Mononoke Colada
flavors through cocktails and food. Many bartenders would take a classic like a Margarita and swap out the base liquor, the sweetener, the citrus and add bitters to create new flavors. Whereas she would try a dish and try to turn it into a cocktail. Or maybe tasting alcohol that tastes like rye bread would inspire her to make a drink that invoked the Reuben sandwich. She built the flavors and added ingredients based on what she was looking for. Instead of changing the ingredients, she created something brand new from the ground up. “How do we turn Pad Thai into a cocktail?” or “what would a Tom Kha soup taste like as a drink?” These were the questions that emerged. She started having a lot of fun behind the bar, and the idea blew up from there. The same effort and care also went into the mocktails to make sure that every component was on point.
main stadium of the US Open Tennis Championship in Queens. And they have a cap that nothing is allowed to be more than $8 so everything has tiny portions—perfect for sharing. I think [I’ve had] 30 different cuisines all in one night. I love the night market.” Even within New York, however, some things have changed. For example, there was a time when people would not go to Brooklyn. Even fifteen years ago, people thought it was a bridge too far for them to cross. “And now, you know, I wouldn’t go to Manhattan if I didn’t have to,” she says. In November 2019, a few months before COVID-19 hit, Chef Fernandes opened a restaurant. She was heavily involved in crafting the cocktails and dealing with the kitchen. They reopened about seven weeks into the pandemic, and she had to create a new bar program from scratch. She took a new approach to expressing
restaurants, the city’s heat and urban sprawl eventually drove her to look for new opportunities in New York City. After she moved, the first thing that struck her was the similarities between Toronto and New York, with different neighborhoods concentrated in different parts of town. Korea Town, Chinatown, the Italian areas, small Thai communities, and more—they all shared the same city. If someone takes the subway to Queens, they will travel through many different counties and regions. Whichever stop one decides to venture to, there are always possibilities waiting. People can savor the best tacos from a particular street stand. And just a few blocks away, mouthwatering Indian dosas and sweets await. As another example, “There’s this thing called Queens Night Market, which is an incredible concept,” she says. “It’s a huge space out near the
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