Kala
Ellis

Beverage

As Beverage Director for The Indigo Road Hospitality Group, Kala Ellis leads the teams in creating beverage programs that complement and celebrate their chef-driven menus. Originally from Arizona, Ellis spent most of her adolescence in Tennessee before attending Lee University where she studied to become a teacher. During her college years, she worked various front and back-of-house hospitality roles before eventually settling into her role as a bartender. As she went on to become a teacher for six years, she still bartended in her spare time. Ellis embraced her passion for the beverage industry and entered it full time, utilizing her teaching skillset to train and lead her team. She ran the bar program at Gray’s on Main before opening O’ Be Joyful. During this time, she also expanded on her industry knowledge by attending various mixology and spirit programs, including A Bar Above, where she met her mentors, Chris and Julia Tunstall.

Ellis joined The Indigo Road Hospitality team, serving as the beverage manager for its Nashville concepts, Oak Steakhouse Nashville and O-Ku. She now oversees all beverage operations for the hospitality group. In this role, she enjoys cultivating a team that works collaboratively to produce creative and flawlessly executed cocktails. Ellis also finds great fulfillment in advocating for her team – just one of the many diverse tasks in front of her. She continues to deepen her industry knowledge and enjoys mentoring as well as learning from her team members, coaching them to create Oak’s seasonal cocktail menu.