Mike Finn

I've been behind the bar for almost 14 years but have been in some facet of the industry since I was in junior high. My days working in bars began only a couple days after I turned 21. I got a call from my uncle who let me know that a buddy he went to high school with owns a popular Irish pub in the Gold Coast of Chicago and he set me up with an interview. I responded that I already had a sweet job at a pizza place working back of house. My uncle told me to just hear him out and within 2 minutes of being in the bar I was hooked. The owner of Butch McGuire's came downstairs and started with, "Oh, you're Finn's nephew? Job's yours if you want it." He then told me how much I would be making and it was an easy yes. I started at 7am for a brunch shift and everything after that was history. I loved the family component, the pace, the attention to detail, and just the general pride for the job. I started as a server but was promoted to bartender after only a couple months. I worked at this incredible bar for years before I started itching for more. I left to become the bar manager of a sports pub on the north side near where I lived. It was a great learning experience but I really missed the energy from being downtown. I reached out to a friend who worked for Gibsons' Restaurant Group at a bar called LUXBAR. They started me working private events since I didn't have much experience with craft cocktails or their vast spirits selection. I would also spend time working as a barback downstairs, just trying to learn as much as a couple from all of the legends that they had bartending. After countless books, articles, tastings, and seminars, I was promoted to bartender. I spent the next 7 years of my career at Lux advancing my skills any chance I could get. I really put myself out there in order to learn as much as I could. I started competing in cocktail competitions, flying to different parts of the world to learn about distillation techniques, and participating in any bartender conference I could find. There was a bar down the street called Sparrow that I would frequent to learn about all they had to offer on rum. Years later, I sat at the bar to continue my knowledge, only to find out that they were looking for a bartender, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. I've been at Sparrow for the last 3 years and as the lead bartender for a year. I stepped away for 6 months after a previous boss had offered me the beverage director of a fancy Italian restaurant called Adalina. It was an incredible learning experience, but I decided that cocktail bar is really where I belonged and they accepted me back to Sparrow with open arms. Sparrow is my happy place.