Imbibe 75 People to Watch: Tiffanie Barriere

For more than a decade, Tiffanie Barriere, also known as “The Drinking Coach,” has fixed tantalizing cocktails for Atlantans. Her tenure as a bartender included dreaming up creative recipes at the renowned One Flew South at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest airport in the world, where she remained for seven and a half years before opting to go solo. Becoming a freelance bartender posed different challenges, but she wanted to see how she could grow and immerse herself in more opportunities—namely, to include more historical sidebars into each cocktail she served.

Barriere is a daughter of the South, with roots in both Louisiana and Texas. Drawing a clear line to how the labor of Black women shaped the modern-day hospitality industry is vital to her work, and that correlation is something she finds great joy—and pride—in illuminating. “There’s a lot of heavy weight on Black females in the South,” Barriere says. “I’m definitely very proud to represent my people, my culture, and my family, but more so I’m giving homage and respect to the ancestors. To be able to create right now and give cocktail ideas from the heart makes me think of them. I love looking for the silver lining in it.”

During the pandemic, Barriere has pivoted to offering virtual cocktail classes for businesses, individuals, and spirit brands. She looks forward to doing more TV appearances and sharing her love of cocktails—and the Black history intertwined with them—in the months to come.

Click here to read about some of this year’s other Imbibe 75 People to Watch.