 I'm Shannon Mustapher, an award-winning mixologist, educator, and author. Like a confession booth, the bar is a place for all walks of life to come in and share their stories. So today, I'll be sitting down with innovative creators to turn their journeys in the classic Grand Marnier cocktails with a unique twist on a tradition. Yo, Shannon, what's up? What's going on? How are you? I'm all right. How you been? It's good to have you here at the spot. I'm really excited to learn more about your work, what you've been up to, and then coming up with a signature serve for you inspired by your label, your background, and your vision. So my name is John Wesley Dean III, and I'm a creative director and founder of renowned LA clothing brand. I started in 2011. So my name is one of my most important assets, and my dad always instilled in me that like your name is important. Your name is one of the only things that sticks with you. I'd love to hear more about your father's work. My dad is an OG fashion legend in Cleveland. So what he used to do is he used to put on fashion shows. And, you know, my father passed away when I was eight years old. So I didn't really get to take in too much of it. But what's really interesting is that I picked up fashion naturally. So I think it's sort of in my DNA to be this fashion person. How do you balance taking inspiration from history and heritage of fashion of your father's work and still find a way to carry it forward, making your own, make it original, make it bigger, make it grander? Well, I think it's always important to honor history, especially, you know, where I'm from, my culture, where I'm from, where my people are from, what made me, the foundations that got me to where I am today. So a more particular example of storytelling that I told within my brand renowned is the story of Black Wall Street. Black Wall Street was a community in Tulsa, Oklahoma that existed in the early 1900s, and it was a fully Black owned community. And I decided to tell that story through one of my collections. Specifically, I made a t-shirt with actually the map of Tulsa, Oklahoma at that time. But what was really cool is that I was able to tell that story while creating a piece of fashion that was authentic to me, meaning the purpose and the meaning, but then also creating a cool fashion item that people were just going to pick up and gravitate to naturally. Have you encountered any pushback or any challenges in getting that message out there? So pushback is something that I've actually had to deal with a lot in my career as a designer, whether that be, you know, trying to get into my favorite magazine and they're just, you know, not receptive to the idea or, you know, me wanting to create certain kind of pieces, including like, you know, the things that I like to talk about, you know, I've had people who were just not a fan of me making the clothing that I was making just because of how specific it was. So what's next for John Dean at Dirt? You know, what do you see as the next big vision? The future for me looks like just continuing to put out the dopest fashion that I possibly can while telling meaningful stories. And, you know, we're just going to continue to create, continue to be, you know, an idea of representation. What I'm here to do today is to make a unique drink for you that really speaks to your personality and your vibe. So I'm curious, like, when you order a drink, what are you looking for in terms of appearance, in terms of feeling, flavor, what really drives you in? Hmm, flavor. I'm all about, like, I want a good time. I just want to enjoy my drink. I want something that tastes good, but it just depends on my mood. I'm usually like a sweet fruit juice kind of guy. All right. Well, I think we're of the same cloth, if you will. All right. Well, I'm excited. Can't wait to try it. So I picked out a cocktail that I think is going to, like, fit your flavor profile. You know, you like fruit, you like citrus, but I want to kind of, like, take a classic and twist it up for you based on that. I want to give you a taste of the base spirit that's going to be the main star of this. And it's going to have, like, all the elements that are going to kind of make this shine. So this is Grand Marnier Louis Alizon. It's 82% cognac and the rest is orange liqueur. I'll let you kind of get into that, and then I'll show you how to break it down in this drink. Absolutely. Let's see. I can really taste the citrus in it. That's fire. This is named after the founder of the brand, and it's a more premium, elevated expression of Grand Marnier. Again. Family legacy, family history here. So we're going to start off with bitters. So these are kind of like the salt and pepper. I'm doing some citrus and aromatic. Now next, I made a syrup that's infused with the oils of citrus. In this case, grapefruit. So here's a wild card because I know you like to twist it up, right? You told me you like punches and you like fruitier drinks. So I add some Jamaica rum to this. Now we got the hero. The hero. Let's get it. Louis Alizon. I just love the way you talked about the influence that your father had on you. How important carrying the family name is and spreading that to your son, but some that's easy to share as well. I'm going to add some ice. I love the big ice cube. I'm going to give it a stir just to chill it. Historically, the old fashion is basically a catchall term for taking a spirit and enhancing it by adding a little bit of bitters, maybe a touch of sweetener, just something to kind of fully bring out the flavors of that spirit and kind of make it blossom. Such a pleasure. All right. Cheers. Cheers. This is so good. It's smooth. It's not too heavy. You can taste the citrus in it. This is something that I would definitely or I've never had anything like this in a drink. I call this the wise Louis. Here we're taking the wisdom that you got from your father, inspired by the wisdom of the founder of Grand Marnie and that whole idea of like taking that history and the legacy of some equality, but putting the modern and funky twist on it. Well, I think he did your thing. This is amazing. All right, let's get it. Cheers.