Meet our crew: get to know the awesome humans that make Cardinal Spirits possible!

Renne Payne

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front-of-house manager at Cardinal Spirits

@fazedcookies on Instagram

pronouns: she/her

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Hi, Renne! Tell us about your role at Cardinal Spirits.

I am a front-of-house manager at Cardinal’s bar, restaurant, and tasting room. I'll have been at Cardinal for 2 years at the end of this month! Prior to the pandemic, I floor managed and also planned any in-house events we had. I worked almost every Tiki Tuesday and brunch service for about a year and hosted special nights like Halloween and NYE. My daily tasks are significantly different now because we’ve been carry-out only since March 16, 2020, and have started doing virtual events. I have more of a project coordinator role now and help our kitchen, bar, and production teams get their creations to our customers. I’m in front of a computer a lot more than I used to be because so much of what we do right now is in a digital rather than physical marketplace.

Where are you from? Where have you lived?

I was born in Hagerstown, MD, but grew up in Greencastle, IN. I moved to Bloomington in 2009 to go to IU and stayed for my graduate program as well. I lived and worked in Taiwan (in Taipei) in 2019 and then started working at Cardinal when I moved back to Bloomington.

Renne and her friend Chaz at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Tell us about a skill that you have outside of work.

I can speak and read Chinese. I’m in the process of completing an MA in East Asian Studies at IU, if I can ever bring myself to finish writing my thesis.

Do you have a side hustle? What is it?

I design and screen-print T-shirts to generate donations to charity – which I sell off of my website www.fazed-cookies.com. I used to print them myself but have recently started printing with my friend Kaira (who runs Black Ink Press in Denver). Since 2017 we have raised over $4,000 in donations – some of which have gone to Monroe County Volunteers in Medicine, the Community Kitchen and the local chapter of BLM, among others. I also designed Cardinal’s B-line T-shirt!

Renne had the winning design for our T-shirt design contest among staff here at Cardinal. T-shirts are sold here.

What's your favorite Cardinal Spirits cocktail/spirit/dish?

Spirit: Creekbend Brandy is my favorite spirit we make – I like to drink it neat.

Cocktail: Goody 2 Shoes – a kiwi-sesame-gin drink that our bar manager Maria Konermann had on our menu when I first started.

Dish: When we were open for regular service I think I ate a Potato Poblano Hash every Sunday for about a year. Now I eat our Prime Rib Sandwich at least once a week and am always looking forward to when we photograph our Weekend Specials because I can usually sneak a taste.

Any favorite places on the Internet?

Probably YouTube. I watch a lot of comedy specials, DIY tutorials and live music performances. Also the comments are always a goldmine on YouTube videos.

Can you recommend a podcast, movie, book, TV show, album, subscription, etc. that you consumed recently and liked? We’re all looking for good recs right now!

Movies: Mississippi Burning, Repo Man (1984 - with a very young Emilio Estevez)

Books: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Transmetropolitan (comic series) by Warren Ellis

TV Shows: Prime Suspect, Silent Witness (the original 8 seasons with Amanda Burton)

Albums: Patrick Cowley - Afternooners, X - Los Angeles

What’s your favorite midnight snack?

Pickles

Most used-emoji?

😂

Favorite Condiment?

BBQ Sauce

Want to give a shout-out to anyone?

I’d like to give a shout-out to my partner Zack – because I can usually get him to laugh at some pretty stupid stuff and laughter has truly been keeping me sane over the past year.