Wes Black keeps things classic at The Fix Cocktail Lounge
If you make your way up the narrow winding staircase off Houston Street, you’ll find Wes Black every weekend shaking drinks and taking orders behind a high top bar that’s quickly becoming Chattanooga’s worst kept secret: The Fix Cocktail Lounge.
Wes is the kind of guy you would expect to be serving cocktails at a private celebrity party somewhere in North Hollywood. He’s tall, exuberantly friendly, and rocks a neatly tucked man-bun that perfectly fits the dimly lit ambience of the casual cocktail scene.
“What can I get ya?” he asks, this week’s drink list is written beside the bar on a giant thematic chalkboard where the “Frackin’ Whiskey Coke” catches my eye more than anything else. “I want to try the Sarah’s Secret,” I reply, a cocktail that’s become nothing short of an urban legend around town.
The “secret” of the “Sarah’s Secret” is that Wes Black is far from new to the local bartending scene. He got his start casually bartending about five years ago at Local 191, found out he loved the art of cocktails, and quickly moved to Easy Bistro to expand his bartending arsenal.
From there, Wes helped open the bar at Feed Table & Tavern. In April of 2016, he was approached by a former bartending colleague about a new cocktail lounge opening right above the Bitter Alibi off Houston Street. Again, he helped to open another bar, but this time it was his specialty—a cocktail lounge.
“Everyone that knows me knows my style of bartending is laid back and fun,” Wes admits, noting his primary objective at the end of every night is to get people drunk regardless of how pretentious they think their cocktail palates actually are.
He often likes to play with fire, use silly straws, and even invite patrons to challenge his abilities by proposing ridiculous cocktail ideas that he usually delivers on. “The whole idea of The Fix,” Wes begins explaining, “is so people can try something new in a casual setting.”
Of all the bartenders in town, Wes takes the phrase “trying something new” to the next level. Most of his signature drinks, like the Coco-Loco (cold brew, aged rum, and a secret coconut syrup), come from a laid back approach to cocktail creation where putting a new spin on each and every serving always yields a fantastic result.
In 2017, Wes took home the “Judge’s Choice” award at the Chattanooga Bartender Brawl using the same basic philosophy that has made his work at The Fix so unique. His notoriety for thinking differently about cocktails has spread quickly around the bar scene since he joined The Fix a few years back.
On any given night, you’ll often catch a bartender from one of the many well-to-do cocktail lounges stopping in to get a quick drink from Wes. It’s the only place in town where they can get their minds off the overpriced Mint Juleps and Gin & Tonics they’ve been serving all week. And Wes Black, happy to fix anyone exactly what they might be craving, can do just that.