Elisabeth Forsythe is a local bartending legend, a mixologist who’s crafted elevated libations at legendary taverns, popular dives, old River Walk haunts and too many places to count, including one restaurant that shuttered in a shroud of scandal.
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Remember Barbaresco Tuscan Grill & Enoteca? Forsythe tended its bar before leaving for The Esquire Tavern in 2012. “It was a better offer,” she said.
Soon after, Barbaresco closed and came under federal investigation. The owner, Alejandro Sánchez Garza, was sentenced in 2013 to five years in prison for laundering Mexican drug cartel money through the restaurant.
“People would come in and be like, ‘Oh this has to be a front,’” Forsythe said, recalling the scarcity of patrons. “I’d be like, ‘Guys, come on. …’ I used to defend it. I used to be like, ‘No, that can’t be true.’”
What’s true is a bartending reputation accelerated after going to The Esquire. Fourteen years later, Forsythe’s career has evolved into a gig she did not expect. She directs bar at two Pearl establishments: Best Quality Daughter, an Asian-fusion eatery, and Jue Let, a new cocktail bar.
Under James Beard-nominated chef Jennifer Dobbertin, who owns both venues, Forsythe no longer pours. “I don’t bartend anymore,” she said. “I miss it a lot.”
While she still creates drinks and beverage menus, Forsythe built her reputation behind the bar. Her stops include the Davenport Lounge, Blue Box Bar, Rosella at the Rand and The Monterey, all of which have closed, and Silo and Hot Joy, where she met Dobbertin. She left the bar industry to work at Twin Liquors until Dobbertin persuaded her to help launch Best Quality Daughter in 2020 and Jue Let in 2025.
The San Antonio Report conducted a Q&A with Forsythe to discuss bartending, mixology, Jue Let and crafting elevated drinks.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How difficult is it to divide your time between Best Quality Daughter and Jue Let?
Best Quality Daughter kind of runs like a machine. And Jue Let has been this immense project. I’m lucky that Best Quality Daughter runs so well with the team they have over there. I couldn’t do it in both places without them. I spend more time here (at Jue Let) because it needs more attention.
How is business at Jue Let since it launched in November?
Opening right before Thanksgiving, it was insane. Pearl around the holidays is just packed with people. Every day. The foot traffic. The buzz around us opening. We were just nonstop everyday, really, through the end of the year. The first couple of weeks in January became slower. Everybody’s kind of socially fatigued. But then we came right back. Saturday is generally our busiest night. It can get packed in here.
Jue Let is the only place at Pearl open until 2 a.m. What have the post-midnight hours been like for you?
I’m not ever here that late. I’m here during the day, making sure we have a great team of bar leads and managers that stay through service until they close down.
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You no longer tend bar. So what do you do at Best Quality Daughter and Jue Let?
I oversee operations. That would be like creative development and program development. Educating the staff. Building the back bar and the education around that. It’s a lot of ordering product right now until I can delegate that to someone. It’s a lot of counting and purchasing.
So you’re the mixologist who doesn’t mix drinks?
I make the drinks and then I teach someone else how to make them. We have Goodjuice (at Tequila Weekend) coming up. We’re doing cocktails for the cocktail competition and I have to come up with those recipes.
Tell me about the competition. Pearl says featured drinks will come from Southerleigh, Sternewirth, Brasserie Mon Chou Chou, Jue Let, Best Quality Daughter and others.
Goodjuice is an agave festival and there’s a cocktail competition associated with it. Several spots from around Pearl will be competing. Each place will be doing their own drink. A panel of judges will vote on them. And then there’s a People’s Choice Award.
I understand you’ve been tending bar since college. Is that right?
I had been going to UT [in Austin]. My major was biology. I was going to be a doctor. Then I realized I didn’t like school enough to do that. So I left school. I got into bartending because I heard it was good money.
Where did you begin to work?
I got an apartment here in Southtown and started bartending at Bayous on the Riverwalk. And from there, I went to a little dive bar called Alibi’s. I went from there to the Davenport, which is iconic. I unlocked the door on the first day and I locked the door on the last. That was the first place I ever worked where I felt the magic that we breathe.
What was so great about the Davenport?
The people. The guests. A lot of beautiful encounters. We had the cast of the The Lion King when they first started touring on Broadway. They were here for like six weeks. They were staying at the hotel across the street and they would come in here every night. It was an amazingly diverse group of people from New York, Dallas, Africa, from all over the place, and with so much talent.
What is the ambition of Jue Let?
I do wanna be the best and I think we are the best. But that doesn’t mean I think anybody else is not good. We do strive. I do think we have the best cocktails.
What is the best drink at Jue Let?
That’s like asking who’s my favorite child. It’s really hard. The drink that has been most widely received in popularity is called “God Loves Figs.” That one’s fun. It’s a banger. It’s just so easy to drink. We do fig leaf infused white rum with coconut water, falernum, lime juice and orgeat.
Where did you get the name for that drink?
My sister has a fig tree in her front yard. And I had been reading about the culinary use of fig leaves. So I got some big leaves from my sister’s tree and started experimenting with an infusion. Originally, it was going to be called Sister Tree. So the cocktail was inspired by that.
How did you develop your craft and become a legendary mixologist?
Lots of practice. I’ve been bartending since 2000. I came by [excellence] by sticking it out longer than anybody.
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