Lynnette Marrero

Co-Founder of Speed Rack, MasterClass host, and award-winning bartender, Liquid Creative Director Aplós, Partner and Chief Mixologist, Delola 

Lynnette Marrero’s career began when she accepted a job at NYC’s Flatiron Lounge alongside cocktail-savant Julie Reiner. Marrero quickly made the transition from cocktail waitress to bartender and knew that the spirits industry was her true calling. Lynnette has served as Senior Bartender at Freemans, consulted and co-designed the bar program for Elettaria in Manhattan's West Village, and, after shadowing a Zacapa Rum Master Blender in Guatemala and working as a Rum Ambassador for Diageo for two years, created her own company Drinksat6, to cultivate a new generation of cocktail bartenders and elevate the bar experience at restaurants.  

In 2015, Marrero opened and is now the Bar Director of Brooklyn hotspot The Llama Inn and Greenwich Village’s Llama San, which was nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program in 2022. Marrero has won Time Out Eat Out Awards for Best New Cocktail Bar and Best Bar Restaurant Hybrid for her work as beverage Director at Rye House. Marrero has also been honored by the James Beard Awards as one of America’s Leading Female Mixologists 2009, named Food & Wine and Fortune Magazine’s Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink in 2015, and Wine Enthusiasts’ Mixologist of the Year in 2016. In July 2019, Marrero received the Tales of the Cocktails’ Spirited Awards World’s Best Bar Mentors, and the inaugural Philanthropy Award with co-founder Ivy Mix for their work in Speed Rack. She also has placed in the top ranks of the Drinks International Bar World 100 in 2019-2022. Marrero launched the Masterclass.com Mixology platform in March 2020, and in 2021, Marrero was awarded the coveted Altos Bartender’s Bartender award from The World’s 50 Best Bars. 

Other notable projects Marrero has worked on include creating the bar program for Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, being the National Brand Mixologist for Perrier Sparkling Water, and San Pellegrino Sparkling Fruit Beverages, and working with Zacapa Rum team as their trade educator and mixologist, and is the liquid creative director for the non-alcohol drinks company, Aplós. 

In April 2023, Lynnette launched Delola, a line of ready-to-enjoy world-class crafted spritzes, she created in partnership with Jennifer Lopez.