One could argue that San Francisco is the capital of creativity when it comes to art, food, and drink. Well one of our own talented bartenders was put to the test at Bombay Sapphire’s Most Imaginative Bartender Competition in Las Vegas, also sponsored by GQ Magazine, where bartenders from all over the country compete with their gin cocktail creations.
Trent Simpson is a bartender from La Urbana in SF, a new mezcaleria that just opened a few weeks ago, and he made a delicious cocktail at the pre-finals competition. “Three quarters ounce of lime juice, and then I made sort of a spiced honey, which consists of an acacia honey with hot water. I do like a fifty fifty blend. And then I added fresh ginger, Thai basil, orris root, and coriander, which is one of the botanicals in the Sapphire gin. And then I used a pure elderflower liqueur, three quarters of an ounce. And then an ounce of Bombay Sapphire. So you shake it, and you put a little absinthe spritz in the glass. And it’s garnished with a burdock root that I soaked in gin and honey overnight, and burdock leaf to kind of give it a little earthiness. The burdock leaf has a little minty and sort of savory aspect to it, which really adds a whole new dimension to the cocktail,” Trent explained.
The semi-finals competition took place on the incredible balcony of the PURE Nightclub at Caesar’s Palace with a view of the Vegas strip. Forty-six talented bartenders from all over the country competed, many sharing their recipes throughout the competition. Based on the ingredients of other cocktails in the competition, Trent’s cocktail definitely had more of an earthy, Asian-inspired ingredients list than many of the other cocktails.
Trent continued, “My homemade ingredient was my spiced honey which had ginger, thai basil, coriander, and orris root. And coriander and orris root are two of the botanicals in Bombay Sapphire. And I worked at Dosa for almost two and a half years, which is a gin bar. And so we did a lot of spiced cocktails that really opened up my mind to exploring different spices and highlighting the nuances of different gins.
When asked if he brought any of his ingredients from San Francisco, he responded, “My garnish was a burdock root, which is in Japanese cuisine and traditional Chinese medicine, but I had to go to Clement Street. There is one specific grocery store there that sells it. And I don’t think you can get those ingredients here, so I had to bring them in a vacuum-sealed bag from Clement Street the day before I came, which is fun. San Francisco has everything you want from foraged garnishes to exotic plants. It’s cool to be able to utilize all of that and put it into a cocktail.”
When asked about San Francisco as a source of inspiration, Trent responded, “The access to amazing markets and food in San Francisco is wonderful. Like where I live, there’s Bi-Rite and Faletti’s and farmer’s markets, which bring organic food from Sonoma and the Monterey Valley and Central Valley, which is some of the best food in the world. So it’s great to be able to utilize those ingredients and cook with them from scratch. You’re not getting processed food and you know what your’e eating, and so whether it’s healthy or not, it’s just about using quality ingredients. And that goes for cocktails as well.”
Also at the pre-finals event, there was a bar with a variety of garnishes and botanicals on display, for guests to make their very own custom cocktails. They could then take a photo of their unique cocktail and have it judged, and the winner would receive a special prize bag. Trent Simpson’s girlfriend Anastasia won! Looks like they both have a talent for mixing cocktails.
Peter Wijk, the Vice President of Bombay Sapphire, speaks on San Francisco and how the competing bartenders are influenced by where they’re from. “San Francisco had some interesting people. Trick Dog did very well in this year’s competition. He wasn’t able to make it unfortunately. He was flown to Ireland, I heard. You definitely find that different regions try to highlight their region, so San Francisco is definitely very culinary.”
Peter has seen quite an interesting variety of creative cocktails. “I think there was a duck fat cocktail. A cocktail that included duck fat in it, in the regionals this year. Everyone comes up with something. We had one person use a chicken wing in a cocktail as a garnish. So there are some really good examples of creativity.”
Every bartender in the competition had their own style and their own flavor they wanted to bring out with Bombay Sapphire, several at a time lined up along the horseshoe shaped bar and working their magic. Unfortunately, Trent was not selected as one of the ten finalists to go on to the finals competition, and as a huge fan of his cocktail, this reporter was quite surprised. We will just have to cheer San Francisco on in next year’s competition!
