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Andre Sykes

@dacocktailpoet

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2x James Beard Semifinalist
1/2 of @blackonbothsidesdetroit
100% Black Excellence

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Just to keep it 💯. I am a twice nominated James Beard semifinalist and it wasn't until The Iconoclast Dinner that I was able to work at the James Beard House. I am beyond proud of the work that myself and my dope colleagues presented there.

This experience was beyond comprehension for me. A young Black man from Detroit, a product of a single mother of four, A product of DPS, A product of strife and hard work, was able to do this. If I can do it so can you.

This is for the city and all of us. This is for @blackonbothsidesdetroit and why we do what we do. This is for the bartender 5, 10, 50 years from now that is starving and wants greatness. This is for every guest that has blessed my bar top. This for a black kid that was told he has so much potential. This is for me.

I have always wanted to be an inspiration for folk that look like me in my city and my industry. So often do we get passed over for mediocrity and uneven pay. This is your beacon, I am your beacon. You can do it, just keep on going and never stop or dim your light. This is for the city and everyone that's an agent of hospitality.

I want to thank @doctorlezli and @icondinner for honoring me and giving us the opportunity to work magic at the James Beard House! I also want to thank all of the dope ass chefs and sommelier for giving all they had for an incredible dinner. Big thank you to Heaven Hill and all of the sponsors as well. This is only the beginning so expect more from me! I'll see y'all back in Detroit later! 🙏🏿🔥💪🏿 by @dacocktailpoet

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2 years ago

2022 & 2023, ran it back to back. I want to thank my team, coworkers and everyone at @alpinodetroit as well as @eater_detroit and @serenamaria36, thank you for seeing me and trusting my vision. This belongs to all of us at Alpino first and foremost. In lieu of that, I give to you, my poem "Champagne Applause" as it encompasses how I feel. Thank you! 🔥🔥🔥💜💜💜

Could you celebrate the perlage of Black Excellence exuding bubbles of champagne
Fine dedication thru mundane existence
Existing in everyday courage.

I try to try for more after failure
Told me to give up chasing my dreams,
They told me it's an antiquated means.
But I am a cartoon that never dies
When my soul is wrenched from my body.
I am the effervescent foam of bubbles
That tickles your throat when sipped.

You can drink my being but it will
Never quench my purpose, try as you may.
Die within fate, quiet the murdering fay,
Lie down just to wake up today.
Could you celebrate the times
When we play, when dreaming fairies
Sparkle the night into day.

I have died before already.
I have strived thru strife just to arrive
On time as if clocks couldn't time my soul.
So I will try again today,
And then strive again the day after,
And then fail on distant matters,
Until my brain splatters from drinking
Too many dreams at the afters.

Could you celebrate me today,
Before my bouquet turns to gray cliche
When I finally decide to walk away.
Could you disregard perverted hearsay,
And remember the nappy-headed Negus
That dared to disobey judgment day.
We celebrate Black bubbles today,
That feeling when our ancestors were right
To write dreams with future forehead kisses.

Could you celebrate today,
And give pause to your perlage tomorrow?
Maybe that could give away moment of
Peace to pieces of tormented diasporic souls.

—Andre Sykes A. K. A. TrulyPoetic by @dacocktailpoet

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3 years ago

I have become addicted
To the stars that shine
Beneath her eyes.

I blame it on the pain
Of never having a father.
I blame it on the hole in

My chest filled with tears.
I blame it on the pages
That never writes themselves.

Yet, those pin pricks of
Innocence seem to search and
Destroy doubtful voids.

Those years of yearning,
Those murmurs of silence
Between sobs of gasping air.

Novacaine to the brain,
Novacaine for the pain,
Nova is her name.

My face became numb to
The wet, salty-sweet bitterness
That filled the Aquaphor

Of my youth as a child,
And I began to dream of
Night sky constellations.

Constellations that we're foreign
To my earthbound soul.
Tell me what happens

When supernovas no longer
Explode? Do they wilt into
Dwarfism, left to dark matter

As they die inside from the immense
Pressure of compartmentalized
Gasses? Or do they hate the space

Between empty clusters of stars
Wishing upon themselves? I've
Witnessed stars dying before,

Their light turns to gasps of repressed
Gravity lost to time and quantum
Mechanics. They no longer feel

The pull from pushing celestial bodies
Away from them. They hunger for
More than just simple relativity.

Novacaine to the brain,
Novacaine for the pain,
I could never forget her name.

I've become addicted to not being able
To feel my face from smiling thru
Telescopes, I can't keep my heart

Sane anymore, every war has left torn
Threads trying to stitch together
Continents on tiny planets of pain.

I needed more than just a glimpse of
Planetary devastation from technology.
I need a star to guide my high true north

In my night sky when monsters feast on
Sobriety. I am greedy and want more than
Just a quick high. I don't wanna go to

Rehab, or detox from my star's
Gravitational pull, be my pusher princess
When laughter is most needed.

Novacaine to the brain,
Novacaine for the pain,
Her name runs in my veins.

—Daddy by @dacocktailpoet

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4 years ago

My raisins no longer shrivel
when left alone in the sun.

Today is day 12,116;

Don't ask me how I know that.
Don't ask me how a blunted
mind can remember to count
down dreams that evaporate after
Midnight Michigan mules buck back.

Momma never had to tell me
life ain't no crystal stair—

The crime scenes of massacred
roaches on linoleum tiles cautioned
the consequences for people

that come from where I come;
speak like how I speak;
look like how I look;
cope like how I cope.

