A Toast to 2008 from Our USBG National Ambassadors!

“This was a wonderful year for the USBG, we are on track to one day reach our goal of having a Chapter represented in every great State of this amazing Country! Cheers & Much Happiness to each of you and yours for a Happy & Healthy 2009!”  Tony Abou-Ganim

 

2008 has been a banner year for the USBG. I was honored to play a part in the opening of 2 new chapters New Orleans and Milwaukee.
There is much passion in the industry today and I truly believe that we as USBG members are driving that bus nation wide. My position with Beam has allowed me the advantage of traveling to all corners of our great nation and I get to meet bartenders from all types of establishments. Serving as a National Ambassador I have the opportunity to reach many bartenders that are interested in joining the USBG. I know that Tony and Francesco have opened new chapters in Austin and Phoenix. Tony has even championed the Crystal Cruise Lines to become “floating” members of the USBG.

Livio Lauro  has led us to be stronger then ever before and with the development of the MA program the opportunities for growth are outstanding for 2009!

Here are some things I would love to see for 2009:
• Stronger Membership participation within existing Chapters
• More cocktail competitions with a national scope
• 100 members attending the national competition
• More chapters in more states
 

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Bobby G Gleason

San Francisco’s 2008 Memories!

Happy Holiday and New Year to all!

This years Holiday dinner was a spectacular event and I would like to thank you all for your attendance at the event and your continued support of the craft. It has truly been a great year for the Northern California USBG Chapter.

With 60 members in attendance at our holiday dinner it is no wonder there was much joy flowing in spirit…both literally and figuratively speaking.
Our Holiday dinner was sponsored by Beam Global and Hosted by Conduit Restaurant. The Food was spectacular and the cocktails delicious. With featured cocktails batched for 60 and an open bar comprised of the entire Beam portfolio. No one left hungry or thirsty.
I look forward to 2009 and the great events we have planned for you all. We have a Torani Factory tour and cocktail event on January 12th and a Cachaça Immersion event on February 9th already in the works.
A special congratulations goes out to the winners of our 1st annual award and veteran roast ceremony.
New Member Awards- active participation awarded to:Amanda Washington, Crystal Carpino, Marc Goldfine, Brook Arthur, Erick Castro, Gabrielle Barnes, Parker Heineman, Katie Darling, Jared Schmidt, Robert Gonzales, and  Francis Kelly.

Special Acknowledgements
Most Willing to Volunteer was a tie between Robert Gonzales and  Tony Devencenzi
Most Committed LONG Distance Member-Lonnie Long
Most Active New Member-Erick Castro
Best Dressed-Tim Stookey
Most Therapeutic Shake-Stephen Liles
Best USBG attendance- Ronaldo Colli
Most improved bartender Katie darling

Roasts went to:
Carlos Yturria, David Nepove,  H Joseph Ehrmann, Duggan McDonnell, Jeff Hollinger, Dominic Venegas ,Jon Gasparini, Victoria D’Amato Moran, Francis Kelly,Brooke Arthur, Reza Esmaili, Ryan Fitzgerald and Todd Smith

“Awards” In Absentia- Eddie Bustos, Jordan Mackay, Camper English, Danny Ronen, Erik Ellestad, Julio Bermejo lefty, Lefty Westside, Neyah White, Jacques Bezuidenhout, Debbie Rizzo, and Jacqueline Patterson.
 
Congrats and thanks for being a good sport!!!

So again, Happy Holidays to all of you, stay safe and be well.
I would like to let you all know that Tony Devencenzi a friend and USBG member was struck by a car on Dec 14th. He is expected to make a full recovery from his head trauma, but it will be a difficult journey. Our thought go out to him and wish him a speed recovery.

David Nepove, No CA Chapter

Teamwork, Innovation & Inspiration, 2008 in Illinois!

