Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was an age of drinking called the Tiki Era. It was a perfect storm of circumstances and personalities that illustrates my contention that drinking defines and is defined by all peoples in general and America in particular. Tiki arose from the fact that The Noble Experiment and the Second World War had left a nation where rum was one of the few spirits available in quantity and quality at a reasonable price. The exposure of millions of American men to the South Pacific environment made fertile ground for Tiki’s faux Polynesian vibe. The agricultural revolution in California, Hawaii and elsewhere were changing and expanding the fruits and juices available. Labor was cheap and government regulation was light. And a man named Don and another named Vic, friends and bitter competitors, formed the tenets of Tiki and drove it to dizzying heights of creativity in a manner not unlike another rivalry in another industry between guys named Steve and Bill.
The first embers of Tiki flared in the 1930s, and it erupted like a volcano in the late 1940s. It spread across the US, establishing with its faux pagan shenanigans that America was not quite the stultifying land in those days that it seemed. Then, after but a decade to two, the torch guttered and began to go out.
The slow, ignominious death of the Tiki Era was due to the slow passing of the factors I noted above, and other reasons. But what is important is that as the original temples of Tiki slipped into the night, the knowledge that built them disappeared even faster. As the Millennium approached, a general rediscovery of the well-made cocktail led to a nascent revival of interest in the early, glorious Tiki drinks. But there was no knowledge to feed this hunger. There were never any good books of recipes and knowledge produced in the days of Tiki’s greatness. The Tiki gods were jealous of their secrets, it was part of the charm.
Bartenders and home mixers had no easy way to copy the glorious old drinks. Some might have had fragments of knowledge, a recipe or two. Others had only the debased versions from the end of the era to emulate, such as frozen Daiquiris, syrupy Pina Coladas, and Mai Tais made with grenadine or Hawaiian Punch. Most attempts to emulate the glory days were either stillborn for lack of knowledge, or discarded in disgust.

Enter a beach bum.

Jeff Berry is a bartender. Beyond that, I know nothing of his background. I could ask him, but it’s more fun not to know. He might have three advanced degrees for all I know. But I doubt it. And it wouldn’t be half as much fun if he did, because Jeff Berry is one of the more successful and accomplished legit cultural anthropologists working in America today.

Excuse me.
Did someone say, “nutritional anthropologist”?

Yes, but I didn’t mean you, Deb. Go bother Alton.

Beachbum Berry set out in the 1990′s to find, preserve, publish, and popularize the Lost Knowledge of the Tiki Gods™. He has dug and scrounged through trash heaps, attics, and defunct watering holes. He has interviewed and cajoled. He uncovered secrets and decoded archives. In short, he has conducted a more than decade long investigation and preservation of lost knowledge. And he has popularized his research with several books on Tiki drinks, food and history. Jeff thinks he’s a bartender. Too bad, because I think he is more of a social scientist than most who actually try to lay claim to the title.
Last Tiki Month, I reviewed his early work, Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log. Recently, I was sent an autographed copy of his latest, Beach Bum Berry Remixed for review. The cover letter suggested that after I read it, I might offer it as a contest prize…

HAHAHAHA!!
That’s rich!

Exactly.
Like I’m going to give away a signed copy of this book.

Remixed is a compilation of Grog Log, and another of the Bum’s works, Intoxica! (Now likely out of print forever) Remixed combines and re-organizes all the recipes from the other two books, adds a ton of new, tasty pours to explore, and garnishes with lots of short, enjoyable excursions into the history and minutiae of the Tiki Era. It is lavishly illustrated with color photographs and graphics from Tiki bars and restaurants of that time. It also has three distinct and useful indexes, as well as a detailed glossary.
Of particular note is the section listing and describing the sea of different rum types. If you are into cocktails with rum at all, buy the book just for this section. It is indispensable for any and all, unless you have a certain bearded hipster lying around your living room.
Remixed is that rare find among cocktail books: a definitive resource that is also a good read. Pick up a copy. At its current price on Amazon (and Prime eligible!), it’s a steal.

