According to the Los Angeles Times, the craft cocktail movement is seeing a shake-up in terms of gender roles in the city’s bars. More often than not, women are seen behind the bar mixing the drinks, rather than serving them in tight shirts and mini-skirts.
“Women were prevalent up and down Sunset Boulevard,” said cocktail consultant Aidan Demarest. “Beautiful girls in miniskirts and half-shirts is what you hired.”
As with most industries, women tend to be underrepresented. But not anymore, says Tricia Alley, a 36-year-old bartender at Eva restaurant, who has been experimenting with five-spice bitters she cooked up in her home kitchen. After linking up with prominent female mixologist Zahra Bates, she realized the possibilities of a craft cocktail career.
In 2008, Bates and Vincenzo Marianella, who is credited with spearheading the L.A. scene, teamed up as a cocktail consulting business called MyMixology. Bates now administers the cocktail program at Michael Cimarusti’s seafood restaurant Providence, and is considered one of the top mixologists in the city by many of her peers.
