Joe Zakowski

My bartending journey starts in Green Bay, Wisconsin where I was born and raised. I spent the first years cutting my teeth behind the bar at Cock & Bull on Maine Street. It was fun and high paced and I quickly realized that this is what I wanted to do for at least the foreseeable future. After moving to Nashville to escape the cold and the hometown monotony, I took a brief hiatus from the industry but quickly found myself back behind the bar. Now, over ten years after my humble beginnings, I've landed at No 308 presents Camp as well as Mothers Ruin Nashville and I've never been happier in my career then I am now. It took a long time to get there though. Man, I've been through all of the ups and downs and all of the growing pains that I’m sure we have all been through or are currently going through. For myself I grew to realize my first and foremost focus should be creating a positive environment in which people can come and feel good about themselves and that everything after that is just extra. I think it's really important to not take yourself too seriously and to not lose sight of what we do, and that is serving others. When I figured that out is when I became the happiest and most fulfilled with what I do behind the bar.