The Liquor Fairy Was Here!
The following product, Beachbum berry Remixed, was recently provided to me as promotional consideration to encourage me to discuss it.
For a complete disclosure of my policies regarding promotional items and all other financial interests, please click this link, or follow the Liquor Fairy link in the header of this page.

Here’s one way to open a bar…. Extra points for opening one you don’t even own!

Monday was the finals of B² Productions’ Chopped Mixology Columbus. It was a crowded, raucous house at Mozaik that got its money’s worth out of the competition.
The finalists were, in order of selection, Cris Dehlavi, Zak Renzetti-Voit, Jordan Conkey, and Joseph Gardina. You can read about each and their roads to the finals at the links.
The format of this bartending competition is different from most, as are the skills it tests. Before the finals, Zak told me that, Of all the competitions I’ve done, this is my favorite. I asked him why and his response was that the compressed time and the mystery ingredients made it more of a test and less of a show. Twenty minutes is not a lot of time to make up a new drink and produce four good looking specimens thereof, especially with ingredients you at least aren’t expecting and may not have ever tried before.
And while creativity and taste instincts are the primary skills being tested in this format, I can tell you as a judge that fancy knife skills, witty words, and general professionalism prolonged the stays of several of the 16 competitors during the last month.

The competitors this week all had experience with the format, and each seemed both more focused and more nervous than they had before the preliminaries. Some of this was knowing what they were in for, and some was the fact that the prize for the first four weeks was more work, whereas the prize for this week was a trip for two to Las Vegas….
Each contestant had brought a large crowd to support them in their efforts. This is great for the contestants, but a bit less so for the judges, since they could tell before the competition that they were gonna get booed every time they gave someone the chop!

The first round featured a mystery basket containing Ketel One, Tanqueray 10, Ruby Red grapefruit, and a jar of Penzey’s Chinese Five Spice Blend. Apparently the baskets for this round were packed by Pandora, because they also contained the most drama of any round in the competition.
Joseph elected to concoct a pair of drinks, each of which was to be topped with champagne. A staff member was tidying up around the periphery as time was running out, and when Joseph went to pour his champagne floats, the bubbly he had set up was nowhere to be found! Panicked seconds flew by, and he did not get all his drinks finished, leaving a ragged line of eight different looking flutes at his station—right in front of the judges!
As the other contestants approached with their drinks, Brandon offered to poll the others about whether Joseph should be allowed to finish prepping the rest of his drinks. Zak was asked first, and since he had seen this unfolding, he said OK. Cris, who did not understand what was happening heard only that Joseph wanted more time, and hard-nosed competitor that she is, said no. This made for a testy round of drink presentations….
It turned out not to matter, as Zak ended up getting the chop. He had the most trouble with the spice, and he neglected to tell the judges that they were supposed to use the sugared grapefruit garnish to counteract the bitterness in the pure drink.
Now, if this had been a TV reality show like Survivor or Next Food Network Star (or something more mature like seventh grade), the producers would have gotten Cris and Joseph separated and fanned the situation into an eight episode feud. Instead, Cris and Joseph talked among themselves and demonstrated that they were grownups. Take that, Hollywood!

The second round basket contained Parrot Bay 90, some berry applesauce, apple green tea, and a bottle of pomegranate soda. Cris and Joseph put together tasty concoctions that did a great job of marrying the pretty wild collection of flavors, while Jordan chose to make a coffee cocktail, the Blackheart Martini. If you liked coffee drinks, this one had potential. But it fell afoul of the dreaded question, Where the heck are the required ingredients? There was just too much bitter blackness (NotThatThere’sAnythingWrongWithThat) to pick out the original fruitiness. But the Parrot Bay 90 went surprisingly well, so keep that in mind.

And with that, we were down to two contestants. My impression was that Cris and Joseph were essentially tied going into the last round, the judges also seemed to think that way. It was interesting to note that Columbus has only two AAA Four Diamond rated restaurants, and their representatives were the finalists in this competition.