“Teamwork, innovation and inspirational.” These are the words I use to describe 2008 for the United States Bartenders Guild IL Chapter.  Our year began with a meeting in Bolingbrook, IL.  Bolingbrook is 45minutes from the city of Chicago. The members came together and car pooled. Over 20 people were in attendance. This was just the beginning of our teamwork. After many months of planning with our sister NOLA Chapter together we pulled off a fundraiser for a bar from the bartenders called Sisters in Spirits all to raise of awareness of the needed rebuilding of the beverage industry in NOLA since hurricane Katrina. Through hard work and determination from both chapters we successfully made over the garden of a loved local bar in Chicago named  Weeds.  This was done with countless volunteer hours from the members, Chicago Hospitality Institute, city of Chicago, construction companies, a local DJ, hotels, and a nursery.  A special thank you to the SIS board Peter Vestinos, Lori Congiusti, Greg, Heringhaus, John Kinder, Kyle McHugh, and Ann Tuennerman. And to all of the volunteers who worked in the garden prior to the reveal and stayed and worked in the rain and mud on the final day. It was because of all of you this was a success. We are looking forward to part two of SIS that will take place in NOLA in 2009. In the early spring our members competed in a local Hennessy VSOP competition with the grand prize of a trip to Paris and Cognac France.  We had much of the Chicago media present as well as over 200 locals in attendance to cheer their favorite contestant on. Our judges were some of the top chefs in our city from restaurants like Evergreen.  Congratulations to Tony Maffei who came in first place and enjoyed this trip with his girlfriend.   The USBG IL Chapter participated in largest whiskey event in Chicago. Whiskey Fest was a first for our chapter this year. We had a booth that offered signature USBG cocktails from the members and education about our organization. Our WCC State finals were a mail in competition this year. We are all thrilled that Peter Vestinos won the state competition and went to the national finals to represent our state.  We continued the spirit of competition with the Cabana Iron Bar Chef Throw Down. This took place at Carnival. Competitors gave it their all for a trip to Brazil. We had local Chicago media present and once again top chefs as the judges.  Jennifer Contraveos took the gold. At the local 42 Below competition we had a terrific USBG IL presence. In third place was Adam Seger and First place went to Charles Joly who went on to New Zealand for the world finals.   For the third year in a row our chapter participated in Taste of the Nation.  Over 20 volunteer USBG IL  bartenders offered the guests of this event their signature cocktails along side of celebrity chefs with their dishes. This is an event that raises money to end childhood hunger in our city. Over $100,000 was raised and 100% of the money goes to children in need. This has become not only a tradition for our chapter but the most important event of the year for our chapter. We continued to give back to our community with the Blue Sky Inn Fundraiser event (our second year) to assist underprivileged children with education in the arts. We had the pleasure of presenting a classic rum cocktail seminar at the Ministry of Rum. This was also a first for our chapter.  For the Tales of the Cocktail we worked together to design two Tabasco cocktail recipes. One even garnished with a mini Chicago Style hotdog. Thank you to Todd Appel and Kyle McHugh who worked very hard at the competition at Tales and made us all very proud. Finally we continued the year with mixology round tables from our supplier friends.  And finished the year with a Holiday Party sponsored by NAVAN. For each recipe we created at the party $20 was donated to Taste of the Nation on behalf of the USBG.  We are kicking off the New Year with monthly USBG IL “mixers” sponsored each month by a different supplier. At our mixers we will have a brief meeting followed by a casual competition.  I want to personally thank all of the USBG IL members for a terrific year.  It is only with your teamwork, innovation and inspiring actions that we are able to continue the momentum of raising the profession of our beloved craft.

Together we are raising the bar and one another!
Bridget Albert
IL Chapter President

Nevada Chapter Salutes 2008!

Looking back…2008 in Las Vegas!

Well 08 was filled with lots of great things for the Nevada Chapter, we had many great events like luncheons and spirited dinners throughout the year. During the Bar and Night club show we had a booth and met quite a few interesting people while we spread the word for the USBG.

Our Nevada Chapter produced both competitors for the United States to go to Puerto Rico in the World Finals for the WCC. Anthony Alba was our classic competitor winning the US qualifier during the 60th anniversary of the USBG in Long Beach this year with his cocktail named The Big Easy. Ray Speight was our flair competitor and has been heavily involved the Nevada Chapter since he joined in 2006. During the week long congress in P.R. Ray caught a nasty cold and still went on stage to do us proud, even though he was the first competitor and went on stage at 9am his performance evoked laughter and cheer from the crowd. Anthony made it to the finals and placed 13th in the world and had to create a totally new garnish on the spot because the product went missing the day of the competition. He also represented the USA in the Stella Artois international draught masters competition with over 30 countries competition held in Belgium, he got 4th place and has a new appreciation of beer!

Daniel Gonzales from Nora’s Cuisine went to Amsterdam to represent the USA in the DeKuyper world finals and got 5th place. He also won 1st Place in the Las Vegas Bombay Sapphire G.Q. competition and will be featured in G.Q. with the other winners. Danny is an up and coming force on the competition scene so keep your eye on him. Alex Velez and Diane Silvey went to Los Angles to compete in the Travel and Leisure Grand Mariner Beverage Arts Challenge, Alex got First place with his over the top cocktail named The Dreamer. Amanda Gager was a finalist in the Absolut Top Bartender competition, she was chosen from a pool of thousands across the USA and will compete with 9 other finalist for $100,000.00, she was also received the Star Chefs rising Mixologist Award for Las Vegas.

This Years holiday party we had a great turnout and was much different then anything we’ve done in the past. The night started off at the Wynn hotel for some hors d’oeuvres and cocktails, then the whole lot of us walked to the Palazzo Hotel to the Jersey Boys show, we ended the night by going back to the Wynn and taking over 4 of the VIP booths the Blush and the party we on till the wee hours of the morning.

As our numbers grew slightly it was great to see so much activity with our members at all our events, competitions and meetings. As Nevada Chapter President I’m proud and lucky to have such great members. Thank all of you and may 2009 be as great as 2008!

Happy New Year!
Gaston Martinez
Nevada Chapter President

Results from the WCC!

Results are in from the 57th IBA meeting in Puerto Rico!

