Life After Drinking Offers More Joy and Fulfillment

AND SMILES TOO –

Jan. 21, 2022 – ERIN FLAVIN Age 43, owner of Honeycomb Salon

My dad owned a bar. I remember loving the taste of sips of beer and the smell of the basement there. We would get home from church, and I would make a screwdriver for my parents. It was the way everybody gathered. They played cards and drank.

As a 40-something, I got very into nice, natural wines. I made my alcoholism sophisticated.

During COVID, I realized that drinking was my only hobby — besides compulsively working and trying to take care of my kids. We were under an enormous amount of pressure with the business being closed and the kids at home all the time. The mornings were stressful. Everybody was yelling in my kitchen.

We are a lot chiller in our house now. We have dance parties in the morning. There’s a lot more forgiveness, a lot less snappiness. I’m kinder to myself. It’s a corny word, but it’s a gift.

Quitting drinking started this pursuit for all the cool nonalcoholic beverages. We used to give people a glass of wine or a can of Hamm’s when they would come in for a hair service. Now I offer them something nonalcoholic and amazing: “Omigosh, this thing has got birchbark and salt and caramel; it’s so funky and fun to drink.”

It grew into my upcoming bottle shop: Shop Marigold at Honeycomb. I’m excited to put my passion for something that was disabling me into enabling something new and exciting. I want to make it more socially acceptable to not drink or to take a break.

We’ve been kind of laughing about the fact that I’m a salon. Like, a bottle shop attached to a salon? I don’t know, it seems so natural to me. A place where people would gather for community was called a salon.

I love the vibe we have there. That’s always what I’ve wanted — to have a place where you’re instantly disarmed…