the martini masters

They've shaken, stirred, and elevated the cocktail scene for years. Now they're bringing their expertise—and their best martini recipes—to Martini Expo Chicago.

The 2026 Talent

Meet Them in Chicago—more talent to be announced soon

Liam Davy

Liam Davy is the Global Beverage Director for Hawksmoor Restaurants based in the UK, US and Ireland. Twice winner of the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best International Restaurant Bar. After starting at Hawksmoor as a bartender in 2010, he worked on the openings of several of their venues in London holding a number of positions including General Manager. After starting a role as Hawksmoor’s Global Head of Bars in 2019, Hawksmoor were awarded the Sunday Times Best Companies Innovation Award for the relaunch of their cocktail offering in Autumn 2019.

Before he worked at Hawksmoor, Liam started his hospitality career working for Jonathan Downey’s legendary Match Bar Group including stints at The Player, Milk & Honey London and a year running The Clubhouse in the French Alps, after a year working as a sommelier at Soho institution Quo Vadis, Liam opened industry-favorite taqueria and bar, Bad Sports, in Hackney, East London in 2016.

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Meaghan Dorman

Bar Director & Partner, Dear Irving and Raines Law Room (New York, NY)

Award-winning mixologist, spirits educator, and creative consultant Meaghan Dorman is the Bar Director and Partner of New York City’s Raines Law Room (2009), Raines Law Room at the William (2014), Dear Irving (2014), Dear Irving on Hudson (2019), and Dear Irving on Broadway (2024), all part of Yves Jadot Restaurant Group. In large part to Meaghan’s work, Dear Irving and Raines Law Room are internally-recognized cocktail destinations, boasting recognition from World’s 50 Best: North America, Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards, and Esquire Magazine’s “Best Bars” list. This year, Meaghan is also a Top 4 finalist for the Best U.S. Bar Mentor category at the 2025 Spirited Awards and the winner of VinePair’s Next Wave Awards in the Drinks Professional of the Year category. She is the co-founder of the annual Dames Hall of Fame event at Tales of the Cocktail.

Lynn House

Lynn has had a long and extensive career in the beverage and hospitality industry. She was a trainer and lead server at Houston's Restaurant for five years, went on to work at several Lettuce Entertain You venues, trainer and spirits specialist at Spring, general manager of Hot Chocolate, Master Bartender for the award winning The Drawing Room, Chief Mixologist at Graham Elliot and culminated her bartending career as the Chief Mixologist for the globally acclaimed Blackbird Restaurant.

In 2013 Lynn joined the Heaven Hill Brands team. Initially she was the National Brand Ambassador for PAMA Liqueur. However, Lynn quickly rose up the ladder. In 2016 she was promoted to National Brand Educator, and in 2019 Lynn was promoted to National Spirits Specialist and Portfolio Mixologist.

While at Heaven Hill Brands Lynn has continued to gain recognition. She was a top four national finalist for Best American Brand Ambassador at Tales of the Cocktail 2017 and 2019. 2017 Lynn was a national finalist for Wine Enthusiast Magazine's Mixologist of the Year. In 2019 Lynn was a top four national finalist for Best Bar Mentor, again by Tales of the Cocktail. In 2022 Lynn was named Best U.S. Brand Ambassador at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Recently Lynn was named 2023 American Whiskey Ambassador of the Year by Whisky Magazine.

Toby Maloney

Toby Maloney, a pioneer of the modern cocktail movement, 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 Mother's Ruin (Chicago).

Toby Maloney is the co-author of The Bartender's Manifesto (with Emma Janzen), which won the 2022 James Bed Foundation Book Award for Best Cocktail Book with Recipes. He and Emma are teamed up together on The Classic Cocktail Sessions, which will be published by Clarkson Potter in June 2026.

François Monti

François Monti is the author of 5 books, including El Gran Libro del Vermut (2015), one of the first book length deep dives into the vermouth and aperitivo category, and Madrid Cocktail (2025), a history of mixed drinks in one of the vermouths capitals of the world. He is also a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, the author of Jaibol, the first mixology-focused Substack in Spanish and has written for numerous international publications. His work has been nominated for several awards, such as the World Gourmand Book Awards and Best Cocktail & Spirits Writing at the Spirited Awards.

Monti is also dedicated to education. He teaches in the Master in Wine & Spirits Management at Kedge Business School in France and has lectured at major industry events across the globe. Since he also needs to eat, he is a partner at the strategy agency Amarguería. Since 2020, Monti has served as the Academy Chair for Spain and Portugal for The World's 50 Best Bars. According to Drinks International magazine, he is one of the 100 most influential people in the global bar industry.

George Motz

George Motz is a well-traveled chef, author, award-winning filmmaker, and photographer. He has also been called the 'foremost authority on hamburgers' by The New York Times, and ‘America's biggest burger name' by Eater LA. In the spring of 2004, Motz completed Hamburger America, his second documentary film, which he shot, produced, edited, and directed. The film was nominated in 2006 for a James Beard Award, and in 2011, was recognized by the US National Archives as an integral part of American food history. The film's success led to a state-by-state guide to hamburgers, also titled Hamburger America, a State-by-State Guide to Great Burger Joints, revised most recently in 2026. And in 2016, Abrams Books released his first cookbook, The Great American Burger Book, fully updated in May 2023. George can be seen on his show Burger Scholar Sessions on First We Feast.

When not working on his upcoming children's book, George can also be found spreading the word of burger around the globe through workshops, consultations, and burger pop-ups. He recently opened his dream restaurant, Hamburger America, in the Soho neighborhood of NYC, which was awarded 2-stars by Pete Wells in the New York Times.

Dan Smith

Dan Smith is the managing partner of Queen Mary, the Chicago cocktail bar he helped open with Heisler Hospitality in 2015 and has overseen since. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, he moved to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago and got his start at The Violet Hour and Barrelhouse Flat. At Queen Mary, Smith leads both operations and the bar program, which focuses on maritime spirits such as gin, rum, Scotch, sherry, and madeira. He’s known for his deep knowledge of these categories and a historically grounded yet modern approach to cocktails. Under his direction, the bar has earned national recognition, including a spot on North America’s 50 Best Bars list.

Peter Vestinos

As a second-generation bartender, Peter works to instill professional values and systems into the field of bartending so that others may also succeed in their careers.

Peter is a nationally recognized bartender and spirits professional with years of experience designing cocktail programs and training bartenders & sales teams. Vestinos pioneered the modern craft cocktail movement in Chicago with the opening of Michelin-starred Sepia in 2007. A “game changer for the city’s beverage programs,” according to Modern Luxury magazine, Vestinos helped to firmly place Chicago on the national cocktail map.

He is also partner and beverage director in the hugely successful Sparrow, a 1930’s Cuban-era rum bar in Chicago’s Gold Coast, and the newly opened Double Fun, a West Coast inspired corner bar.

Abe Vucekovich

Abe Vucekovich is a Chicago-based beverage director, bar owner, and hospitality human who is co-founder of Friends of Friends. Abe started at The Violet Hour, working his way up from support staff to General Manager and Head Bartender over nearly a decade.

As Beverage Director for The Meadowlark, he helped open and build a program that pushed into a more conceptual realm—menus with a story to tell, drinks that asked a little more of guests, and a team encouraged to think creatively.

With Friends of Friends, Abe aims to make the complex drinks user-friendly. The menu uses two-word descriptions as drink names, i.e., "Crisp & Light," "Fruity & Savory," and "Alpine & Tropical." Underneath that, the drinks still carry the same level of technique—clarification, oleo saccharums, distillation, craft-driven execution—but the experience is stripped of pretense as much as possible.