National Brand Ambassador Jaz’min Weaver
Bardstown Bourbon
Jaz’min Weaver has always had a way with words.
Frame’s former resident cocktail “mixtress” — a title she made for herself (“like a bartender but hotter”) — grew up in a small town in rural Michigan and left to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on a full ride scholarship to study English and sexuality.
After college, Jaz’min decamped to Los Angeles, only to return a year later to her home state to settle in Ferndale.
While writing an article for a local newspaper on the short-lived but beloved Torino restaurant in Ferndale, she was instead offered a job as hostess at Garrett Lipar’s tasting menu gem. After a few months hosting, Torino lost a bartender and Jaz’min moved to barback. She began crafting cocktails herself shortly thereafter.
“I fell into bartending,” Jaz’min says. “It was completely accidental. But as soon as I started doing that, I quit writing and trying to write for a living because I found something I like to do so much more.”
Torino was the first place she mixed a drink for the public. But by the time she left, she was head bartender.
“I love hosting,” she says. “I think part of it is that I like attention and I like taking care of people. Bartending gives me the outlet for both.”
From Torino, Jaz’min moved on to open the Spanish tapas restaurant La Dulce in Royal Oak, the seafood-focused Voyager in Ferndale with fellow Frame bartender Kevin Hickner, and Detroit’s fragrance bar Castalia, before landing behind the stick at Frame, where she drove the curated cocktail program for both FRAMEbar and the ever-changing lineup of chef collaborations at Frame, selling out cocktail workshops on the regular.
Jaz’min recently departed from daily duties at Frame to become the national brand ambassador for Bardstown Bourbon Company, where she travels the country educating the industry on one of our favorite new bourbon brands.
Find her on Instagram: @garnishdarling