Sean Umstead is the co-owner and beverage director of beloved downtown Durham establishments Kingfisher, Queeny\u2019s, and Queenburger, known for their cocktails, creativity, and community. He and business partner Michelle Vanderwalker opened Kingfisher, the James Beard\u2013nominated produce-driven cocktail bar, in 2019, neighborhood restaurant and bar Queeny\u2019s in 2021, and Queenburger for ballpark-adjacent smash burgers in 2022.<\/p>\n
Kingfisher draws inspiration from North Carolina\u2019s farms, offering a rare, year-long view into each season through its innovative cocktail program. The James Beard Foundation named Kingfisher a semifinalist for Outstanding Bar in 2023, and Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards recognized it as a Best New Cocktail Bar East honoree. Imbibe Magazine<\/em> named Sean to their annual \u201cImbibe 75\u201d list in 2019, and his beverage expertise has also been recognized nationally by \u300a\u7d10\u7d04\u6642\u5831\u300b<\/em>, Wall Street Journal<\/em>, \u7f8e\u98df\u8207\u7f8e\u9152<\/em>, PUNCH<\/em>, Vinepair<\/em>, \uff0c \u548c Garden & Gun<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n Sean is a veteran of North Carolina\u2019s hospitality culture, serving on the Triangle\u2019s most dynamic food and beverage teams over the last decade. Prior to opening Kingfisher, he was the General Manager of St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar in downtown Raleigh, responsible for service and the bar program. Before that, he designed, opened, and managed the cutting-edge bar program at The Counting House in the 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Durham in 2015, and served as Bar Manager at The Umstead Hotel and Spa.<\/p>\n Sean has guest bartended at bars down the East Coast \u2013 from Grand Army Bar in Brooklyn to Edmund\u2019s Oast in Charleston.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":7100,"template":"","class_list":["post-7099","chef","type-chef","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef\/7099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chef"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}