Kelvin Uffre a.k.a. Sucio Somm, is a Dominican-born, BX-raised sommelier, spirits expert and James Beard award-winning bartender. He came up in New York’s most iconic bars, from the late Max Fish, The Eddy and Maison Premiere to Michelin star restaurants like Aldea and Olmsted. He holds multiple certifications, and is the NY rep for the venerated tequila brand Fortaleza.
Kelvin has been asked to shape a concept for a cocktail book with Kingston and design multiple bar programs, but his biggest project is Diaspirits. In the wine and spirits industry most importers, distributors, brands, and bars are white-owned and have been for centuries. The history of spirits has been written by the same colonial forces that helped establish the generational wealth that built these businesses, and that history leaves out the people and cultures that birthed spirits. Diaspirits is an importer dedicated to returning those stories back to the people, sharing brand ownership and profits with distillers, and improving a brutally inequitable supply chain. We’ll see Kelvin contend with the challenges presented by taking on a project like Diaspirits, and how the community supports, shapes, and builds it with him.
As a Dominican Somm from the BX, his world can shift instantly from a high end Armagnac tasting, to hookah smoking in Washington Heights with his Dominican connection, to chillin, playing dominoes and getting into shit with his goons in the raw and mighty BX.