Jacques Bezuidenhout

The Climb

Brand ambassadorship at Partida Tequila put Jacques Bezuidenhout in the space between product knowledge and public education, where the job is to speak clearly about a spirit without flattening it. He then moved into bar leadership as bar program co-manager at Kimpton Hotels, taking that same attention to detail from a single brand into the wider mechanics of a bar program. Since 2015, the bartender seat at The Forgery has given his work a long point of continuity. That kind of run is less about novelty than accumulation: service by service, guest by guest, the bar becomes a place where technique, memory, and consistency are tested every night.

Today

Bar Partner at PlumpJack Group in San Francisco since 2015, Jacques Bezuidenhout has stayed with a city he describes as small and distinct in food-and-beverage terms. His own words make the fit plain: “Of all the cities, I loved the smallness of San Francisco and the unique food and beverage culture that it had.” For a bartender and spirits worker, that kind of setting rewards precision, repetition, and local fluency. That preference shows in the way he talks about the work: less about spectacle than about ongoing refinement. San Francisco offered enough density to keep the craft active, but not so much sprawl that the room lost its sense of community. His career sits comfortably in that register — a steady focus on spirits, cocktails, and the discipline of returning to them with more understanding each year.

Signature

Jacques's signature dishes include Jacques’ Mayauel Sling, Negroni Mela, Grapefruit Spritz, Bad Apple, and Orange Blossom Fizz. Read together, they point to a bar language that moves between citrus brightness, aperitif structure, and familiar classic forms.

In Their Words “I think it was in London when I first got a taste for working in a great bar, learning about cocktails and spirits, and I decided, I’m going to explore this more and more and more.”

Recognition

Jacques Bezuidenhout has received Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards — Best American Brand Ambassador (2011). Bezuidenhout’s work has crossed bar service, cocktail development, and spirits advocacy, with roles that move from brand-facing education to operational leadership and partnership. The common thread is not reinvention for its own sake, but sustained attention to the same subject: how spirits are understood, served, and kept in circulation through daily practice. In a field that often prizes the new, his record is built on continuity, repetition, and long familiarity with the craft.