Ep 37 - Leadership means striving to explore myself as a complete human, feeling person and apply it to all actions that impact my businesses with Josh Harris
Ep 37 - Leadership means striving to explore myself as a complete human, feeling person and apply it to all actions that impact my businesses with Josh Harris
Josh speaks openly and honestly about his journey from bartender to entrepreneur. He shares about his sobriety and how education is deeply rooted in his personal life and the fabric of each of his businesses under the Bon Vivants Hospitality umbrella. We cover a rainbow of topics from how he and his team has created such a dope culture at Trick Dog, the impact of Pig & Punch, and his personal journey in discovering his own emotions as a whole human. It’s an awe inspiring and calm conversation filled with so many takeaways!
For more resources on leadership and eliminating the sticky energy from team culture, visit The School of Hospitality from Within.
About Josh
Josh Harris, founder, Bon Vivants Hospitality
Hospitality veteran and San Francisco native Josh Harris is the founder of the nationally recognized drinks marketing, development, and trade advocacy agency, The Bon Vivants; awarded hospitality group, Bon Vivants Hospitality; owner of Quik Dog and the James Beard Foundation Award-nominated bar, Trick Dog; and creator of The Bon Vivants Scholarship. Harris is a bulldog lover, an ultra-runner, and a vintage watch peddler. Sober since 2003, Harris is an advisor for ALTR, an alcohol nanotechnology reduction company, and he is a strong advocate for raising the bar of non-alcoholic drinking.
Harris graduated from San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College Preparatory School and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in politics from the University of San Francisco. Upon recognizing his true calling for hospitality, Harris veered off the law school path and doubled down in the cocktail and hospitality world in which he worked part-time throughout college before founding The Bon Vivants in 2009. The Bon Vivants offers beverage consulting services for venues, including the San Francisco Proper Hotel and formerly the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors. The company has engaged in numerous drink development projects on an international scale, consulting on liquid profile, packaging, drink strategies, commercial launches, and trade advocacy programs for brands like Tequila Ocho, Ancho Reyes, and the first non-alcoholic distilled spirit, Seedlip.
In 2013, Harris opened his first bar, Trick Dog, the acclaimed, James Beard Foundation Award-nominated San Francisco cocktail bar that changes its highly creative menu in form and concept every six months. Trick Dog has won “The World’s Best Cocktail Menu” at Tales of the Cocktails Spirited Awards twice (and is no longer eligible for the category). In addition to those prestigious awards, Trick Dog has been named semifinalist for five and a finalist for three James Beard Foundation Awards for Outstanding Bar Program. Trick Dog has also been included on the 2014-2019 World’s 50 Best Bars lists, and has earned several nods from the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, with a win for “Best American Bar Team” and nominations for “World’s Best Cocktail Bar,” “Best American Cocktail Bar,” and “Best American High Volume Cocktail
Bar.” Nightclub & Bar Media Group named Trick Dog “Cocktail Bar of the Year” in 2017. Trick Dog is the only establishment of its kind in the Bay Area to receive a three-star review from San Francisco Chronicle’s then-restaurant critic, Michael Bauer.
In 2020, Harris created Quik Dog, a fast-casual younger sibling of Trick Dog focused on burgers, hot dogs, and great drinks. In spring 2025, Quik Dog is scheduled to open in Mission Rock, a 28-acre mixed-use development being built across from Oracle Park in San Francisco. Through all these ventures, Harris has used these platforms to create several philanthropic and community initiatives. Starting in 2010, he has produced the company’s signature fundraiser Pig & Punch in cities including New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Portland, Miami, and Austin. In addition to the money Pig & Punch has raised, he has coordinated over 10,500 volunteer hours of service for charter schools and youth organizations in those cities. In 2019, Harris started The Bon Vivants Scholarship, within the San Francisco-based nonprofit Scholar Match, founded by acclaimed author Dave Eggers, whose mission is to make college possible for underserved youth, from application all the way to college graduation. The scholarship is available to Black students, attending high school in San Francisco, and who will be the first in their family to college. https://scholarmatch.org/bonvivants/. In connection with all these initiatives, events and the sales of Trick Dog’s cocktail menus and related events, Harris has helped raise more than $891,000 for non-profits the group believes in, including the BV Scholarship.
In 2021, Harris co-founded the BV Run Club, an initiative of the group focused on Physical, Mental, and Social fitness. BV Run Club meets twice a week for social paced group runs and is open to employees, customers, neighbors, and friends of all running abilities.
