E35 Olivia Lindstrom

This weeks guest is Olivia Lindstrom who currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born and raised in rural Eastern Pennsylvania, Olivia moved to Pittsburgh, PA after highschool to pursue a Biology degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Olivia had always gravitated towards science as a way to understand the world around her. After her laboratory job's project concluded in her junior year, Olivia decided to try her hand at serving to get through her final year of college. She spent 6 months working as a server at a restaurant attached to the DoubleTree hotel called the Bigelow Grille in downtown Pittsburgh.

In 2016 Olivia started working at Spork which would be the job that foraged her current career path. Spork is a chef owned restaurant dedicated to fresh and local ingredients. Olivia worked her way up from a backwaiter to bartender, but had a pretty unconventional path of getting there. She has only really defined herself as a bartender for the last 2 years. This was due to the fact the she had pursued wine pretty intensely before stepping behind the bar. Olivia successfully passed the Certified Sommelier Examination in 2018 through the Court of Master Sommeliers. At that time Olivia had fallen in love with the hospitality industry and also how a lot of it overlapped with her love of science.

While still working as the Sommelier, Wine Director, and bartending at Spork, Olivia decided she also wanted to try her hand at high volume craft cocktail bartending. She was able to get a job at one of her personal favorite bars in Pittsburgh, Acacia. Being a part of a smaller staff allowed for creative contributions and influence on general operations of the bar. 2018-2020 was a whirlwind of time for Olivia as she dedicated her time outside of work to the industry and gathering as much knowledge as possible.

After passing both her introduction and certified levels in the Court of Master Sommeliers, Olivia was also elected President of Pittsburgh's USBG chapter in 2019, nominated for Women in Whiskey through the local Brown Forman team, attended the 2019 Tales Of The Cocktail as a CAP, and was finally apart of the 2020 Team Taco at SACC.

Before the pandemic cancelled the majority of events Olivia was going to compete in Speed Rack for the first time and attend Camp Runamok. Since being laid off in March Olivia has made a move to Philadelphia and have been living the exciting life of unemployment and enjoying some much deserved down time.

Instagram: @liviajade

Podcast Artwork @zak.hannah