LCBO Food & Drink Spring 2023

LADIES’ CHOICE

Spirit Forward MARLENE THORNE, TORONTO

THE LIBERTY BELLE P. 114

I wouldn’t put even money on it,” she says, remarking that women seem more confident about ordering what they want. “Sometimes, a man will jokingly ask for a ‘girly drink,’” says Thorne. “And I’ll usually laugh and say, ‘Well, I’m a girl and my go-to is a Manhattan,’ and we have a little bit of a joke about it. I think the more conversations like these we have the better off we’ll all be.”

Marlene Thorne, owner of Famous Last Words cocktail bar in Toronto’s Junction neigh bourhood, says a lot has changed since she opened the bar 7 years ago. At the outset, if an order came in for an Old Fashioned and a Whisky Sour, and there was a man and a woman sitting at a table, you could usually guess—correctly— that the man had ordered the sturdy spirit-forward Old Fashioned. “Now,

2022

2011

1991

Girly Drinks , Mallory O’Meara’s excellent book on women and spirits, wins a James Beard Award.

Jennifer Huether becomes Canada’s first woman Master Sommelier in 2011 and, the following year, Mirella Amato achieves the equivalent title for beer—Master Cicerone.

Niagara grape grower Donna Lailey becomes the first woman in the region to be awarded the Grape King crown.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY (MARLENE) COURTESY OF TANJA-TIZIANA

94 FOOD & DRINK SPRING 2023