As we live through these most testing of times, we have a national identity made up entirely of migrants stretching thousands of years way back. I’m sorry… it’s who we are.

By Christina Ying

Alcohol has always been central to many different cultures around the world. It has been consumed as part of so many spiritual and religious rituals including an integral part of one of Jesus’ first miracles: water into wine. So, it’s no surprise that alcohol became such an important component of almost every country’s culture.

The British (who else!) developed a formerly medicinal liquid into one of the country’s most popular drinks, the Vikings used to enjoy copious amounts of beer as celebration in their meeting halls, while other European countries developed ouzo, vodka, absinthe all manner of liquers and from the East came sake and Chinese maotai. (Although this one is said to be an acquired taste.)

And of course the French developed wine making into a fine art.

These culturally important spirits and traditions traveled to America with immigrants and have  become a key part of our American culture, community and recreation time.
When the Pilgrims immigrated to America on the Mayflower they carried with them more ale than water. This was not any indication of an alcohol problem afflicting the immigrating people, but it was actually necessary to their survival since plain water could carry harmful bacteria and spread infectious disease throughout the ship. According to Dana Johnson from Birko, the ale they carried with them was safe to drink throughout the journey not only because of it’s low alcohol content, but also because it provided the struggling travelers with some of their needed calories.

Prior to European colonization, alcoholic beverages were made from fruit and vegetables that were native to North America such as blackberries, strawberries, squash, and celery. The Southwestern tribes of North America such as the Apache, Zuni, Pima, and Papago drank alcohol for rituals and cultural ceremonies only. Drinking for pleasure and social engagement would become a custom with the arrival of the Spanish.

When Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed in Florida in 1513, Spanish and French Huguenot settlers began making Muscadine wine. The wine process required a bit of adjustment, because the European grapes refused to adjust to North America’s wet climates. Eventually, Spanish and French wine makers found new grapes that were native to the U.S. and expanded their businesses with wineries across the nation.

Without Cuba and the Caribbean, we would not have rum! Americans loved it so much that it was the drink of choice for many of our country’s founding fathers who indulged on a regular, even daily basis. Cognac was said to be a considerable contributing factor in the framing of our Constitution. (However the rum based cocktail, Fish House Punch, was a favorite of our first president, George Washington and rumor has it one occasion, Washington drank so much he couldn’t write in his diary for three days.)

On the dark side of history the import of rum and cognac wouldn’t have been possible without the “Triangle Trade,” in which rum was traded for West African slaves. The trade continued in the West Indies for more molasses which was then made into more rum. This trading of rum and cognac was essential to the prosperity of colonial life becoming so popular that eventually every major city across the East Coast had a rum distillery.

Cocktails as we know it today were invented in the early 1800s. The first published definition of a cocktail appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository of 1806 as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” However, today’s cocktails as we know them would never have happened if it weren’t for ice.  The commodity only became accessible during the early years of the nineteenth century with the help of one Frederic Tudor, with his revolutionary business for transporting ice.

During the 1830s and 1840s the ice trade expanded rapidly to England, India, South America, China and Australia and with this importing of ice from various countries around the world, Tudor made his vast fortune and changed the way we consume cocktails.
The massive wave of immigrating Europeans in the mid-1800s brought over European beer, whiskey, gin and a wide variety of wines. It was the introduction of lager beer by the Germans that forever changed the way Americans drink beer. However this change in the drink that was almost a staple of everyday life was not initially welcomed with open arms. In 1851, a Philadelphia editor described lager as a “vile compound of dirt and poison” and was “worse, far worse, than rye whiskey; a mixture to madden and destroy.” Though on what unbiased basis it is not clear.

The Europeans continued to experience discrimination when it came to alcohol. Many were accustomed to spending Sundays with family and friends in beer gardens, mostly because it was their only day off. So when cities enforced an ordinance for the closing of beer gardens on Sundays it was considered to be highly discriminatory against the German-American population.  Despite this initial discrimination, the German preference for beer was not received too negatively by the American public. This encouraged more German brewing and as many different flavors and strengths became available beer became the “opiate” of the masses and became the essential ingredient in American culture it is today. In addition to assimilating new immigrants into American society and establishing a beer culture, it is rumored (although denied by many many other claimants) that the Germans also invented cocktails. They were already making a version with “wine cups,” which have a combination of spirits, wines, liqueurs, and flavored syrups so when German immigrants began working at American bars the tradition of American mixology was born and “cocktail hour” became a go-to feature of the day.

Places like San Francisco during the Gold Rush had a huge influx of new immigrant communities. It was unlike anywhere else in the world and without these social drinking spaces, not even bars but mostly makeshift tents with long trestle tables, there was no way these new immigrants would have adapted so readily and so quickly. True melting pots albeit with their own rigid social strata.

