Raising glasses and awareness
LUPEC shakes up the system
PROFILE. LUPEC sounds like a division of the U.N. but is in fact a nationwide organization whose acronym stands for Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails. Actually, make that a feminist organization. As the LUPEC motto goes, they’re “dismantling the patriarchy one drink at a time.”
Misty Kalkofen, who bartends at Green Street Grill in Cambridge, began the Boston chapter last February. Usually, the 10-member club (membership is currently capped until 2008) meets at each other’s homes once a month to sample classic cocktails and talk about women’s history.
For instance, in June, the theme was “New Orleans: Cradle of the Cocktail and the Women who Rocked It.” The girls were knocking back sazeracs and discussing such topics as the ladies of Storyville and the red light district’s effect on residents.
However, the girls have decided to throw a co-ed open house event at Green Street on Sunday, where anyone, including guys, can join in. The soiree will feature cocktails made from that lesser-known French liqueur, chartreuse, which has been made by monks for centuries in both a bright green and deep yellow form. There will be two classic cocktails — the Scofflaw, made with green chartreuse, and the Champs Elysee, featuring yellow — and two newly concocted drinks.
LUPEC began in Pittsburgh in 2001 and now has seven chapters in the U.S. “They were just a group of women who were interested in women’s history and classic cocktails,” says Kalkofen. “It’s about spending time with women who are interested in the same things.”
Kalkofen has tended bar all over town: the BSide, the West Side, Tremont 647. The 35-year-old Wisconsin native, who lives in Union Square, Somerville, came to Boston for grad school and got her master’s degree in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School. And that was as far as that career path went.
“I’m completely a bartender now, and I love it,” she says. LUPEC blends Kalkofen’s love of a well-made drink with her desire to do something philanthropic.
“We want to throw parties for good causes,” she says. “Have fun and do good at the same time. Our first big fundraiser is in October, to benefit Jane Doe. October is domestic violence month, so it’s a good month to raise our glasses and raise awareness.”