Dive Bar Jukebox with Ivy Mix
"They don't love me like tequila does."
Welcome back to Dive Bar Jukebox, where every Friday bartenders, writers, chefs, musicians, and a host of dynamic people answer the question: If we were hanging out at a bar together and I put ten credits on the jukebox, what songs would you punch in and why? Their answers reveal thoughts on their favorite dive bars along with a hand-picked, annotated 10-song playlist for your weekend listening pleasure.
This week’s special guest is award-winning bartender, bar owner, author, advocate, and philanthropist Ivy Mix. And, fun fact, Ivy has a twin sister, Tess, so this marks two back-to-back weeks where our guest bartender is an identical twin (see Damon Boelte).
Mix, who hails from a small town in central Vermont, studied art at Bennington, but one of the key moments in her personal education was her first sip of mezcal at Café No Sé on a trip to Antigua, Guatemala when she was 19. She quickly became a regular at the bar during her two months in Antigua and continued to return to Guatemala during her semester breaks, where she first started tending bar, bringing “suitcase bottles” of local tequila and mezcal back home with her.
After she finished her degree she was inspired to continue traveling through Latin America before moving to New York in 2009 where she worked alongside Phil Ward at the groundbreaking East Village agave spirits bar Mayahuel. She then joined the team of St. John Frizell’s Fort Defiance in Red Hook, Brooklyn, before Flatiron Lounge’s Julie Reiner hired her as part of the opening team of her Soho bar Lani Kai. After that, Mix was back in Brooklyn working at Reiner’s world-renowned cocktail bar, Clover Club.
In May 2015 Reiner and Mix opened Leyenda, a bar and restaurant just across the street from Clover Club in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, marrying Mix’s love of Brooklyn and cocktails while honoring the culture and spirits that celebrate Latin America. Leyenda was nominated for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program (2018, 2019) and Mix was Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award winner for American Bartender of the Year (2015) as well as Wine Enthusiast’s Mixologist of the Year (2016).
In May 2020, Mix’s first book, Spirits of Latin America: A Celebration of Culture & Cocktails, with 100 Recipes from Leyenda and Beyond, was published by Ten Speed Press. Written with James Carpenter with photography by Shannon Sturgis, the book won an IACP Award for Best Book in Wine, Beer, or Spirits (2021) and a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits (2021).