[ruby_title]Polina Lee (Southside Parlor, Seoul)[/ruby_title]
Favourite classic cocktail: Negroni.
What do you love about bartending?
I find bartending is a very multifaceted job. Making drinks for guests and making them fast and delicious is interesting on its own, but adding the social part of it is really what makes it the best. I don’t think I would ever be able to learn so much about people, the world and myself if I hadn’t become a bartender.
What do you feel about girl power and feminism in your community?
Korea is a country that still carries a fair share of patriarchy in its culture, and you can definitely see how bartenders are predominantly male in the industry here. A big part of the reason is that bartending, whether you’re a man or woman, is looked down upon as a job in Korea is looked down on. It makes it even worse for women, given that society tends to form negative opinions on female bartenders making certain assumptions on their behaviour. So there is, obviously, still a lot of progress to be done in terms of girl power.
However, I do see that there are changes happening. In the last five years years, the female bartending community has definitely grown. My bar and its sister bar Pocket, has a bigger proportion of female to male bartenders and definitely great support from the owners of the bar which carries on to our customers as well. I hope as time progresses and Speed Rack in Asia happens more often, the Korean bartending community will have even more female bartenders.
