USBG Silicon Valley

12/23/2025

10/22/2025

The United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) announces today that award-winning actor William H. Macy will feature as the keynote speaker for Bar Summit 2026. The event will be held throughout Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood April 26-29 with the Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square serving as the event hub. Macy will appear on behalf of Woody Creek Distillers.

“We’re so excited to welcome William H. Macy to Bar Summit 2026 as our keynote speaker,” said USBG President Ingrid Shawn Rodriguez. “There’s a throughline between performance and storytelling that connects the work of a great actor and a great bartender. We can’t wait to welcome him to the event.”

“I have so much respect for bartenders,” said Macy. “When I started my career, I made friends with a bartender in Vermont. I don’t recommend this when you’re as broke as I was, but I offered to work for free if he’d just teach me how to bartend. Eventually I started making cocktails well enough to earn a little money and have a good time. What I didn’t understand then that I fully appreciate now is, being a great bartender is art and skill and craft and hospitality and grace, demonstrated simultaneously at an extremely high level. I’d be lucky to do maybe two of those, but not all five at once.”

Full Press Release HERE: https://tr.ee/gfpKCJeXCB

09/09/2025

Stirring up something big… Registration for the 2026 USBG Bar Summit is officially live!

Register Now HERE: https://tr.ee/-lfzYdNqlY

Each registration phase has a limited availability. Once that is full, the next phase opens—and the price goes up! Register early to save!

05/06/2023

Friends in the Bay and beyond:

We invite you to join us to celebrate the life of our friend and teammate Dan Lease, Tuesday May 9th beginning at 6pm.

We will begin our candlelight vigil in Fountain Alley directly next to Scratch Cookery. After which we will continue to Miniboss.

We invite all who knew and loved him to share their memories of our friend, and offer their condolences to his family who will join us to hear how loved he was and is by this community.

Lastly we want to invite everyone to share with us any photos they may have of Dan to [email protected].

All are welcome. We hope through the sharing of love and remembrance we can all find solace in this difficult time.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/dan-lease-memorial-fund?member=26731971&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

01/23/2023

Come hangout for some N/A fun!

01/14/2023

04/24/2022

Hey everyone! This coming Thursday the 28th Jim Meehan will be doing a rum class with Banks Rums at 55 South. This is an rsvp only event so I need a headcount asap. RSVP to [email protected] There are only 10 spot’s available!

02/09/2022

It has been a while. We Hope all is well with you and yours!

Let's start with the game plan for our chapter this year:

As of right now The President is Daniel Lease and the Vice President is Kenton Kuwada.
We plan to hold in house elections to refil the ranks as Pandemic took its toll and some have moved out of the area or on to other opportunities.
With that being said please email Dan ([email protected]) or Kenton ([email protected]) with either yourself or someone you know who you think might fit as either an Officer or Board Member.
If you have questions you may also email us directly.

We will be focusing on connecting different neighborhoods as to help build our local network and also lift each other during these challenging times.

We also are planning some fun events and ideas to help build knowledge bases for all and doing our best to make sure they are both fun and interesting!

Our first meeting this year will be at MINIBOSS February the 15th 12pm - 2pm.
Our Sponsor and Educational Guest will be Banhez Mezcal
Lunch will be Burritos from Mexico Bakery

Please send your RSVP via email to Dan Lease ([email protected]) with any special dietary needs as soon as you can!

Cut off will be Sunday the 13th at 10pm.

We look forward to this coming year and can't wait to see everyone and keep moving forward!!

09/07/2021

Join us for the 2021 Campari Day of Service!
Keeping with tradition, we will be hosting a beach cleanup in Santa Cruz! If you’re interested in joining us, please send an RSVP email to [email protected]. Anyone is welcome at this event, so feel free to invite friends and coworkers!

The details:

Meet at Seabright Beach (by the lighthouse)

Tuesday Sep 14th @ 11:30am

Join us for happy hour afterwards at Front & Cooper

08/27/2021

* Please RSVP to [email protected]*

It’s time for Education Week 2021!
Join us for a visit to 10th Street Distillery to geek out with the folks behind these award winning American Single Malts! 🥃

Tuesday August 31 at 11:30 am
Lunch will be provided.
Meet at 10th Street Distillery
2131 S 10th St, San Jose, CA 95112

07/13/2021

We are excited to announce our new dates for this event!

Join USBG Silicon Valley for our FIRST IN PERSON MEETING of the year!

We are so excited to welcome Andrew Calisterio and George Dickel for an exciting class on cocktail photography and social media. Andrew is an accomplished photographer and social media maestro, and will be leading our attendees through his best practices to make your cocktails camera ready!

We are also so excited to welcome our members in real life for the first time in over a year! We’ll be kicking off the meeting with our annual Chapter Business Meeting. Lunch and cocktails will be provided!

Please RSVP here: tinyurl.com/USBGSVJULY

06/25/2021

We are reaching out to inform you that we are postponing our event, Camera Ready Cocktails & Social Media with George Dickel due to unforeseen events. We will be announcing a new date ASAP and will update our members as soon as its confirmed.

We’re excited to get back to in person events, and hope you’ll join us once we reschedule. Be sure to follow us on IG and in our Facebook Group for updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/usbgsv/?multi_permalinks=2857869104465165

Be on the lookout for updated dates via email! We’ll see you all soon.