The final basket contained Ciroc Red Berry Vodka, a tub of pistachio ice cream, toasted almonds, and the oh, so esoteric Pimm’s #1.
Joseph did what he had for every drink in he competition: he started with his garnish. His skills with a knife are really impressive. I almost stopped worrying he was going to add blood as an extra ingredient by the time the finals were over. He does a lot of the elaborate tableside preparation that the Refectory offers, so he works fast and sure while creating food sculpture. In this case, he made little shot glasses out of the strawberries, covered them in chocolate and set them in the fridge to set up. His drink, Strawberries and Cream, was a well-made blender concoction that took every minute he had left to balance and prepare.
Cris also used every moment of allotted time. Her Berries and Meringue was a beautiful cocktail. The really interesting element was a quick toasted almond meringue she made on the spot. Having just made a batch of mayonnaise the day before myself, I was amazed that she could get such a nice foam going with a hand-whisk in the little time she had after re-balancing her drink more than once. The dollop of the stuff that she added to the drinks was both a cool garnish, and a delicious flavoring.

Joseph’s strawberry shot glasses of Gran Marnier did not quite come off as intended, with the chocolate failing to fully set and most of the liqueur absorbing into the berry. They still looked good, and the drink itself was delicious and had a great texture. The flavors were all there and all happy together.
Cris’s was also fabulous, and while I’d have dinged her on the scorecard for the less than lyrical name, the meringue worked perfectly and the drink was one of those rare dessert cocktails that would appeal to snooty cocktailian (with it’s delicate and exotic flavors) and country club party-goer (with its creamy sweetness) alike.

For the record, I agreed with the judges who narrowly awarded the win to Cris.

Cris deserves this win because she had to work so hard for it. The competition she faced was very, very good as well. No one advanced from round to round, much less night to night, without being both talented and at least a little lucky. Brandon Bowsher produced a really excellent event that truly tested the contestants’ instincts and abilities. The crowds had fun too, which is not an unimportant detail.
I’ll try to do one more post about the whole thing, with some general comments on the process, in a little while, but this post is already a week late and over long. Congratulations to every contestant and to Cris Dehlavi for the win. I’ll leave you with her recipe for her final cocktail.

The Business Case for Mixology. The fiscal reasons owners need to spend the effort and cash on real mixologists and their logistical support.

Naked Bartenders. Eye candy for the chicks—eww for the guys. Unless it isn’t eww… NTTAWWT.

The final preliminary Round of Chopped Mixology Columbus is in the books, next week will see the champion crowned. (Here are the Week One, Week Two and Week Three roundups)
This week’s contestants struck me as each possessing a personality and style that perfectly suits the establishment they were representing to a T. The crowd was a little smaller this week, due to extreme patriotic shenanigans hangover among the general Columbus populace, but each contestant had a retinue of their faithful to keep enthusiasm high. A note to the contestants in the finals on next Monday: Get your fans to Mozaik. A cheering mob does not affect the judges (at least it didn’t affect me), but I have noticed an increased energy and focus on the part of the bartenders as they craft their entries.
The first round this week featured a mystery basket containing one of the sponsors, Finlandia Tangerine Vodka, whole lychee fruits, and some strawberry soda. Each contestant presented a drink that looked good and tasted nice. This left the judges resorting to the secondary areas of the scoring system to make our decision. Brian ‘Whitey’ White, of The Pub at Polaris Center got the chop for his Strawberry Red Wagon due to its being pretty significantly different in strength from one judge’s drink to the next. All the contestants had this issue in the first round, actually, as they worked their way into the competition, but Whitey just suffered the worst. Frankly, we were all cranky to have to chop Whitey, as he was very charismatic and any dude with the balls to wear a kilt to work every day is OK in my book.

