Makenzie Helem

The Climb

College hospitality work gave Makenzie Helem a first read on service, but the bar at Miller's Back Door in Bellingham, Washington, gave that work form. Behind the bar, where timing, attention, and improvisation have to hold together on the fly, she found the point where hospitality stops being general labor and becomes drink making with intent. "That's where my love for bartending and enthusiasm around creating cocktails really came to life," she says.

Today

Since 2024, Makenzie Helem has also served as judge of Bartender Spirits Awards, extending her role in the trade from making cocktails to evaluating them. The move keeps her close to the same standards that shaped her behind the bar: structure, balance, and a clear sense of what a drink is trying to do.

Signature

Creating cocktails is the center of Makenzie Helem's work. Her style leans toward experimentation, with kitchen techniques and food elements moving into the glass as working tools rather than novelty. That gives her drinks a practical kind of curiosity: built to test how ingredients, methods, and texture can meet without losing balance.

In Their Words “That's where my love for bartending and creating cocktails really came to life.” “I love experimenting with kitchen techniques or incorporating food aspects into my drinks.”

Recognition

The part of the craft that holds Makenzie Helem's attention is the unseen build behind a finished drink. A menu description that raises a question—how does that work, how does it taste, how was it made—signals the kind of cocktail she wants to understand. That curiosity is a useful barroom habit: it keeps the focus on process, and on the mechanics that let a drink read clearly before the first sip.