Celebrity Bartender LP O'Brien is Embracing NA Cocktails

LP O'Brien

You may have seen LP O'Brien on Netflix's Drink Masters competition where she was crowned champion or recognize her name from Wine Enthusiast's "40 Under 40" Tastemakers. She was the official bartender for the Emmy Awards and has been listed by DISCUS among the Global Bar 100 Industry People to Know and the list of accomplishments goes on. O’Brien is the founder and CEO of LP Drinks Co., a company specializing in creating unique drink experiences. She is also a shareholder of Siponey Spritz Co., which is notable for being the first B Corp-certified spirits-based canned cocktail company. But what you might be surprised to learn is that she is also becoming a leader in crafting non-alcoholic cocktails. 

Background

LP O'Brien behind the bar

Destined for a career in hospitality, O’Brien originally intended to be a nurse, but she landed her first job in a bar before she could even drink. "I interviewed with a bar owner and he said why do you want to do this? Do you just want a job or do you want to change the way that people think about drinks?”  That challenge stuck with her as she made her way up the ranks, recalls O’Brien, "I become a bar back and then I become a server and then I become a bartender and then the lead bartender and before I know it, I'm the assistant general manager and I'm not pursuing a nursing career anymore."

O'Brien is originally from the Bronx, New York, where she was raised on what she calls Bodega culture, which encapsulates community, cultural preservation, and hospitality at its core. Many of her cocktails pay homage to her childhood experiences, such as the “Everything but the Alley Cat" cocktail she made during the Netflix show Drink Masters. The drink features not just ingredients you might find at a bodega, but is named for her local bodega’s cat.

Flipping the script

After alcohol free magazine featuring O’Brien

After giving up drinking while pregnant, O’Brien decided to personally forgo drinking alcohol altogether, but she didn’t give up on her dream of opening her own bar. Recently she has turned her attention to zero-proof cocktails, with the same dedication to celebrating culture and nourishing the soul. Not surprising since it was the hospitality aspect of cocktail culture that drove her to become a bartender in the first place. Shares O’Brien, "I'm taking all of that foundational stuff I learned, like the history of cocktails and spirits and wine and hospitality, all of that allowed me to find what I loved so much about this industry, which was taking care of people.”

Combining her love of craft cocktails, with her genuine care for people, O’Brien also co-founded and is CEO and creative lead for Focus on Health, a platform offering wellness and safety training for the beverage industry that raised over 100K for bartenders in 2023. 

Approach to Mixology

LP O'Brien mixing a cocktail

O’Brien emphasizes the importance of starting each cocktail with a story and draws inspiration from her roots and experiences.  She says, "My approach to cocktail making is to always be thinking about the story behind them. Can you evoke a memory?” For example, her version of a Tom Collins is a callback to her memory of her mother's lemonade providing refreshment on a hot DC summer's day. Says O’Brien, "By definition, a Tom Collins is a gin lemonade with carbonation but depending on what citrus you add (a DC lemon or one from the Amalfi Coast of Italy), it can taste vastly different." 

When it comes to creating non-alcoholic cocktails, ingredients and great techniques are paramount.  She explains, “The last time I had a lemonade was when my mom made it when I was growing up. There's something so powerful about that because that moment of nostalgia can put a smile on their face. But let's be honest, not everyone can make a good lemonade. So when I'm training bartenders I start with that. Let's focus on the cocktails that don't have alcohol and figure out what they are lacking so that we can improve our ability to make cocktails with alcohol".

To make zero-proof cocktails, she relies on fresh ingredients, carbonation, tea to provide tannins, egg whites for a frothy texture, shrubs, and bitters, to give just a few examples. "Every element is going to vastly change the drink", she says. Even the type of water used can make a big difference, whether it's club soda, seltzer, or mineral water.

Educating the Consumer

Ceders, Seedlip and Lyre's bottles

O’Brien is enthusiastic about the current non-alcoholic beers, wine, and spirits on the market but stresses that it's still early days, and it's important to educate the consumer on all the various options. She shares, "When we have a better understanding of how the product is made and what the goal behind it is, that's a game changer. A product like Seedlip (a stand-alone spirit) and a product like Ceders (a gin substitute)  or the Lyre’s products are vastly different and have to be used in different ways.”  She feels that many people quickly dismiss non-alcoholic options because they haven’t had a well-made non-alcoholic cocktail and are trying products neat. She explains, "If they are tasting it right out of the bottle without understanding how it's made, that can completely ruin their experience.”

Siponey drinks

O’Brien can often be found hosting events, where she promotes non-alcoholic beverages, explaining how they are made and providing a place where people might be trying non-alcoholic beverages for the first time. For example, she has partnered with Disney California Adventure’s Food & Wine Festival to craft non-alcoholic drinks that complement the festival’s culinary themes, creating a playful yet safe space for sober drinkers. For her next act, she’s planning to open a bar with both non-alcoholic and alcoholic options, each playing an equal part in the story she is trying to tell. Says O'Brien, "I think the most impressive, impactful, and important part of all of this is that we are currently witnessing a category in the making — you can't really say that about whisky."