I’ve known Guy Fieri for all of five seconds and he’s letting me try on his ring. It’s enormous, like something they give you for winning the Super Bowl, but he received this one after filming the 400th episode of his hit TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. You hear of Guy Fieri’s generosity— he raised close to $25 million for hospitality workers during the pandemic (partially through a nacho cookoff with Bill Murray)—but to witness his instinctual kindness is something different.
Fieri is dead serious about authenticity and that extends to Santo, the tequila brand he and Sammy Hagar launched in 2019. “Please don’t play games with something I love,” Fieri says, referencing tequila brands that use additives or leverage celebrity marketing to sell. “I am not saying I’m offended when it’s called a celebrity brand of tequila, but please don’t put that first.”
When Hagar sold Cabo Wabo to Campari in 2008, Fieri asked the Van Halen singer if he ever got back into tequila, to please bring him in, and a decade later, that’s what happened. Now, the chef is in San Diego as a featured speaker at the DISCUS (Distilled Spirits Council of the United States) conference, separating himself from other celebrity owners by chatting with conference attendees, caring deeply about both spirit and the consumer. “For me, this is way more than a business, this is lifestyle, this is a product, this is a representation of my brand, of who I am.” he says.
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
