Mixtress and mom Gina Chersevani with daughters Francesca and Gianna. (Photo courtesy of Gina Chersevani.)
By DCist contributor Evan Caplan
A bartender can tell you how to mix it up, but talk to a bartender who is also a mom and you’ll get a real education. Here in D.C., Gina Chersevani might be the coolest mom in town, juggling babies and booze with equal finesse at Buffalo & Bergen at Union Market and the forthcoming Sakerum on 14th Street.
Also known as @MixtressDC, she’s a small business owner, chef, bartender, and, yes, mother to two young daughters: Gianna, age 2, and Francesca, age 1.
“In a million years, I never thought I’d be with two kids in two years—born within 362 days, to be exact,” says Chersevani, speaking from her Capitol Hill home. She found it challenging to work behind the bar while pregnant, where she faced a double standard familiar to many women in the workplace. “People looked at me like I was crazy,” she says, “like I can’t do my job while I’m pregnant or have kids. Male bartenders can have children and it’s fine, because customers assume the wife is at home. But with me, I’m slinging drinks at midnight and I get shady looks.”
Luckily, Chersevani knows how to handle the side-eye. Growing up in Queens, Gina got a whole lot of tough love from her mom, an accountant of Italian descent raising five kids. When her mom was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, it hit Gina especially hard, but she survived and now goes by “Nonna” to all who know her, including her 13 grandchildren.
Both Chersevani’s mother and daughters have been influential to her career in unexpected ways, such as her mom’s homemade iced tea — a black tea bag and 10 sprigs of mint in a gallon jug of water that brews in the sun — which has become a favorite, particularly when mixed with a touch of whiskey or gin. “It’s long and dry and has caffeine,” she says, “so perfect for a lengthy night at the bar.”
Kids sometimes do say the darnedest things, like when one of Chersevani’s daughters complained about a bitter strawberry. It was, indeed, bitter, but inspired a sublime salted strawberry cocktail that uses the white part of the fruit as a bittering agent. “Maybe they’re like my muses,” she says.
Finding balance on both sides of the bar has been the key to adjusting to life with kids. “And getting no sleep,” Chersevani says. “Mostly the no sleeping part.”
Gina Chersevani’s Mother’s Day Iced Tea Cocktail
Fill a tall glass with ice.
Add 1.5 ounces of vodka, gin, or whiskey.
Add one ounce of lemon juice.
Fill the rest of the glass with homemade iced tea and garnish with a sprig of mint.
