Eric explains, “I remember it was just a few years ago when they were hucking burgers out of their food truck here in North Park and became friends with Nick.
Nick was like… “Hey, my liquor license allows me to do catering… and bam!… they formed this wonderful partnership”
The MIHO EXPERIENCE is a family of brands based in San Diego, offering catering, rentals and event services. The concept is a one stop shop for any event. Amazing food, paired with exceptional craft cocktails, craft beer & fine wines.
That would be where Barçon comes in. A unique marriage between the craft cocktail expertise of Sycamore Den and the catering prowess of The MIHO Experience
Eric goes on to say, “The great thing about Barçon is, it’s kinda like having two parents that were star athletes in their day…
Sycamore Den is this fantastic craft cocktail company here in San Diego - MIHO is doing great things on the food catering side of things & we can be the rebellious child that just organically grows and creates with the times.
But, with that being said… we have a lot to live up to. People meet us at an event & say… Oh you’re Barçon with Sycamore (yes, we are) or Ohhhh, you’re part Of MIHO (Yes, we are) Now, I think were kinda at the stage, four years in… we’re ready to start growing out of that shadow & create our own identity, since we are so close to both companies.
“What we do with our cocktail menu is completely inspired by creativity. Whether it be a bride & groom that want a cocktail inspired from a trip to Tahiti, with a certain tropical ingredient… or a Harry Potter themed wedding where the bride wants something similar to ‘Butter Beer’ (a popular wizarding beverage). That’s where it’s fun for me, to be able to create & come up with something similar or my take or version of something. It’s a lot of fun & a lot of creativity… but it’s a lot of work.”
He adds, “It also allows us to be completely outside of the box - for example… where a seasonal drink menu like Sycamore Den’s may run for 3 months… a Barçon drink menu will run for one day. It’s fun that way. It’s different. The ability to be inspired daily by different request, ie. Somebody says’ “Hey, we want to do a cocktail inspired by ‘pastel’ and… David Bowie. Then it’s on me to come up with a cocktail with my interpretation of what that would be.
“As a company MIHO is doing so much on the catering front. They want to be known as pioneers and not just a company following in the footsteps of others, ya know? It’s interesting the parallels between Sycamore & MIHO… and now Barçon… we’re able to use this wonderful mindset of culinary that’s on the MIHO Side. For example, they’re making a Strawberry Coulie recipe for desert… why can’t we use that same theory with cocktails? The sky is the limit, it’s just how imaginative we want to be.”
When asked about looming ‘Best Caterer In California’ award, Eric replies, “As far as MIHO moving forward?… the sky really is the limit. They just won the award in San Diego but we’re able to do what we do anywhere in California, as far as the catering license goes. This past year we have started to really stretch out where we go. We just did a large wedding in Santa Barbara. We’ve been all over Malibu. We were in Palm Springs pretty much every weekend from August till November of this past year. We’re really stretching our limits as far as what we can do. We have the ability to do something smaller & intimate like a Christmas party for 7 or a wedding for 500.