In addition to Southerners and Yankees living in the same spaces post Civil War, the streets were also filled with men from Australia, Mexico, China, Russia, Europe, and South America. Because of the Gold Rush, San Francisco became built up around real saloons as we know them and these served as social hubs for people from all around the world to meet and mingle and build community. Historically, the saloons and pubs in most American cities catered to immigrants and members of the working class thus producing a camaraderie and common cause that broke down national and ethnic barriers.

Then came the crunch. Prohibition!

During the 1800’s alchohol consumption in the newly formed republic reached what some saw as epidemic proportions not unlike the opioid crisis of today. Public disorder, violence and sexual assaults coupled with saloon-based political corruption prompted fundamental religious believers and other prohibitionists in power to end the manufacture and sale of alcohol to, as they saw it, rid society of this evil. (There was also huge political bias in the vote to deny one set of supporters a basic daily need. The rich always had access to whatever they wanted.)

When Prohibition began immigrants from all walks worked in the illegal trade as distillers or distributors in the whiskey business.  A Jewish immigrant from the United Kingdom, Jacob “Jack” Grohusko, one of the most significant cocktail bartenders in American cocktails, made waves with his cocktail concoctions in bars located in lower Manhattan. Grohusko subsequently published several editions of Jack’s Manual his handbook for crafting nearly 400 different cocktails, which  was essential in the development of mixology (and the creative force that produced so many new mixes) all around the world.

Whiskey is an American staple. The production process however requires a lot of time, from the original mash, through the distilling and maturing in casks down to the bottling and distribution can, in the best of brands, often many years. This made decent whiskey, as opposed to the rot gut variety sold in the Old West, not always readily available to consumers and a local spirit from south of the border became their ideal choice of drink. Tequila

After World War II, the U.S. initiated the Bracero programs which imported migrant workers from Mexico to work in the country temporarily or become naturalized citizens of the United States. Many of the migrant workers brought their indigenous brand of hooch made from the agave plant with them. Tequila. It caught on! Now a global billion dollar industry tequila is the choice for shots from all stratas of society. From Park Avenue penthouses to Texas panhandle dives we are awash with this potent product. Seven out of every 10 liters of tequila produced in Mexico are exported abroad, with the United States purchasing 80%.

So, for better (I think so) or worse (there’s still prohitionists out there) immigrants changed the structure of US society with their own brand of white lightening. Today it may be under pressure from a rapidly expanding legal marijuana industry but the signs are still that our choice to take the edge off comes out of a bottle and the contents of that bottle have been influenced by centuries of overseas influence. Immigrants.

This brief look at the history of alcohol in the US highlights the contribution immigrants have made to our culture. In their pursuit of a better life, they found a way to adapt despite dealing with racism and discrimination. When you have a group of people who’s sole focus is to better themselves and their communities, they will elevate our culture. Because of immigrants some of our best memories are enjoyed over a sip or two of their efforts and we can’t help but acknowledge the colorful history that went into bringing those drinks to our tables.

By Christina Ying

As more and more immigrants passed through Ellis Island, the vast mix of cultures that make up our country just got bigger and better. And that great melting pot which is at the heart of our American Experiment turned into the great cooking pot with each added national recipe, custom, and cuisine.

This beautiful amalgamation of national recipes gives us the delicious fusion dishes adapted from India, Africa, China, Italy, Mexico and so many other wonderful and strange ingredients that make up the vast American choice we enjoy today

And as this vast influx of immigrants slowly integrated into the fabric of American life,  influences from every corner of the world took hold in American culture. German, Scandinavian, Russian, Serbs, Slavs, Greeks, Poles, Turks and of course Jewish cuisine, all made an imprint and the main outlet for this were national dishes.

As the American Way took hold, many opened ethnic restaurants, which allowed the American public as a whole to taste and savor defining dishes from around the world without ever leaving their own hometown. .

Now for the unique and fascinating part. As America got more diverse, and people’s palettes became more in touch with a taste of the world, adaptations and fusions became the norm and true American dishes were invented.

And an American Cuisine was born.

Although television and multimedia may have exposed well-seasoned foodies to exotic eats, there are still many citizens who are strictly S.A.D., adherents to the “Standard American Diet”. When we think of American food, burgers, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese are typical staples that come to mind. However these mundane examples also originated outside of the U.S. Hot dogs and hamburgers can be traced to German immigrants, pizza to Italy and U.S. president Thomas Jefferson discovered macaroni and cheese during his travels to France.

So even the foods that Americans favor have international roots, and we would be dishonest if we didn’t fully acknowledge how much immigrants have contributed to the American dining table.

