Bartenders are required to operate with a Swiss Army Knife skillset – creativity as mixologists, knowledge of sometimes obscure drinks that customers crave, listening and communications skills to serve as sounding boards for their regulars, de facto conflict de-escalators when an environment gets a little too crazy, and generally any other responsibilities as they pop up while doing whatever it takes to create welcoming vibes in their establishments. The Art of Bartending is a Flint. Daily. series that shares the unique characteristics of some of Flint’s favorite barkeeps. Have a favorite Flint bartender you think we should feature? Email team@flintdaily.news.
Sheena Harrison tends to be on the quiet and reserved side in her personal life. But those traits don’t necessarily work when she’s behind a bar doing a job that is known for requiring big, social personalities, or when she’s operating in her capacity as an entrepreneur trying to network and build clients for her bartending school, bartending services, event experiences, or her Fruits of Elegance food and drink truck. That’s where “Essence” comes in.
“I always tell them (bartending students), pick out an alter ego that you want to be or could see yourself being while you’re at work, and when you’re a bartender, be that person,” Harrison said. “My school is called Drinks of Essence, so everyone thinks that’s my name anyway, so I just become Essence. Sheena is really reserved, but Essence, she talks to everybody, she’s doing everything, she’s out in the community listening, giving advice, helping.”
Harrison, a Flint Northern graduate, received a version of that advice herself once. Years ago, she went to a Chamber of Commerce networking event, but felt out of place and shy because she didn’t know anyone. She talked to a few people if they approached her, but left the event feeling like she’d missed an opportunity. A mentor she called afterwards reminded her of the need for Sheena and Essence to work in unison.
“He kept asking me, ‘Who are you?,’” she said. “And he just read back to me some of my accomplishments and pointed out that I deserve to be in those places and circles and that people need to know who I am. He reminded me that you can’t get in your own way. If people don’t like you, who gives a hell, they’ll throw your card away. But if they do, they’ll keep it. The next time there was a meeting, I made sure I worked the room, introduced myself, and did my thing.”
Harrison’s list of accomplishments as a business owner are lengthy. She runs Drinks of Essence, the only bartending school in mid-Michigan, out of her downtown Flint location in Buckham Alley. She also provides bartending services for private events and hosts a variety of her own private workshops and event experiences in that space, including company team-building events, parties, and other celebrations or social occasions where people can do an activity, listen to music, and learn some bartending tricks.
Harrison’s foundation, though, started with bartending. While she was a student at Oakland University, she worked as a bartender and server at bars and restaurants near campus in Rochester and Pontiac. At the time, though, she was pursuing a sociology degree and her goal was to become a social worker, which she did after graduating. However, shortly after her daughter was born, her position was eliminated and she found herself at a crossroads. She decided to use that moment to revisit and enhance an old skill.
“What is something that I can do that nobody could ever take from me?,” she remembers thinking at the time. “And so it was just like, educate yourself and learn a great skill and just be the best at that skill. I was just at home and something just clicked and I thought … bartending school.”
She found a bartending school in Detroit and added to her repertoire. She moved back to Flint with her certification and got a job at Luxe Lounge, an old Flint bar that used to be on Bristol Road. She remembers the owner not being accustomed to meeting someone with an actual certification in bartending.
“He laughed at me, but was like, you know what? Since you’re the only one that came in here with an actual certification, I’m gonna give you a shot,” Harrison said.
She moved up quickly in the company, and became the bar manager and hospitality director, training other staff members. She also started getting approached by people then and asked if she’d bartend their weddings or private events, and that got her thinking even deeper about ways she could turn her skill into a business venture.
She launched the bartending for hire portion of Drinks of Essence in 2015. Originally, it provided bartending setup and services at events, spiked treats, Jello shots, and other items and packages that she sold out of the back of her truck. She’d do bridal and baby showers and other themed parties, creating custom drinks and treats depending on who her clientele were for each event and what they were celebrating.
“I was hustling,” Harrison said. “That’s how I grew my following.”
Shortly thereafter, she began to realize she needed to diversify her offerings beyond just alcohol-based products to grow her business more. That’s how Fruits of Elegance was developed in 2016. Fruits of Elegance began within brick and mortar locations, first within another business on Ballenger Highway and then on Flushing Road. That portion of her business went dormant for a while, but now, she has a food truck and a small trailer that has become a popular attraction at events and offers a wide range of non-alcoholic slushies, smoothies, Italian ice, snowcones, caramel apples, and other treats and fresh fruits.
Over the years, she also began to hear from people who had their own interest in learning various aspects of the bartending business and getting certified in it. She also noticed that there weren’t many options for people pursuing that type of certification – the school she’d attended in Detroit closed just before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when the idea for creating a bartending school through Drinks of Essence was formulated. Harrison began building her curriculum, speaking with trusted mentors and consultants, and getting started.
