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Meet Adam Douglas of Peak Beverage

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Douglas.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been working in the hospitality industry for the past 15 years, mainly in bars and restaurants until I joined the Peak Beverage team in early 2015. My bar and restaurant career began in fine dining in Williamsburg, VA while I was attending the College of William and Mary. After graduating in 2007 with a degree in English Literature, I returned to my hometown of Fort Myers, FL to attend graduate school at Florida Gulf Coast University. I have always held a bartending position while attending school – it helped to pay my bills and tuition, and it has always been a welcomed change of pace from the world of academia.

Throughout these years, I fell in love with wine, cocktails, and the stories behind them. I remained in Southwest Florida for nearly five years where I wrote for a local magazine, taught classes as an Adjunct Professor of English and Composition, and, of course, worked nights behind the bar. I moved to the Denver area in 2012 for a change of pace, and my original goal was to work for a craft brewery. In Denver, one thing led to another, and I landed in a position as a Territory Manager for a wine and spirits distribution company.

During this time, I worked behind the bar at The Arvada Tavern, a newly renovated craft cocktail bar with a rich history rooted in Prohibition. I eventually left the distribution business to work full-time at the Arvada Tavern as the General Manager where I oversaw the cocktail program, the front, and back of the house, and the speakeasy-style jazz club venue located upstairs. The Arvada Tavern allowed me to really focus on what I loved most: hospitality, education, creativity, and leadership. This was also where I met my current business partner, Andrew Klosterman, who worked behind the bar a few nights a week besides me while he was designing and launching Peak Beverage from his nearby apartment in Olde Town.

In a sense, I was involved with Peak Beverage since its creation, but it was Andy who put the business into motion and increased its momentum to become the company that it is today. In January of 2015, I met with Andy and the rest of the Peak Beverage office team, and they offered me a position as the Director of Operations to oversee all of the staffing, warehouse, training, purchasing, and logic functions of the company. I began working at Peak Beverage on April 1, 2015, and it wasn’t long before I was able to join the leadership team as an invested partner.

In 2015, Peak was becoming a proven concept for beverage catering, and we began to see rapid growth in both the number of events we were producing and capable of handling. In the course of only a few years, Peak transformed from an apartment start-up to a full-fledged business. We closed out 2018 with just under two thousand events and a staff of over 300 professional bartenders, and we are continuing to set our goals higher and higher. Currently, I work in the realm of Business Development and new partnership acquisitions, and it has been an amazing experience getting to know our clients on a more personal level and growing my professional network.

My focus is to increase revenue through the relationships that I am able to develop with venues, event planners, vendors, and corporate organizations – which is a world away from operations. We have been able to build a highly skilled team to run the day to day operations, prepare us for growth, and to set us on a path for success – this has allowed me to step away from the day-to-day operations and spend my time positioning the company for future growth and success. Our culture is focused on the development of our employees and on innovation and education. We have learned to hold ourselves, and all of the Peak employees, accountable. This not only ensures that we are providing the best possible services for our partners and clients, but also that we are ensuring the longevity of the business that we have worked so hard to build, and the future is nothing but exciting.

Has it been a smooth road?
To quote Thomas Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” The road has never been smooth, and I have been fortunate enough to work with a team that has never been afraid of hard work, sacrificing personal time, or doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

We have made so many mistakes along the way that it’s difficult to recall a specific example of one, but the most important part of making these mistakes has been learning from them, discussing them, and pivoting our approach to avoid them in the future. We have been able to overcome every struggle that we have experienced, and I’m sure that we will hit a few more potholes as we continue to move forward.

Currently, our largest struggles are managing cash flow in a highly seasonal industry along with recruiting and hiring motivated, responsible employees in Denver’s extremely competitive job market. Both of these struggles are manageable, however, with a solid amount of foresight and planning.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Peak Beverage – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Peak Beverage provides a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to host a bar for a special event, occasion, or celebration. We own a liquor store as well as a large catering facility (a warehouse full of glassware, bar equipment, ice machines, and the trucks to load them all into).

We combine the needs for staffing, product, and rentals into a simple pricing model, and pride ourselves on customer service, ease of use, and the incredible value that we provide for our clients and partners. We hire, onboard, and train exceptional staff with the understanding that we are only as good as we execute. Education has always been a major focus for us, and the resources that we provide to our team really sets us apart from other companies as well as our competition.

We are in the process of moving into a larger facility on Brighton Boulevard in RINO that will include an amazing retail liquor store, a tasting room, classrooms, and a new concept that we are calling “Peak University.” Peak University will really set us apart in our training compared to other companies through its focus on leadership, technical skills, customer service, and accountability.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and the least?
I love the food, cocktail, art, and music scene that Denver embraces. There is always something fun and cultural going on, and the proximity to the mountains doesn’t hurt either. The young and entrepreneurial vibe is tangible and motivating, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.

If I had to pick something to complain about, it would probably be the traffic and parking. This city has been growing so quickly, and the infrastructure isn’t always able to support the influx of tourism and residents.

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Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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