Julia McLish opened Barkeep Supply in Midtown seven years ago. July 7 was the anniversary. She started bartending in college, and loved it more than her degree program, so after several years working for Hal Smith Restaurants and Deep Fork Group, she took a chance on her own business. The 4-seat bar quickly became one of the most popular, influential bars in the metro, and she has worked with and trained some of the city’s best bartenders. As far as I know, she and her team are undefeated in bartending competitions. At one point, they’d won seven in a row. Lunar Lounge, her collaboration with business partner Zach Armfield, came along four years later, and they’ll be celebrating their third anniversary later this month. In the episode, we talk about her businesses, her background, her connection to Major League Baseball, and how all around awesome she is.

I’ve written about Julia many times over the past seven years. In fact, my first story about her and Barkeep was six months before she opened. At some point I started referring to Barkeep as the place with the best cocktails in the city, and she’s certainly one of OKC’s best people. The most recent story I did was for Luxiere.