Raising the Bar Offers Spirited History Lessons
Karina Elias
October 8, 2026
Once a month, at Hogwash Whiskey Den in downtown Spokane, historian Renée Cebula takes a roomful of students through centuries of American and global history that trace the wars, immigration, tariffs, and changing tastes that have helped determine what ingredients end up in her students’ glasses.
Monthly cocktail classes have evolved into a cornerstone of Raising the Bar Barware, the Spokane-based business that Cebula launched more than a decade ago. While at first, the business sold vintage barware at fairs and festivals across the Northwest, today, Raising the Bar is focused largely on education, and Cebula is expanding her workshops and lectures through collaborations with Spokane-area businesses and venues, including Commellini Estate and the Spokane Club.
Both properties have a rich history in Spokane, Cebula says, explaining that the Spokane Club represents a part of the city's drinking culture, while Commellini Estate, in North Spokane, shares a history of bootlegging during Prohibition.
"It’s new audiences, or I think of them as students, to kind of spread the word, the stories, the histories," says Cebula, an adjunct history professor at Eastern Washington University.
At Hogwash, Cebula partners with bar program manager Simon Moorby and general manager Erin Fasbender, both partial owners, to run the workshops. Moorby and Fasbender handle mixology techniques, answer questions about spirits, and offer insights on flavor and palate, while Cebula provides a historical narrative.
Each class has a theme, such as “The Rise of American Whiskey” and “The Many Lives of Gin,” whose history starts in the Netherlands and features the physician who invented it. The concoctions are crafted in chronological order, keeping pace with Cebula’s historical narrative.
This year, the overall theme is, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” Each month, the workshop explores a country, history, and the origins of its major spirit. Past classes include Mexico and tequila, amari from Italy, and Japanese sake.