Toby Maloney has been creating James Beard Foundation award nominated bar programs since 2007. A pioneer of the modern cocktail movement, Toby has worked in the service industry since the tender age of thirteen when he poured his first drink on a Tuesday night at the local mercantile in his home state of Colorado. Toby began a lifetime adventure as he travelled the world in search of extraordinary epicurean experiences. His wanderings led him from the exclusive resorts of Thailand, concocting fresh coconut and Sang Thip cocktails for unapologetic hedonists to pulling beers at Oktoberfest in Austria.
Toby attended the California Culinary Academy for a spell, and spent years cooking in a wide variety of restaurants. He was the first bartender hired at the nationally acclaimed cocktail bar Milk & Honey, and has put in time behind the stick at Pegu Club, Flatiron Lounge and Freeman’s. A founding partner, and head mixologist of Chicago’s acclaimed The Violet Hour, which won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program in 2015, Maloney has also shaped bar programs across the country, including at Pouring Ribbons (NYC), The Patterson House (Nashville), and The Elbow Room (Vancouver, Washington State).
Toby Maloney is the co-author of The Bartender’s Manifesto (with Emma Janzen), which won the 2022 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Best Cocktail Book with Recipes. He and Emma are teaming up together on The Classic Cocktail Sessions, published by Clarkson Potter in June 2026.
