Christian Suzuki-Orellana

Most call me ‘Suzu’ for short. I'm coming from the San Francisco Bay area, but my career in bartending really began with my grandparents, who own a restaurant/bar business in Tokyo, Japan. Since the 1940s, they opened four restaurants, a cocktail bar, and a ranch that sourced all of the businesses proteins and produce. By the time I was born, I was conditioned into hospitality. From ages 11 to 18, I would travel back to Japan at least two to three times a year to learn more about food, service, and management. At 18, I moved back to Japan to get a better understanding of their world and eventually got my first bar job at a nightclub, which only lasted a few months.

When I turned 21, I moved back to the Bay Area, and got my first hand at craft cocktails at 15 Romolo in San Francisco. I moved my way up from a server to manager, and eventually a bartender. Nearly a decade into bar world, I have been able to work at some of San Francisco’s top bars, like Wildhawk and Benjamin Cooper. Some of my accomplishments as a bartender include becoming a National Finalist for Bombay Sapphire’s Most Imaginative Bartender (2020), Bacardi Legacy (2018), and September 2020’s Bartender in Residence for PUNCH.

Most recently, I have created a pop-up, Kagano Pop-Up. Kagano Bar is the bar that my grandmother owned and operated in Tokyo between the 1950s and 1960s. My lifetime dream is to re-open this bar with the focus of Japanese ingredients, the best hospitality, and with a work ethos of gender, racial, sexual, and physical inclusivity.