Kat Foster
Borgo | New York
February 2025
At 19, Kat Foster started working at a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia. Not long after, the restaurant’s cocktail-focused bar program caught her attention. Foster began asking questions, learning about classic cocktails and a variety of spirits before getting her hands on Death and Co.’s Modern Classic Cocktails. When she turned 21, she started as a barback and eventually worked her way up to bartender. Foster then joined the team at Rogue, diving deeper into spirits and creating cocktails on the fly for the bar’s "dealer’s choice" program. She left and started bartending at Perch. At the Filipino and Hawaiian inspired restaurant, Foster—alongside a team of young and enthusiastic bartenders—learned to batch cocktails, organize a bar, and create efficiencies while working for Bartender Beth Dixon.
In 2019, Foster moved to New York with a desire to work in Michelin-starred restaurants. She started bartending at Aquavit right after she arrived. There, she worked alongside Bartender Jeff Arnold, developing the menu with him and getting a feel for New York diners over the next two years. After sending in her application, Foster was hired as a bartender at Eleven Madison Park, where she helped reopen the bar after the pandemic lockdown. Learning from Beverage Director Sebastian Tollius, she picked up new techniques and developed original cocktails. In 2023, Foster joined the opening team of Margot, where she built the backbar, created a menu from the ground up, and led a team for the first time. Now, as head bartender at Borgo, which opened in fall 2024, Foster is using clever techniques and a broad range of spirits to compose satisfying cocktails like the Nonna’s Nonno with smoked brown butter-washed Scotch, Applejack, sour cherry agrodolce syrup, and a biscotti liqueur.
