LCBO Food & Drink Spring 2023

LADIES’ CHOICE

JESSICA BLAINE SMITH, TORONTO Straight Shooter

LADY MARAVILLA P. 114

photographer with an eye for detail, Smith says that, if you look at pictures featuring spirit- forward or whisky-based drinks, the hands holding those glasses are almost always a man’s— something she wants to help change. “I’m in the process of photo graphing a cocktail book and I’m taking a lot of photos of men holding stem ware, just to prove that, you know, it’s just a drink.”

Jessica Blaine Smith, drinks

photographer and co-creator of the online community Bartender Atlas (bartenderatlas. com), will never forget the time she ordered a Sazerac at a hotel bar in Sydney, Australia. “I remember the bartender said, ‘Oh, I don’t think you want that,’” she says. “Then he told me I’d prefer a Long Island Iced Tea, a drink I don’t think I’ve ever ordered in my life.” As a

PHOTOGRAPHY BY (JESSICA) COURTESY OF JESSICA BLAINE SMITH

1947

1934

1927

HOW IT STARTED: ONTARIO WOMEN IN THE BEVERAGE

The introduction of cocktail bars in 1947, in which men and women can drink together, marks the beginning of the end of segregated drinking in Ontario.

Public outcry over men and women drinking beer together in beverage rooms forces the province to split up bars into separate areas—one for “Ladies and Escorts” and another for men.

After the prohibition of alcohol in Ontario is repealed in 1927, women have trouble finding work as brewers or distillers, but manage to establish

ALCOHOL INDUSTRY

a monopoly over one area of production—the bottling line.

90 FOOD & DRINK SPRING 2023