About

Dustin O’Connell grew up in Grand Forks, ND. He graduated from Red River High School in 2000 and attended the University of North Dakota from 2000 to 2003. In 2008, he moved to Boulder, CO, where he played poker professionally for a few years before finding a niche and a clientele bartending at Restaurant Japango on Pearl Street with mixologist Stanley Usinowicz. In 2013, Dustin moved to Denver and took a position behind the stick at Blue Sushi Sake Grill on the 16th Street Mall.

Dustin enjoys live music, skiing, disc golf, photography, video games, baseball, football, hockey, poker, and finding new, exciting ways to brew coffee. He can be found taking pictures of his food at Denver’s hottest restaurants or in his home beverage lab, concocting new versions of old recipes, experimenting with unconventional adjuncts, and steeping aromatics in liquors of varying strength.