I am a dreamer that dreams
for a billion lost realities;
Don't sleep on me,
My ancestors guard my dreams
As if they knew of me when their
Sacrifices met the sun shining
On darker futures.

My raisins no longer shrivel,
They explode and burst the
Seams of every poem a negro wrote.
I am their wildest dreams
Still yearning for more.

—TrulyPoetic taken in Cognac, France by @dacocktailpoet

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4 days ago

Sometimes you don't know when meeting people will change your life. Other times you wish that they would. Very rarely do you get to choose to be a part of something that feels larger than what's going on. I was able to be a part of something global, something important, something tangible for the future.

Thank you @ms_jrose for choosing me and us to make Chateau Chanteloup the Blackest it'll ever be. Thank you @martellusa & @sweetandchilliagency for bringing such diversity and brilliance from around the world to Cognac's doorstep for a wild exchange of culture & friendship. Thank you @remy_savage_ for your brilliance, knowledge and damn amazing personality! I still have so much that I want to learn and work with you on!

This is just the beginning! Merci Beaucoup, YA HEARD ME! 💪🏿🔥

#MakeItWithMartell #Martell #Cognac #Paris #France taken in Cognac, France by @dacocktailpoet

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7 days ago

Two drinks built for tomorrow night. One reason to RSVP now.

For Episode 5, Andre Sykes + John Neely are pouring:

Fannie Ward #2
Bacardi Ocho, sorrel syrup, lime, bitters + bar foam.

Blue Inn Jazz Jamboree
Norden Aquavit, crème de violette, blue curaçao, velvet falernum, lemon, white wine + bar foam.

These aren’t just menu specials — they’re part of the story we’re telling around the people shaping Detroit hospitality.

Tuesday, August 18 | 7–11PM | Parlay Detroit

RSVPs help us know who’s coming and keep you in the loop for future POUR’D drops, featured guests and limited moments.

Lock yours in now. by @dacocktailpoet

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2 months ago

Detroit hospitality has history. Tuesday, we’re pouring with two people helping write the next chapter.

Andre Sykes and John Neely of Black On Both Sides join us for the next episode of POUR’D.

What began as a celebration of Black hospitality has grown into one of Detroit’s most recognizable hospitality collectives — taking over bars across the city, building national relationships and creating space for the people who have long helped define Detroit’s cocktail culture.

Tuesday, the conversation comes to Parlay.

Andre + John behind the bar.
Rachel Burnett + Jon Jenks hosting the conversation.
K Dirty setting the room.
Two featured cocktails.
And Detroit hospitality showing up for its own.

POUR’D — Detroit’s Hospitality Industry Night
Tuesday, August 18 | 7–11 PM
Parlay Detroit | 1260 Washington Blvd.

Come meet the people behind the pour. by @dacocktailpoet

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2 months ago

I want to thank me,
For the patience to master wrap
50,000 hours around my pinkies
As if no one had ever broken them
While holding my heart.

I want to thank me,
This Black Boy Magic
Didn't come easily when
My skin is bruised purple
By every doorway I enter.
No frame is safe from dunks now.

I want to thank me,
For seppuku sacrificing sacrilegious
Mentions when others speak ill
Of mastering sicker spirits,
There's honor deep in my soul.

I want to thank me,
And my demons as we share laughter
From the pain of proof slicing across
Our bellies to show the grit and guts
That most failed to see beneath
Banal social gullibility.

I want to thank me,
For mentioning names in bright
Rooms when no one hears
Their footfalls behind closed doors
And the windows I left open.

I want to thank me,
Because I rarely do,
Because I am worth it,
Because the pied piper
Is paying for the hissing
Of snakes trying to abate ambition,
Because Black Boy Joy deserves it.

I want to thank me for being me,
For staying me, trying to be a better me,
Crying for me, sweating for me,
Healing for me, killing past selves for me,
And for having the courage to be...

All of me at 33—
Thank you Dre.
🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿 taken in Detroit, Michigan by @dacocktailpoet

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2 months ago

Hey, welcome to the double feature! See yall at “the Beaubien house” after “equality after dark”. Let’s get it! by @dacocktailpoet

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3 months ago

See yall at @thirdstreetdetroit March 23! by @dacocktailpoet

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7 months ago

@blackonbothsidesdetroit is building something really special in Detroit.

Founded by an insanely talented trio of cocktail and hospitality pros including @dacocktailpoet and @the_detroit_liaison, Black on Both Sides creates spaces where people show up in the name of beautiful cocktails… but more importantly for each other.

Rooted in Black hospitality, Black on Both Sides brings people together through cocktails, music, culture, and joy. It’s about being present — in the room, in the moment — and part of a community built on creativity, connection, and shared experience.

Right now, they’re inviting their community to buy in and be part of this chapter with a NuMarket campaign. Members step into a closer circle with priority access to events and parties, members-only experiences, and more — plus 120% back in credits to use toward cocktails and events.

Detroit, this one’s for you. Link in bio! taken in Detroit, Michigan by @dacocktailpoet

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8 months ago

We are getting it popping, thanks to @standbydetroit for allowing us to open the doors and give something new to all of you. 🤜🏿🤜🏿🤜🏿This menu is near and dear to us an we can’t wait to share “ the dream deferred” with you all.
Doors open at 6:00pm, let’s end out black history month with a banger. We will have @gladysnitedetroit throw down, taking care of all your food needs! taken in Standby by @dacocktailpoet

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8 months ago