"Alcohol was celebratory and also devastating. As you know, there's a lot of trauma and a lot of things that happen in [Latine] families," Solis tells POPSUGAR. "Families of color come along with everything from leaving their country and struggling in the United States to finding those little moments of celebration - they were really important."
Before becoming a cocktail atelier, Solis remembers seeing his relatives batching up mixed drinks at these gatherings. There was always bountiful food - and of course, there was dancing. He was 13 when he took his first job working with his family before doing hospitality at restaurants. Solis was in college when he started working for the largest nightclub in San Francisco at the time doing promotions.
"It was called Club Deviate. The actual room was designed by Keith Haring," he says. "I was not even of legal age, and I was working night clubs in the Bay Area."
He quickly worked his way up as a promotional and programming director for the club, where he was negotiating with brands like Jose Cuervo and bringing high-profile celebs like Biggy Smalls to the club. The experience left Solis motivated and hungry for more. He became increasingly interested in the art of cocktail creation and curation.
"Part of the dynamic of nightlife, part of the dynamic of social activation has always been Wine and spirits. Wine and spirits go back to our ancestors. For me, being Mexican, agave is ancestral," he says. "It's from the earth. It's from my people. So for me, there's always been a deeper connection. Wine and spirits are our offerings to the world. We then look at rum for instance, and the diaspora and we look at the different offerings that our collective peoples have brought to the world, aside from music and dancing. Alcohol comes along with all that."
In 1999 Solis moved to NYC. Aside from working at the clubs, he was also working in advertising. Moving to New York was an attempt to learn more about the advertising and marketing world. He worked at numerous jobs and made important connections that eventually lead him to launch an integrative marketing agency.
"We were a boutique agency connecting with Latino and Black communities, underground, hip-hop, skateboard, and just super cool culture," he says. "We had Hennessy. We had Bacardi. We had all these brands. I was chief creative officer really running the spirits division . . . and understanding that reaching the Latino market doesn't mean you're just muddling a jalapeño."
While Solis's passion for wines and spirits started to grow, he was also taking culinary classes on the side, to understand everything that came with the cocktail experience. "I was hiring at that point and there were not a lot of people of color in mixology. There were not a lot of Black and brown bartenders of the notoriety that a lot of general markets had," he says. "I said f*ck it. I'm going to do it myself. I literally started doing my own cocktails."
Solis started transitioning the agency to center wine and spirits and relaunched it as Sol Hospitality Group in 2009. As the CEO and founder, he quickly began curating cocktails for major events like Billboard Latin Music Awards and Latin Grammys.
They were already my clients so when I transitioned over, my clients already knew my work from the creative director side," he says. "Most agencies will start with the DJ, the lighting, the florals, and then cocktails are last. We start first with the hero which is the spirit, and then cocktails, and spread out the other way. Everything is around the cocktail or the spirit."
This year marked the 7th year Solis curated a cocktail experience for the Hispanic Federation Annual Gala, a federation event run by Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father Luis A. Miranda. The event took place this April at the Museum of Natural History. The cocktails were inspired by the Mirandas and Latine culture and included drinks called "Como La Flor" (inspired by Selena Quintanilla), "Rita" (Rita Moreno), and "Cortadito Martini"(inspired by Cuban coffee). Solis sat down six months in advance to plan for the Hispanic Federation gala, developing cocktails that complimented the food and the evening's theme.
Solis explains that at Sol Hospitality Group there's a 6-part process that begins with a proper brief, tons of research, brainstorming, and creative direction strategy, down to the naming of cocktails, which Solis says is an entire session alone. He has curated cocktails for a number of celebrities including P. Diddy, Lebron James, Jay-Z, Magic Johnson, Rihanna, and more. He recently landed a major collaboration called Hennessy XO Kim Jones, where he was tasked to bring the event to life with cocktails.
Aside from working with mega clients, Solis is very passionate about his commitment to bringing diversity and inclusivity to the wine and spirits world. In the past, he's worked with Uptown Magazine to help educate men of color on fine wine, and spirits because he believes "what's in your glass says a lot about who you are."
"Because this is a white, cis-led organization, oftentimes the perception is when Black people or brown people walk into a bar they're automatically going to want a sweet drink and they're not educated. Their palate isn't refined enough to respect a proper cocktail. And I say BS to that," Solis says. "I did a seminar and I said check your biases. You have to understand that half the things that you're using in your cocktail came from us. They came from our motherlands."
Solis is a firm believer in creating opportunities for Black, brown, and LGBTQ+ communities in the wine and spirits world, especially as a queer man of color himself. For his events, he prioritizes recruiting Black, brown, queer, and female bartenders from whatever city the event is taking place in.
"I'm a huge advocate. Like I mentioned with agave, tequila, and rum and understanding the trade and how slavery [played a part] and how much sweat, blood, and tears, has gone into that for you to enjoy your rum and coke," he says. "I think a buzzword is cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation. That was my soapbox for last year to just understand and respect where your source is coming from."
Due to his expertise and commitment to the industry, Solis was recently selected as one of the judges for the L.A . Spirits Awards. He's also creating content within the personal development, entertainment, and lifestyle spaces. While he has decades of experience under his belt, in many ways Solis feels like he's just getting started. He plans on expanding his brand with a book deal that's currently in development and his #SIPwithSOLIS platform includes everything from content, his own wine and spirits, bar and houseware lines -even fragrance.
"My mission statement in life is to bring people together to celebrate life," Solis says. "I think the first thing I would say to young folks is to know your worth and that applies to many things. Know your worth in this world of business. Know that you were born worthy of greatness. Know that your worth is a godsend. It's literally god's blessing. You are just as worthy as any other human being on this planet."
