Fo’ swizzle

When longtime bartender and cocktail competitor Laura Newman moved to Birmingham a year and a half ago, she had no idea she was about to make history. 

In just under a year, she would not only be competing and winning the southern regionals for the United States Bartenders’ Guild competition, but also winning the national USBG World Class 2018. After competing for the third time, she is the first woman to ever win the competition in the U.S.

The annual bartending event, sponsored by beverage company Diageo, sent her to represent the U.S. and compete in the global finals in Berlin in October, against 60 people from 60 other countries. 

Newman, who referred to the weeklong competition as “the Olympics of bartending,” said it tests bartenders in every possible way through various cocktail trials, speed- and knowledge-based challenges and intense elimination rounds. 

Newman went on to place in the top four at the global finals. Not only is Newman now a nationally-recognized cocktail extraordinaire, she also opened the highly-anticipated classic cocktail bar in the Loft District right after she got back.

Originally a Brooklyn native, she decided to move temporarily to Birmingham a year and a half ago to be with her partner, Larry Townley, a Birmingham native who’s been in the bar scene for 14 years. They planned to look around the country for the city in which they wanted to open a bar during the upcoming year. But within three months of being in Birmingham, she knew she didn’t want to leave.

“It went from being something that I expected to be temporary and then I didn't realize how much I would just love it,” she said.  

With the booming food scene and the amount of national recognitions “comparable to a much larger city,” Newman said she knew Birmingham had an appreciation for quality food and drinks and that “the time was ripe” for adding to the scene, especially with a cocktail bar. In July 2018, Newman signed the lease for her Queen’s Park location at 112 24th St. N. in the Loft District.

“[People in Birmingham are] looking for something like this,” she said.

Originally from New York City, Newman has been working in the spirits industry for the past nine years and has helped open and run six different bars and restaurants. In preparation for owning her own cocktail bar one day, she got a degree in hospitality management from the Institute of Culinary Education, worked with a spirits producer, served in the Cocktail Apprentice program and became a certified Sommelier. 

Queen’s Park, which will sell more than 40 classic cocktails, regional beer and a rotating menu of wine, was named after the all-time favorite cocktail of Townley — now the new business partner at Queen’s Park — called the Queen’s Park Swizzle.

The Queen’s Park Swizzle, which will be the signature cocktail, is “visually really beautiful,” Newman said. It is made with Demerara rum, simple syrup, mint leaves, Angostura bitters, lime juice, a lot of crushed ice and a mint boutique with lime peel. 

“It’s also incredible and delicious,” she added. What’s really interesting about it, though, is its backstory, she said.

The Queen’s Park Hotel was an Eastern European-style grand hotel opened in the late 1800s in Trinidad and was moderately successful until the start of prohibition. Soon, it skyrocketed in popularity and became trendy for Americans to come down to the Caribbean to drink legally. As interest grew, so did the amount of famous bartenders coming to the hotel to work, and they were tasked with creating a signature cocktail the hotel would be known for.

Basically, Newman said, they “pulled a quick one,” accepted a large sum of money to make the drink and created, more or less, “a daiquiri over crushed ice.” This was a time, she explained, where crushed ice was a luxury and wasn’t generally used in cocktails.

“So it’s perfect when it’s super hot out in Trinidad or in Birmingham, and we wanted the space to kind of evoke that,” she said.

The main menu for Queen’s Park is going to be a little more esoteric, Newman said, and consist of lesser-known but classic drinks, in addition to some more common basics. 

“I love the idea of being able to introduce sort of unknown classics to people,” she said. “… I love doing twists and takes on cocktails, but we’re going to be making these cocktails as authentically as possible to how they were originally published.”

Because of her many contacts in the spirits industry, Newman also plans to add an informative flair to the menu by including an anecdote from the original source of the cocktail, whether it be from the first written versions of it or from the people she’s met over the years in the spirits industry, like, for example, the man she met in Brooklyn who created the original Cosmo.

Queen’s Park was first introduced to Birmingham when they hosted a “cocktail and bites” event with Roots + Revelry. Some of the cocktails they served at the opening event included the Pornstar Martini, the Golden Cadillac, the Toronto and, of course, the Queen’s Park Swizzle. Most importantly, Newman said, they got to introduce some of the bartenders to Birmingham patrons.

“When I go to a bar, for example, I don't ever go because of the decor or because of the cocktails.  At the end of the day, I go for the bartender. I go for the service, and that’s really important to us to have just really dialed-in and consistent, fast, approachable service,” she said. 

Price point is also a concern, she said, and making sure there are drinks offered for people who don’t want to spend a lot. One of the deals they are going to offer “is a sort of DIY drinking package,” she said, with a six-pack of High Life ponies and several shot glasses with a large pour of whiskey.

“It’s really important to us to have all the different kinds of drinkers be able to come to the bar and have a good time and not feel like what they drink was overlooked,” she said. 

She said they also hope to do a punch bowl special most days where people can pay a lower price for a cup of whatever the punch of the day is, allowing people to try different drinks. 

“At the end of the day, I’m a bartender. My favorite thing is just interacting with guests,” Newman said. “It’s probably my favorite thing when someone tells me, ‘That was the best bar experience I have ever had,’ or ‘You just made our night so incredible.’ Giving someone this incredible experience and getting that great feedback is what I love.”

Learn more at queensparkbham.com.