Raise a Glass to Karsyn Kellstrom, United Clubs & Anna Konya, FLIK Hospitality

I grew up in a town just west of Detroit, it was very relaxed and very small. I had the best time growing up there, but I was definitely ready to move away when it came time for college and got a degree from Michigan State University in Supply Chain Management. Post-graduation, I worked as a Supply Chain Analyst for a large CPG company in Boston. When I wanted something new, thankfully I found this role at United. I started with just onboard beverage and took over Clubs and Lounges beverage in November 2024. In this role, I have quickly fallen in love with wine and will be starting my WSET III in 2026!

East Coaster here! After spending my early years bouncing around the south (New Orleans for the university degree, East Texas and the Florida Keys for a little adventure), I settled back home in New Haven, CT to run beverage operations for small restaurant groups along the shoreline. My focus has always been high volume craft cocktail programs, which has come in handy in the aviation world. Connecticut may be a small state, but there’s so much variety within its borders. I grew up in a densely populated area with people from every echelon – different cultures, levels of wealth, politics, religions. It gave me a broader perspective about how people create community and how to connect with people outside of my own lived experience.

Ha! No child dreams of being a bartender. We all stumble into this industry – perhaps there’s a bit of subconscious curiosity – and then figure out we love it. I wanted to be a poet first, then a psychologist, and finally an anthropologist. In the bev industry, I get to be all three. The cultural history of drinking and the community it creates is so rich I’ll never run out of material. I have conversations and connections with guests that fall under the “bartender/patron confidentiality” rule. And my cocktails and menus are their own form of imbibable poetry.

Weirdly enough, my foray into the industry started on an adventure. I took my first big international trip to Australia on United Airlines when I was a sophomore in college. I was majoring in Supply Chain and I became fascinated by food and beverage on airlines, and how it got there. It quickly became my dream role to work in food and beverage for an airline. When I was looking for a new role a few years back, my best friend sent me my current job opening and said, “this sounds exactly like what you wanted to do in college.” I applied and thankfully got a role on the Menu Design team, they gave me the beverage portion of the work, and shortly after that, I completely fell in love with the beverage industry, and wine in specific.

Virtually none! I was working at a CPG company prior, and the only knowledge I had to offer was my Supply Chain knowledge and my use of Microsoft Excel!

I have bartended my way through everything from dive bars to fine dining. In small restaurant management, you’re the resident plumber, barback, bouncer, graphic designer, HR department and mentor. In this role, I get to narrow the field (I’ve only had to be a plumber once this year) and channel the adaptability to a large scale operation. It’s been a fun transition.

We have a team made up of approximately five people that taste, rank, and decide on the wines via a RFP process. The ultimate decision comes from the rankings, brand perception, customer feedback, and cost and case amounts that work for us to give us the wines that will work best for us.

We will always have the classics on the menu, but the clubs and lounges space give us room to play around with the menu and see what customers are enjoying. We have a few bubbly options, a rose, and we’ve tried our hand at an array of different reds.

One of the most popular drinks in an airport is a Mimosa (followed closely by, you guessed it, the Bloody Mary). For the Polaris program, I really tried to lean into reimagining proven trends – so bubbly has always been on the table in cocktail and mocktail form.

One of our signature cocktails, the When in Venice, is a take on a Bellini with Peach, Raspberry and Bergamot. The cocktail is a vibrant ruby color and served in a flute with a basil sugar rim. The color contrast and flavor build has made it an incredibly successful cocktail. I’ve also had a ton of success with mocktails using the Mionetto Alcohol Removed Sparkling Wine. Bringing this in gives our non-drinking guests the opportunity to celebrate with their friends. Going on a babymoon? You can still have that mimosa!

Training, training, training! And not in a dry, rote kind of way. Training should be a conversation – it allows you to get the buy in from your staff if they have input into how the system is being built. We have hard lined standards, but I want the team to feel comfortable meeting those standards in a way that makes the most sense for the business and for the guests. As a leader, it’s important to be approachable and flexible in our industry. A restaurant team will always do what’s most efficient during service – whether you approve or not. So, the goal is to blend their understanding of micro efficiencies with the cornerstone standards for FLIK and United. At the end of the day, if my bartenders are making guests feel connected, we’re doing something right.

Travelers are in a state of hurry up and wait every time they come to the airport. Hustle through traffic, security, to the gate, then wait awhile until it’s time to hustle through boarding. Our goal in the Clubs is to create experiential moments for the guests while they’re in that holding pattern. From meet and greets with the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders to Summer of Spritz selfie walls to chefs walking and passing sweet treats to guests on the floor. We want to give the guests the chance to focus on something outside of travel stress.

The airport has its own trend set, for the most part. While the rest of the world is seeing a reduction in drinking overall, we haven’t seen that behavior replicated in the Clubs.

I have seen more engagement in mocktails and NA product – but I believe this is a net new response rather than a shift from alcohol to non alc. Essentially, people who would have stuck to the coffee and juice stations are now feeling empowered to come to the bar and order a drink – sans booze.

I love when our customers enjoy our classics, like our champagne and rose options that we also have onboard, however, I’d always encourage every customer to try something new and out of their comfort zone!

So well! The response from the entire ORD Clubs population – guests, bartenders, managers – has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, the only negative feedback I got was when we ended the pilot to review the results. Everyone wanted the kegs back!

Up next is Denver and then we will follow the new Club openings throughout 2026. I can’t get into too much detail on the schedule just yet, but by the end of 2026, the goal is to have all HUBs operating with kegged prosecco.

Alternatively, I think the above can also be the most challenging part of my job. The drinking habits of people in airports is so different than that of any other on-premise account, so it is a lot harder to determine trends/what passengers will enjoy/dislike.

My manager, Aaron Kinkeade has been a huge asset to my success starting out in the onboard space, I came in with little to no experience and he had so much knowledge in the industry. When I took over the Clubs and Lounges space, I met Anna, and she has introduced me to a whole new world of operations and mixology. I have learned so much from them both and it has been so beyond helpful to have them by my side!

I wouldn’t say so, my parents drank it, and my grandpa tried making it in his living room for a brief period, but nothing more than that!

Nope – I managed to get here all on my own.

My first real memory of wine was serving it as a banquet waitress during cocktail hours at weddings. Truthfully, we served the worst wine, and I thought that was it for wine, until I got to this job and was introduced to a whole new world!

As always, I’d rather talk spirits. My first experience with a true cocktail was at Cure in New Orleans. It was the first cocktail bar of its kind in the city (new wave), and I was enthralled by the mysterious ingredients and the way the bartenders worked so seamlessly behind the bar. It’s still one of my favorite cocktail bars in America.

Probably steak and a Cabernet Sauvignon, but if we want to get really fancy, then I am going with caviar and Champagne!

I’m a big fan of diving into a new city or region’s cuisines and taking the local recommendation on wine pairings. I love seeing the parallel evolution of wine and food – the Italians, in particular, have nailed this.

I have been to a few regions in California and France, does Traverse City, Michigan count?

Napa and Tuscany are my two heavy hitters – but I’m just getting started on the wine trail.