Baylee Hopings
Carmel | Atlanta
april 2023
When Baylee Hopings took a part-time serving job at a local restaurant, she had no idea it would introduce her to a lifelong passion. With her sights set on becoming an English literature professor, Hopings worked at The Pullman in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood as a side gig. Within the first month, the restaurant’s bartender left and Hopings stepped up, even though she knew nothing about making drinks. She grew to love chatting with guests and seeing them get excited about their cocktails, and began focusing on the craft of bartending. Hopings worked at a number of restaurants in the area, spending time behind the bar at ONE. Midtown Kitchen and Poor Hendrix. In 2018, she competed in her first cocktail competition—the first time she was really able to engage with the bartending community—and saw the vast potential of her future in craft cocktails.
She went on to join the team at Pijiu Belly as bar manager, where she developed the Korean-Chinese gastropub’s seasonal cocktail menus. In 2019, Hopings moved to Empire State South under Bartender Kellie Thorn, before joining Bon Ton as bar manager two years later. In late 2022, she joined the team at Carmel, the newest venture from the Oliva Restaurant Group; a concept featuring coastal cuisine and drinks, from the West Coast to the coasts of South America. Hopings has thoughtfully structured her backbar to highlight women and BIPOC-owned brands, while making it a point to become a positive influence within the Atlanta bartending community, guiding her staff, offering mentorship opportunities, and working to rebuild and restructure the Atlanta chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild.
