About Preston Rideout

Thirty years in hospitality, starting behind the bar

Preston Rideout began bartending in 1996 at The Gin in Oxford, Mississippi, and managed that bar through 2003. In 2004 he moved to Coyote Ugly as bar manager in Washington, DC and Las Vegas, and then into the Las Vegas nightclub industry, where he spent the next several years as a bartender and bar manager at Tangerine and Audigier, and as a bartender and multi-unit assistant general manager across LAX Nightclub, Noir Bar, Pure Nightclub, the Pussycat Dolls Lounge, and Venus Pool Club.

He became general manager of Eve Nightclub in 2010, managed the bar program at Rehab Pool Party in 2012, served as Director of Nightlife for Electric Cowboy in Kentucky and Missouri from 2013 to 2014, and was Director of Bar Operations for Luke’s Icehouse in Texas from 2014 to 2016.

Those roles are the practical foundation for his expert work. In those roles he hired and trained staff, wrote and enforced service policies, dealt with intoxicated patrons, and was accountable to owners and regulators for how the venue ran.

Consulting to operators since 2010

Preston founded Rideout Hospitality Consulting in 2010 and has served as its CEO since. The firm advises bars, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, and resorts across the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas on beverage programs, staff training, service procedures, and operations. Clients have included hotels such as the Alluvian, the Memphian, the Collegiate Hotel, Hotel Fenix, and the Millennium Hotel in Guadalajara; restaurant and bar groups including B.B. King’s, Itta Bena, Lafayette’s, and the Babalu locations across the Southeast; nightlife venues in Las Vegas, Nashville, Memphis, Park City, and Portland; and Spike TV’s Bar Rescue. The full client list appears on his curriculum vitae, and his consulting practice is described at PrestonRideout.com.

Alongside that work he co-authored the bartender training manual The Bar Starts Here with Ryan Dahlstrom and wrote Cocktail Currency, published by Xlibris. He is profiled as a nightclub and Dram Shop expert by Cayuga Hospitality Consultants, as Senior Nightclub and Bar Consultant by Restaurant Management Consultants, and as a hospitality author by Hospitality Net.

Responsible alcohol service, state by state

Because alcohol-service rules and training programs differ by state, Preston has completed 112 seller-server and responsible-vendor certifications across 48 states and the District of Columbia: Alcohol Awareness Certification Experts and Techniques of Alcohol Management (TAM) in most of them, plus state-specific programs such as TABC in Texas, BASSET in Illinois, ATAP in New York, ABLE in Oklahoma, SMART in Missouri, DABS in Utah, TIPS in Wyoming, and the Florida Responsible Vendor course series. When he evaluates a server’s training in a case, he has taken the same class.

Expert-witness work

Preston is retained by plaintiff and defense counsel in Dram Shop, liquor-liability, overservice, bar and nightclub, restaurant, hospitality, premises, and security-related matters. His listed testimony history runs from 2021 through 2026 and includes 20 matters in 11 states, with 18 depositions and 2 trial appearances. He founded Dram Shop Experts, an expert group focused on alcohol-service litigation, and is listed in the JurisPro and SEAK expert directories and in Attorney at Law Magazine’s Meet the Expert series.

He holds a B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Mississippi (2000).

How he approaches a case

Preston’s opinions stay inside what he has done for a living: how alcohol is served, how intoxication is recognized, how staff are trained and supervised, and how bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and hotels are run. He does not offer toxicology, medical, or legal opinions. He tells counsel early and plainly if the records do not support the theory of the case, and he applies the same standards whichever side has retained him.