One element of the competition I had not noticed before is that Brandon Bowsher, the organizer, only gives the contestants a few minutes behind the bar before the contest. Brandon says it adds another element to evaluate in how well the contestants work under pressure, but I suspect it is just because he is evil.

The second round saw a basket that included Herradura Anejo Tequila, coconut water, roasted yellow peppers, and Fee’s Mint Bitters. The second round is the savory round, and the same thing happens each week. A contestant makes a drink that tastes good, sometimes better than the others, by covering up the powerful ingredients instead of balancing them, and gets chopped for his trouble. If your drink would taste just the same without one of the secret ingredients, then you have a problem. If your drink would taste better without an ingredient or two, well that’s a problem too. Balancing the two is how you win.
This week’s guy to fall afoul of this issue was Chris Yoha of Elevator on High Street. He was my initial favorite, based on our interview before the event started. Any bartender who will wax eloquent about Negronis, Sazeracs, and Pimm’s Cup (coming soon to the Elevator cocktail menu), is my kinda mixologist. Chris’s Mint Jubilee was frothy and tasty, but we had a dickens of a time picking up the peppers or even the tequila. The Herradura was pretty smooth stuff and just got lost.

The dessert round came down to Joseph Gardina of the Refectory and Benjamin Handley of Vonn Jazz. The Refectory is a Columbus institution that has never let slip the quality that got it that status. The food, the drinks, and the clientele for that matter, are all classic, elegant, and expensive. Joseph’s style matched that. All three drinks were subtle, meticulous, and classically attractive. Vonn Jazz is a new, very cool club that is seeing a lot of success. Benjamin mixes with a very jazz style himself, with lots of improvisation, flash, and panache. If he hits an off note or gets a bit messy, who cares, the whole groove is just so cool. I should clarify that Benjamin was, for all the improvisation, an incredibly detail-oriented, meticulous worker.
The final basket contained sponsor Jack Daniels, Chambord, and Old Engine Oil Scottish Black Ale. (I told you Brandon was evil!) Both contestants immediately called for vanilla ice cream, and I was afraid we’d have similar drinks again, which would suck since they were essentially tied going into the last round. I could not have been more wrong.

Benjamin presented us his Holy Brown Cow first. It was a big, fun, delicious rootbeer float-type drink, served with chocolate covered strawberries and a big honking spoon to help eat, er, drink it. It was a crazy mess, and we all loved it.
Joseph then presented us with a perfect little creation, the Black Beer Berry Kiss. It was much smaller than any other drink I’ve seen throughout the competition, but also one of the most meticulously constructed. It was a frothy, particularly balanced mix of the ingredients and vanilla ice cream that held together very well. the surface was lightly drizzled with a bit more Chambord and garnished with a single blackberry. The colors were great, the taste was great, the whole package was very cool, very elegant. It looked as if it was ready for a magazine photo shoot.

After much deliberation among the judges, we made our decision. And with sadness, we gave the chop to Benjamin.
Monday, July 12th 2010, will be the finals of the contest! If you are one of my Columbus readers, I hope you’ll come down and support this very cool event. Doors open at eight, and the contest begins right at nine. The final four contestants hoping to survive the final chop are:
Cris Dehlavi of M at Miranova
Zak Renzetti-Voit of Black Olive
Jordan Conkey of Smith & Wollensky
Joseph Gardina of the Refectory

June 28th was the third round of Columbus Chopped Mixology, hosted by Mozaik. (Here are the Week One and Week Two roundups) I was once again a judge, and had a great time. If you don’t think that judging a contest like this is hard, however, you are wrong.

Oh, sure.
It’s a hard knock life, sitting there at a table while bartenders bring you cocktail after cocktail to try….

No seriously, it’s hard work!

I can tell.
Clearly, your fellow judge here is weary from all the drudgery….

