The Hire

Big Easy Whiskey, the New Orleans-born flavored whiskey brand, has appointed Carlos Quinonez as National Brand Ambassador and Market Manager, positioning him as its primary face to on- and off-premise accounts as the brand prepares a multi-market Q4 expansion.

Quinonez brings more than 15 years of experience in beverage program development, hospitality consulting and spirits partnerships across New Orleans. His résumé spans the Adolfo Garcia Restaurant Group, Coquette, the Columns Hotel and Fives, as well as a recent stint as Beverage Director for the Turkey and the Wolf Group. He also helped develop Infhame, a New Orleans-inspired bar in Guadalajara — a signal of cross-border category credibility that the brand is leaning into as it moves beyond Louisiana.

Tennessee Expansion

The immediate commercial rationale behind the hire is a two-pronged Tennessee launch set for Q4. Big Easy Whiskey has signed distribution agreements with DET Beverage in Nashville and Athens Distributing Company, which covers Knoxville and Chattanooga. The deals mark the brand's first significant push outside its home state, where it is already on-premise at hundreds of bars, restaurants and retail accounts.

For c-store and off-premise buyers evaluating the flavored-whiskey set, the Tennessee market is meaningful. The state's strong whiskey identity — anchored by legacy bourbon and Tennessee whiskey brands — makes it a credibility test for any entrant pitching a premium flavored expression. Big Easy Whiskey's 5-year-aged base, built from a traditional bourbon mash and infused with herbs, spices, botanicals and fruit, is positioned explicitly against overly sweet flavored-whiskey SKUs that have crowded the category.

What It Means for Retail

The flavored-whiskey segment has been one of the faster-growing spirits sub-categories in convenience and off-premise retail over the past several years, driven by younger legal-drinking-age consumers and occasion versatility — neat pours, on-the-rocks and cocktail builds all in one SKU. Distributors and buyers have, however, grown more selective as the segment matured and shelf resets tightened.

Quinonez's role is structured around exactly that sell-in challenge. Kieran Walsh, COO and Blender of Big Easy Whiskey, noted that Quinonez's decades of on-the-ground New Orleans hospitality work give the brand an authenticity that cannot be replicated through marketing spend alone. In the flavored spirits segment, where provenance storytelling has become a key retailer-facing differentiator, that background is a practical sales asset as much as a brand one.

For operators stocking the spirits aisle, the Tennessee entry is worth watching as a gauge of how quickly a premium flavored whiskey with regional roots can convert distribution reach into velocity. Coverage of related spirits and beverage category trends and foodservice program developments at c-stores continues across C-Store News.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.