May 8, 2017

Meet Alexis Tinoco of The Aviary and The Office in West Loop

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Tinoco.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Alexis. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Working at The Aviary was actually a happy accident…. my husband (who is the Chef de Cuisine at NEXT Restaurant) and I moved to Chicago from New York almost three and a half years ago. I had been bartending in New York when we decided to change scenery. My husband knew he wanted to take a job with Grant Achatz, working in the kitchen. I however was undecided when we landed and tried finding a job bartending around the city — which proved to be harder than I thought. One day my husband suggested I stage at The Aviary because they were “doing some really cool shit” and I was hesitant to oblige. Long story short, I eventually staged, took a job and have been here ever since. It’s been over three years now working for Micah Melton and Grant Achatz and just recently I was promoted to one of two Bar Director positions.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth is definitely not a word I would use to describe my last three and a half years with the company. We are a very specific bunch of people that have a certain outlook on not only what we are doing but how we accomplish goals. I remember thinking on my first day, just how intense the environment was — in a good way. I don’t think working here is for everyone and those that were not made for the job weed themselves out quickly. Those that appreciate the vigor and tenor of what happens here day in and day out stick around, become stronger and eventually grow into great leaders.

In general, the road to where I am today was pretty calm. I took bartending jobs to pay for parts of college and because (when I was much younger) it was a kind of cool thing to do. When I moved to New York, it was the first time a bartending job became more serious to me — the city had a lot to offer and was very educational. I not only got to work in a restaurant where I was allowed to be more creative, but the city was abuzz with great bars and great talent. The road definitely got tougher when I landed at The Aviary and took the career path more seriously. My husband and I want to open a place together one day and at some point to have to understand that not everything is fun and games and you have to become more serious. You have to learn about things the hard way by making mistakes, you have to learn about the boring stuff (for me that is the numbers side!), you have to learn how to manage a team of people and make sure they take away as much as they can from those around them, you have to learn about the traits you have in yourself that you don’t like….. It’s a very eye opening experience when you go from behind the bar to managing a team behind a bar. I have been very impatient and explosive in the past and taking a moment to breathe and say “don’t get mad” was really hard to do the first couple of times.

Please tell us about The Aviary/The Office.
Our company is known worldwide and is synonymous with the names “Grant Achatz” and “Nick Kokonas.” We have been expanding very rapidly this past year and a half and now have quite a few venues operating under The Alinea Group. On our end, we are at the end of the day a bar — we may not look like your typical bar, but that is what we do. We specialize in drink presentations that are a touch out of the ordinary; they might include flavored ice (which is a trend that is catching on now), dry ice, liquid nitrogen…. and you get the point there. What I really like about The Aviary versus The Office is how different the two spaces are. In The Aviary you have drinks that look and appear unfamiliar in presentation but taste familiar. In The Office we serve cocktails that come in vintage etched glassware or rocks glasses — they look like something you’ve seen before — but sometimes the flavor profiles are catch you off guard and make you think.

For me personally, I am most proud of how we are a growing company but we still manage to feel small and personal to the staff. There is nothing I dislike more than companies that operate like giant robots and everything is mechanical and cold. While we have our standards to uphold and policies to follow, we are here each day helping people grow and become better. We have personal ties and relationships to the people that work for us because this is something we find important.

Something that sets us apart from others is our want to evolve and change. We don’t want to just be okay making consistently good drinks, we want to be able to move with the times and trends. I wouldn’t say we are obnoxiously trying to always be the newest trend, but we take from the changing world and we take from the classics we know. I think this balance is what makes our product consistent, captivating and still evolutionary.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I think my favorite memory from childhood was while I was living in South Korea. I remember the summer’s most vividly. My mom used to take my brother and I outside to catch dragonflies — we of course played catch and release. The tree outside our townhouse was always filled with dragonflies during these hot months and we would wait for them to land on a nearby branch and slowly grab the tops of their wings while they were stationary. Most of the time, the dragonfly wouldn’t put up a fight and would be completely still as we looked into their big eyes and admired the iridescent sheen of their wings. We would shortly after release them back into the tree and go searching for our next catch.

Contact Info: