FEATURED BARTENDER

Featured Featured BARtender

AOM LEE

SAN FRANCISCO

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL The Knight Watch #1

RECIPE: Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal, Geiger glogg, passion fruit, egg white, Iime juice and smoked with maple wood plank

To be beverage and food manager at the W Hotel San Francisco, you better know a thing or two behind the stick. Aom Lee, who has been at the W for almost three years, has worked and managed some of the top bars and restaurants in the Bay Area, including 25 Lusk, La Mar Cebichería Peruana, Hakkasan, and Ozone Thai (where she won “Best Mixologist” in 2011 from the city’s influential 7x7 Magazine). In 2016, she decided to move into the hotel industry and became food and beverage outlets manager at San Francisco’s iconic Hotel Nikko, before moving to the W Hotel two years later.

Aom’s professional career didn’t start in the hospitality industry though. In her native Thailand she was a TV news anchor for several years, before she decided in 2007 to move to the U.S. She began working in the service industry – and quickly established herself as a young bartender to watch – while studying for her master’s degree in International Business.

Her signature drink, The Knight Watch #1, was awarded “Best in North America” in the All Marriott hotel competition.

“What I love about this cocktail,” Aom says, “is that it’s well balanced between the smokiness from the mezcal, smoked maple wood, the touch with passion fruit, and the spices from glogg. It’s a fun, unique, and delightful drink!”