Dive Bar Jukebox with Ivy Mix
Raising a Glass to Honor the Last Weekend of Leyenda
Today’s Dive Bar Jukebox, an encore dispatch first published on September 16, 2022, is free to all readers to mark the final service this weekend of Leyenda, the James Beard-nominated, pan-Latin-inspired cocktail bar and restaurant opened in 2015 by Julie Reiner and Ivy Mix in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
“It's time we say adios. After 10 amazing years, we are closing our doors after our service on Saturday March 29th. It was been the pleasure of our lives to serve you. Please come back in one last time for a final ¡salud!” —Ivy Mix and Julie Reiner
Welcome to Dive Bar Jukebox, a LAST CALL paid subscriber exclusive where bartenders, writers, chefs, musicians, and a cast of cool characters answer the question: If we were hanging out together at a bar and I put ten credits on the jukebox, what songs would you punch in and why? Their responses reveal thoughts on their favorite dive bars along with a curated, annotated playlist for your weekend listening pleasure.
Please welcome today’s special guest…
Ivy Mix
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 Dive Br Jukebox with 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, Mix 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 in Brooklyn just across the street from Clover Club, 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).