Meet Missy Flynn, London's cool-girl of cocktails

It’s a scorching summer’s day in July and I’m sipping an ice-cool agua fresca at the bar of Bodega Rita’s in Brown’s East, Shoreditch. House music booms out across the shop floor, the space is lively and loud and the bar is colourful, all deep amber hues that evoke scenes of a Mexican sunset, brought to life even more by the greenery and plants dotted around the counter. I’m here in this Mexican oasis to meet Missy Flynn.

Known for clever flavour innovations and a penchant for all things Mexican, Missy worked with industry heavyweights (huge names, like Dre Masso, Henry Besant, Nick Strangeway and Will Beckett, to name a few) in some of the hottest bars in London before breaking out on her own to set up Rita’s Bar & Dining restaurant (which closed last summer), Bodega Rita's (currently in Brown's East), as well as a Rita's travelling pop-up that’s seen spirited nights in Paris, LA and New York.

Ahead of Rita’s return to London - the original restaurant is back with a bang at Redchurch Brewery next month - we met up to talk mezcal, the rise of considered drinking, and Missy’s signature drinks order.

Where did your love of Mexican flavours begin?

"My first proper bar job was in a goth-themed cocktail bar, complete with cocktails in test tubes, and it was enough for me to really to get into that energy. From there I went on to places like All Star Lanes, then eventually 69 Colebrooke Row, Quo Vadis and Hawksmoor. I discovered my love of Mexican spirits and flavours, when I was working at a bar in Notting Hill called Crazy Homies, which was run by Leo Besant. Leo had this affinity with Mexico, and this bar kind of opened up this whole world to me. I was really taken by tequila and it became a natural speciality for my bartending. And it’s been a focus for me ever since."

What can people expect from one of your bars?

"The most amazing thing for me is being able to play around. My interest has always been bringing experiences to people, and kind of demystifying them. To use the bar as a vehicle for other things, like conveying ingredients, and atmosphere and stories. It's thinking about what little quirks can we bring into the space. I always thought the best service was in a dive bar in America, where you can just sit and chill and drink a beer, so when it comes to my projects, I want to make use of the amazing training I’ve been so lucky to have, but also use mine and my partner Gabe’s personalities to make a kind of elevated dive bar.

The drinks at Rita’s were all about being fresh and seasonal, while using up waste ingredients from the kitchen that might otherwise get thrown out; things like making shrubs and vinegars from tops of the fruits that are chopped up, and so on. I love these sensibilities, ingredients and how they’re used, and it forms our ethos of "simple, well-made drinks” something we carry today and onwards to future projects."

How do you channel your creativity into cocktails?

"For me it’s about dissecting familiar flavours and seeing if there’s a way to look at them differently, or finding flavours where they don't necessarily exist. For instance, everyone knows that Mexico is famous for lime and chilli, but when you go there, there’s the smell of corn everywhere, the smell of dried chilli… that’s not a flavour necessarily, but it evokes something, and I’m really intent on bringing that in.

In a couple of weeks I’m doing a takeover at Bao and I’ll be mixing up the ‘Rita’s’ flavours of corn with flavours prevalent in Eastern food. Tahini is a flavour that works in different ways. I want to know if you can find the middle bit - the epicentre of sesame - and work around it. Then how do we find the epicentre of corn and work around that? So I’m experimenting with bringing in sweetcorn, and then dried corn, and then corn tortilla, and so on. And then, the flavour of lime is really interesting, but what's the flavour of the lime skin, what's the flavour of a burnt lime, versus a dried lime, and how can they work together? It’s about playing with all of these things on the peripheral."

What current trends have piqued your interest?

"I think as a whole we’re drinking less in general, and the way that people drink is far more considered. A few years ago people were happy, or maybe oblivious, that they were knocking back sugar syrup constantly. Now we’re a lot more educated about what’s in our food and drinks, and we’re seeing much better alternatives to sugars and sweeteners. We use agave nectar, and date syrup, coconut sugars and stuff like that. Which is more expensive, but people are willing to pay more now because they’re drinking less but they expect more, so every ingredient needs to be considered."

Has the vegan movement hit cocktails too?

Yeah, the whole vegan side of things is really fun. The category of drink known as sours would generally have some sort of egg white in it, for example, a whisky sour typically has whisky, some sort of sugar, citrus and egg white. Now there’s a movement to make those things vegan friendly by using chickpea water, which froths and binds in a very similar way. So that's super interesting. I’ve been having lots of fun with Baileys Almande, which is their new vegan version, and is great to mix cocktails with.

So, are the days of hedonism are over?

People think that the movement towards healthy eating means that people don't want to have any fun anymore, but actually they just want to have better fun, or ‘better for them’ fun. We thought we were being hedonistic when we were putting popping candy in things in the 2000s but not really. I think the most hedonistic thing is just to have a long summer night and drink two bottles of Mezcal with a friend. Surely that’s it, to just be topped up with something just really delicious.

What’s your perfect drink?

Tequila and soda is one of the best drinks around. You know when they called vodka tonic a skinny bitch? I call tequila soda the skinny hot bitch. But my usual is tequila, or mezcal. Always neat.

Catch Missy at Bodega Rita’s at Brown’s Fashion East in Shoreditch, at her Bao London restaurant takeover in Fitzrovia on the July 19. Or, head to Hackney’s Redchurch Brewery in August, where Missy together with her partner, chef Gabriel Pryce, will be bringing Rita’s restaurant back for a takeover, as well as brewing a special beer with friend and Redchurch head brewer, Jack Dobbie.

Keep an eye on Instagram @missyflynn @ritasdining for details.

Abbie Moulton is ES Lifestyle's wine and drink columnist. Follow her @abbiemoulton.