EDITOR’S LETTER
VOLUME 13 - ISSUE 5
GUEST EDITOR MANAMI YORK
After a few months of unemployment and still in the middle of the pandemic, I remember finally returning to work at Con Alma. We decided to put my Shades of Tjader, Chilled Magazine’s Toast to the Service Industry virtual cocktail competition winner, on the menu. Then I recall making the first one and serving it in a plastic takeout cup. I looked at the completed cocktail in that sealed recyclable vessel and it made me realize how the ultimate alteration of service didn’t exactly do justice to the drink or the whole experience. Working in a craft cocktail bar, a big part of the appeal is the bar experience’s luxury elements. During these uncertain times, that has been a challenge. Most successful bartenders are socially comfortable individuals that thrive when guests are sitting at their bar. While we may still be slinging drinks, this lost step of social interaction in hospitality has oddly left our roles incomplete. Bartenders now play the lonelier role of a service bartender, making drinks to-go or for the few tables that we can maximally serve out of an empty bar. So, the next time you have the chance actually to sit at a bar, remember the small luxuries that will be yours on order, allowing a bartender to curate your experience, watching and listening to the process of your cocktail’s creation, and taking that first little sip of an exquisite liquid from a proper glass. Trust me, the appreciation will go both ways.
Manami York
Manami York is a member of the Chilled100 and the recent winner of Chilled Magazine’s Toast to the Service Industry competition. She is currently the bar manager at Con Alma, a Latin-American inspired jazz club located in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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