About Chantal

Chantal Tseng

Chantal Tseng loves just about anything fermented and poured, as she tells it, but especially wine, tea and cocktails. She’s turned that love into over 20 years of serving drinks as a bartender, bar manager and part-time Sommelier.

Her regularly scheduled passion of the last eight years is running the “Literary Cocktails” series formerly based out of the Reading Room of the now closed Petworth Citizen, where every weekend she created specialty cocktail menus that are inspired by classic and contemporary literature. The pandemic changed all that but she now monthly collaborates with Baan Siam. She also hosts specialty Absinthe nights dubbed “5th Absinthe Thursdays” and other events such as “Vinomorphy,” a menu of wine and the cocktails they transform into with haiku pairings, PUNCH.BOOK.LOVE, a book club featuring novellas, short stories, poetry and punch. On top of that you can join her ongoing Sherry & Christie Book Club that meets every 2nd or 3rd Sunday of the month via local DC bookshop, Loyalty Bookstores. Check out the events page to keep up to speed!

Tabard Cocktail
Tabard Cocktail

In the past, she held the rank of original Bar Manager and Senior Bartender of the country’s first ever Sherry Bar, Mockingbird Hill, where she created and managed the winelist and cocktail program. She was named EaterDC’s 2013 Bartender of the Year and one of Daily Meal’s 25 Top Bartenders in America. She was the first Head Mixologist for the historic Tabard Inn where she created the TABARD COCKTAIL, which was featured in one of her favorite publications, Imbibe. Lastly, she was the co-founder of Redeye Menus, a sherry pairing dinner social club that paired sherry with Asian food.

A true student of all things liquid, she is a Bar Ready graduate of the B.A.R. program, a Certified Sommelier via the Court of Master Sommeliers and a Certified Sherry Educator from the Consejo Regulador in Jerez. You might find Chantal freelancing as a Sherry educator, teaching virtual wine or cocktail classes, promoting the local library, cat-sitting, doing some freelance chalk art or simply playing a mean game of pool. You can definitely find her posting regularly on Twitter and Instagram as @shinobipaws.

Some links below of published recipes & what not: