Beauty Bar Vodka: A gift that actually keeps on giving

By Xania Woodman

Monday, Dec. 28, 2009 | 7:54 p.m.

Beauty Bar owner Paul Devitt has done a lot to help the Fremont East renaissance, even if he doesn’t live here year-round or get a heck of a lot of credit for the area’s rejuvenation.

The sixth location of his well-known irreverent salon-cum-saloon is on East Fremont Street and hosts an ever-changing line-up of DJs, bands and general backyard mayhem. Like the rest of Fremont East’s bar offerings, Beauty Bar attracts a strong following of hipsters, drinkers, students and artists, and on Devitt’s back-alley stage he’s welcomed new bands and old favorites, letting them do pretty much whatever they want.

A souped-up Airstream trailer bar is a permanent feature of Downtown thanks to Devitt’s unique sense of humor, and First Friday just wouldn’t be quite the same (nor first Saturday hangovers quite as rough) without the Get Back funky soul dance party, most often held at Devitt’s Downtown Vegas location. Devitt recently welcomed a seventh bar to the family in Brooklyn, NY, and three more Beauty Bars are planned for Chicago, Portland and Denver in early 2010.

Tempering all that fun with some actual goodwill towards mankind, this month Devitt launched Beauty Bar Vodka and will be donating a portion of each bottle’s sale to Bright Pink, a breast-cancer charity.

“My family and my wife have personally experienced breast cancer,” says Devitt, who is donating $1 of each bottle’s sale in 2010 to the charity, “and I want to raise as much money as possible to help fight this devastating disease. Bright Pink is an organization that is working very hard to help people at risk or affected by it. What better way to raise money than by drinking Beauty Bar Vodka cocktails at one of the many Beauty Bar locations around the country?"

The product itself is a small-batch vodka, “using the finest Dutch grains and de-mineralized soft water from the deepest underground spring in Holland,” says Devitt. “The vodka is exceptionally smooth with a superbly clean finish. The five-part distillation process and charcoal treatment results in a unique and subtle character that is exceptionally balanced and smooth.”

Beauty Bar’s patrons might not be too concerned with the vodka’s character and finish or, for that matter, the good they are doing by drinking it. But a good deed done unwittingly is no less good. So drink up, ye hipsters, drink up!