Meet Chase Brendle | Owner, Lacuna Botanical Mixology

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chase Brendle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chase, what do you attribute your success to?
Blending wellness and community in a proactive and innovative way, Lacuna isn’t just a business; it’s a movement toward a healthier, more connected society. That vision has carried Lacuna through a myriad of unusual business stressors found in the botanical beverage and hospitality industries. By focusing on creating an alcohol free, welcoming space where people can gather, work, and relax we are able to turn challenges like recently moving locations into opportunities like purchasing the Lost Leaf location in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It is a great opportunity for us to preserve the downtown culture we all know and love the Roosevelt Row Arts District for, by continuing of offer live music, arts, and events in the aptly titled Lost Leaf Theatre, named after the long-standing community pillar. Combining the years of music, entertainment, and life that has occurred in this historic 1920’s-built bungalow-style home with our innovative Sober-Curious Botanical Mocktails and Functional Elixers, is exactly what this industry was founded on, traditional, widely used, ceremonial plants, served in and for community.

With our move comes a from dance/electronic style experience that has been popular for so long, returning to our roots of live and local. Now offering for example regular Yoga & Mocktails on the back lawn, we are continuing to align with growing trends towards mindfulness and wellness, and vendor booths on First Fridays. And it is really this tradition, of bringing people together around something traditional and not new at all to some, yet completely new to others, like botanical mocktails, yoga, or conscious conversation, that has been the factor that we have come back to every time we hone in on what makes us successful.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Lacuna is the modern bar, a place to sip & savor botanical mixology, in a community “third space” that is all about wellness and connection. Lacuna was opened in 2018 getting its start as a more traditional kava bar and since evolving into Botanical Mixology offerings well beyond the original kava and kratom that customers expect to find. Through both challenges and opportunities at the leading-edge of this industry, we are moving the needle on what a social space is and offers.  Our committment to a healthy social space is what steers our impact in the industry and our community within. We are always creating new drinks, testing new herbs and tinctures, to bring you the best.  Our 2024 Spring Menu for example inlcudes the Full Expereince, where you can try a variety of plant-based goodies, from a Leveled-Up Libation to a CBD & Rose Pedal preroll!

Beyond new and exciting Elixirs, the biggest lesson I have learned along the way goes back to vision, and the commitment to it. The business conditions, branding, staff, and systems will change, but the reason you started will always be there. If you make decisions that are in alignment with the vision that you committed to when you spent your first dollar starting the business, it will go in exactly that direction.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am a road trip lover, so from the airport we would go downtown to the Roosevelt Row Arts District in Phoenix, and stop by Lacuna Phoenix for a Green Goddess “roadie”. Think of this drink as an all-natural, low-sugar hydration drink, made with organic electrolytes, shilajit, coconut water, cucumber, and lemon, I put a Gold Maeng Da floater in mine (ask your mixologist about this). We would walk next door to Il Bosco for a wood-fired pizza, also in a unique historical building. Next is a drive through Sedona, a visit to Lacuna Sedona for a refill, then farm-to-table dinner at The Table at Junipine, filling our water bottles at Harding Spring on the way to Flagstaff. Dinner and shopping anywhere downtown and some sort of festival most weekends that are warm enough will finish the trip off. On the way back to the airport, one last stop at El Chullo in Phoenix, for the best Peruvian lomo saltado in the valley!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thanks to so many along the way, even and especially the few that said the toughest things to hear, because it made a difference. A few books that have made an impact in being an entrepreneur yet aren’t specifically about business at face value are The Keys to the Kingdom, the Way of the Superior Man, and at the very start of the journey was The Secret, and As a Man Thinketh.

Website: www.siplacuna.com

Instagram: @lacunaphoenix, @lacunasedona

Facebook: @lacunaphx, @lacunasedona

Yelp: @lacuna

Image Credits
Dylan Vergnetti @vufinderphotography