Aniah Isn’t Just Making Cocktails. She’s Telling Her Story.

For Aniah, hospitality started at home. Long before she was behind the bar at Fumee Kitchen & Cocktails, she was growing up inside her grandparents' Jamaican grocery and restaurant in Albany, New York. Roy's Caribbean Restaurant was founded by her immigrant grandparents in 1990 and became a family business that served the community for more than three decades. As a child, Aniah spent countless hours with her grandparents while her mother was in nursing school, tagging along for the everyday work that kept a family business running.

Bank trips. Grocery runs. Vending events. Business meetings. Late nights at the restaurant. By 16, she was working there more regularly after school and on weekends. What started as time spent around her family's business became her introduction to hospitality and, eventually, the foundation of her career. She also began to recognize something in herself.

When her grandparents eventually opened a second location, a larger sports bar, Aniah found her way behind the bar. Once she was old enough, she began assisting with bartending, practicing techniques and recipes and discovering a creative side of hospitality she wanted to explore further.

That was where the mixologist in her began to emerge. Her curiosity eventually led her to mixology school, where she could strengthen the skills she had begun developing behind her family's bar. What started as a family business became the beginning of her own career.

More Than Making a Drink

Years behind the bar have taught Aniah that mixology isn't simply about combining ingredients and hoping they work. It's about the person standing on the other side of the bar. Her approach starts with paying attention. What does the guest enjoy? What flavors do they gravitate toward? What will make them feel welcomed and taken care of?

Those questions influence the way she approaches both hospitality and cocktail creation. Balance, flavor, and presentation all matter, but so does the experience surrounding the drink. Aniah particularly enjoys taking familiar cocktails or flavors and giving them an unexpected twist. She wants guests to take a sip and wonder, What is this? That sense of discovery is part of what makes her approach so personal.

Her Caribbean heritage is often at the center of that creativity. Bold flavors, tropical ingredients, and familiar tastes from home become inspiration for cocktails that feel distinctly hers. And sometimes the creative process starts with a guest who doesn't know exactly what they want. She'll ask about their preferred spirit, allergies, dietary restrictions, and flavors they don't like. If they give her a blank slate, that's when she gets to have fun.

Maybe it's ginger beer. Maybe it's something intensely tropical. Maybe it's a combination of purees she hasn't tried together before. The point is to create something that reflects both her style and the person she's serving. That philosophy extends to mocktails, too.

For Aniah, creativity behind the bar isn't limited by what's in the glass. It's about creating an experience that feels personal.

Finding Her Next Level at Fumee

Aniah's current home behind the bar is Fumee Kitchen & Cocktails, a Charlotte destination built around what the team calls "vibe dining." The concept combines craft cocktails, small-course tapas, premium glass shisha, music, presentation, and ambiance into an experience that extends beyond the food and drinks themselves. For Aniah, stepping into Fumee represented a major shift in her professional experience.

Before joining the team in January 2024, she had never worked in a cocktail bar. Her background had largely been in sports bars and dive bars, environments that taught her valuable lessons about speed, service, and guests. Fumee gave her an opportunity to take those skills somewhere new. She immediately recognized that the environment could push her creativity and technique further.

What makes Fumee stand out to her is the combination of dining, cocktails, and nightlife. Guests aren't necessarily coming in for just one thing. They're coming for the entire experience.

The food matters. The cocktails matter. The music matters. The presentation matters. The atmosphere matters.

That is what "vibe dining" means to Aniah, and it's also what she is proudest to be part of at Fumee: a team that understands hospitality as the creation of a memorable environment.

Building a Career on Her Own Terms

For Aniah, hospitality has become more than a career. It's also become a path toward entrepreneurship. One of the most rewarding moments of her career has been starting her own bartending and catering services. After years of working in the industry, she had developed the confidence to create something of her own. It hasn't come without challenges, but building her own path has given her a different kind of fulfillment. It's also a natural extension of the entrepreneurial spirit she grew up around. Her grandparents didn't simply work in hospitality. They built a business that supported their family and became part of their community.

Now Aniah is taking what she learned from that experience and creating something of her own. That journey has also shaped her perspective as a woman in hospitality. She describes the experience as both empowering and challenging. There have been moments when she has had to be bolder, establish boundaries, or stand her ground to be taken seriously. But those experiences have taught her how to carry herself with confidence while still leaving room for patience and understanding.

Looking ahead, she wants to see more women in management and ownership positions across the industry. For women beginning their own hospitality journeys, her advice comes from that same belief in knowing your value.

Find your story. Find your "why." Then build from there.

"Trust in yourself, your story, and take up as much space," she says.

A First Competition, and a Chance to Prove Something to Herself

Battle of the Babes will be a first for Aniah. It will be her first bartending competition, but she's approaching it as more than an opportunity to compete. It's an opportunity to challenge herself. To express her creativity. And to step outside her comfort zone. She can already see that happening as she develops the elements of her competition cocktail and looks for ways to make it stand out.

For Aniah, the outcome isn't solely about winning. She wants to walk away knowing she proved something to herself: that she belongs in spaces like this. That confidence is especially meaningful given how much of her journey has been about creating her own path. She entered hospitality through her family's restaurant. She developed her craft behind the bar. She expanded her skills through mixology school. She moved into a cocktail-focused environment at Fumee. And she began building her own bartending and catering business.

Now, she's stepping onto a competition stage for the first time.

Bringing Jamaica, Creativity, and Energy to Battle of the Babes

When Aniah steps behind the bar at Battle of the Babes, she won't just be bringing a cocktail. She'll be bringing the flavors and memories of her Jamaican heritage, the lessons she learned growing up around her grandparents' restaurant, the experience she's gained throughout her hospitality career, and the confidence she's built by creating her own path. She hopes people remember the unique flavors in her cocktail, but more importantly, she wants them to remember the woman behind it.

Her energy. Her presence. Her pride in where she comes from. And the experience she creates around the drink.

"I hope they remember the woman who was proud of her Jamaican heritage, who showed up confident and bright," she says.

That's what makes Aniah's first Battle of the Babes competition worth watching. This isn't simply a bartender stepping into a competition for the first time. It's a hospitality professional bringing years of family history, cultural influence, creativity, and ambition into one room.

Meet Aniah at Battle of the Babes

Aniah will represent Fumee Kitchen & Cocktails at the 6th Annual Battle of the Babes Cocktail Competition on September 27, 2026, from 5 PM to 9 PM at Merchant + Trade, 303 S Church St. Come watch Aniah bring her Caribbean-inspired creativity, bold flavors, and unmistakable energy to the competition as she joins talented female mixologists from across the hospitality industry.

And if you want to experience Aniah's hospitality before competition night, visit Fumee Kitchen & Cocktails in Charlotte for craft cocktails, small-course tapas, premium glass shisha, and the full "vibe dining" experience that has become her home behind the bar.