Meet the Couple Behind the Bar

Our Story

Jigger & Joy started the way most good cocktails do—with the right ingredients coming together at the right time.

We're Ron and Gayle, a husband-and-wife team who built this platform out of a shared love for great drinks and the belief that every home bartender deserves recipes they can actually trust.

The spark happened after a trip to Ireland. We wandered into a speakeasy-style whiskey bar, and somewhere between the conversation about smoky scotch and smooth bourbon, it clicked. Gayle had spent her entire career in the restaurant and bar industry. Ron had spent three decades solving problems with technology. We looked at each other and thought: why isn't there a site that does more than just list recipes? Why can't you search by what's already in your cabinet, or find a new spirit based on the flavors you actually like?

So we built one.

Gayle — The Experience Behind Every Recipe

Gayle's career in the hospitality industry started early. At fifteen, she began working as a hostess at her family's restaurant, and within months she was waiting tables. That was over twenty-five years ago, and she never really left.

Over the years, Gayle worked her way through nearly every position a restaurant has to offer. She spent six years as a server before learning to bartend. She picked up kitchen shifts as a prep cook, eventually moving to the line and working every station. She became a trainer for all positions, a kitchen manager, a bar and service manager, and ultimately a General Manager—a role she held for seven years, overseeing a team of up to fifty employees.

Her management career covered all the things most people never see: scheduling, inventory ordering, vendor relationships, cost control, and making sure the guest experience stayed consistent every single night. She held a ServSafe certification and completed training programs with multiple spirits, wine, and beer distributors.

But the part of the job she loved most was behind the bar. As a bar and service manager, Gayle created original cocktails for weekly specials—starting with a theme, thinking about the kind of guest she wanted to attract, building around popular flavor profiles, and testing drinks with real customers before putting them on the menu. She'd let the staff try them and vote on what made the cut.

Her philosophy on cocktails is simple: a well-balanced drink shouldn't taste like straight liquor. Every ingredient should work together on the palate. If you miss one thing or overpour another, the whole drink is off—and someone who could have found their new favorite might never try it again. That standard is what drives every recipe on Jigger & Joy.

Ron — The Builder

Ron comes from a completely different world—thirty years in information technology, working as a systems administrator managing servers and virtual desktop environments. His career has spanned government offices, a district attorney's office, an attorney general's office, a law school, and a university. He knows how to build things that work reliably and how to manage data that needs to be accurate.

But cocktails? That's a story that goes back further than the tech career. Ron's grandfather used to bartend as a side job. He had a little bar set up in a room at home, and he always made sure the people who came over had exactly the drink they wanted. Growing up around that left an impression—the idea that making someone a good drink is a way of taking care of them.

When Ron started looking at cocktail websites and apps, something bothered him. Most of them were just recipe dumps—long lists with no way to search by what you already had, no way to discover something new based on what you actually like, and no real verification that the recipes were even correct. He wanted to build something that treated cocktail data the way he'd treat any production system: organized, verified, and actually useful.

Better Together

Gayle's real-world experience shapes everything on Jigger & Joy. When Ron built the Spirit Finder tool, it was Gayle who pointed out that most people don't think in terms of spirit categories—they think in terms of flavors. That insight changed how the entire feature works.

When the holidays came around and Gayle was planning drinks for a family gathering, she used the What Can I Make feature to figure out what she could mix with what was already in the house. Watching her actually use the tools—and hearing what worked and what didn't—is how this platform gets better.

Why You Can Trust Our Recipes

Every recipe on Jigger & Joy is cross-checked against three to four authoritative sources before it goes live. We verify ingredients, measurements, methods, and glassware to make sure what you're making at home matches what a skilled bartender would serve you at a bar.

When sources disagree—and they often do—we go with the version that's most widely used or trace it back to the original source. We don't guess, and we don't make things up. With over 1,400 cocktail recipes and growing, maintaining that standard takes real effort. But Gayle's career taught her that consistency matters, and Ron's career taught him that good data is the foundation of everything. So that's where we start.

What We Offer

What We're Building

Jigger & Joy isn't just a recipe site. It's a home bar companion—built for people who want to make great drinks, discover new favorites, and plan parties without the guesswork.

Whether you're searching by what's in your cabinet, exploring a new spirit, or planning cocktails for a gathering, everything on this site was built with real experience and real care.

We're glad you're here. Now go make something great.
— Ron & Gayle

Responsible Enjoyment

Jigger & Joy is intended for adults of legal drinking age. We promote responsible consumption and the appreciation of cocktail craft as an art form. Our content is educational and informational—we do not sell alcohol or encourage excessive drinking.

Please enjoy responsibly and never drink and drive.

Get in Touch

Have a question, suggestion, or just want to share your favorite cocktail creation? We'd love to hear from you!