James Reddicliffe

NEW YORK — Growing up in Vermont, Ivy Mix would rise at dawn to spend her Sundays riding horses. But when she became a bartender in New York City, Sundays were all about sleeping in.

These days Mix, 33, is busy as a co-owner of Leyenda (Spanish for “legend”), a “pan-Latin cocktail bar” in Cobble Hill that specializes in drinks like the Spicy Llama (pineapple, tequila, pisco and jalapeño). Leyenda was a James Beard Award semifinalist for outstanding bar program this year.

Mix, who lives in Crown Heights, is also the head of Speed Rack, an international bartending competition that she founded nine years ago. It features top female bartenders in head-to-head timed cocktail challenges, and has raised nearly $1 million for breast cancer charities. The next New York competition is scheduled for Nov. 18.

EASY START: Not that this is a massive surprise but I am not the biggest morning person on the planet. I make my tea, kind of putz around and then I walk my two dogs.

I live really close to Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, which is just a really beautiful place to walk. Usually I will take them and walk to Mount Prospect Park, right next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which has a dog run. My dogs are kind of anti-social; they’re more people-dogs than dog-dogs. I try to make them hang out there.

FORAGING: I usually head back to my house. I have never been a breakfast person; I nosh throughout the day. Especially now, living in Crown Heights, I am really lucky that so many places are opening. My friend Claire opened up a place called Hunky Dory on Franklin Avenue, which I love to visit. Brunch is so bananas on Sunday there, so often I’ll get a quick coffee and say, “Hey, you guys are slammed, see you later.”

JUST STOPPING BY…: I usually make my way to Leyenda because we get very busy and we only have a server and a bartender on. I just have to check in.

RED HOOK: The thing I always try to do is go shopping at Fairway and drinking at Fort Defiance. I love Red Hook; I used to work at Fort Defiance, that was my first real bartending job, and I really love it there. I love the vibe, especially in the summer, which can be kind of busy, but the windows are open and that’s really nice. I eat some oysters, have some rosé, drink some Irish coffee, get my groceries and head home. Then I usually walk the dogs again.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: My identical twin sister just moved a block away from me. She is going to have a baby in September. I’m sure that will be a big part of my life. I usually go hang out with her on her little front lawn. I bought her a kiddie pool since she has to be pregnant in New York in the summer. We end up lounging and I probably end up drinking more wine.

EXPLORING: Sunday evenings are one of the things in New York City that people don’t take advantage of enough and I’m guilty of it too. I’ll try to go to a place I wouldn’t normally want to go to or have the time to go to on a busy weekend. I like to go check places out when it’s a little slower and see what’s up and see if it is still as good as when you went there on a Thursday. I always sit at the bar.

QUICK, SOMETHING HEALTHY: Usually I like to go home and eat something healthy. I try to make a nice fresh something because often I’ve been drinking all day. I don’t want to sound like a complete lush, but it’s been Irish coffees and chicken liver mousse. Sunday is an indulgent day so for dinner I try to do something like a salad.

BOOK THERAPY: I am quasi-obsessed with our current political situation, and it’s really hard to look away. But on Sundays I have a no-politics thing. Usually I pick up a book. We have Books Are Magic right next to the bar, which is a great bookstore.

My family decided one Christmas right when the economy crashed that we weren’t going to give gifts that people were never going to use — let’s give books. We started the family book club where we all buy one book for all of us, we all read it and then when we get together we talk about it.

ANOTHER WORLD: I do yoga early on Monday mornings so I don’t really want to be up late, and hopefully I haven’t had too much to drink. I have a glass of red wine in bed and read my book and focus on something, or some world that is not ours, in a way that makes my mind escape.

This article originally appeared in

(Sunday Routine)

Slow Walk Is the Tonic for a Busy Week

His father always had the same response: “I am doing creative nothing.” Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery for 24 years, said that it was not until he “was well into adulthood” that he finally understood what the phrase meant.

The author of “The Good Beer Book” and “The Brewmaster’s Table,” Oliver, 56, is a busy man. The editor of “The Oxford Companion to Beer” can also be found judging beer competitions around the world, or creating recipes at the brewery in Williamsburg, as well as at its outpost at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. But on Sundays Oliver is all about doing creative nothing. He has lived in a brick carriage house in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, since 1996.

NOWHERE MAN: Unless I’m going to the beach, I am not going anywhere until at least 12:30 or 1 p.m. That’s my chill out time. Breakfast can easily take an hour and a half. I French press my coffee, and sit there with my iPad.

ANYTHING GOES OMELET: I eat the same thing every morning — yogurt, granola. But on Sundays it will be French toast, it will be omelets, leftover omelets. My favorite of the year was mapo tofu, a spicy tofu dish my friend made, so I had the leftovers and I made an omelet. It was unbelievable! Things you might never think of, like cassoulet, make a great omelet. Texas chili, that makes a great omelet. Anything that has ground meat and a lot of spice makes a great omelet.

READING, WRITING: I’m a paper reader but on the iPad. I read The New York Times, I read New York magazine, I read The Guardian. I bounce around a little bit. I write a fair bit here and there as well. Right now I don’t have anything due, but if I promise somebody an article or a review, Sunday is going to be the day that I set aside for that.

JUST THE BASICS: I try to fit in some kind of a workout in the afternoon or into the evening. Just the basics. I’ve got weights, I do push-ups, all that good stuff. If I don’t do my certain routine, I can’t say I’ve exercised.

NICHE SHOPPING: Christie’s is an auction house and most people think that normal people can’t go because it’s where you sell paintings for $60 million. It turns out that Christie’s has a lot of really cheap stuff. It’s like a museum with a constantly changing exhibit. You might see the entire contents of some mansion. I have two 1920s French club chairs that I bought there which are not only much more comfortable and better built than stuff you would buy today in a good store in New York, but they’re like half the price. It’s pretty entertaining. It’s like a flea market but with much better coffee. If there’s any shopping that I need to do I’ll do that while I’m up there. I might hit the Lobster Place in Chelsea Market; you can buy lobster parts. That’s where I go if I’m going to make lobster stock.

THE BIG PICTURE: I either go to the movies at Battery Park City or Turtle Bay. I go for the overall cool crowd and good seating, good-size screens. Those are great theaters.

FREE-FORM: I hit the Brooklyn Inn around 5 if I am going to meet someone. If I’m having people over, it starts at 6. Stuff starts early on Sunday, and everything is over by like 9. I like to chill into the evening. Sunday is an impromptu day where I get in touch with people around 2 and say, hey, what are you doing? Saturday has plans, Sunday is free-form.

THE GOODS: I might go to Los Paisanos on Smith Street. They have a great selection of sausages. I’ll pick up some sausage, cavatelli and whatever kind of cheese they sell at Stinky Bklyn. I’ll do the cavatelli, take the skins off the sausage and put it with some cheese and broccolini, and that’s really good. I serve as many other types of drinks at home as I do beer. When I serve beers they are often unreleased special beers from the brewery we call the “Ghost Bottles” — strange, fun things!

20-MINUTE RULE: I have a rule for dinner parties, called the 20-minute rule. After people leave I’m willing to do 20 minutes of dishes. At the end of that 20 minutes, the cleanup is over and whatever is left is going to be done the next day. There is always Monday morning.

How the Brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery Spends His Sundays

NEW YORK — When Garrett Oliver was growing up in Hollis, Queens, he would implore his father to “do this, or go do that.”

How the brewmaster of Brooklyn brewery spends his Sundays

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James Reddicliffe

Articles written by the author

Slow Walk Is the Tonic for a Busy Week

How the brewmaster of Brooklyn brewery spends his Sundays