E277 Ryan Foley
Keeping Bartender Magazine Alive
Ryan Foley, publisher of Bartender Magazine, joins the show to talk family legacy, print media, and the Bartender Hall of Fame.
In this episode of The Industry Podcast, we sit down with Ryan Foley, publisher of Bartender Magazine. Ryan grew up inside the publication his father, Ray Foley, launched in 1979 — after Ray left a career as a comedy writer for Johnny Carson to chase what he loved most: bartending. As an only child, Ryan says the magazine has been "his sibling" his whole life, and he stepped in to run the business full-time after his father passed away.
The conversation traces the magazine's roots as a scrappy New York/New Jersey zine to its current run of 50,000 print copies per quarter, distributed at major industry events like Tales of the Cocktail. Ryan opens up about the pressure and privilege of carrying on a family business after his father's passing — from Ray's two unbreakable rules (never change the logo, never stop printing) to the emotional weight of stepping into his dad's shoes while raising two young kids of his own. They also dig into the Bartender Hall of Fame, a program Ray started in 1985 to honor bartenders who might otherwise be overlooked — not just industry stars, but the person who tended the same bar for 60 years.
Ryan also shares the story behind Bartending for Dummies, the million-copy bestseller his father wrote in 1999 that Ryan later took over rewriting, along with Running a Bar for Dummies and his own book, Non-Alcoholic Drinks for Dummies.
Additional topics discussed:
- How Ray Foley bought bartender.com, mixologist.com, and roughly 450 other domains in the 1990s (including budtender.com)
- Balancing a growing digital presence with the cost and tradition of print
- How the magazine finds and features under-the-radar bars and bartenders, not just the famous ones
- The layout and editorial process behind each quarterly issue, including regular contributors like Christine Wiseman and John Jakuru
- Recent Bartender Hall of Fame inductees, including Julie Reiner and Chris Hannah
- Life as a family business — travel, cover shoots, and running things day-to-day with his mother
Notable Quote
"I hustle so hard because I care about it so much."
— Ryan Foley
Connect with Ryan Foley
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Contact the host Kypp Saunders by email at [email protected] for products from Elora Distilling and Noble Estates.
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