Daisha of Pins Mechanical: Simple Cocktails, Genuine Connections, and a Lot of Fun

For Daisha, bartending started with a simple desire to reconnect. After seven years working in customer service and spending much of her career working remotely, moving to Charlotte made her realize she missed something that a screen could not provide: real, face-to-face connection. She wanted to be around people again, have conversations, and create experiences in real time. That search brought her to Pins Mechanical.

She started as a server, learning the rhythm of hospitality from the guest side of the floor before moving behind the bar about a year and a half ago. While she may still consider herself relatively new to bartending, the creative instinct behind her work has been there much longer. As a kid, Daisha loved experimenting with different juices and ingredients in the kitchen while watching the Food Network and pretending to be a bartender. What started as childhood play eventually became a genuine interest in creating drinks and discovering how different flavors work together. Now, that curiosity has become part of her craft.

The Guest Comes First

Daisha's customer service background has shaped the way she approaches the bar. For her, creating a cocktail starts with getting to know the person ordering it. She asks questions. What spirits do they usually enjoy? What flavors do they gravitate toward? Is there a cocktail they always order? Those details give her a starting point for creating something that feels personal instead of simply handing someone a drink from a menu.

Every guest brings a different background and set of preferences to the bar. Listening closely gives Daisha the chance to understand those differences and turn them into part of the experience. It is a skill that connects directly to her years in customer service. Communication and attention to detail have always been important parts of her work, but hospitality has given those skills a more personal dimension. The goal is not simply to make a good cocktail. It is to make the person drinking it feel seen.

Finding Her Style at Pins Mechanical

Daisha is representing Pins Mechanical, a South End destination where cocktails share the spotlight with games, activities, and a distinctly playful atmosphere. The venue offers duckpin bowling, pinball, foosball, ping pong, patio pong and more, giving guests plenty of reasons to stay, play and interact. Its cocktail menu is also constantly changing, which keeps things interesting for both the team and returning guests.

For Daisha, that environment makes Pins an especially fun place to develop as a bartender. She describes her cocktail style as simple but effective. Rather than trying to put every possible flavor into one glass, she prefers working with a few quality components and giving each ingredient room to complement the others. It is an approach that reflects something she has learned behind the bar: complexity does not automatically make a cocktail better.

Sometimes, the right combination of a few ingredients can say everything it needs to say. That philosophy will come into play when Daisha brings her competition cocktail to Battle of the Babes.

A Passionate Lover for the Girls' Night Out

Daisha's competition cocktail is called the Passionate Lover, a passionfruit tequila sour with notes of vanilla. The inspiration is exactly what the name suggests: the energy of a girls' night out. For Daisha, it brings together some of her favorite things about getting together with her friends. Getting dressed up, spending time with her girls, ordering a cute cocktail, and enjoying anything passionfruit all became part of the concept. Tequila, one of her favorite spirits, was an obvious addition. The result is meant to feel like the drink you order when the group is together, the night is beginning, and everyone is ready to have a good time.

It is also a fitting introduction to Daisha's personality behind the bar. Her approach is not about making something complicated for the sake of being complicated. It is about understanding the moment, finding the flavors that belong there, and creating something people want to enjoy.

Taking a Chance on Herself

Battle of the Babes will be a new kind of challenge for Daisha. She joined the competition because she wanted to step outside her comfort zone, try something new, and put herself in a room with bartenders she could learn from. For someone still relatively early in her bartending career, the opportunity feels significant. Being considered alongside talented and experienced bartenders has already been one of the most rewarding moments of her hospitality career. It is a reminder of how far she has come in a relatively short period of time.

For Daisha, the competition is not simply about proving what she can do. It is also about learning from the people around her, discovering new techniques, seeing how other bartenders approach their craft, and having fun while doing it. That last part matters. She knows hospitality can be stressful, demanding, and fast-paced. Her advice to other women entering the industry is to remember to have fun. The pressure of service can make it easy to lose sight of the reason people choose this work in the first place: creating experiences and connecting with others.

Daisha has also found a supportive environment at Pins, where she sees strong representation of women throughout the staff. That sense of equality and community has made her experience in hospitality a positive one. Looking ahead, she hopes more women feel comfortable taking up space, pursuing leadership opportunities, and bringing their own creativity and personalities into the industry.

For Daisha, that confidence does not have to mean becoming someone else. It means being fully yourself.

More Than the Cocktail

When Daisha steps behind the competition bar, she hopes people remember more than the Passionate Lover. She wants them to remember her as personable, genuine and authentic. She wants to connect with people, have fun and let her personality come through. That is consistent with the way she approaches hospitality in the first place.

Daisha's journey is still taking shape, and that may be part of what makes this moment so meaningful. She went from experimenting with juices in the kitchen as a kid to serving guests at Pins, then found her way behind the bar and into a cocktail competition much earlier in her career than she expected.

Now she gets to see what happens when she takes that next step.

Meet Daisha at Battle of the Babes

Daisha will join seven other talented mixologists for 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 meet the mixologists, taste their creations and experience the personalities behind the cocktails.