In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about what they’re doing, eating, reading, and loving. Next up is Denisse, a Chicago mixologist highlighting Mexican flavors and traditions through inventive cocktails.
Denisse Soto’s cocktails taste like her memory of green chorizo blowing in the breeze. Or an homage to her mother in the form of cochinita pibil, a Mayan pork dish synonymous with the Yucatán peninsula. Maybe you’ll try Soto’s take on her father’s favorite meal, a green pozole from Guerrero. With a childhood marked by travel thanks to her mother’s profession as a flight attendant and family roots throughout Mexico—Morelos, Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Guerrero, and Mexico state—Soto has made it her mission to share Mexican culture with as many people as possible, one cocktail at a time.
The 37-year-old entrepreneur is the founder of Denisse Soto With Flair, a creative cocktail consultancy where Mexican ingredients are at the forefront. She has a variety of clients but her talent and expertise are on full display at Cariño in Chicago, co-owned by chef Norman Fenton, formerly of Michelin-starred Schwa, and Karen Young. There she drills into Mexican flavors, highlighting the greater diaspora in Latin America.
Over the last three years, following the deaths of her parents, Soto has been taking greater risks—creating imaginative cocktails, sourcing hard-to-find spirits, and building bar programs that are turning into travel destinations.
Soto spoke to Bon Appétit about what’s driving her diverse brand, why she chose mixology to tell stories, and the role her family plays in her work. Soto also pulls back the curtain on five bottles of Mexican spirits she loves.
When my mom passed I made a cochinita pibil cocktail. It’s a dish synonymous with the Yucatán, where she’s from. I’m really focused on combining gastronomy with cocktails and taking greater risks to create cocktails that are tasty. I adapted the sauce by omitting the garlic and onion and bringing in piloncillo to sweeten a tamarind water for a vinegar shrub. Chef Norman Fenton of Cariño tried it and said adding salt would make it go all the way cochinita. I didn’t want to go too adventurous because I’m always thinking about the customers, but I figured “If you’re [here], you’re already adventurous.” We added a salt rim of flour chicharron, dried habanero, dried red onion, lime, and salt. A round ice ball with marigold flowers frozen inside, sits in the liquid that’s topped off with a banana leaf for a sweet and sour barbecue flavor.
I loved making cocktails but it was a hobby for years before I made it my full-time job. I’d arrive at parties and friends knew that drinks were my signature item. I loved seeing people light up trying my creations. In Mexico there’s the belief “a professional career” is defined as a doctor, accountant, or professor—something you go to school for and receive your degree in. My mom had been a dentist, my dad was an engineer, so in 2015 when I told them I wanted to do this, it didn’t make sense to them. I was a woman not only trying to break into a male-dominated industry, I was looking to lead it. They believed no one would respect me and they worried about how others might perceive me as a drunkard. From where I come from, mixology wasn’t something people thought of as a viable career.