Here are the ten finalists chosen out of the forty-six bartenders at pre-finals, in no particular order:
Ryan Pines from Edison Food and Drink Lab in Tampa. His cocktail, Sapphire Rose:
– 1 oz. egg whites
– 1 oz. pine nut syrup
– 1 oz. lemon juice
– 1 oz. Cardamaro
– 2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 3 dashes Fee Brothers Rose Water
Carley Dunavant from Whislers in Austin. Her cocktail, The Sencha Sipper:
– 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1/2 oz. lemon juice
– 1/2 oz. green tea, lemon peel, and grains of paradise honey syrup
– 1 oz. unfiltered sake (dreamy clouds)
– Garnished with rice and grains of paradise crusted lemon
Francis Fontaine from Annie Bailey’s in Philadelphia. His cocktail:
– 2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1 oz. Super Juice (beet, carrot & ginger juices)
– 3/4 oz. lemon juice
– 1/2 oz. Salty Dill Simple Syrup
– 1/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
– Shake all ingredients and strain into glass over ice, then top with 1 oz. mineral water
– Garnished with beet leaf
Robert Jonathan Jones from Minneapolis. His cocktail, Experimental Jet Set:
– 2 oz. Dill compressed watermelon juice
– 1 3/4 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1/8 oz. aged balsamic vinegar
– 1/4 oz. Arak
– 3/4 oz. simple syrup
– 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
– Garnished with fresh dill
Luke Edson from The Berry & Rye in Omaha. His cocktail, Victoria’s Rhuby:
– Bombay Sapphire
– House Rhubarb red wine syrup
– Suze
– Malic acid
– Vanilla
Karen Grill from Bestia in Los Angeles. Her cocktail, Lily of the Valley:
– 1 oz. fresh lime juice
– 1/2 oz. agave nectar
– 3/4 oz. Chareau aloe liqueur
– 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1 1/2 oz. Fever Tree soda water
– Dry Italian Rose float
– Garnished with edible flowers
Christian Sanders from Evelyn Drinkery in New York. His cocktail, Far East Cocktail:
– 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1/2 oz. absinthe
– 3/4 oz. pineapple puree
– 1/2 oz. garam masala syrup
– 3/4 oz. lime
– 2 dashes Bitter End Moroccan Bitters
– 1/2 oz. egg white
– Garnished with 3 sage leaves
Julio Cabrera from The Regent in Miami. His cocktail, Ganesha:
– 2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 3/4 oz. homemade grapefruit-masala syrup
– 3/4 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
– 1 bar spoon Martini Dry Vermouth
– Homemade elderflower espuma
– 3 drops homemade Mumbai bitters
Rodger Gillespie from Vesper Bar at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. His cocktail, Grain of Salt:
– 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1 oz. Cynar
– 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
– 1 oz. Spring Mountain Tea Syrup
– Pinch of sea salt
– Topped with Salty Dog Foam (salt, grapefruit and perfumed egg whites)
Sean Michael Johnson from Canon in Seattle. His cocktail, Julius Henry:
– 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire
– 1/2 oz. Aperol
– 2 dashes lime bitters
– Topped with cognac/coriander whip cream float (heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, coriander infused cognac, hand-whipped)
The next day, all guests and the bartenders who didn’t make the final ten were invited to the pool at The Cosmopolitan to hang out, eat, drink, swim, be merry, and enjoy the view of the Vegas strip.
The top ten finalists couldn’t be there, because their day started at 8:30 the next morning when they were first blindfolded and challenged to name different cocktails, just based on smell and taste. Then, each finalist was given a driver, a list of stores, and some money for ingredients to invent a new cocktail for the finals competition that night. They would need to make enough for every guest at the event to try it.
The finals competition, held at the LIGHT Nightclub at Mandalay Bay, was an event of tremendous proportions. Guests were each given a voting chip, then greeted at the entrance by Cirque Du Soleil performers in wonderfully bizarre costumes. Inside, the first bar runs the length of just about the entire club, seven of the final ten bar tenders lined up making their cocktails. At the back, the judges are with the final three tenders at the smaller bar, trying the final cocktails before making their decisions.
For the audience vote, the final ten bartenders each made dozens of smaller samples of their cocktails for audience members to try. Each tender had a bucket by them, and guests would put their chip into the bucket of their favorite cocktail– after trying all ten, this reporter dropped her chip into Karen Grill’s bucket.
Before the winner was announced, the audience was treated to a live underwater themed Cirque Du Soleil performance with acrobats, wall-climbers and a mermaid. The performance was an epically beautiful show that had everyone hypnotized.
Finally, the moment of truth. Rodger Gillespie received the audience award with his cocktail, “Apple of My Eye”.
And the winner of the Most Imaginative Bartender Competition, who will go on to represent the U.S. in the World’s Most Imaginative Bartender Competition, was Julio Cabrera.
Julio is from Cuba and came to the U.S. seven years ago. “Almost all my cocktails are related to my roots in Cuba. So in the place I work, this is my responsibility to keep doing tropical drinks,” Julio said.
When asked about the cocktail he made for this finals competition, he responded, “The name of my drink was Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria was the queen in India at that time with the boom of gin three hundred years ago. And she is the symbol of Bombay Sapphire. She’s on the label of Bombay Sapphire. So I was inspired by Queen Victoria not just for her name, it’s about Bombay Sapphire gin… I was inspired in the gin itself to create some flavors to enhance the flavor of the gin. Sometimes we try to incorporate a lot of different flavors into the drink that, then, when you try the cocktail, it’s not a gin cocktail, it’s some other flavored cocktail. So I was trying to keep doing a gin cocktail as a principal ingredient, and the other ingredients just enhance the flavors of Bombay Sapphire. So the cucumber, the mint, are different but never mask the flavor of Bombay Sapphire. So my main experience was about the Bombay Sapphire in itself, that’s why I call it Queen Victoria. Because it’s the symbol of Bombay, and my cocktail represents all the flavors of Bombay. I topped with a little fresh black peppercorn, that is one of the botanicals in the drink.”
(All Above Photos by Jonathan Santana)
(Photos by Richard Patterson)