She was going that extra mile in getting a clarification on his technique!
And shut up.
The first round secret ingredients this week were Espolon Tequila Blanco, seedless watermelons, World Market Blood Orange Soda, and Tropical Punch Kool-Aid! That last ingredient confirmed to me that the organizer, Brandon Bowsher, has an evil streak.
For Michael Valentino, of Hyde Park’s Eleven, the pink powder was the source of both a great idea, and his downfall. His drink, Sunset at Eleven was a tequila punch. His cool idea was to rim half the cocktail glass with salt, and the other half in a sugar/Kool-Aid mixture. It was an innovative idea, and it looked great when he first did it. But he finished too soon, and the rimming dissolved before he could present it to us. Also, he just used too much of the Kool-Aid in the drink itself to let much of the tequila flavor come through. When you have never competed under clock pressure before, knowing how much time you have is hard. I think if Michael had realized how for ahead of things he was, he’d have realized he had more time to get the balance right. Regardless, I’m shamelessly stealing the yin-yang rimming idea.

Michael, representing Eleven, prepares his custom cocktail shaker.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the most innovative and successful presentations of the entire contest so far. Adam Winham, of Brewsky’s Sports Bar, presented us with a flight of shots, instead of a single cocktail. Not only was it a ballsy, out of the box move, but he nailed it. Each of the three shots was good, and one was really good.

Round two featured a secret ingredient basket that contained the sponsor’s SKYY Vodka, Campari, fresh ginger root, and a bottle of mango pureé. With Campari and ginger, that’s two ingredients that have great character, but can go from awesome to too much in a very narrow range. For me, that’s what got Mozaik’s own Eric Barhorst in trouble. His Ginger, Spice, ‘n Everything Nice had the most complex flavors of the bunch, but the pungency was just a little too in your face. In talking to Eric before the contest, he told me that he has a weakness for hot or spicy cocktails, so I can see where he was going.

Mozaik’s Eric Barhorst has a knack for never appearing rushed, while getting things done in plenty of time.

The final round pitted the aforementioned Adam against Jordan Conkey of Smith and Wollensky. Based on thumbnail resumés, these are not the two a cocktail snob would have expected to be in the finals. Adam works at a popular beer and shot sports bar, while Jordon has been bartending for barely a year. Neither had ever been in anything like this competition.
Resumés mean nothing!
As the last round progressed, the judges discussed what it was about both these guys that makes them good. Both have a great skill set. Their drinks were both very consistent in appearance and amount from glass to glass, which is harder in these circumstances than you think. Also, both are very good with their knives. There were a few garnishes by Adam and Jordan last night that Rick Stutz would’ve been proud of. Both also have great flavor instincts. All three drinks by each (well, five for Adam) were balanced and pleasant. Finally, both guys used those skills in a creative fashion throughout the contest.

Adam is the first Chopped Mixology contestant to have actual stadium-style signs wielded by his fans….

The final mystery basket contained Wild Turkey Rare Breed, rhubarb raspberry jam, and Trader Tiki’s Cinnamon Syrup (from some damn crazed blogger in Portland). One of the best things about this week is that we got two utterly different drinks to judge.
Adam offered us his Just Desserts, which was a chocolate, whipped cream confection. It was sweet, and pretty, and the stuffed strawberry garnish rocked. (Is it fair to have a garnish, a plate of which might have won all on its own?) We all liked it, but it wobbled a bit in the way a lot of the sweet round drinks have throughout the contest: You lost track of the featured spirit.

Jordan Conkey, of Smith & Wollensky Easton, is absurdly talented for someone who has been legally drinking less than two years.

Jordan served us his Redneck Holiday, an Old-Fashioned/Mint Julep hybrid. It was gorgeous to look at, meticulously constructed, and tasted wonderful. Lots of sweet drinks taste good, but it’s damn hard to make them also feel “clean” on the palate. The Redneck Holiday managed that difficult feat. It was refreshing as well as tasty, and they took mine away before I was finished!

And so we conversed. The challenge in judging the last round is that we are to judge the entire, three-drink “cocktail menu” the contestants have created. We took longer than we should have, but in the end we had to lift away a bucket and declare Adam to be chopped.
Jordan moves on to the finals on July 12th.

