. It’s rewarding to see how much they’ve grown. I enjoy our time together in the trenches.”
Q: What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you took this job?
A: “You have to take care of yourself. Owning a bar is an exhausting endeavor and it’s very easy to let your health deteriorate. You’re eating poorly, not sleeping enough and your stress levels are through the roof. It’s not a sustainable way to live. It’s incredibly important to maintain personal health so you can focus on developing a healthy business.”
Q: Do you need any special qualifications, certifications or training to do your job?
A: “No, but the job does require dedication, motivation and the ability to adapt on the fly. The training is long and it never really ends. Good bartenders should be doing all they can to learn about every product on the back bar. We should be ambassadors for the spirits we choose to carry, and an encyclopedia for our guests.”
Q: What skills and characteristics are necessary to be successful as a mixologist?
A: “The willingness to start at the bottom. ... Pay attention to what the bartenders are doing and how they handle guests; ask questions about the products on the back bar; and read every book you can find on classic cocktails, spirits and distillation. It’s possible to have a career as a craft bartender, but you have to put in the time.”
Q: Where do you want to go from here in your career?
A: “I don’t believe there is an end game. I just want to continue learning how to be a better bartender and business owner.”
More about Joshua Gonzales
Job title: Thunderbird owner/operator.
Age: 38.
Education: College dropout.
Family: “I’ve got some.”
Favorite musician: R. Kelly.
Favorite quote: “We drink and we dry up, and then we crumble into dust.” — lyrics from Craig Finn of The Hold Steady