It might have been only 11 a.m. on a Tuesday – a solid five hours before Arlington’s EatBar opens its doors to the public – but the time on the clock didn’t deter a certain bustling bartender from doing what she does best.
“You guys ready for cocktails in the morning?” asked university alumna Gina Chersevani, thrilled at the prospect of entertaining guests despite the early hour.
Eight years removed from receiving degrees in art and psychology from the university, Chersevani’s art therapy aspirations have moved aside to make room for another career title: mixologist. Her job involves designing inventive cocktails at five Northern Virginia restaurants, consulting with bars and liquor stores all over the country and, perhaps most importantly to her, putting on a show for her customers at EatBar.
“To learn how to talk to 50 people in one night and to learn how to actually connect with them – that’s a course right there,” Chersevani said.
While her people skills should not be overlooked, Chersevani has made a name for herself through her cocktail-creating skills. By using unlikely and unexpected ingredients, she has thought up drinks that push the realm of alcoholic possibilities.
“I’m kind of a little bit crazy when it comes to cocktails,” Chersevani modestly said.
The first drink she showed off, Gnome’s Water, is made with Hendrick’s gin, Cointreau liqueur, fresh lemon and lime juices, lavender syrup and cucumber water.
But Chersevani would not serve what she described as “my answer to the Bloody Mary” until she ran into the kitchen to grab the cocktail’s final touch – thinly sliced cucumber garnish.
Chersevani also whipped up another drink on EatBar’s menu, this one a martini called The Alchemist. Named after French inventor St. Germain, the drink is made of rye whiskey, lemon juice, elderflower, lavender and froth-inducing egg whites.
Mixing food and drink is not uncommon to Chersevani, as other choices on the EatBar list are made with such seemingly random items as bleu cheese redux and candied horseradish.
Chersevani began experimenting with mixology during her time at the university. Although she did not have access to a wide array of ingredients, she made do with what she had, she said.
“Being at Maryland and being at school, that’s where all the mixology came from,” Chersevani said. “At my graduation party, we had no money for cool ingredients, so we just put everything we had in a pot to get drunk.”
She also has fond memories of another college concoction, which she titled “Hop Skip and Go Naked.” She hasn’t made this punch in years, yet rattled off the recipe with ease: a handle of the cheapest vodka available, 12 light beers of any brand and Country Time lemonade mix, all stirred together in a big ice chest.
As she was finishing up her art degree at the university in 2000, Chersevani stepped her drink-making skills up a few notches when she landed a bartending job at Penang, a martini bar in Washington. The job provided her with $2,000 to $3,000 a week and inspired her to pursue a career in mixology.
“My friends would be like, ‘You can’t do that forever.’ I’d be like, ‘Whatever, I’m going to make a living out of it,'” Chersevani said.
The Penang gig led to a bartending- and cocktail-designing position at the more upscale Rasika, also downtown, where Chersevani’s bar guests once included Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
“It was pretty surreal,” Chersevani said. “Bill Clinton ordered a Grey Goose on the rocks. His Secret Service was watching you make that drink like a hawk.”
Though a high salary and brushes with fame are definitely perks to her job, Chersevani’s passion for restaurants began at a young age, she said. As the daughter of a chef, she grew up thinking she would own a restaurant one day.
“Being around a table of good food, good wine, good friends – it’s life,” Chersevani said of her motivation to run her own place.
EatBar’s chef Andrew Market, who said he frequently works with Chersevani and pairs his dishes with her drinks, said while his co-worker’s approach may be unorthodox, it keeps customers coming back.
“I think it’s a different level [of connection],” he said. “Bartenders and mixologists are more for the people.”
Yet despite her unique skills, Chersevani shied away from attaching the term “mixology” to her work, instead choosing to give kudos to her art degree.
“I like to call it bar art,” she said of her concoctions. “This is my creativity – it just comes in a liquid form.”
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