According to published studies, Americans spent more than $3 billion last year eating ethnic food, a number that has continued to grow at 5% to 6% annually. This staggering sum and the continued growth of specific ethnic communities continues to fuel the demand for authentic international cuisine. The most significant segments of this ethnic food industry explosion include Mexican, Chinese, Italian, and Japanese. For large cities such as New York and San Francisco, the selection of ethnic food is even more extensive and it is difficult to try and stump the local chamber of commerce with a request for some ridiculously obscure food only to be told “it’s on the corner of 21st and Park.”

The term ‘ethnic food’ itself is controversial. According to author Krishnendu Ray, some Americans treat ethnic foods as inferior. “Despite complex ingredients and labor-intensive cooking methods that rival or even eclipse those associated with some of the most celebrated cuisines—think French, Spanish and Italian—we want our Indian food fast, and we want it cheap.” This prejudice toward ethnic food is associated largely with our feelings about the immigrants themselves. Historically, immigrants have been ostensibly welcomed but also excluded from  society. Many immigrants who were rejected in this way turned to the food industry to make a living. and survive by selling their delicious food for cheap.

Within the last half-century, Indian communities all throughout the U.S. have expanded exponentially while  Chinese, Italian, and Mexican cuisines have been popular since the first wave of immigration. What most people don’t recognize is that Indian cuisine has been part of that history this whole time. The first Indian restaurants in America were spotted in the 1900s in New York and Chicago. According to the South Asian American Digital Archive, New York Times writer Helen Bullitt Lowry made one of the first Indian restaurant reviews in 1921. She peered into the restaurant, and described:

“Grave Indian gentlemen, with American clothes but with great turbans on their heads used to come in for their curry and rice. Six short weeks—and already the restaurant is half full of tourists, eagerly peering at each other for turbans and local color.”

Lowry at the time didn’t realize that she was describing the Taj Mahal Hindu Restaurant located at 243 W. 42nd Street. But from one obscure restaurant review to numerous culinary enthusiasts, Indian food has grown into one of the most popular takeouts and sit down cuisines to date, with over 400 Indian restaurants in New York City alone.This tale of American food does not come without its harrowing struggle when slavery and racism raise their ugly heads.

When we think about the African influence in Southern cuisine, we cannot fail to acknowledge how the violent role of slavery forced that cultural integration. As pointed out by National Geographic, without the red pea, which is native to Africa, we wouldn’t have Hoppin John. Other foods such as okra, watermelon, black-eyed peas, and grits are all foods that originated in Africa.

According to the Smithsonian Institute, black cooks were bound to the fire 24 hours a day. Some received formal training. As a result of this forced service and suffering these African American cooks created what we today know as American Southern food, which was a mixture of European, African, and Native American cuisines.

The United States has the oldest Chinatown in the world, which is in San Francisco. The Chinese immigrants in the 19th century changed American food as we know it. Many of the men came here to pursue a chance at gold in the golden state of California, but when they didn’t strike it rich they turned to feeding the prospectors instead, opening up among the first ethnic restaurants in the nation. For the many defeated miners, it was good tasting food at a low price. According to TIME magazine, people during this time declared that “the best restaurants were kept by Chinese and the poorest and dearest by Americans.” These first Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs were the pioneers for American international food culture. As time went by the Chinese menus adapted to American tastes, and on the reverse, more Americans embraced authentic Chinese cuisine.

Today according to the Chinese American Restaurant Association, there are more Chinese restaurants than Mcdonald’s in the United States.

From Spaghetti O’s to pizza, Americans cannot stop eating Italian food. Many Italians immigrated to the U.S. during the late 19th century. Without the exact ingredients of their homeland, Italian cooks were among the first to rapidly adapt as immigrants assimilated to America. No matter where the Italians settled, they created new and innovative cuisine. We wouldn’t have Philly Cheesesteaks or San Franciscan Cioppino without the Italians or the cooking methods that have made their food spectacular for hundreds of years. But the meat-based Italian-American cuisine that we know today is not how the Italian immigrants always ate. During the late 19th century, Italian immigrants mostly came from regions struggling in poverty. Their diets back in Italy primarily consisted of organic vegetables and grains, with little access to meat and no red sauce. Italian restaurants became more popular after World War II as soldiers returning from Italy craved the food they fell in love with overseas. This led Italian immigrants to adapt recipes such as spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, lasagna and manicotti, which became Italian American staples.

Mexicans have their own harrowing and complicated history with U.S. borders. At the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the United States gained 55% of Mexican territory. As more Mexicans remained in the United States, Mexican food became a daily staple of the American diet. According to CHD Expert, Mexican food is the third most popular menu type in the USA, representing 8 percent of the total national restaurant landscape. At the time of their 2014 study, Mexican food edged out the Hamburger for the third most common U.S. food.

