Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark met for the first time in 2006, in front of a dive bar den of shameless hipsterdom called the Cha Cha in Silverlake, California. They were introduced by a mutual friend when one of them was going to the bathroom in a bush behind a parking lot due to the uncomfortable length of the bar’s bathroom lines. People tend to form bonds quickly in situations such as these.
Since then, Ali and Georgia have gone on to create a multitude of Youtube cocktail related videos, including their famous McNuggetini cocktail. They rode that success into a contract with Food Network to make a dozen videos.
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The duo eventually made over fifty digital shorts and developed their own TV series called “Tripping Out with Alie & Georgia” that currently airs on The Cooking Channel. On top of all that, the self-professed coffee fanatics are also spokespeople for Nescafe Dolce Gusto.
The McNuggetini was a hypothetical beverage that originally only existed in their subconscious. “We used to joke that after long days at our terrible desk jobs, we should just meet for a round of McNuggetinis,” says Ward.
They dreamed up a concoction that consisted of vanilla vodka mixed with a chocolate milkshake, served in a glass rimmed with barbecue sauce and garnished with a fried chicken nugget. “It would satisfy our needs for dinner, dessert and a drink all in one glass.”
After joking about it for months, they finally made it and posted the recipe and photos on Georgia’s blog, then made an instructional video with their friend Peter Atencio (who now directs Comedy Central’s “Key & Peele”), and within a few days the video had gone viral. Shortly after, Food Network and the New York Times had contacted them.
They had both worked in bars and restaurants and grew to enjoy the mad-scientist like vibe that mixology allowed. Aware of the booming craft cocktail scene, Hardstark blogged about food and Ward was a nightlife writer for the Los Angeles Times when the McNuggetini finally came to life.
“But since then, and since Food Network tapped us to make more palatable drinks for them, we’ve spent years studying spirits, history and mixology all over the country,” says Hardstark. “A well-made cocktail is something that we both obsess about.”
Their travel series, “Tripping out with Alie & Georgia” premiered last year on The Cooking Channel. “We get to travel the country eating local cuisines, tasting cocktails, getting into varied amounts of trouble—like learning to walk the high wire and flying in tiny planes—and then come home and make a party for our friends based on our travels,” says Ward. “It’s like Laverne & Shirley meets Thelma and Louise meets Daria and Jane, but with a better menu and more bleeped out swearing.”
If you are a fan of Comedy Central’s “Drunk History”, you may have also spotted the pair, drunkenly detailing the story of Lewis and Clark while a multitude of famous actors attempted to properly mouth their drunken words.
“When the creator Derek Waters and director Jeremy Konner asked us to do an episode we almost passed out with excitement and fear,” says Hardstark. Then, they almost literally passed out from the ridiculous amount of vodka and Jepsen’s Malort they consumed.
“But having the story of Lewis & Clark & Sacagawea slurred out by Aubrey Plaza, Tony Hale and Taran Killam was simultaneously the high and low points of our lives. There’s ‘no one we’d rather explore this fucked up territory with than them,’ if we may quote ourselves.”
