From the source to the glass

A chat with Zaytinya’s Alan Grublauskas

Hello people, I hope you all had a great weekend! Did you fry some eggs, Spain-style? I think that breakfast is perfect from now until maybe late September, or whenever tomatoes are in season where you are…and of course it doesn’t have to be limited to breakfast! I think it could make an amazing lunch, too, maybe with an easy, delicious salad like this one? A few glasses of crisp white wine and a nap, and you’re ready to go for the evening! I had an absolutely amazing bottle of wine from my friend Raúl Pérez (who I’ve told you about before) with some incredible seafood at Los Marinos José…if you’re ever in southern Spain, check it out!

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Today, I want to introduce you to someone who has been with me for many years and many restaurants: Alan Grublauskas. Currently, Alan is the General Manager at Zaytinya in DC, but he’s more than versed in all the José Andrés Group restaurants, and some of our other places—China Chilcano and Oyamel—still show his deep influence in the menus and beverage lists.

Alan finishing off a Pisco Punch in his old job as beverage manager at China Chilcano

Alan is one of those people who instinctively knows what might be an interesting story—something that translates not only to the people who come through the doors of our restaurants, but also something that opens everyone’s eyes up to a new corner of the world. He has an ability to get to the heart of a place, whether it’s Jalisco, Mexico, or a remote vineyard in Peru. His ability to connect with people and the history and tradition of a place is what makes him able to reproduce authenticity within the walls of our restaurants, and translate that for the people who work there, and those who eat and drink there.

Let’s hear a little bit from Alan about his background, how he came to be with us, and some of his creative inspirations! (Oh…and I should tell you…he just did an Ironman Triathlon over the weekend!)

Tell us a little bit about your background…in general and with JAG?

I grew up in upstate New York and got started in the industry at a pretty early age, with nearly every role—dishwasher, busboy, cold side, barback…and then I moved into more server and bartender roles. One of my first major roles was at a Hyatt hotel in Florida, which gave me a broader view of how the industry worked as a whole. When I moved to the DC area, I cast a wider net, and worked at a couple different restaurants—some Mexican spots—before moving over to Oyamel, which felt like a natural fit. There, I became the Assistant GM and beverage manager.

After four years at Oyamel, I moved to China Chilcano—October 2019, to be exact, I like to joke that José gave me a restaurant for my birthday. At the time, Carlos Delgado was the head chef there, who just won a James Beard award at Causa and Amazonia. Unfortunately, we all know what happened a few months later, and China Chilcano was one of the first places to close during Covid (and one of the last to re-open). During those shuttered days of the pandemic, we turned Jaleo into a bodega…literally offering people some of the products they couldn’t get, or the things that were insanely expensive because of Covid.

Once some of the restrictions were lifted and we re-opened China Chilcano. The new head chef Will Fung and I were able to travel a bit, do some R & D, and really revamp the menu and the beverage program. I’m really proud of what we did together.

I’m now coming up on just about two years at Zaytinya…I joined there in September 2023. It’s a bit different than Oyamel or China Chilcano because we have a much larger footprint, we’re closer to the convention center, and we have more space for banquets.

Agave at Destileria la Fortaleza

You mention traveling a lot for both Oyamel and China Chilcano. What were some of the most impactful experiences you had?

It’s so hard to choose just one because each one was so different—we met with different producers, we were in different regions. I went to Mexico eight times when I was at Oyamel! Several times to Jalisco, not only for tequila but also for raicilla—an agave-based spirit that is lesser known and typically produced in smaller batches with fewer regulations. We ate at some of the best restaurants in Jalisco and Guadalajara. We went to Oaxaca and traveled deep into the back woods of Oaxaca state, meeting mezcal producers who literally collected rainwater for their production needs. I met David Suro, who has had one of the biggest impacts on agave spirits in the last 30 years. Those trips just opened my eyes even wider to the possibilities—what we can bring back to the restaurant, what we can do with the spirits, and how we can connect the guests to those unique places and stories.

David Suro oversees the roasting of agave for mezcal

Because of those trips we were able to do some wild things with agave at Oyamel…like a big agave festival, where we hosted the kickoff at the restaurant. I served José and Anthony Bourdain. The Obamas came in many times for celebratory occasions.

For China Chilcano, it really started once the pandemic restrictions were lifted. Me and Chef Will took a trip to Peru and wound up redoing about 85% of the food and beverage menus based on what we learned there. We went to Lima, we went to Chinatown there. We ate from street vendors. We explored the Nikkei influence. We went to some of the best restaurants in the world right there in Lima—four of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants are in Lima, including the current #1. We went to Ica, where the grapes are grown for Pisco. We went to the longest running distillery in Peru. We took over the Instagram handle and posted live stories! But with all of that, we were so inspired by both the finesse you see at those top 50 restaurants and also wanted to represent the incredible street style you see there as well.

How are you able to take those stories and bring them to life in a glass, or on a plate?

I think a lot of it has to do with empowering staff with knowledge, making sure they fully understand not just the what but the why…and the where. Where does this come from? Why is Japanese whiskey so important at China Chilcano, and why is it so unique? Why did we have the city’s best margarita at Oyamel for two years in a row? So much of it has to do with making sure that you have a relationship with the people who import the products, but a lot of it ties into the community in DC as well. For China Chilcano, we’ve done events at the Japanese Embassy, at the Japanese Cultural Institute, at the Peruvian Cultural Institute. When you do things like that, you’re bringing together people from all different angles and sharing what you learned, and they can go back and talk about this really interesting way we used an ingredient that has roots in Peru, or Japan…wherever we’ve been. We went down a rabbit hole on sōchu, which literally can be made from anything fermentable…like purple sweet potatoes. You’re bringing not just an ingredient, like those purple sweet potatoes, but also a way to use it, like shōchu, to life, and you’re telling the stories of those ingredients and culinary/beverage traditions in a way (I hope) honors their places of origin.

The Minoan Sour at Zaytinya…what do you think, is it time for a cocktail?

You’re at Zaytinya now…what's exciting to you on the menu? What’s new there?

So as I mentioned, I’m just coming up on about 2 years at Zaytinya. I joke that it’s like a farm team system in baseball, but it’s not too far off…we really want to bring people up through the ranks and train them so they can get “called up” to go to one of our other locations. But we also have people coming through who just want to learn more about how things are done here, and how they can take that back to, say, the West Coast locations.

From a beverage perspective, it’s a little different than Oyamel or China Chilcano, which are both spirit-driven. At Zaytinya, we’re more ingredient-driven, which makes a lot of sense for the food that we serve…and the overall concept of the restaurant. I mean…if you’ve spent any time in the Eastern Mediterranean, you know there’s a lot of Ouzo and other anise-based spirits, which can get a little repetitive. And we definitely have some things that highlight that, but we’re trying to adapt more to those Eastern Mediterranean ingredients…we use mastiha, for example, that has that earthiness—but also we’re doing a Greek-inspired sangria with Greek wine, and a lot of our cocktails have those ingredients like pomegranate, lavender, lemon, rose, honey, olive. They should absolutely transport you to a Greek island when you take your first sip.

José here again…thanks for sharing some of that background with us, especially after a 70 mile race over the weekend…! Of course, you don’t have to be in D.C. to find all of the amazing things Alan mentioned! You can head to Oyamel in New York, or Zaytinya in New York, Las Vegas, Miami, or Los Angeles…and go along a journey with Alan as you taste your way through!