In addition to bringing food from their native lands, immigrants have created excellent American staples. Without immigrants, we would not have jelly beans, Greek yogurt  or German immigrant, Godfrey Keebler’s Keebler cookies. Peggy Cherng and her husband (a Chinese immigrant) created Panda Express, the largest Chinese food chain in the United States. Immigrants not only found ways to bring their native cuisines to the U.S., but they used their culinary influence to make American food better. Foods such as chop suey, fortune cookies, baked ziti, and mission-style burritos were all invented in the U.S. by immigrants. Mexican immigrant Richard Montañez, who worked as a janitor for Frito Lay took home some defective, un-dusted Cheetos and sprinkled some chili spices on them. After presenting it to the executives, Montanez’s Flamin’ Hot Cheetos became the #1 selling product by Frito Lay and is still an American favorite today.

From southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, to the Caribbean and even the South Pacific we have enjoyed the food of people who often work the hardest. Immigrants have held the country together and usually have done it in the shadows. While supporting their families and building solidarity in ethnic communities, immigrants have created a culinary culture that has made America delicious. These are people who risked their lives and left their loved ones for the American dream and we should be more than honored to experience their food.

Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” Which is now yours, Sam.

Slings. Gimlets. And the virtuoso of all cosmopolitan living: the martini. Among other spirits, gin has fueled our city’s never ending detoxification since the eighteenth century. But, as the United States is the cultural melting pot of the world (which also means we ruthlessly thieve many things from foreigners and claim them as our own) our Thursday night hangover actually comes from across the pond.

Although there is no one definite source of creation, the first forms of gin were recorded in the early 17th century in Holland. As the nickname ‘meat-drink-washing-and-lodging’ suggests, gin wasn’t originally intended for our ingestion; as ironic as it may seem, gin was introduced to the public as a treatment for stomach complaints, gout and gallstones. Eventually, to reduce customer’s complaints of taste, Dutch chemists added juniper, another ingredient handy in their arsenal due to juniper’s medicinal properties. Word travels fast. Soon other medieval Europeans began having ‘stomachaches’ of their own. And so gin was born into the consumer market, and well, we thank them for that.

However, it wasn’t until the Brits got their hands on the ‘serf’s elixir’ that gin would become widespread. English troops had a hard time leaving behind their ‘Dutch Courage’ after the Thirty Years’ War, so it’s no surprise that lords and peasants alike became enamored with the concoction after the troops’ homecoming. Seeking yet another source of income for the British Crown, King William III, or Will of Orange, began promoting the distilling of gin at the turn of the 18th century. Any Briton could simply post a notice of production within their squandering village and begin production immediately. Gin quickly outsold beer and ale, which was more expensive, and was even used as payment for services.

Not exactly your weekly paycheck, huh?

Modern gin is redistilled alcohol from agricultural origin with the mandatory presence of juniper berries. However, as many of the British and future Americans would discover, gin can be redistilled many ways ~ such as in the presence of natural sweetners and acids. However, gin, in any form, must simply come from water and natural additives. No true gin will have flavorings or added essences.

It’s no surprise that London’s streets wreaked havoc due to gin’s, shall we say… forthcoming side-effects? It’s like when you turned eighteen, moved to the university, and suddenly you graduate from beers in the basement to vodka in a thermos. The Brits were as sloppy as Lindsay Lohan’s theft skills.

James Burrough, born in 1834, was one of many chemists in the trade of gin. After traveling to the colonies to extend his knowledge on cocktails, he purchased the old gin and liqueur distilling firm of John Taylor & Son of Cale Street of Chelsea in 1863.

He would later trademark his brand of gin made in England: Beefeater, named after the guards standing watch at the Tower of London (beef-eaters).

Beefeater, amongst many other gins, would create chaos as citizens couldn’t have enough. Havoc rocked the streets of London as Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole crafted his ‘Gin Act’ in 1736, which imposed a tax on both gin sales and those who manufactured it. Peasants obviously revolted. I mean, could you imagine some old bastard charging you extra for your weekly apple martini? In the oh so famous words of Bon Qui Qui, ‘I will cut you.’

‘Mother’s milk’ rings true with Americans today seeing as gin was popular amongst the first colonists on our shores. Due to the repeal of the Gin Act of 1736, a new policy was introduced to Britain and her colonies with the help of distillers: reasonably high prices, reasonable excise duties and licensed retailers under the supervision of magistrates. It’s with this policy that gin ruled as the sophisticated spirit of choice in England and would later become a staple of American culture. Gin survived prohibition in speakeasies only to become mainstreamed after World War II as drinking became an American pastime and popular in England between afternoon tea and evening meals. By 1963, Beefeater would become the largest exporter of gin in England and three of every four bottles of gin coming to the United States were Beefeater.

And here we are, citizens of the 21st century, captivated by speared olives in our gin of choice. History repeats itself.

