On the eve of our Holiday Getaway Plan For Surviving Your Family week, our founder Tita Carra breaks down what it means to drink like a woman come 2019. An excerpt from her notes under yes, the influence, of her signature old fashioned drink order (when it’s not champagne) crafted beverage manager by day and cowboy country singer by night, Rustyn Vaughn Lee of Momofuku inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
What does it mean to drink like a woman? Well for starters it sure as hell means being able to write with clarity after two-to-three drinks instead of one. Please see figure 1.1 of the person currently failing to identify with her own definition of what it means to drink like a grown ass woman.
Which, by the way, does not mean drinking until she is walking out of wherever she is with her shoes in her hands. No, we’ve graduated from that. It’s not 2011. We’re not 21 anymore. And even if you are 21, you’re not a 1995 21-year-old or a 1980 21-year-old. You’re a freaking 2018 21-year-old.
Meaning, you’re more than likely a proud self-proclaimed intellectual young woman/young man/gender fluid non-conforming art snob who probably knows what decade the glassware the drink was served on gained popularity.
In the same breathe, maybe starting no, but for sure at the turn of the New Year in 2019, it calls for a self-reevaluation to drink like a grown ass woman instead of the girl that walked into 2018.
You grew up!
You matured!
You quit your job and started your own business.
I learned a thin or a lot, I should say, from Rustyn Vaughn Lee, beverage manager slash cowboy country singer by night (check him out on Spotify!) at Momokfuku in Las Vegas.
For one, I learned the old saying that bartenders have a-great many stories to tell, is true.
As a writer, I could listen to them talk all day.
Secondly, we should really stop referring to them as bartenders and instead mixologists because they’re intelligent and wizard-y in way that Hogwarts should’ve had a class on cocktail crafting. Rustyn was telling me that he uses batchoy a lot as one of his main cocktail ingredients at Momofuku.
You read right. Batchoy! Who thinks of that? Rustyn, baby. Rustyn. The cowboy cocktail slayer. Actually, the woke** cowboy cocktail slayer because Momofuku has banned straws in their efforts to help the environment.
There’s more to the “cranberry vodka please,” that plagues well into our mid-20s and on from listening to the nearby club goer order their drink that seemingly sounds cool to the inexperienced drinker.
But you’re a powerful and educated person. You’re going so many places in 2019. Trust me I know. Raven Symone told me. And whether you want to believe it or not, you can tell a lot about how rich in culture a person is not only from how they slice their food, but by their drink order. My mother taught me that.
There’s nothing worse (and I mean NOTHING worse) than sitting across someone who is impeccably dressed and spewing out incredibly, knowledgeable, genius-level shit only dismantle that with their vodka, club soda order. Elevate your drinking experience like the business woman you are.
But, I get it!
Calories.
They suck!
But one or two drink won’t make hurt you. But also? Who cares? Aren’t we all tired of that narrative? Say it with me: body positivity!
See, drinking like a grown ass woman in 2019 means drinking like you’re in control of your life and it starts by going to Momofuk at The Cosmopolitan now.
Orde not just one but all of Momofuku’s elegant, fun, and alive seasonal cocktails like the 24 Karat Magic, Silk Road, Bok To The Beet, Herb A Peel, and yes the one Old Fashion that prompted me to write this. Because life’s a celebration babygirl! And it’s been a tough ass year. (While you’re at order some of these dishes first before calling your Uber. Hit up Milk Bar while you wait and ask for the cereal milk ice cream. Thank me later.)
Go out for solo drinks. Strike a convo with a bartender. If you run into Rustyn Vaughn Lee, ask him to autograph your iPhone.
As soon as your grandmother, mom, and aunts start to argue over who is going to cook what, that’s you’re cue. Perfect excuse too, actually, because being around the family can draining AF (i.e. Holiday Getaway Plan).
