The following is an online extra from our July 2022 issue.
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Beth Dixon of Salt & Acid (Photo courtesy Salt & Acid)
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Photo courtesy One for the Road
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Canned cocktails from Kismet Cocktail Collective (Photo courtesy Kismet Cocktail Collective)
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A trio of cocktails from One for the Road (Photo courtesy One for the Road)
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Cocktails from Salt & Acid (Photo courtesy Salt & Acid)
Beth Dixon is in high demand. An industry veteran, over the past decade Dixon has helmed some of the best bar programs in the city from Pasture to Perch, teaches cocktail classes at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and is consulting on bar programs at restaurants across the city, all while slinging drinks at private events and scooping up the occasional bar shift.
When many of her colleagues were furloughed at the onset of the pandemic, Dixon continued working, first at the now shuttered Perch, followed by L’Opossum. Fearful of looming burnout, she started making moves to achieve her entrepreneurial dream and realized that it no longer involved opening a restaurant or bar, but creating a space where she could make her own rules.
For Dixon, creating highly quaffable cocktails is all about balance — combining ingredients and flavors that make sense together. Craving that sense of stability, both in the glass and in her own life, she was inspired to launch Salt & Acid, a side hustle turned business and one-stop shop for bartending consulting, teaching and private events.
“It’s not the same as it was before,” Dixon explains. “The restaurant business has changed. Things were going well when we first opened back up, and now things have gone back to the way they were for guests, but things will never be the same for us as restaurant workers.”
Through Salt & Acid, Dixon is able to channel her expertise as a consultant to assist with bar projects at ventures such as Hatch Local Food Hall and, most recently, Jubilee restaurant. She stays connected to the industry she loves with time to work private events where she can flex her creativity.
“The creative aspect of this is what drives me,” she says. “I don’t have a canned menu; it's always going to be a custom menu because that’s what inspires me.”
(From left) Kacie Shortridge and Katy Best of Kismet Cocktail Collaborative (Photo courtesy Kismet Cocktail Collaborative)
Likewise, for Katy Best and Kacie Shortridge of Kismet Cocktail Collaborative, the pandemic signaled time for a change. Best, an early riser, and Shortridge, a new mom, found the bartending lifestyle to be increasingly untenable, and the pandemic-born moment of reflection showed the two longtime bar pros another option. Together, they launched Kismet to provide a little liquid joy beyond the bar.
“We both have a lot of friends who don’t drink anymore [Kismet’s cocktails can be enjoyed spirit-free] or go out because they’re either COVID-cautious or a parent, and we wanted to offer something for them to enjoy at home that feels special, but that you can literally open one-handed and pour into a glass,” Best says. “I think that people’s expectations for fun cocktails have spread from the bar to everywhere.”
One for the Road's mobile bar setup (Photo courtesy One for the Road)
Jasper bartender Brittany Nicole Jones has been at the mobile cocktail game for a while now. In 2017 she and partner Ryan Wirt started One for the Road, a mobile cocktail operation that’s in high demand for weddings. The couple say they saw an opportunity to bring the same creative cocktails they were pouring behind the bar to off-site events.
Five years later, Jones is not surprised by the uptick in bar catering. “I think so many of us have realized that we don’t need to actually be behind the bar to bring our professionalism, creativity, quality and hospitality to the world, especially during the height of this pandemic, when we actually could not be behind the bar serving others,” she says, “which is why we will continue to see many bar professionals stepping out of bars and restaurants and using their knowledge and skills to bring new products, services and ideas to the world.”