When we step into the urban gin mill aptly named Bathtub Gin, conveniently nestled away in the depths of Chelsea on Ninth Avenue, we are not so different from those peasants in London many years ago. Guzzling their famous Ginger Sling, pulsing to the beat in your slinky garb that barely covers your britney, Bathtub Gin is certainly a modern blast from the past.

When we feel royal, we saunter on down to Whitehall, an elegant establishment located on Greenwich Ave in the West Village. In your finest you can pour over Whitehall’s menu, complete with over one hundred different gins distilled in all corners of the world. But their take on the classic Negroni, stirred with non traditional grapefruit bitters, truly enhances the classic London dry Beefeater gin.

Seeking true London fare? Tories and Patriots alike could find themselves at The Shanty, situated at the forefront on Richardson St in Williamsburg. Modern patrons of The Shanty would be quick to say that the in-house bar of the New York distillery company could easily be another space in the West End. The Sauvetage, a cocktail native to The Shanty made with Dorothy Parker gin, is enough to bring you back to a time of endless gin in London.

From late night escapades to mid afternoon spirits, gin and gin-influenced cocktails continue to dominate the consumer market. Gin will never become lost in the shadow of vodka, or whiskey, but it has secured its spot amongst hard liquors worldwide.

Gin would reinvent itself from the firm favorite of English sods to the elite class in suburban America. It would captivate Americans almost every night in the form of slings, gimlets, and the endless variations of martinis. We can all remember growing up and seeing that little Englishman on the frozen bottle of Beefeater in the freezer. And although we haven’t been buddy-buddy with our English ancestors, they were united in their stumbling, slurring, and drunken stupidity. Poor, rich, tall, short, fat, skinny, British, American; gin, as absurd as it sounds, serves as a final cultural tie between one nation and another. For that reason, we are all unpatriotic in one way or another, if you catch my drift. God Save the Queen!

YES CHEF !

by Christina YIng

We’ve gone beyond Julia & Julia. A blog alone just won’t cut it. Everyone in the world can look up beef bourguignon on the internet now. The way we cook at home has changed since television began. We look at our phones and iPads to follow directions. You can watch an episode of a cooking show and then find the exact recipe on the website as soon as it’s done. We are the generation that has to Google the “best” hash browns before we can even start. We’ve become even more neurotic in our cooking habits, and we can no longer identify with the chef on TV who’s a doting grandmother in the kitchen.

Today’s food stars have to be even more multidimensional than their predecessors. Cooking is just half of the battle. Today’s women chefs need an international appeal while remaining technologically savvy. However, unlike TV chefs of our grandmothers’ day, many of these women face controversy in the era of the internet and social media. There’s also more multi-ethnic diversity on our screens. To keep an audience captivated we must relate to what we see, and there’s a woman for everyone.

New York City has been the launching pad for star chefs, and Gabrielle Hamilton has made a culinary impact with her restaurant, Prune, and has released her second book with the same name. With no culinary training, she opened up her restaurant in 1999. Prior to that achievement, Hamilton spent her teenage years in many NYC kitchens. She chronicled her journey in her bestselling memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter, and transformed her complicated childhood into beautiful storytelling. Candid about her relationships with both men and women and the role that gender plays in the restaurant culture, Hamilton’s belonging in a kitchen is a symbol of power rather than a place of degradation.

In the social media realm, Suchanan Aksornnan of Greenpoint’s Baoburg was featured on Thrillist’s “Most Badass Female Chefs in New York.” Also known as Chef Bao Bao, Aksornnan has already gained notoriety from her steady stream of TV appearances that include The Untitled Action Bronson Show, Knife Fight, and Beat Bobby Flay. Aksornnan also focuses her attention on modeling and workout photos on Instagram. For women who want to be a badass both in fitness and in the kitchen Chef Bao Bao is a female to follow. Plus, Brooklyn residents can’t get enough of her Thai/Spanish dishes.

The frantic pace of opening restaurant has its downfalls and taking a more holistic approach may be just the thing to heighten one’s success. With multiple restaurants and a large social media following, Daniela Soto-Innes is still able to squeeze in yoga in the morning. She applies her yoga practice in her cooking and into her life. At 27, Soto-Innes is the chef of the hotspot Cosme and was named Thrillist’s NYC’S Chef of the Year. She has two and three stars from the The New York Times, a James Beard Award, and a place on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. She translates her passion for cooking into her lifestyle and has created a chef culture that will inspire how kitchens operate in the future. She believes in growth and process.

For a woman who started her cooking career at 14, Soto-Innes credits her incredible success on collaboration. Teaching others has been a tremendous part of her mobility, and that means making sure that the people under her succeed as well.

