Lauren Mote on Maximising your Opportunites

©  Jonathan Chovancek

The on-trade excellence global director for PATRÓN Tequila and co-founder of Bittered Sling Bitters has always taken what’s come her way by both horns. She talks about how she became a natural leader, making the most of her platform, and being constantly excited by the future.

Lauren Mote always craved flavour. Growing up in a single-mother family, where money was tight, her and her siblings spent their early years eating what their mum could afford to put on the table. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her Nana Florence who introduced her to techniques and different foods, while her Grandad manned the home bar stocked with spirits, beers and ginger wine – entertaining their friends often meant White Russians and Pink Squirrels. “I have always been exposed to the entertaining side of things,” she reminisces, “celebrating occasions, hospitality, and how flavours come together.”

As she got older, and money became easier, the advantages of living in Toronto, ‘the land of everything’, meant that Mote was exposed to myriad cuisines: sushi, Thai, Indian, Ethiopian, Mexican, Caribbean, to name but a few. In fact, the only food she didn’t eat was American food or, indeed, a lot of meat (like her mum).

These elements of her upbringing clearly made an impact on her – mention Mote’s name now in drinks circles and it’s synonymous with the words ‘flavour’ and ‘hospitality’. Her CV is nothing short of ambitious: her current role being the on-trade excellence global director for PATRÓN Tequila, leading the bartending advocacy programming of the brand through educational, mentorship and experiential platforms, while also a founder of the Bittered Sling Bitters company, sitting on two committees for Tales of the Cocktail, and writing a book which was published in 2022 – A Bartender's Guide to the World: Cocktails and Stories from 75 Places.

Other roles have seen her run every type of bar and restaurant – from dive to Relais & Chateaux, to working as a specialist and long-time consultant for companies like Diageo global and Four Seasons, North America – not bad for someone whose first hospitality job was as a singing server at a Sixties soda-pop burger shop Lick’s in Toronto. In the early days of her career she was a sommelier, a catering chef, before moving behind the bar and becoming someone who was always considered to be a distillation and cocktail expert. Twenty-seven years later and Mote is still considered that specialist.

©  Jonathan Chovancek

Over prepare, over deliver

Mote’s career began in the thick of a Canadian food and drink revolution. In 2007 she moved from Toronto to Vancouver to work with ‘Iron Chef’ Robert Fennie and sommelier Sebastien Le Goff at Lumiere to head up the bar team and create their bar programme and philosophy (terms that at the time were relatively new to the Canadian drinks community). Her and her peers had a drive to show the world the talent that existed in Canada.

She met her chef husband, Jonathan Chovancek, when she was 28 and the pair began to think of ways in which their individual talents could combine to fill gaps in the Canadian market. “We’re both obsessed with what we do – and the excellence of it all. We love to talk food, drink, ingredients, experience, we love to teach, we both like training and developing people. We just had the energy and vigour to keep doing more and more things.” They opened a boutique catering company and consultancy, Kale & Nori, in 2011, before starting their cocktail bitters brand, Bittered Sling.

Leading the charge was coming naturally to Mote: “Leadership was the natural thing for me to do, because my mum and grandmothers did it. They were leaders. I had the same energy and drive as them, the passion and the focus. I saw where we could take things, I had the background – it just felt like it was the right time and place.” She found herself on the cover of magazines, Chovancek on the TV: “We maximised every opportunity.”

Competing also became a very strong string in Mote’s multi-faceted bow – she loved to perform and create special experiences for people. For her first competition she ‘over prepared and over delivered’, winning 500 Canadian dollars which she quickly spent on drinks for her fellow competitors – the money was gone in an hour. Then, in 2010, she won Grey Goose Iconoclast, and in 2015, World Class Canada, placing in the top 12 at its finals in South Africa and competed the day after her wedding. “Canada was new to the global stage during around 2013-2018; in one competition alone, I made 43 different cocktails and experiences.”

Just keep going

When it comes to the women she looks to for inspiration, Mote looks both to those she came up in the industry before and during her career (Julie Reiner, Claire Warner and Charlotte Voisey) as well as those who are making the industry their own right now (Kate Boushel, Evelyn Chick, Christina Veira, Millie Tang, Lauren ‘LP’ O’Brien, Roberta Mariani, Kaitlin Wilkes, Giulia Cuccurrulo, Mor Koral, Gina Barbachano). The latter camp’s ability to use the tools they have today to impact their career is something Mote admires: “They’re almost more powerful than everybody. They have the ability to harness their power and use social media to really stand up for what they believe in and represent their generation.”

Someone Mote especially resonates with is her close friend Dani Tatarin, a bartender she came up in her career in Vancouver with and who is responsible for putting Canada’s The Keefer Bar on the international map. (Tatarin now owns a small-batch mezcal brand Gota Gorda, and operates a Mezcaleria in Zipolite, Mexico.) “When we worked in Vancouver we faced so much sexism and harassment in our respective workplaces and with other people in the industry. We just kept going because back then it was normal… but I’d like to think Dani and I together with lots of other women in the Canadian and US industry helped to move the needle a lot.”

They wanted to do right by the women in their industry, and 10 years ago Mote and Tatarin partnered with Ivy Mix and Lynette Marrero to bring the Speed Rack all-female speed bartending competition to Canada. “We had always been connected with other women and firms in the industry and it was about sharing the mic and creating opportunities for our community.” They worked hard to be recognised for awards and having that mic meant using it to its full advantage. “All of a sudden you’re on a stage in front of your entire industry with a microphone. What are you going to say? For me, it was always about looking for the right space to talk about the things that truly mattered, and how the industry, together, could really make a difference in people’s lives if we focused in the right direction, with the right narrative.”

Take up space

A decade later and Mote is one of the industry’s most looked-up-to mentors. Having spent most of her career with people looking to her for the answers, the transition into mentorship was a natural one. “I don't know that there was ever a transition from me seeking mentorship to suddenly people looking to me for mentorship. I just felt like me because I was always a supervisor, I was always a manager, I always felt like I was in a constant position of mentoring and training… it just sort of became what it was.” In her current role with PATRÓN Tequila mentorship is central to all the global advocacy programming. Since joining the company, Mote has brought numerous industry leaders to the programme, shaping new ways of providing education, support and inspiration for the bartending community that engages with the Tequila category.

Unsurprisingly, she is constantly educating herself and there are learnings from numerous books that she uses every single day without even noticing it: RealTime Coaching: A Simple, Practical Approach for People Who Rely on Others to Create Results (‘every piece of constructive feedback is sandwiched with positive reinforcement on either side’) and books over the years focused on developing leadership styles with more ‘outside the box’ thinking when it comes to personal development.

The future of the industry will rely on communication, preparing to pass the baton and looking at our individual legacies, says Mote. A drive for diversity and inclusion is at the forefront of her mind too: “Every time you put together a group, a project, a panel or a judging set, there has to be diversity of thought, of people from different backgrounds, countries, parts of the industry, cultural backgrounds… and you've got to be both non-negotiable and ever-present on this topic. Don’t wait for someone to provide an opportunity, take the space where you see it, and fill it with goodness.”

When it comes to her own future, Mote is focusing more on the journey than the destination. “I'm also non-negotiable on certain things I want for my life, as we must have boundaries, and must be vocal on those boundaries, but otherwise, I’m going to go with the flow and be super open to what comes in the direction I’m pointed. I'm going to do my best. It's going to be challenging at times, but I'm really into what I'm doing. I see the impact… I think that when we get too rigid in what we want the future to look like for ourselves, it causes more disappointment than it does excitement – and I just want to be excited, present and fulfilled.”