The Hotel Jerome is celebrating Women’s History Month with a spotlight on visiting female chefs and bartenders from around the world. And this week, that includes a “Bar Luminaries” residency at the hotel’s Bad Harriet speakeasy for Gabriela Lozada from Mexico City.
Lozada is part of the all-female team at Brujas, a bar named for its location in a building called the “Casa de las Brujas,” or “House of the Witches.” Lozada honors that history in her cocktails, which are a tribute to powerful women with ingredients inspired by Mexican herbalism; the current menu at Brujas is focused on female activists who advocate for social causes.
“There is like an homage to all the women that somehow [were] being called ‘witch,’ because they do something different, or they're not in the standard canon of what a woman means,” Lozada said.
The team at Brujas bucks convention too, with its all-female crew in a historically male-dominated industry. Lozada recognizes that, and the “idiosyncrasies” of a “machista,” or sexist, culture.
“The best compliment that I get, it's when they realize that we are women but they didn't realize before,” Lozada said. “They said. like, ‘Oh, I didn't realize that you are all female bartenders here.’ Exactly. The gender doesn't matter, so that's my point. I feel very honored that I have this opportunity to show it.”
What does matter, she said, is professionalism and passion.
Her residency at Bad Harriet runs through Sunday. Another women-led bar, “Pacific Standard” based in New York City, is slated for a residency at Bad Harriet March 29th through April 2nd.
Bad Harriet is located below the historic Aspen Times building on Main Street in Aspen.
