Alcohol Service, Bar Hospitality & Safety Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Gabe Grass is a business development leader and entrepreneur with direct, hands-on experience founding and operating a regional craft brewery and managing all aspects of bar, taproom and hospitality service. As Founder and President of GrassLands Brewing Company in Tallahassee, Florida, he built and operated a community-focused craft brewery from launch through an established brand, managing production, distribution, front-of-house service and a team of up to 15 across service and production functions. That work required developing and executing standard operating procedures, staff training programs, account management protocols and regulatory compliance across all aspects of beverage production and alcohol service. His commitment to responsible service standards extended beyond his own venue. As brewery owner, he organized and hosted an annual ID analysis training program conducted under the oversight of Florida Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, open to staff from restaurants, bars and breweries across the Tallahassee market. That initiative reflects a proactive, community-level engagement with compliance and age verification standards — and an understanding of how training culture either takes root or fails across a hospitality operation. He holds active certifications in TIPS (Training for Intervention ProcedureS) and SafeServ, both recognized industry standards for responsible alcohol service and intoxication intervention training. He is also a Certified Beer Judge through the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), reflecting a deep technical grounding in production standards, quality evaluation and craft beverage industry norms. These credentials, combined with direct operational experience, position him to assess staff training adequacy, service policy compliance and industry standard deviations with a level of specificity that goes beyond general hospitality familiarity. His expertise covers the full arc of the alcohol service environment: responsible beverage service protocols, front-of-house operational standards, staff conduct and supervision, intoxication recognition, age verification compliance, refusal-of-service implementation and the practical realities of running a compliant, accountable bar or brewery operation. He understands from direct experience what responsible service looks like in practice, what constitutes a departure from industry standards and where gaps in training, supervision or policy create the conditions for liability. Gabe is available to provide expert opinions, written case analysis and courtroom testimony for plaintiff and defense attorneys in matters involving dram shop liability, negligent alcohol service, over-service incidents, inadequate staff training, age verification failures, taproom and brewery operations and related hospitality industry claims. His reviews examine staff conduct, service policies, training documentation, management oversight and the operational environment at the time of an incident against applicable industry standards and best practices. In addition to his hospitality and brewing background, Gabe brings more than 20 years of experience in business development, nonprofit advisory work and organizational leadership. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Verdant Synergies Consulting, a strategic advisory practice based in Jacksonville, Florida. He holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Leadership (expected Spring 2027) from the University of North Florida, an Ed.S. in Education Policy and Program Evaluation from Florida State University and graduate and undergraduate degrees from Virginia Tech and UNF.