She originally ran the school out of a small location on Flushing Road. There, she discovered people had an appetite for it, and she expanded to a location on Maple Road. The only problem with that location, which is in line with an industry as social as bartending, is that it wasn’t in an area that was pedestrian-friendly. Now, the school lives in a prime location downtown Flint in Buckham Alley, a spot Harrison had eyed for years before making the move.
“I wanted to be able to see outside or have people be able to see inside my business,” she said. “We kept hearing people say, ‘Yeah, I ride past there all the time!’ And I’m like, ‘well, why don’t you come in?!’ When we got a tip that this place (in Buckham Alley) was becoming available, I came and looked and I just manifested it. I used to literally leave school and come down here and drive past it and stalk.”
All of Harrison’s licensing and other requirements to become a bartending school went through in 2019, and now Drinks of Essence is officially the only bartending school in mid-Michigan. The owners of the building she’s in now were particular about the type of business they wanted in the building. The fact that she’s a school and not a bar, and that she’s brought the only business of its type in this region of the state to Flint, were positive selling points in her favor. Renovations to the space and her move-in were completed around 2022, so she’s approaching three years next door to the Torch Bar and Grill, one of Flint’s most famous bars.
The location has also helped her form close connections to several businesses and organizations downtown. She regularly hosts networking and team-building events that other businesses book in her space, she’s on the boards for Friends of the Alley and the Downtown Small Business Association, and she’s an active Chamber of Commerce member.
“Moving here, my business just grew,” Harrison said. “Because we have a great location here, not to mention we’re right next to one of the staples of the community, you know? I just enjoy being a part of the community and giving back. Down here, I’m able to build those relationships and friendships.”
As for her own personal style as a bartender, she’s a big fan of artistic presentations. In particular, she loves working with dry ice to create “smoky” or cloud effects, and even experimenting with ice cubes themselves to add creative touches to drinks she’s making.
“I love to use dry ice because of the effect it creates, and everybody’s like, ‘oh my God, what is that?’ when they see it, it’s attention-getting,” Harrison said. “I like smoking a drink, like an old fashioned, too. And I have an ice cube maker where you can put different things in the ice, like at a baby shower that was bumblebee-themed, I put little bumblebees in the ice cubes in their mocktails. I just love all of the little intricate things like that that you don’t really see often.”
Harrison’s background in sociology is also a tool she can lean on for another critical component of a bartending job – being able to listen to customers when you never know what they are going to tell you or want to talk about.
“I always tell students, learn how to listen, just try not to give advice, just in case you give the wrong advice,” Harrison said. “It’s good to open up a little bit, but not tell them everything about you. But your regulars do like to know you and you build a rapport with people. And my degree was in sociology, so I was trained to look at the environment and what you’re surrounded by. So when I’m behind the bar, I have a different view than some other people because of that. But just having a smile and a nice personality and being willing to listen to people really goes a long way. The main thing is just respecting people and understanding that a lot of times, they’re coming to a bar to unwind and relax.”
In addition to her own experiences behind the bar, Harrison now has a growing network of students she’s taught who are now working in bars or at events around Flint and Genesee County. Drinks of Essence also has a private alumni group where graduates of the program keep in touch.
“I have bartenders at almost every bar downtown Flint,” she said. “And then I have them sprinkled around Flint too. I have some in Fenton. I have some, up north, some on the west side of the state. And I’m watching them on their social media too, and just to see them come in as this person that’s kind of reserved or they don’t know much about bartending, and then two months later they have a job and they’re talking to people or they started their own business and they’re mobile bartending and their confidence is up, that’s just a cool feeling.”
Graduates of the program receive a bartending certification and a ServSafe alcohol certification, which allows them to do events. Harrison also offers a wide range of mixology classes, which are meant for team building or parties or other casual, laid back social events. The business also provides mobile bartending services for hire for events, and Fruits of Elegance is available for events for a non-alcoholic option. Her services and events are regularly highlighted on her Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages.
Harrison is also continuing to think big for the future. She’d like to expand Drinks of Essence into an institute and add a liquor license so that she can do more for students.
“I want a bigger space and I want the space to have a liquor license so we can do in-house training and on the job training with our students, so they won’t hear, ‘do you have any experience?’ and have to answer nope (when they go on interviews),” Harrison said. “So we’re taking that out of there. We’re training them, certifying them, and then we’re giving them hands-on experience too. I want to use that as a hub for workforce development and have industry nights where we invite bar owners if they need staff, have hiring fairs, you know, just building out this big thing because nowhere in Michigan has anything like that. That’s what I wanna offer and I wanna offer it right here, downtown Flint.”
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