Monday was the second round of the Chopped Mixology Competition at Mozaik in the Columbus Arena District. (First round results here) I had the very cool opportunity to be a judge this time around, and it was a great time. This week’s winner was Zak Renzetti-Voit, who bartends at Black Olive. Zak benefited from some extensive experience in competitive mixology. He was one of Columbus’ Iron Bartenders, and also was a national finalist in the Bombay Sapphire Most Inspired Bartender competition in Las Vegas.

Zak Renzetti-Voit of Black Olive. Gin-haters, should go see him. He has a challenge for you….

The first round was marked by the exceptional looks of all the drinks. Among the secret ingredients that each contestant had to use in his or her drink were Finlandia Vodka and star fruit. (I never wrote down the exact lists, bad journalist! No cookie!) Each of the potions we were presented had that, “Ooh. What is that she’s having, bartender?” appearance.

Larry of J. Liu. He specializes in champagne cocktails, not three foot putts. Honest.

In fact, the first contestant to be chopped fell afoul of making his drink too pretty. Larry, who has been bar manager at J. Liu’s Dublin location almost since it opened, wanted the beautiful layered appearance you can just make out above in his Tidal Wave creation. But the separation of flavors made a well-conceived recipe taste unbalanced. Also, the very nifty lime boat garnishes he made each capsized as he brought the drinks over to us. There are fifty Poseidon Adventure jokes to be made, especially given the drink name of Tidal Wave, so I’ll leave them to you, dear reader, to make for yourself.
One area that this week’s contestants were much stronger on than last’s was in drink naming. I find that to be an important part of the scoring chart.

Bee, representing the Scarlett and Grey Café. Bee also creates drinks at Ozone

The next round won me and the other judges no friends. Jack Daniels lead the secret ingredients, along with dried chili peppers. We got three utterly different drinks this round, in taste and appearance. The other judges and I took some time to make a decision here.
The one who got chopped was Bee, who make a drink she called S’Mores. It was a cream-based highball with a lovely strawberry garnish. And it tasted really good, maybe the best of the round. But the problem was that neither of the two secret ingredients I mentioned were apparent at all in her final product. When I explained this as we announced our decision, I got us pretty comprehensively booed by Bee’s section of the crowd.
Actually, getting booed aside, the crowd is one of the really fun things about this competition. Each contestant has a lot of support among the multitude, and there is a lot of cheering and hollering. Also, many of the contestants make use of the stacks of shot glasses around them as they are formulating their entries, trying variations out on the fans clustered around them as they work.
While Michael and Zak prepared for the final challenge, Bee and Larry came back out for a lightning round shot contest. They formulated and served up shots for the crowd as quickly as possible in a naked attempt to convince them to vote for them for the consolation prize.

Michael, of Hyde Park on the Cap in the Short North, the swankiest restaurant located on a freeway overpass on Earth. When you visit, ask him for his family’s secret recipe Manhattan.

