SUMMER FLAIR BARTENDER COMPETITION 2

By Mike McLean
Photos by Ivana Delpech and Chris Miller

For the second running of the Summer Flair Bartender Competition, organizer Rob Husted flipped a bit of a curve ball at the bartenders by bringing a head to head battle from the yard to behind the bar.

 
After judging both BarWars and Summer Flair in the past, I was a bit skeptical when Rob called and explained the "Flair Trick Contest" that would pit one bartender against another in a move by move battle.   However, once I had read through the outline, and saw the potential for this type of a round, I checked the weather forecast for hurricanes and signed up for another trip to West Palm Beach.

There was a casual meet and greet scheduled for Sunday night to go over rules and questions on the different rounds.   After some cold beverages and tasty snacks, naturally the Flair Trick Round came into discussion and we walked through how it all would work.   Oddly enough, there weren't any questions on the Accuracy or Flair rounds.   The rest of the night was spent inside Club Safari watching Rob and competing bartender Joey Lenz work their way through a busy industry night crowd with some show stopping Flair!

The next day while Tony Miranda and his film crew were busy filming interviews, some of the judges and competitors got together for a dry run of the Flair Trick Contest.   With the basic format and procedures worked out in the practice session, everyone was looking forward to that night.   Surprisingly enough, the Argentineans were less than ten minutes late for the Meet and Greet, which has to be a new record!

The order for the Flair Trick Contest was determined by a quick pouring accuracy test.   With the head to head brackets set, referees Dean Serneels and Mark Schultz took control and everything ran surprisingly smooth.   A whole different strategy emerged as competitors tried to use both their strengths and their opponent's weaknesses to advance to the next round in the first ever "Flair Trick Contest".   It was no surprise that Rodrigo Delpech was one of the finalists, but Dave Monterde also advanced with some unique moves and good strategy against Rodrigo Cao.

  
 
After the Flair Trick Contest, all the competitors and event staff piled into a limo and van for dinner at Duffy's, a local sports bar.   While there, we watched the infamous Bottleslinger DVD on the big screen in the VIP room.   Then, in a competition fitting for what we were watching, We conducted the "Budweiser Boat Races". Basically a beer relay that pitted the judges and staff against the competitors.

I was the anchor for the judge's team in the beer chugging boat race.   It was a lot closer than expected, but the judges and crew were still able to pull out the win. After Duffy's, we headed back to the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott to film intros for the competitors with Tony and his crew.

The second day started with the Accuracy Round, in which Rodrigo Delpech, Rodrigo Cao and Ati Grinspun all managed to get a perfect score.   Joey Lenz and Teddie Buckley weren't far behind, putting them up in the order going into the Flair Round.

When the doors opened that night, there were actually two competitions set to take place.   In addition to the Flair Round to help determine the overall results of the Summer Flair Bartending Competition 2, the "Navan Mixology Contest" was also taking place with Dean Serneels and his lovely assistant Janelle Smithers tasting the best drinks that everyone had to offer.  
 
It was no surprise that the majority of the top drinks all came from the Flair bartenders, who have practiced their drink making skills for such competitions as the Blue Blazer, the Flairco Cup and the Big Apple Showdown.   The winner of the Navan Mixology Contest was Dave Monterde, with Ati Grinspun in second and John Buckley in third place.   Congratulations to all of the bartenders who entered their specialty drinks.

The finals for the Flair Trick Contest started the night's entertainment, with Rodrigo Delpech and Dave Monterde going head to head.   Unlike the qualifying round, the finals consisted of five rounds, so that the winner would spell out the world "FLAIR".   Again, Dave used some brilliant strategy and managed to stay with Rodrigo point for point.   However, once they got to the freestyle moves, Rodrigo was able to get up by one point and as the twenty minute time limit came to a close, he was declared the winner.   This round provided a lot of entertainment and I can see it being used a lot in the future.

The Flair Round featured some incredible shows from all of the bartenders.   Each competitor started their round with an original opening of both a Budweiser and Bud Light beers, then kicked it into high gear with some working Flair, before finishing off their show with their best exhibition Flair.

When the bottles were finally all put back in the speed rail, the points were totaled and the trophies awarded.   The overall winner was Rodrigo Delpech, who proved why he is one of the top bartenders in the world.   Coming in a close second was Rodrigo Cao, with the type of skills that have also made him one of the bartenders to beat on the world level.   In third was Ati Grinspun, with a fun Flair routine backing up her perfect pour test.   Dave Monterde rounded out his night with a fourth place overall, with Cesar Romero and Teddie Buckley in a close battle for fifth and sixth.   Rounding out the rest of the field was Jorge Zayas, Yavuz "Moose" Dereli and Joey Lenz.

Special thanks to all of the competition sponsors, including BarWars LLC, Flairbar.com, Club Safari, Skyy Vodka, Hennessy, 10 Cane Rum, Grand Marnier, Navan, Budweiser, Finest Call Premium Products, Barproducts.com, Spill Stop, Flairco.com and the FBA.   Competition staff included judges Mark Schultz, AJ Gruening, Travis Tober, John Buckley, Deshon Allen, Ed Newman and myself, MC Jordan Mednick, referee Dean Serneels and barbacks Wayne Ball, Josh Gates and Jeff Gaither.   Filming for the bartender intros and the competition DVD was done by Tony Miranda, Hector Lopez and Alex Ginzo.