About

Jeff Burkhart was born in Monongahela rye country- Western Pennsylvania- where American liquor (in the form of rye whiskey) itself was born. Moving to California with his family he cut his teeth (literally) in Berkeley, California during the protests and the protest music of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

These two seemingly contradictory themes would coalesce in his later choice of professions and even later in his writing. Putting himself through college he worked in restaurants and live music nightclubs. Famous names like the Lark Creek Inn restaurant (under chef Bradley Ogden) and the Uncle Charlies nightclub (the setting for the Huey Lewis video: The Power of Love from the movie Back to the Future) soon dotted his resume.

Taking matters into his own hands he opened the Faultline Nightclub in San Rafael CA, which then became a refuge and haunt for legendary musical artists such as Eric Martin (Mr. Big), Jeff Watson (Night Ranger), Steven Adler (Guns and Roses), the Cherry Popping Daddies, Third Eye Blind and many others. For this bartending career, he has been voted “best bartender” eight times, by the readers of Bohemian Magazine (2007), the readers of the Marin Independent Journal (2017, 2019, 2021, 2024) and the readers of the Pacific Sun (2019, 2020, 2021). Jeff has been profiled in the Tasting Panel Magazine, Capture Magazine and American Way, he has also appeared on America’s Test Kitchen, Ronn Owens KGO radio show as well as appearing many times in local publications including the San Francisco Chronicle.

Later Jeff returned to San Francisco State University where under the auspices of Jon Burks (former managing editor for Rolling Stone magazine) and Don Menn (founder of Guitar Player magazine) he earned a degree with honors in journalism and was nominated for a Hearst Journalism Award.

In early 2006, Jeff began writing his weekly Barfly column for the Marin Independent Journal, which was then followed by the wine calendar series titled “What Do You Know About Wine?”  which became a #3 national bestseller for Barnes and Noble. Barfly has graced the pages of newspapers across the country.

Barfly was awarded “best column” in California by the California News Publishers Association in both 2014 and in 2022. Jeff was also voted Best Media Personality: TV, Radio, Print, in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 by the readers of the Pacific Sun. His Barfly stories have also routinely served as the basis for many Wikipedia entrees. And his story about the Tequila Sunrise for National Geographic Assignment was used as the basis for a series of national commercials for Jose Cuervo tequila and as the impetus for the placement of a Historical Marker at the Trident. Quotes by Jeff have been featured in articles in Better Magazine, Imbibe Magazine, Tales of the Cocktail, Yahoo.com, Grunge.com, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post and The New York Times.

Jeff has also written over fifty features (many on rock and rollers) for over a dozen different newspapers and magazines and for two years wrote the weekly rock and roll insider column, In the Mix, for Here magazine. He has also written three sets of Knowledge Cards (card decks published by Pomegranate Communications); Name Your Poison, Hey Bartender! and What’s On Tap? that deal with topics specific to bartending and ten more Knowledge Card decks that deal with entirely different subject matters (four of which have been qualified as “best sellers” by Pomegranate, and one, Can You Name Them All? routinely appears on Amazon’s Top 100). These publications have sold well over 100,000 copies. Both volumes of his book: Twenty Years Behind Bars have been Top 100 Amazon bestsellers and Volume I reached #23 on iTunes books, and his podcast “The Barfly Podcast” (with the Marin Dish’s Kevin Blum) has surpassed 20,000 downloads and is in its fifth season.

Currently Jeff splits his time in Northern California between writing, family, bartending, podcasting and research, particularly on the disparate worlds of rock and roll and cocktails. Something, it would appear, that he was born to do.

Publications that have featured Barfly:

Akron News Reporter, Atlanta Daily Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Boston Herald, Broomfield Enterprise, Brush News Tribune, Burlington Record, Canon City Daily Record, Capital Gazette, Capital Times, Chicago Tribune, Chico Enterprise Record, Colorado Hometown Weekly, Colorado Springs Star, Daily Breeze, Daily Bulletin, Daily Camera, Daily Democrat, Daily Freeman, Daily Press, Daily Tribune, Delco Times, Denver Post, East Bay Times, Estes Park Trail Gazette, Fort Bragg Advocate-News, Fort Morgan Times, Greeley Tribune, Hartford Courant, Journal-Advocate, Julesburg Advocate, Lake County Record-Bee, Lamar Ledger, Long Beach Press Telegram, Longmont Times-Call, Los Angeles Daily News, Loveland Daily Local, Lowell Sun, Macomb Daily, Main Line Media News, Marin Independent Journal, Monterey Herald, Mendocino Beacon, Morning Call, Morning Journal, Morning Sun, Nashoba Valley Voice, News Herald, New York Daily News, Oakland Press, Oneida Dispatch, Orange County Register, Orlando Sentinel, Oroville Mercury Register, Paradise Post, Pasadena Star News, Pioneer Press, Press and Guide, Press Enterprise, Reading Eagle, Red Bluff Daily News, Redlands Daily Facts, Reporter-Herald, Rome News Tribune, San Bernadino Bee, Santa Cruz Sentinel, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Saratogian, Sentinel and Enterprise, Scranton Times-Tribune, South Platte Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, Tallahassee Democrat, The Mercury, The Reporter, The Voice, Times-Standard, Trentonian, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, Ukiah Daily Journal, Vacaville Reporter, Vallejo Times Herald, Virginia Pilot, Whittier Daily News, Willits News and the Wyoming County Examiner..

 Barfly has also appeared in the magazines: San Francisco Magazine, National Geographic Assignment, Capture, Local Getaways, Marin Magazine, Marin Living, GFF, NY’s Steppin’ Out and Here, as well as the websites: about.com, better.com, msn.com and siliconvalley.com.