Being a food star of today also means expanding your politics. No matter where you are in the cannabis argument, Vanessa Lavorato has become the ultimate millennial TV chef. On VICE’s Bong Appetit, Lavorato is showing the world the endless possibilities of cooking with cannabis. It’s a magnificent show that combines high skilled cooking with Marijuana 101. The angle is to take out the salaciousness of cannabis, despite the fact that marijuana is still illegal in much of U.S. The use of medical marijuana is highly controversial but gaining acceptance, and Lavorato contends that she started her business, Marigold Sweets, to help those who are truly in need of pot as a form of medication. From cannabis extraction to cannabis leaves, Lavorato works with chefs of every cultural background to make a high end (pun intended) eating experience.

Speaking of trees, chef Amanda Cohen of NYC’s Dirty Candy is changing the way diners eat vegetarian with her mantra, “Anyone can cook a burger, leave the vegetables to the professionals.” The New York Times stated that “Eating at Dirt Candy can be like going to a child’s birthday party in a country where all the children love vegetables…” Vegetables in her world are never the side, but rather the main course. Her Korean Broccoli is “crack in broccoli form,” and her Jalapeno Hush puppies have been some of her most recommended dishes. Her innovative take on American classics is what keeps people watching. From broccoli dogs to eggplant tiramisu, Cohen reminds us that we don’t have to suffer through vegetables—we can enjoy them just as much as we enjoy our childhood junk food. Recently, Cohen stepped from behind the counter to confront the harassment and misogyny issues in the food industry. In an essay published in Esquire, Cohen alleges that food media only cares about female chefs when they are victims and marginalized. She makes a point to say that “Women may not have value as chefs, but as victims we are finally interesting.”

The food world has been a boy’s club for as long as we can remember. Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield is being overshadowed by her restaurant partner Ken Friedman’s sexual assault allegations; Mario Batali has been implicated in sexual misconduct accusations as well. It’s such a tragic dichotomy as Bloomfield was magnetic in Netflix’s Mind of a Chef. Her demonstration of how to make a Scottish egg was utter perfection and could never be forgotten; the Spotted Pig got her the Michelin star.

Cohen’s essay points out the hypocrisy about the position of women chefs in the industry. There are 65 female executive chefs in NYC and very few get the same recognition as their male counterparts. Perhaps Bloomfield wouldn’t have acquiesced to these violations had the playing field been even. As we become more visible in the digital space, we also have to figure out where we fit in the #METOO movement. Talent supercedes scandal with each step forward we can see that women continue to adapt without waiting for male recognition.

DIVE BAR DIVAS By Christina Ying

Bar hopping on a Saturday can be the stuff of nightmares if you’re the one catering to the drunks. *Shannon, who worked at an Irish Pub in NYC’s East village, described those customers at their worst. “I worked shifts from 6:00pm to 3:00am and it was pretty awful. You either have Bridge and Tunnel people or your business guys with their ties undone on a bender. Worst, you got your fresh out-of-school kids who have their first job and are there to get, ‘fucking wasted man!’ The trick was to crank the music really loud and that would encourage people not to linger and to drink someplace else. Those were the shifts where I’d regularly get my ass grabbed.” 

For those who don’t need to get “fucking wasted,” you can find refuge in a dive bar. Sure, the lighting is that of piss-colored fog and yet so dark that you can barely read what they have on tap. The drinks are cheap and you’re expected to keep the order simple: Drink it straight and don’t complain about your dirty glass. In its best form, dive bars from all over the country provide a haven for all of those in the fringe. Such an establishment attracts only the most broken and disreputable.

In the larger cities, dive bars have broadened their customer base. As gentrification changes inner city culture, dive bars have diversified their nights a bit with trivia gatherings and sports events. “You wanted them to keep buying things, but you didn’t want to be pushy,” says Shannon. “You had to be on their good side, but you had to put boundaries because you didn’t want people to treat you like assholes. I had to take an interest in people so that I can cultivate this crowd of regulars. It got to the point where people were asking for me. I still remember most of my regulars and have fond memories of them. The vibe at our bar was very home away from home.”

Despite appearances, dive bars command a certain level of deference and respect. “With a lot of these bars, it’s like they’re hiring within the family. So it’s close knit,” says food writer Chad Eschman. “You’re approaching a place where people have been going there for ten years and it’s almost like coming into someone’s living room.”

For a lot of women, working at a bar is only a short-term stint and once you get your career path going you can leave, but at Doc Holliday’s in the East Village, some of the women have been there for over a decade or longer. It’s got a fun Coyote Ugly feel because if you feel like it, you get up on the bar and dance.  “I feel like on weekends I’m just teaching people how to be in a bar,” says Doc Holliday’s bartender Julia Collier, who is known as Red, Red, Holliday. “I’ll be like, you wanna start a tab? These girls will be like, what’s a tab? I’m like, sweetie Google it, next!”

