BARS: The (ri)1 "Iron Bartender" Cocktail Competition

Mondays are so much better when you go out and drink a bunch of rye whiskey in the middle of them, which is what happend today at the (ri)¹ "Iron Bartender" Competition at The World Bar at the U.N. Plaza. Six teams of two bartenders were presented with a secret ingredient, a la Iron Chef, and were given 30 minutes to come up with a cocktail, which also had to include top-shelf rye whiskey (ri)¹ (pronounced "rye one"). Whoever's was voted the best by a team of judges won an all-expenses-paid trip to Kentucky, plus $500 and a tour of the Jim Beam distillery. Not bad.

Unlike Iron Chef, however, the Iron Bartender contenders were assigned three different secret ingredients: Two teams got a spice (garam marsala), two teams got a fruit (papaya), and two teams got an herb (cilantro). Meanwhile, the spectators drank (ri)¹ Manhattans and something called the (ri)se & Fall, put together by host Jonathan Pogash, of The Cocktail Guru, made with Q Tonic, maple syrup and peychauds bitters. Very tasty. It was an unexpectedly intense atmosphere—the music was off, so the most predominant sounds were the clinking of glass, the shaking of ice, and the quiet whispers between team members. The rest of us talked quietly and ate small sandwiches.

Once the 30 minutes of recipe deliberation were up, each team had five additional minutes to present and pour their cocktail. The four judges came from Clover Club, Dutch Kills, the Jim Beam company and Bartender Magazine. Here's how they voted:

Third place: Team one, "The Presidents of the United States of America" (a.k.a. Nick and Vincent), came up with something called the Garibaldi Thousand, with marsala, the juice of smoked peaches, (ri)¹, marsala simple syrup, peach bitters, lemon juice and a peach-wedge garnish.

Team two, "The Herb Burners" (a.k.a. John Pomeroy and Nick Jarrett), came up with an unnamed cocktail, made with (ri)¹, egg whites, cilantro, jalapeno and sarsparilla syrup ("I took some sarsparilla root and boiled it, and mixed it with some demerara sugar"). It was served in a champagne glass over Kold-Draft ice cubes (brought from home).

Team three, "Totally Bringing It" (a.k.a. Doug and Stephanie from the Culinary Institute of America), made a kitchen-sink cocktail called the Bluegrass Papaya, with papaya puree, orange bitters, (ri)¹, pineapple sage, allspice liqueur, orange juice, lemon verbena, brown sugar and vanilla bean. They served it in a highball glass with a garnish of papaya cubes, lemongrass and lemon verbena leaves.

Winner: Team four, "Peaches and Herb" (a.k.a. Marshall Altier, pictured, and his partner John... whose last name we missed, whoops), made a Marsala Mule, with muddled Georgia peaches and coriander, (ri)¹, peach bitters, ginger syrup, simple syrup, lemon juice and egg whites.

Second place: Team five, "Team Good Looking" (a.k.a. David and Demetrius from Connecticut), made something called the Border City Sour (because they drove through the town of Rye en route to NYC from CT), with lemon juice, candied orange rinds from Demetrius's grandmother's garden in Greece, plus syrup from those oranges, as well as (ri)¹, cilantro and a garnish of candied orange peel.

Team six, "The Flatiron Floozies" (we remember them from the Bartenders' Croquet Tournament—Damon and Megan from the Flatiron Lounge), made a Tropical Monk, with (ri)¹, yellow chartreuse, benedictine, fresh lemon, papaya, a spritz of lemon oil and a lemon twist.

Congratulations team Peaches and Herb, and enjoy your free trip to Kentucky. Our favorite part of the event, besides all the snacks and whiskey cocktails, was the dude wearing (ri)¹ sneakers. Amazing.

Photo from the Bartenders' Croquet Tournament, by Sam Horine