The last round featured Southern Comfort, pecans, Fee’s Aztec Chocolate Bitters, and apple butter! I was impressed by how decisively both guys embarked on the challenge here. Zak was yelling for eggs, while Michael crumbled pecans and tossed the large crumbs in the bitters. Both chose to rim their cocktail glasses with the apple butter. Michael embedded the pecans in the butter, while Zak dipped his in toasted coconut.
To be honest, when I saw the ingredient list, I didn’t know what to think, and had steeled myself for a strange third round. But these two drinks were the best of the night. Michael’s Apple Pecan Peach Rob Roy was a solid drink that looked and tasted great. If you had told me that single-malt and SoCo could work well together, I’d have scoffed mightily. I’d have been wrong.
But Zak’s Breakfast Before Bed was just a bit better. His float of whipped egg whites added both visual interest and some nice smoothness as well. The bitters demonstrated why they are such an important part of modern cocktailia, melding and punching up the other flavors very well.
We judges enjoyed the drinks for this last round, but not making our final decision. If one of these guys had had the grace to make a clunker in the final round, we could have kicked back and relaxed. But noooo! We had to go back through all our scratched out notes from the first two rounds and ask each other a lot of questions, when we could have been enjoying the drinks.
In the end, I think we made the right decision. This was a very strong field, with our two finalists last night both being Iron Bartender veterans.
With Cris, who won week one, that is all the Iron Bartenders we’ll have in this competition. The fourth contestant from that event, Brandon Bowsher, is the organizer of Chopped Mixology, and thus won’t be competing. (Also, he only has so many hands to nearly cut off during bartending competitions…) As I have said here before, the thing that most impresses me about Brandon is how he learns from experience. This week’s event ran faster and more smoothly than last. The crowd was larger, and Brandon and company did an even better job of keeping them involved directly in the event. It really is a great party, as well as a legitimate, interesting competition. I hope you’ll come down for the next few Mondays and join in. Cheer on your favorite bartender, or go shopping among the contestants for a new one!

The first round of the Chopped Mixology Competition is in the books, and a good time was had by all. The contestants all put together a series of great offerings, leaving a lot of difficulty for the judges. The winner of the first preliminary round, who will move on to the final on July 12th, was Cris from M at Miranova, but not without some drama along the way.

Cris Dehlavi, the first round winner, from M at Mirnova

I had not previously been to Mozaik, and I’ve got a second post about it coming next. For right now, I’ll just say that it is a swank joint, and is laid out pretty well for a contest like this one. With the walls wide open to the street, the atmosphere is wonderful. The sound system took a little while to get dialed in, but ended up working pretty well, which is both damned hard and damned important for an event like this.

Jason Davis of Mynt Ultralounge

Each night works as follows: There are three rounds of drinks created. For each round, the bartenders are presented with a sealed basket of ingredients. They must use all these ingredients to create four identical cocktails in twenty minutes, using the rest of the bar’s resources as they wish. They present their cocktails to the judges, who ask questions. After the judges have tried all the drinks, they score them according to a rubric that I’ll detail later on. The lowest scoring bartender is chopped. The remaining contestants return for the next round.

Lindsay Konkel of Haiku Poetic Food and Art

The first round was scored only to keep the format even, because the fourth contestant was a last-minute substitution. He was actually the guy who chose most of the secret ingredients earlier in the day. Under the circumstances it would have been unfair for him to keep going, a fact that was borne out by his actually being the highest scorer in the first round. The result was that Cris, who would other wise have been chopped first, stayed in the contest.

“McLovin”, Chopped’s good-natured and talented, (and unauthorized) final contestant

The final round came down to Lindsay and Cris, and ingredients included caramel macchiato ice cream and Russell’s Reserve Rye Whiskey. Both contestants put together very good offerings, and the judges required a lot of time and discussion to render their decision.

Judges (L to R): Ben Zenitsky of Columbus Monthly, Madlogic of Local Night Scene, and Amber Fox of Black Olive restaurant

Brandon revealed the judge’s decision after each round by lifting a champagne bucket to reveal the drink of the bartender who was to be chopped. The only hiccup of the night came at the final reveal, when I was not sure whether it was the winner or loser who was being exposed! Regardless, as I said at the beginning, Cris was the narrow winner, and I’m glad I didn’t have to choose this week, as Lindsay’s drink was equally good.
The next round will be Monday, June 21st, at Mozaik at 8:00PM. Come on down, have some inexpensive drinks, some great food, and cheer on next week’s batch of bartenders vying not to be… chopped!

Just a reminder about tonight’s first round at Mosaik of the Chopped Mixology Competition.
Tonight’s contestants come from four well-known local establishments: Cris from M at Miranova, Lindsay from Haiku, Matty from Fado Irish Pub, and Jason of Mynt Ultralounge.
They are expecting a large crowd this evening, so if you are planning on attending, you might want to get there early. I hope I see you all there!