Shaken and Stirred
These three trailblazing Black bartenders in Detroit serve as a reminder that the bar can also be a call to action, a classroom and a bridge to family sustainability.
DURING THE GRAND opening of Javier's Downtown, Midtown's newest Latin steakhouse fusion restaurant, John Neely is meticulously crafting the perfect cocktail at the bar.
Neely combines apple vodka and green Chartreuse with splashes of lime juice and orange bitters syrup into a shaker and shakes it vigorously as if in slow motion. The drink, called The Second Wind, is then poured into a coupe glass, inviting the patron to choose their own adventure with an added egg white topping or garnish of a sprig of mint.
His recipes vary depending on the person. There are thousands of cocktail recipes but it’s all about “what makes people happy,” he says.
That also opens people to “the experience of dining,” with the bartender playing a significant role in that journey.
“What makes a great bartender is the ability to focus on hospitality—even in the chaos in the eye of the storm—and keep their cool,” says Neely.
At age 30, Neely is known for keeping his cool behind the bar while making creative cocktails, honed after nearly a decade of crafting cocktails in Detroit.
But for Neely and a group of Black bartenders who advocate for those following in their hospitality footsteps, the art of bartending is more than just what’s in the glass. Many are leading by example through entrepreneurship or creating space for other Black bartenders to find success in the industry.
Neely, along with Lisa Carielle and Andre Sykes, formed Black on Both Sides to address the lack of people of color in top roles and to mentor other Black bartenders.
“Detroit, as a mostly Black city, did not have representation it needed in the space of food and beverage. We took it as the call to action. We continue to answer the call,” says Neely. “We have to pull each other up, and make space at the table for others. … Very often [our] people don’t have access to the same opportunities and resources and don’t know where to even go to find support. We are here to be that guiding light and support.”
Meet three Black Detroit-based bartenders—Neely, Jennifer Peeples and Cheryl Williams—who believe that the craft of bartending is about creating a better environment for the next generation and providing an example that transcends the glass.
Jennifer Peeples: The Boss
After working as an event bartender for more than 20 years, Jennifer Peeples embarked on entrepreneurship to level up in the mixology industry.
As the owner of Perfect10 Mixology Service, a Detroit-based pop-up mixology brand, she produces cocktail-mixing experiences highlighting Black-owned spirits and culture. Currently, her largest clients are Huntington Place and Compuserve. Peeples understands that being an entrepreneur gives her the confidence needed to be the best wife and mother.
“It took some real encouragement from my family.,” she says. “I was a bartender for years, but to own my own business and see where it has grown from 2017 to now has just been amazing, and I wouldn’t have realized what it could become if I didn’t start it.”
Peeples, along with her husband, Steve, recognized a need to bring cocktail education back into bartending to foster creativity in cocktails, especially to help nurture other Black-owned bartending businesses.
“When I first started, bartenders didn’t seem to embrace creating out-of-the box cocktails; we were really restricted to how things and traditions have been done for generations. We at Perfect10 Mixology understand that creativity is what makes us [Black-owned bartending brands] successful—so we plan to launch new amazing products to give our at-home cocktail connoisseurs all the proper tools to be a successful host to family and friends with some dope cocktail recipes.”
Peeples also aims to uplift women in the bartending space. “We are also bringing back our mixology classes, because cocktails and creativity for women especially go hand and hand.”
Cheryl Williams: The Solution
As the co-owner of Advanced Mixology Institute, a Southfield-based bartending school that marries hospitality training with corporate staffing, Cheryl Williams saw the need for a school that was specific to training Detroit hospitality workers. After a decade as a bartender, she noticed immediately that most of the classes were filled with white aspiring bartenders, while students who were predominately Black and from Detroit were consistently underrepresented. “My mission has always been to educate and employ. I want to bridge the gap between hospitality employers and employees,” says Williams. “Not only are we training workers, but we’re providing job placement, putting more highly trained Black workers into hospitality.”
Creating accessible educational and employment resources has allowed Williams’ Advanced Mixology to cater to students who are often in dire situations. “I started bartending as a last-ditch effort after getting fired from a job I had at the airport. With my last $400 paycheck, I went to a week-long class for 40 hours terrified because I knew that this was my last source of income,” remembers Williams. “I did pass the class and the very next day we all were working in the field as bartenders, which was monumental to me that I could immediately start to work and support my family after taking this one class.”
One of the biggest challenges facing Williams, who got started late in her career as a bartender, is that she often was the only Black bartender in the room.
“Most of the other bartenders were in their early 20s so I knew that I had to always study to make sure that I was always number one,” she says.
That led her to teaching, with some of her first classes at a school in Livonia where she saw the disparity again in the classroom. “I had so many people who were from Detroit asking if they could be released from class early to take the last bus to get back home or because of tickets and warrants. I knew that we needed this type of school in our own communities and Advanced Mixology school was born to be the solution.”
John Neely: The Advocate
As the head bartender at Javier’s Downtown, Neely has already earned a reputation for his ability to create a sense of calm at the bar. But the young mixologist has already enjoyed a long and successful career behind the bar.
As the youngest finalist of the global Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition, Neely mastered the art of bartending for close to a decade at Detroit establishments such as Menjos, Wright & Company, Savannah Blue, Whisky Parlor, Barter Detroit and Monarch Club.
For Neely, bartending is a platform to be an advocate for change. “Being able to be yourself, 100 percent of the time, means showing up and bringing your Blackness to a space. That’s what gives us our superpower. We are superhuman to the core,” Neely says.
Over the years, the trend has been to call bartenders mixologists but there is a clear difference between the two, Neely says, especially when it comes to Black bartenders who are dedicated to hospitality. Black hospitality is rooted in creativity and innovation, and that shows with each drink even when things don’t go as planned.
Today’s cocktail consumer is already incredibly knowledgeable about what’s in the glass, Neely says.
“We now have a more educated clientele than ever before and also there’s so many different options of ways and ingredients to make cocktails. To give you perspective, when I first started, there were about 60 different types of gins. Now there are over 6,000 so there is always more to learn and more to teach. I stay in the game to be an agent of change, and create access.”
The work of bartenders like Williams, Peeples and Neely reflects a larger movement to celebrate Black hospitality’s historic prominence despite its complicated roots. Historically, enslaved workers were too often tasked with providing domestic services.
Those included cooking, cleaning and, of course, entertaining, but that also gave them unparalleled expertise in the art of hospitality especially under oppressive conditions. For many, this specific expertise evolved into a pathway to economic independence, from Thomas Bullock, the first Black man to pen a cocktail book in the early 20th century, to award-winning bartenders like Detroit’s own Andre Sykes, who garnered James Beard awards for leading bar programs at Shelby and Alpino. These bartenders remind us that the bar can also be a call to action, a classroom and a bridge to family sustainability. As Detroit’s modern-day culinary scene continues to grow, these mixologists remind us that the bar is more than a place to grab a drink. It’s a stage, a classroom, and a bridge to the past.
Darralynn Hutson is an award-winning journalist, author, and mentor with 25 years of experience elevating Black culture. She co-founded Stylists Suite, publishes The Big Fat Media Guide, and led diversity initiatives with Penske and Meredith Publishing. A historically Black College alumna honored for her impact on arts and culture, Hutson's work spans media, mentorship, and career development. Her favorite Detroit cocktail is a rum and Coke that reminds her of the '70s, her father and uncles—the real drinkers in the family.
