James Lee: Boulder

“You can ask me anything about tequila, I’d take [it] over any other spirit in the world,” says Big Red F Restaurants Beverage Director James Lee, whose love for the spirit grew while slinging drinks at Zolo Southwestern Grill, a tequila bar, in 1998. From there he popped up behind the bar at the other restaurants in Big Red F's Boulder-based restaurant group, landing at the West End Tavern in 2004, where bourbon became his baby. “I began to appreciate [its] taste and complexity. It has sweetness in the front with a mellow finish,” says Lee, who considers the mark of a great cocktail to be the way the sweet and tart flavors balance. “When you get a bad cosmo or mojito that has sweetness in front and in the back—as a finish—it’s too sweet.” Sweet balances with smoky in his own bourbons infused with strawberries, Georgia peaches or ginger. He’ll be playing with even more infusions at Happy Noodle, Big Red F’s new Asian noodle bowl concept, with updated tiki-themed cocktails like a pina colada with nigori sake flavored with coconut lemongrass, and the Crazy 88 with vodka, champagne, ginger-lemongrass syrup and muddled Asian pears and cucumbers. But Lee seems most excited to experiment with classic and updated cocktails from the 1920s at the hush-hush Bitter Bar, a speakeasy that’ll take over Happy Noodle during afterhours—with a separate entrance in the back and a secret password.

Current ingredient obsession: Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur