Westin Galleymore
Underbelly Hospitality | Houston
December 2019
Westin Galleymore has only been legally allowed to drink for five years, and for every single one of those years, he’s been bartending. With a flight attendant mother and a restaurant owner and sommelier father, Galleymore grew up in the Houston family restaurant Hasta La Pasta. Although he spent most of his days working at one of the three locations, mastering every position possible, he wasn’t exactly going to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Galleymore relocated to Oxford, Mississippi, where he attended Ole Miss and studied political science and economics in the hopes of one day becoming a lawyer. But during school breaks, Galleymore returned to his parents' restaurant and began bartending. The bar program had serious room for improvement and Galleymore took it upon himself to make adjustments and experiment, beginning with a successful lemon drop martini tinker. But it wasn’t until his father took him to Bobby Heugel’s lauded Houston bar, Anvil Bar & Refuge, that his path in life and career permanently readjusted. Three months after turning 21, Galleymore was the youngest person to be hired at Anvil.
Just two years after completing Anvil’s intense training program, Galleymore joined Chris Shepherd and helped him open One Fifth Steak as bar manager. Six months into the new gig, he was promoted to spirits director of Chris Shepherd’s restaurant group Underbelly Hospitality and currently oversees the cocktail programs at Hay Merchant, UB Preserv, One Fifth, and Georgia James.
