Helix Grads are Toast of the Publishing Town with Bartender Guide for Gals

After signing legislation that led to the repeal of Prohibition, President Franklin Roosevelt declared, “I think this would be a good time for a beer.” Who knows what wife Eleanor said. But she could have learned about celebratory drinks had This Girl Walks into a Bar been around then.

Written and designed by sisters and Helix alumni Jordan Catapano (Class of 1992) and Jocelyn Dunn Muhlbach (Class of 1995), This Girl is a how-to bartending and mixology guide complete with drink recipes, etiquette and cocktail party advice and personal bartending stories that can get any girl on her way to serving spirits.

“I think there are a lot of men who come in and they like to have a conversation with women,” Catapano said of her empowering experience as a bartender. “And they tip well … just for being yourself, not for being inappropriate.”

She even recalls a customer paying who didn’t get the right drink―he just didn’t want to argue anymore about the ingredients.

“I was a little arrogant,” Catapano admitted. “I looked it up after he was gone and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, you are such a jerk.’”

The celebrated sisters have been written up in the Reader and reviewed in the  North County Times. They also have a blog—and two more books in the making: This Girl Walks into a Party, which offers drink ideas for every national holiday, including obscure ones, and Cocktails for Cougars and Cowgirls.

Jordan, 36, lives in Los Angeles and Jocelyn, 34, makes her home in Redondo Beach. But they still return to La Mesa monthly, where their parents live and to see old friends.