The bar is considered an East Village institution. Throughout all of the neighborhood changes the bar has kept its honky-tonk vibe although not shy of sex appeal. They’re featured in magazines and have even been approached about a reality show. Collier herself was a TV host for Travel Channel’s, Toy Hunters. With pin-up girl looks, Collier has the could be a star anywhere and yet without question she says that she could undoubtedly work at Doc Holliday’s for another ten years. All of the women that work there have the same type of draw. It’s a good time without being contrived with a magnetism that draws you in without losing its cool. When you see them all together, you kind of wish you were a part of this girl group.

“I think Doc Holliday’s has a reputation. We’re known to have tough and well-respected bartenders,” says Collier. “Any smack ass or perverted comments has never been an issue. I’ve been a dive bar broad bar since I was allowed into a bar. No one puts on a front. It’s mostly people that have lived life, and it’s so authentic. You never know who you’re gonna run into. They’re gonna be brash. They’re not gonna give a fuck. The realest people that you can find are going to be in dive bar.”

Doc Holliday’s resident OG, Joanna Leban, has been working at the bar for 23 years. “When we opened there were maybe five bars in the neighborhood. It was a seedy, a lot of homeless, artists, and people sleeping on the street. You had Hell’s Angels living here, people that wanted to start fights, junkies.”

Today’s high maintenance customers may throw a tantrum because their preferred whiskey is not available. It’s an annoyance for bartenders, but when Leban started working in the 90’s she regularly had to ask homeless people to move away from the bar’s entrance. She even had to break up a fight that resulted in a belligerent woman kicking her in the shin. “It was tough and sometimes you had no security. It was kind of neighborhood that you weren’t supposed to go to. We had very little business because it was in a part of town that people were afraid of. But, because of gentrification Doc Holliday’s doesn’t get those shady characters anymore. Slowly over of the years, people stopped being as tough and edgy as they were back in the 90’s. Now with so many bars in the neighborhood, if you pissed a customer off they’re just gonna go somewhere else.”

Regardless of the neighborhood’s cultural changes, it’s people like Leban that keep Doc’s honky-tonk vibe intact. “I grew up in Philadelphia. My mom was into country music. She was a fan of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson— just an old-school fan. I grew up in a honky-tonk environment. It was very bare bones and back in the day bartenders gave you a lot of grief. Part of the schtick was to abuse your customers, but they kind of liked it.”

There’s an investment in conversation with your regulars when it comes to working at a dive bar. You could just wear a push-up bra, serve drinks, and then go home, but that’s not what the culture is about. “Being a bartender is knowing what kind of customer you have,” says Leban. “As soon as they walk in the door I have an instinct for what they want. Some people want to be abused. Some people just want to sit there and not engage in a conversation. Some people just want to grab drink and sit with their friends. A good bartender will pick up on that.”

Dive bars are a place to meet the most resilient women, who won’t take shit from anyone, but she’ll provide the exact energy that you’ll need to get through your day. If you’re there with respect, she’ll do her best to give you a good time. “When you come here there’s camaraderie and you’re not judged. You can forget about your problems,” says Leban. “It’s a refuge for a lot people and they rely on it to be their sanctuary. We were open during 9/11, we were open during Hurricane Sandy when there was no power at all. People need a place.”

For the women who’ve done their time in this industry, being behind the bar can show you the best of humanity. “We had a staff party a few weeks ago,” says Leban. “I looked around and I was like, wow we’re such a diverse group of people, different ages, races, backgrounds. We all grew up in different places. It’s a really eclectic array of people that work together.”

For all of the downtrodden types that spend time at a dive bar, it’s always a mystery as to why these women are here in the first place especially in the era of #METOO where the most gruesome details of sexual harassment experiences are coming to light. When Shannon recalls her time working at the pub, she remembers her regulars fondly. “Usually you get to see people at their best,” she says. “Most of the time people are out there to have a good time and you’re there to help them have a good time.”

SHAKEN… NOT STIRRED !

“I like to have a martini. Two at the very most. After three I’m under the table, after four I’m under my host.” Dorothy Parker

The root of the original Martini has often been debated. Some say that it started in Italy where in 1863, an Italian vermouth maker named Alessandro Martini created his product with his name. Although the East Coast still insists that the drink was invented at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York, the most interesting legend is that the drink started in Martinez, California during the days of the Gold Rush in 1849. After hitting it big, a miner was looking to spend his riches on champagne. When he arrived at Martinez on his way to San Francisco, the bartender served him a local special called the “Martinez Special.” When he finally arrived in San Francisco, the miner requested the same drink. Unfamiliar, the miner instructed the bartender on the “Martinez Special” which is one part of very dry Sauterne wine and three parts of Gin, stirred with ice and finished with an olive. Through the years “Martinez” was adapted to Martini and here you have an American legend, a drink that became extremely popular when it was first published in the Bartender’s Manual in the 1880s.

