Meet Sherry Week Ambassador Ryan Maybee

Sherry has played an important role in my career as a bartender and restaurateur.  It’s broad range of styles and flavors, ability to pair with so many foods, and flexibility in cocktails lends itself to almost every occasion.  Sherry will always be an important part of my bar program and the guest experience at my bars.

Ryan Maybee is a life-long bartender and restaurateur with expertise in the fields of wine, spirits and mixology. He is a Certified Sommelier, as well as a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) from the Society of Wine Educators, and in 2012 became the first person to complete the BAR Master Certification from Beverage Alcohol Resource in New York City.

In 2013, Imbibe Magazine named him Bartender of The Year.  Further, Maybee was a finalist in the international Vinos de Jerez Cocktail Competition (2007), and a world-finalist in the Angostura Bitters Global Cocktail Challenge (2012).  He also co-founded the Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition, now in its 9th year, and The Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival.

His creative libations have received national acclaim being featured in such top-tier publications as Wine Enthusiast, Food and Wine, Imbibe, Mutineer Magazine, Market Watch, The New Yorker, Vogue, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide, The Bartenders Gin Compendium, and Bartender Magazine. Gaz Regan’s Annual Manual for Bartenders named him one of 8 “Fabulous Innovators” in 2011 for his technique for smoking whiskey, and his original cocktail, the “Smokin’ Choke” was awarded Innovative Cocktail of the Year in 2010 by the Institute for Cocktail Excellence.  

He currently owns and operates Manifesto (opened in 2009), and The Rieger (opened in 2010) in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City, MO.  He recently partnered with Andy Rieger to revive J. Rieger & Co., a Kansas City based distillery that was founded in 1887 and took a 95 year hiatus beginning with Prohibition in 1919.   He lives in the Crossroads with his wife, Jenny, and their Great Dane, Moose.

Taste his favorite Sherry cocktail, the Girl From Cádiz.