LCBO Food & Drink Spring 2023

LADIES’ CHOICE

Bartender’s Handshake

JENNIFER FERREIRA, HAMILTON

Handshake”), a lot of people still assume her partner is the driving force behind the bar’s dynamic drinks list. “There’s this friendly competi tion between all the bartenders in Hamilton and often, when I have a cocktail in it, the guys will ask Kyle, ‘Oh, did you help her with this one?’” she says. “I’ve had a lot of moments like that over the years.”

Six years ago, when Jennifer Ferreira opened Bar Sazerac in Hamilton with her husband, Kyle, it represented a serious upgrade to the city’s craft cocktail scene. But, even though Ferreira is a veteran of the industry and loves the occa sional intensely bitter Ferrari drink (a 50-50 mix

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of Campari and Fernet-Branca that’s known as a “Bartender’s

PHOTOGRAPHY BY (JENNIFER) COURTESY OF JUAN LASSO

1975

1966

1965

After Mary Leese moves west, Alina Budzinski (right) takes over at the Royal York, where she tends bar for 42 years, making her one of the longest-working woman bartenders in Ontario.

The Royal York hires its first woman bartender, Mary Leese, to run a small bar on the second floor of the historic Toronto hotel.

The provincial government amends the Liquor Licence Act to allow women to serve alcohol in taverns for the first time since before Prohibition.

92 FOOD & DRINK SPRING 2023