We recently connected with Alex Passakos and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I have had several “regular” jobs throughout my life, with the most recent one being a few years ago when I thought I wanted to leave ‘The Industry’ and get a regular day job. I won’t mention what type of work I was in, because it’s a great industry that a lot of my good friends are still currently in, but I was miserable waking up every day to go sit at a desk.

After about a year I realized it just wasn’t for me and I jumped back into the nightlife and ended up opening Booze Garden with my good friends Ritchie and Riste, which was by far one of the best decisions I ever made.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My friend Tommy Ervay and I started a website called BrowardHotSpots, which featured which bars and clubs were hot on each night of the week in Fort Lauderdale, way back in the AOL days when the internet was still basically in its infancy.

That’s how we met Wendy who let us promote and grow our site at her club, Voodoo Lounge. Which was the first successful bottle service club in Fort Lauderdale.

My first actual paying job was at Passion Nightclub at the Hard Rock, who a decade later are my current partners at Booze Garden and Centro.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had an amazing job at Passion Nightclub but I left it to open my own club called Sky Nightclub, which although was an amazing venue, unfortunately due to circumstances out of my control it did not succeed for long.

After it closed I was mentally and physically drained, I seriously debated on leaving the industry for good, but thankfully I decided against it and ended up becoming the General Manager at Off the Hookah. If I hadn’t done that it’s safe to say that I would not be a part of Booze Garden and Centro right now and there would be no Holy Passakos Blonde Ale.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is to sit back at the end of a successful event and realize we created something from scratch which brought a great time and created memories for 1000’s of people.

Contact Info:

• Website: AlexPassakos.com
• Instagram: @AlexPassakos
• Facebook: facebook.com/alexpassakos