By the Roaring 20’s the Martini was becoming the drink of choice for the city dweller, and it reached its most recognizable mixture of London dry gin and dry vermouth, stirred in a mixing glass with ice cubes, an addition of bitters, and strained into that signature-shaped martini glass. As the country was becoming more sophisticated in their tastes, they were now facing more societal restrictions. Prohibition ironically is attributed to the rise of the drink, as the illegal manufacturing of gin was prominent. Even Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt hoarded bottles of gin, rum, and scotch in the closets of both of his homes in New York and Georgia.

In a poignant essay called, There’s Something About a Martini, author Max Rudin described the phenomenon as an era where both sexes were able to finally drink together. “Outlawing liquor had put the gentlemen-only saloon and hotel bar out of business and replaced it with a new cocktail culture where women drank with men. It would ultimately prompt a drinking-buddy camaraderie between the sexes.”

At this time country was experiencing a spike in economic growth in which the nation’s total wealth more than doubled. With more Americans living in cities, and departing from agriculture, our society was transitioning into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society,” that was edgy and urban, and racy. Hollywood movies often displayed the Art Deco cocktail shaker and the signature martini glass as a symbol of elegance and class. If you wanted to get in on the action, the city was the place to be, especially if you were a woman. The new 20’s woman drank, smoked and were more sexually open than previous generations. The image of the flapper woman with her short bob, thin eyebrows, and a long cigarette and martini glass in tow defined the era. It was now in trend to be a socialite partying in the same circles as well known gangsters in speakeasies. Jazz was now a music of rebellion and flappers would go to Harlem to listen to its dangerous and vulgar rhythms.

Martinis have a way of attracting that dark type of psyche that permeates the space of all kinds of artists, such as writers like Ernest Hemingway, who had an incredible love for his martinis. One of Hemingway’s most famous fictional characters, Frederic Henry, said that martinis were his drink of choice because “I’ve never tasted anything so cool and clean…They make me feel civilized.” One of history’s most refined chaps would be James Bond, whose infamous drink of choice was a vodka martini “shaken not stirred,” catapulted its popularity. Every man secretly wants to be James Bond, and every woman wants to bed him, so why not share a martini to “bond” the both of you?

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, the “three martini lunch” was a widespread practice for powerful executives and businessmen, who had enough leisure time to consume cocktails; office bar carts pushed by secretaries were commonplace. Mad Men was not only excellent television, but it showed the world what life was like when getting drunk at work was an accepted practice for swanky ad execs, keeping the martini within the realm of class, sophistication, and danger.

Martinis also have a great way of merging world politics. There have been countless leaders who’ve had a penchant for the cocktail. Churchhill famously said, “The only way to make a martini was with ice-cold gin and a bow in the direction of France.” Many have said that Richard Nixon loved martinis, but couldn’t handle them very well, as he liked to prepare them seven parts gin and one part vermouth. The most famous Martini loving U.S. president would have to be FDR. Rumored to have had a martini kit wherever he went, FDR put all of his stocked illegal alcohol to use, when he would host a daily “Martini Hour” at the White House even though his bartending skills have been noted as notoriously bad. During WWII when allied leaders met with FDR in Tehran, he proposed a toast to Joseph Stalin with a dry martini. Although he obliged,  Stalin described the cocktail as “cold to the stomach.” As the leader of the Free World and also the President that repealed Prohibition, FDR probably didn’t have time to refine his bartending skills, although he knew for sure that a good martini is always a great start to a fair negotiation. Creative speculation would say that this was probably something that he picked up from watching noir films: Every serious conversation is started with fixing a drink no matter if you’re in an office or a dark apartment.

As the century went on, the martini cocktail ultimately went out of fashion. The drink lost its dry taste and edge, as the 80’s and 90’s bartenders in New York City popularized cocktails that tweaked the martini template, with flavored vodkas, juices, and liqueurs. What remained was the iconically shaped, but functionally problematic, glass, filled with all kinds of accessories and colors it became an absolute spectacle. William Grimes from The New York Times would describe it as, “It’s hard to imagine, but once there was a time when real people simply approached the bar and ordered a dry martini. There were no set designers, no sound engineers and credits did not roll at the end of the drink.” Adding a “tini” to end of any syrup induced drink in a martini glass became a symbol of girls night out in the big city. Other drinks such as the Cosmopolitan took the tini out of the name but still kept the glass, allowing the martini’s influence to keep things still classy while killing its derivative.

With craft cocktails making a comeback, the dry martini has remained a symbol of sophistication. And just like our beloved noir characters, there’s always a problem to solve, but first, let’s have a martini.