It was the 34th year for the Classic Championship and the 9th year for the Flair Championship.
With over 50 countries in attendance and over 400 people present it was amazing and inspiring to be part of such a grand event. Gala Dinners, Beach Parties and tours of Old San Juan filled or days when we were not watching the world’s finest bartenders and flair tenders creating their magic at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan.
So many ingredients needed for such a grand competition including exotic and seasonal fruits and specialty juices. It would have been amazing had everything been available for the competitors, but alas there were boxes that did not make it through customs and some items just simply did not make it in time. Some countries had to start from scratch and others like our own Anthony Alba had to recreate an entirely new garnish for his cocktail. Through all the obstacles he managed to add lib and I must say his garnish was flawless in its creation and elegance.
Anthony Alba (our classic representative) and Ray Speight(our flair representative), both from Las Vegas did us proud. The competition was fierce and the judges were well positioned. Anthony was one of 16 finalists out of the 48 competitors.
The final results where then presented after the last heat…

CLASSIC Results
Spain took Best Technical
Japan took 3rd
Luxembourg 2nd
Austria 1st place

FLAIR results
Sweden 3rd
Russia 2nd
Uruguay 1st
I am proud of our US representatives, they did an outstanding job, both are very dedicated and always professional. Anthony, Ray….Great Job.

David Nepove
USBG National Vice President

Update from the WCC!

Greetings from Puerto Rico at the 34th Annual World Cocktail Competition!

Anthony Alba and Ray Spieght have done a wonderful job so far!

Anthony just finished the 11th of 12 heats, with 4 people in each, that’s a total of 43 bartenders representing 43 countries!

In a few hours we will find out if Anthony has made it to the finals, but for now, we wait!!!
  
Go Team USA!!!

 

David Nepove

USBG National VP

Bloody Mary Please!

Bloody Mary Please! Share your secrets….

When you make your Bloody Mary’s from scratch….what do you add to set yours apart?

Do you have a unique Bloody Mary on your bar’s brunch or specialty menu?? What is the secret weapon ingredient?

To COMPETE or NOT To COMPETE???

To COMPETE or NOT To COMPETE??? Give us your opinion….

Are Cocktail Competitions the driving force behind the industry’s creativity surge?

What would be a great new spin on a cocktail competition that can re-energize the event concept and its impact to the bartenders competing?

Do you compete? Why or Why Not?

Is there an alcoholic beverage you would love to compete with and have not yet?

Passionate about PISCO?

PASSIONATE about PISCO??? Give us your opinion….

What makes Pisco so Bartender friendly and mixable, it seems to be everywhere??

What is your favorite way to serve Pisco?

Any fun stories about Barsol Pisco, a sponsor of the USBG?

Have you added a Pisco Cocktail to your bar menu….if so, has it been successful and what is the reasoning behind its success or lack there of?

Flor de Cana National Tastings and Cocktail Competitions

In some markets, mixologists and bartenders have been using Flor de Cana for years, while some have recently discovered it. Either way, Flor de Caña is extremely mixable, diverse and complex and we want you to taste it!

Flor de Caña’s team will be in some of our chapter cities August – November introducing and further educating USBG members and prospective members about Flor de Caña Rum. This will be a two part event.

The first event in each city will be the educational/tasting eventwhere USBG members will be able to taste some of Flor de Caña’s products…including 4 year old White, Gold and Limon; 5 year old; 7 year old; 12 year old; and 18 year old.

The second event will be a few weeks later and will be a cocktail competition! The San Antonio Sugar Mill & Distillery in Nicaragua is donating 2 trips to Nicaragua to the two top recipes from each event!

This a great opportunity to learn about Flor de Caña and put your Flor de Caña Rum recipe in the running!

SAN FRANCISCO: educational event – August 25th / cocktail competition – September 8th

AUSTIN: educational event – September 28th / cocktail competition – October 12th

LOS ANGELES: educational event - October 27th / cocktail competition – November 17th

NEW YORK: educational event - October 20th / cocktail competition – November 3rd

About Flor de Cana Rum

The only rum produced in Nicaragua and the most popular in all of Central America, Flor de Caña offers a diverse selection of aged products.

Celebrating over 115 years of rum production, family-owned Flor de Caña is the most-awarded rum in the world.  Flor de Caña premium and super premium rums are the only rums in the world that are 100% aged or “slow-aged,” guaranteeing each age stated on the bottle is the actual age of the rum. 

Flor de Caña slow-aged rums are never blended with younger vintages, which ensure the highest-quality and consistency.  Flor de Caña rums are distilled and handcrafted from estate-grown sugar cane at Flor de Caña’s fully self-sustaining facility in Nicaragua. 

The only rum produced in Nicaragua and the most popular in all of Central America, Flor de Caña offers a diverse selection of aged products, including 4 year old White, Gold and Limon; 5 year old; 7 year old; 12 year old; and 18 year old. They may be enjoyed neat, on the rocks or in a variety of mixed cocktails.  Flor de Caña is distributed in the U.S. by Skyy Spirits LLC.