This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast more of what you here weekday afternoons on the Drive. The father and son duo of John and Johnny Ronde have a broad and loyal audience referred to as authentic and refreshing, and they share all of this in their podcast, the Johnny Drinks Podcast, and they're joining us now, guys. Good to have you along, Hey to help us morning. Lee, How are you very well, sir? Let's start with you, Johnny? When how did this all start? For you?
Too? Also very interesting? You address me or him Johnny. We're not sure who Johnny is, right, John? I believe I believed in the optics of our brand that I'm Johnny. However I call him Johnny, right, So then then we kind of separated from there, you know, john senior and junior, although we're not a real senior and junior. But I'll take the question as you address it. So our short story, and you know what we continually put in I guess into context, is that this
came to us. We started with one cocktail, one TikTok that wed viral had over eight million views. From there, we just did it again and the test of what we really found is a relationship right authenticity and then a true sincerity with what we're bringing to our audience through TikTok. Were some just fun videos and so where we are today with regards to the podcast is a longer form gives us time to explain to people differently than the one minute videos
that disencapsulates a fun moment. H John and Johnny Roddie the Johnny Drinks podcasts what they host? M John, Let's you know what did one or both of you ever work as a bartender? Now we have zero years of bunching experience combined that more over than anything lead, more over than anything. Um, there's no professional experience, there's only real world experience. And I say this over and over again. You know I'm fifty six years old. Actually
I think of fifty seven consume. Um, I gotta do the math. So, you know, as a host, as someone who has people over their home or likes to go out and pay attention to the finer things that other professionals afford, I just watch and I learned. And so now when you come over my house before TikTok gets celebrated it, I would do things that I know I enjoy it when I went out, and I would share that with my friends and family. So so this is just an extension of
it. And to the point of the first cocktail that we made, I was making it for myself and my family at the time before we were going out to dinner. Johnny still happens to just catch it on his first TikTok
and then that's the video that went viral. So I made a smoked Manhattan when I literally took a cedar board, burned it, put the glass over it, made my Manhattan, poured it, and he put music to it Frank Sinatra, and it eight millions, Okay, So that was not from the professional experience of someone telling me or showing me how to make it. It's just for me watching and learning and knowing on what kind of spirits I
like and how I like to make my man Well. I'm very interested too in the ebb and flow of cocktails throughout throughout the beginning of when cocktails came to be, how people and tastes seem to change. When when the Martini came out, I think palettes weren't into the sweet as much as they were into the bitter. And maybe the less fruities. But but now you can't go anywhere without some type of vodka or other liqueur that's infused with some sort
of fruit. Yeah. Well, that's the fun part about this mixology, right. There's things that you will at one time in your life find to be appropriate, and then as you get older or you get tired of it, or you want to change, like anything else, you'll just experiment um. And it's a balancing act. It's chemistry, it's you know, it's it's thinking through the flavor profiles of whatever it is you want to put in
your glass and then put over your lips to enjoy. But to your point, yeah, you know, there was a time where the brown spirits of whiskey, bourbon and rye. You know, they were considered the old old man, old old person drink, and that had gone way by itself through the seventies when when you introduced the martini ere and the cocktail spirit era.
And so now today we're seeing a comeback full servile where people young people, you know Johnny Gage twenty seven, thirty years old, are appreciating the brown spirits and the time it takes for them the mature and the way in which you might even enjoy them from a neat type of a poor which is without who's just right out of the bottle of neat, or with some ice cube in it or a little water in it. So it's just the evolution of
many things. And so this is a popular place that I think even you know, COVID had intend to fight because we were all locked down, had nothing to do, and so it was a perfect store from that respect for us. John and Johnny Rondey the Johnny Drinks podcast, that's just what they host. And you mentioned Rye. I don't know that anybody has Rye and their liquor cabinet anymore, do they? I do, come on over. Y uh yeah, I enjoy Rye. Actually, my favorite way of making
my Manhattan was and still is with Rye. Wow, I've not had one like that, so I'll have to give it a try. Yep, yep, you gotta you gotta check out. You're gonna watch one of our videos that I smoke the glass too. That's the real the real key to this is, uh, bringing some presentation to your cock Kelly and anyone can pour the liquor into the glass with an ice cube and you know, or mix
some things and stirred up. You want to, I think even for your own poor you know, create something that slows you down to appreciate it. So we have a smoking kid that actually we're we're putting out there and we have to put out there. That's been very popular because that's one of the things that we do really well. We smoke our cocktails. So just try it. Just check it out and you'll see a lot of fun. And your friends have as much, if not more fun, watching you prepare the
cocktail for them. The Johnny Drinks podcasts and we're talking to John and Johnny Ronde is there. Have you ever come across a cottail at the end of making it, you say to yourself, yeah, that's too much trouble. We pour it a lot of cocktails down the drains. They worn't good. So they may look good, some of them look better than they taste, but you know, yeah, there's a there's an end of the user that is going to ultimately say whether it's good or that. But for our own
palette, we we know some of them just starbage. You try it and it didn't work, throw it down the drain. You go back and start over John and Johnny Ronde the Johnny Drinks podcasts. It is available everywhere you get podcasts, including the Eye Art Radio app. And cheers to you both and thanks for joining us, Thank you here, thank man, I'm a
great day. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation