Welcome to Girl Walks into a Bar, a weekly Gut Check feature that spotlights local bars and bartenders. This is part one of Alissa Nelson's two-part profile of Lola bartender Matt McMullin. Part two, a Q&A with McMullin, will be posted tomorrow.
Matt McMullin moved here in 1995, drawn by what he calls St. Louis' "healthy inferiority complex," and landed a job at Dierdorf & Hart's. There he encountered his first muddler, the old-school bartenders' tool used to mash up mint for juleps and mojitos. With the muddler came an infatuation with the wide and captivating world of classic cocktails -- and a mixologist's curriculum vitae that put McMullin behind bars all over St. Louis.
Earlier this year he found a new home in Lola, where he continues to explore the world of cocktail culture with a historian's eye.
Click through to see a video of McMullin mixing a Printer's Loft cocktail, a.k.a. a classic highball...
Lola 500 North 14th Street 314-621-7277
