An Atlanta mixologist built a thriving community garden for fellow bartenders
One of the bartenders was also a painter, and she grew flowers, then steeped the petals to make watercolor paint.
By Julie Kendrick
The Takeout
Feb 16, 2021
Excerpt:
Her vision and hard work meant that, during a horrific summer, A Sip of Paradise bartenders’ community garden became a place to be outside, take in some deep breaths, and tend one’s own little plot of nature.
The garden promotes itself as “a healthy and safe garden space for bartenders to recharge their creativity, minds and themselves.” Mincey-Parker, the founder and executive director, says, “Our vision is for bartenders to grow food, herbs and flowers for themselves and their families to help transform their wellness and happiness.”
A Sip of Paradise, now a 501(c)(3) organization, began with what Mincey-Parker calls “crackpot idea to just play in the dirt with my friends.” Now, with the completion of its first successful growing season, she has an opportunity to look back at her decades-long hospitality career and to wonder if, all along, it was leading her to this point.
“I came to the United States when I was 12 years old,” says Mincey-Parker. “We’d lived in Liberia all my life—my dad was Liberian and my mom is from LaGrange, Georgia in the United States. We fled here during the Civil War in 1990, and I’ve never been able to make a trip back.”
