Yahoo Movies Nick Jonas Talks New Jonas Brothers Music, His 30th Birthday and Villa One Tequila Gardens
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Nick Jonas has had a busy few years.
Following his 2018 wedding to Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Nick, 30, and his brothers reunited in 2019 and released Happiness Begins — their first album in nearly six years. That same summer, Nick launched his tequila brand Villa One with John Varvatos. On the heels of a tour to celebrate the band's return, Nick released his fourth solo album, Spaceman, in March 2021.
In January, he and Priyanka welcomed their first child together, daughter Malti Marie, and just last month, the "Close" singer celebrated his 30th birthday.
Three years after the launch of Villa One, Nick has added another line to his resume with the creation of Villa One Tequila Gardens — a dining and nightlife experience created in partnership with the singer and fashion designer.
Following the opening of a pop-up bar in Las Vegas in July, a Villa One Tequila Gardens location opened in San Diego on Sept. 22 which will serve as a preview of future locations in Los Angeles and Miami. On Oct. 7, Nick and Varvatos are hosting a VIP party to celebrate the new San Diego eatery.
Villa One Tequila Gardens
"I think for us it was all about trying to encapsulate the feeling we had when we created the brand Villa One, which was really born out of, John Varvatos and I, our love for tequila and having great experiences with the people you love," Nick tells PEOPLE of the inspiration behind the new project. "Great food, great music, great tequila obviously, and the motto was always 'To life as it should be.'"
Nick says that he and Varvatos "always had the dream" to create a space where this idea could come to life.
Villa One Tequila Garden features more than 140 tequilas, dozens of cocktails (including 20 margarita options) and "modern Mexican fare," according to a release.
Over the pandemic, Nick says he picked up some mixology skills and began creating some of his own drinks.
One of those drinks, he explains, comes from his discovery that Villa One's Reposado and Añejo have "some great chocolate notes" that can be pulled out through the use of chocolate bitters which when combined with some coffee creates Nick's "sort of a take on an espresso martini — but with tequila."
Nick says he has also "dialed in the recipe" for a Bloody Maria — a take on the classic Bloody Mary but made with tequila, which has become a "favorite" among his family and friends.
Villa One also played a role in his recent birthday celebrations, he tells PEOPLE, which he said included a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona to visit his favorite golf course, Scottsdale National.
Villa One Tequila Gardens
During the getaway "curated and planned" by Priyanka, 40, Nick was joined by his friends to ring in the new decade.
"What we always like to do when we celebrate, whether it's our birthday or even other events in our lives, is to create a great experience for our friends. It's always better when your friends get to be a big part of it," Nick says of the festivities. "That's what we did with the birthday. It was kind of a golf-centric thing, but with lots of other activities and some things. I had a great time and felt very loved."
The Dancing with Myself judge says that in the past few years, as he and Priyanka have expanded their family, his ideal day off has changed.
"Time with family is the most important," he says. "Whether it's just at home or if we're in a different city, going out and being adventurous and seeing the world in a different way at this kind of stage in my life."
But, the avid golfer says he continues to make time for the sport.
"I am a big fan of golfing and that helps me just in a lot of ways," Nick says. "But I think it's a really good game just for clearing your head, being around your friends and getting outside and moving around."
Phillip Faraone/Getty Jonas Brothers
Though life is about to get even busier, it seems, as Nick and his brothers, Joe and Kevin, gear up to release their sixth studio album. This time around the three have collaborated with musician and producer Jon Bellion, whom Nick says came to them and said, "I have a vision for what this next kind of evolution of sound could be."
Nick says that Bellion's vision was "exactly" what he and his brothers had in mind, so they got to work.
"It was just the perfect kind of collaboration," he says. "It's been one of the most, I think, unique and different experiences for us as far as the process of making an album goes. But one of the best — we all feel like this is by far the best record we've made, and we just can't wait for the world to hear it."
He tells PEOPLE that in recent weeks they finished recording the vocals in New York and that now they've just about reached the "last stage of the process."
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While more details about the release of the album are remaining under wraps, Nick says the band has "some big plans about how we're going to drop it."
Though being in a band with his brothers is one of the Villa One founder's longest-standing gigs, he said the connecting line between his work with the Jonas Brothers and his other projects is what it provides for his fans.
Villa One Tequila Gardens John Varvatos and Nick Jonas
"At the end of the day, it's all about creating great experiences for my fans," he said. "Whether that's on stage with my brothers or in a movie, or in this case a tequila garden, I really don't think about it through one lens or, kind of, think of myself as somebody that does just one thing."
He continued, "I'm working on so many different things that touch so many different, kind of, points of my career and creative life. That's been a really fun thing for me and really gratifying to just be able to look at each experience and say 'How can I enrich someone's life or their experiences through what I'm creating?' That's been my motto."
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Villa One was not the first time Nick and Varvatos collaborated. In 2018, the two worked together on a capsule collection which was followed by a trilogy of men's fragrances. For the time being, though, the pair does not have any plans in place for future collaborations, though the "Jealous" singer says it's not out of the question.
"John and I are great friends and have loved all the things that we've been fortunate enough to collaborate on together," he said. "That's what makes our creative partnership so great. That we're genuinely friends and it comes from an authentic place, so it would make perfect sense for us to work on more things together."
Nick and Varvatos founded Villa One back in 2019, working alongside the master distiller Arturo Fuentes, the "Godfather of Tequila." The tequila is offered in three expressions: Silver, Reposado and Añejo.
