Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Ashford
Hi Erin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m originally from Florida and moved to Austin in the fall of 2008, with a focus on going to school at Texas State University. I took a job at the Austin institution, Threadgill’s and that really made me fall in love with Austin and working in restaurants. Eventually, I was looking for more growth financially in order to pay for school so moved to a cocktail waitress position at Stephen F, Austin’s Bar in the Intercontinental Hotel downtown. What was just a job to me at first quickly became something that lead me to where I am today, I had already been waiting tables for years at this point, but being in a bar setting felt different. I loved how busy and buzzy everything was. I especially loved the idea of hosting an experience for guests and making it special. Like helping a couple celebrate their engagement by suggesting the perfect bottle, or bringing another round of Laphroaig to a group in a heated business conversation without being asked in order to avoid interrupting their flow. It may sound cheesy or unimportant, but it was thrilling for me. On really busy nights, like a big wedding party on a Friday night, often the bartenders would be swamped with orders, so sometimes they would just ask you to make your own drinks. This is where I fell in love with bartending; the speed, multitasking, facial recognition and hosting a party. I learned actual builds and recipes by watching others. Anyway, 3 years of working downtown until 2am every night along with my commute to San Marcos for school became too much. Once I graduated with my Bachelors of Art in Communication Studies, I decided to look for a job with better hours and where I could focus on this new love of cocktails and bartending, I worked at Qui, a restaurant by Top Chef and James Beard winner, Paul Qui, and worked alongside some of the most talented staff in the country. Here I began creating elevated cocktails and cultivating seasonal menus. About a year later I was asked to come work at Olamaie, the celebrated Southern restaurant, helmed by three-time James Beard finalist and Executive Chef, Michael Fojtasek. I’ve built the bar program here over the last 5 years and I am currently the Beverage Director and Assistant General Manager.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I feel like the two biggest struggles along the way have always been: finding a healthy schedule and dealing with self-doubt. The service industry is often known for its unhealthy routines of late nights, drinking in excess and being rough on you physically. It’s also such a fast space industry where we often don’t or can’t slow down to think about those things or to examine our mental health. You can really burn out so quickly if you don’t find balance in your work and self-care. Only in the past few years do I feel like I’ve really started to find that steady balance and it’s because I’ve found a job that is aware of how important that is for its staff and also because I made my health a priority. Self-doubt is always a struggle because it’s so easy to get wrapped up in comparing yourself to others around you. The more you may put myself out there, in drink competitions or working different events, you start to see that the way you bartend or do things may be different which is a good thing, it means individuality, but you can get in your head about it. And if you win awards or are taking on higher positions you can start to question if you are as good or worthy of the accolades you’re achieving. For me, the more recognition I got the more I then dealt with Impostor syndrome, which is basically doubting your abilities and having difficulty accepting your achievements without feeling like a fraud or not good enough. It sounds intense on paper maybe, but so many of us, especially those of us in creative fields or who are “perfectionists” feel this way quite often. I’ve mainly put these feelings to rest when I think about how hard I’ve worked to get where I am today. I also think about how many talented peers have shared their skills with me, helping me along the way and how I want to take those skills, perfect them and share them with others. I have to believe in myself in order to strive to help other people.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I adore making cocktails as an art form but also as a way to make people happy. As art, I’ve loved thinking of names or ideas for drinks based off of paintings or song titles. I like thinking of a full back story for my drinks. I spend so long thinking about how it looks, (the garnish, the glass), how it sounds to order the drink by name and what it would look like and feel like drinking it. I want the whole experience. And for the record, a simple shot of Wild Turkey 101, in a little glass, is an experience. I adore that almost just the same, and sometimes more! I’m definitely known for making strong drinks, certainly a heavy-handed bartender, but I think (and would hope) I’m also known for making drinks that are crowd pleasing and make people feel special. At work, I’m making drinks for you, not for me, so I’m never a snobby bartender. I don’t like to be preachy or push my ideas of what you should or shouldn’t drink (outside of the already curated cocktail list I could suggest from) unless you’re asking. Along with that, bartending is often so high speed and stressful it can be hard to slow down and help someone who doesn’t know what they want to drink or who may have a lot of questions, so, I am most proud when I help that person truly find what they wanted.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
A lot of my favorite childhood memories center around Christmas time. My parents did a lot of “traditional” things like decorating the tree, wrapping presents from “Santa” and taking my sisters and me to Christmas Eve mass. But, for me the best and most memorable parts were the music and the food. Specifically, my dad playing Vince Guaraldi’s, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on repeat and my mom making as many pumpkin pies as she could fit in the fridge.
Contact Info:
- Email: erin@olamaieaustin.com
- Website: www.OlamaieAustin.com
- Instagram: @ErinCaity
Image Credits
My main/personal photo is from Shanna Hickman.
