Charles Joly Of The Aviary Named Best American Bartender Of The Year
By Anthony Todd in Food on Jul 22, 2013 3:20PM
Joly (center right) with Chef Grant Achatz. Photo via Facebook.
Tales of the Cocktail is the cocktail world's Oscars, TED and Super Bowl wrapped into one, giant booze conference. Some of our own (Paul Leddy and Amy Cavanaugh) are down there mixing it up with the stars of the drinking world. On Saturday, one of Chicago's best mixers, Charles Joly, was honored with the top honor of the conference—Best American Bartender.
It seems only fitting that, since Grant Achatz has won every nationwide (and worldwide) award for best chef and best restauranteur, his bar is now starting to win awards in the spirits world. The Aviary had a bit of a slow start, but under Joly things seem to be firing on all cylinders.
We first heard the news from Achatz himself.
Big congrats to @Charles_Joly and the entire Aviary team for winning American Bartender of year at Tales of the Cocktail in NOLA.
— Grant Achatz (@Gachatz) July 21, 2013
Joly moved from The Drawing Room, where he had become something of a star, to the Aviary in June 2012, after opening mixologist Craig Schoettler departed. Instead of a chef who happened to take over a bar, Joly is a mixologist through and through—we've even featured some of his pre-Aviary recipes on Chicagoist.
Unfortunately, all of the other Chicago nominees for Spirited Awards went home empty handed.