Mariena Mercer Boarini designs cocktails for more than 30 bars at the Wynn in Las Vegas
The mixologist at Wynn Las Vegas creates each menu as a story that tells the venue, from Wing Lei to the lake terrace.
“It’s the same story that the design is telling, that the chef is telling. I like to create immersive experiences through cocktails.”
When Mariena Mercer Boarini created the cocktail menu for Wing Lei, the hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant, she immersed herself in Chinese mythology, poetry, philosophy, art, and literature to tell a story in every drink. Wing Lei is the first Chinese restaurant in North America to receive this distinction.
It's a routine process for her, having created cocktails for the casino's more than 30 venues in almost two years in her current role. "Each menu is an ode to that venue, but it also tells a great story," she says. "It's the same story that the design tells, that the chef tells."
The process begins with a meeting with the chef about the restaurant's cuisine and continues with Wynn's design and development team. The final glass might be a coupe, a chalice, a flute, or a pineapple-shaped glass containing a margarita with a hint of habanero-infused agave.
For Wing Lei's cocktails, he drew inspiration from delicate flavors like lychee, persimmon, plum, and jasmine tea, as well as more intense ones such as black sesame, peanut, and Sichuan peppercorn. One of these is the Year of the Rabbit cocktail, featuring Bombay East gin, spiced pear, pomegranate, "White Cloud" (a foam of coconut, ginger, lemongrass, and egg white), and an edible "lucky rabbit" figurine.
Some recent creations are on display at Aft Cocktail Deck, the resort's open-air terrace at the Lake of Dreams, featuring cocktails inspired by Ibiza, Cozumel, Rio de Janeiro, and Monaco. Mercer Boarini finishes many of his cocktails with an edible perfume because, he argues, people have thousands of taste buds but millions of olfactory receptors.
The Wynn's cocktail kitchen prepares 60,000 gallons of drinks each year, which are then served to the resort's bars and restaurants. "Cocktails can and should be an art form," says Mercer Boarini.