Ladies, Start Your Engines: Speed Rack Comes to the Roosevelt

Cocktails, Food, Beer, Punch, Charity? Check to all of those at Speed Rack Los Angeles, taking place this Sunday afternoon from 3 - 7 pm at the Blossom Room in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  This benefit pits some of LA's best female bartenders against each other in a competition to see who can make cocktails accurately in the least amount of time.  Dr. Cocktail himself, Mr. Ted Haigh, will be one of the four judges.

Tickets are only $20 in advance ($25 at the door) and all proceeds go to fight Breast Cancer.  Yes, thanks to the generosity of sponsors, 100% of the proceeds go to charity. Competitors include the Spare Room at the Roosevelt's own Naomi Schimek, as well as Danielle Crouch of Cana Rum Bar, Devon Tarby of The Varnish, Kiowa Bryan of the Eveleigh, and Mia Sarazen of Harvard & Stone among others; in total 18 women will compete.  This promises to be quite a party.  Ivy Mix and Lynette Marrero of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) in New York are the hosts and organizers of Speed Rack, which is stopping in cities coast to coast to raise funds for charity and showcase the talents of female bartenders.

Tickets: http://speedrackla.eventbrite.com/

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel: 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.

2nd Annual Korean BBQ Cookoff

A parking lot in Koreatown was the scene of the 2nd Annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off on Saturday. Thousands of hungry korean bbq aficionados attended the free event, in which many of the top local korean bbq specialists competed for the title of champion. Park's BBQ was overall winner as the Judge's Selection, selected by a panel that included Chef Ludo Lefebvre of Ludobites, LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, actress Sandra Oh, and diplomat Consul General Jae Soo Kim of Korea.



Some of the longest lines of the day were for Park's BBQ (above) and Kalbi Burger (below). Each dish was priced at one ticket ($5). The Park's line moved excruciatingly slowly in the hot sun. The crowd was patient and good natured while waiting for their bowl of beef. The beef was very good but perhaps not worth waiting 45 minutes in line for. I recommend the restaurant wholeheartedly, where the experience is much more comfortable and delicious, although considerably more expensive than $5.

Kalbi Burger's line was long, but they kept it moving quickly, and folks were served in well under half the time of Park's. The physical Kalbi Burger location opened in mid June at 4001 Wilshire Blvd, at Wilton Place. The burger is a Korean take on the American classic with a kalbi aioli sauce and a Korean vinagrette on the patty made outof ground short ribs and chuck.



Ironically my favorite taste of the day came from Scoops Westside and its owner/operator Matt Kang. (pictured below) In addition to some Korean flavors such as kimchi and red bean, Scoops was serving a roasted corn flavor that was sensational. It should be the signature flavor of Scoops Westside when it opens later this year on Overland.



Other dessert options included the Coolhaus Truck and Sprinkles, which also sent a truck. There was a beer garden, which was tented and proved a popular attraction for beating the heat.



In addition to the Korean BBQ cooking competition and the general food tasting, there was a Soju mix-off cocktail competition. The winning drink, the K-Town Cobbler, was made by Joel Black (pictured above), formerly of Cana Rum Bar.

The recipe for the winning K-Town Cobbler is:

Ingredients:
3 oz jinro soju
1 tbl spoon pear chutny
1/2 oz lemon juice
2 pecans
1 tbl spoon honey
10 drops Ginger juice
1 1/2 oz apple juice

Directions:
Put all ingredients into a mixing can and muddle.
Shake cold and strain into a double old fashioned glass.
Top with crushed ice and a dallop of the pear chutney pecan mash.

Recipe courtesy of Joel Black

Domaine de Canton Cocktail Competition

Last week many of the top bartenders in town gathered in the Fedora Room at First & Hope, the new restaurant, bar and music venue downtown, to compete for the title of best cocktail and for $500 towards this week's Manhattan Cocktail Classic. Each contestant had to create an original cocktail featuring Domaine de Canton, a ginger liqueur.



The judges for the competition included Alex Day, formerly of Death & Co and soon to be of an upcoming Dave Kaplan bar in Los Angeles, and Caroline of Caroline on Crack, both pictured above. The other two judges (not pictured) were Domaine de Canton founder John Cooper and Professional Drinker and author Dan Dunn. Each judge sampled an original drink from each of the dozen contestants before setting on the winner.


Contestants included those pictured above (Rhachel Shaw of Malo Cantina, Daniel Eun of the Varnish, and Joe Brooke of the Edison) as well as bartenders from the Edison, Copa d'Oro, Roger Room, SoHo house and others.

In an unusual twist the winning cocktail recipe was represented by someone other than its creator. Damian Windsor's beverage was represented and shaken by his wife Rebecca, and won first place.


Always the consummate host, Aidan Demarest, the beverage director for First & Hope and half of Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets, is pictured above with Domaine de Canton founder John Cooper.

For further coverage of this event, see Caroline's post.

To learn more about Domaine de Canton, visit their website http://www.domainedecanton.com/
First & Hope: 710 West 1st Street @ Hope St. Phone: (213) 617-8555. Website: firstandhope.com/

Toma Tequila Competition @ Ortega 120

Last week three finalists competed in the championship round of the Toma Tequila competition at Redondo Beach Mexican restaurant and bar, Ortega 120, for the honor of having their drink featured on the menu, and a cash prize.

A distinguished panel of judges including Josh Lurie of Food GPS, Hadley Tomicki of Grub Street LA, Carole Dixson of Feast LA aned Alan Kropf of Mutineer Magazine tasted the tequila cocktails prepared by the three finalists, Christopher day, Damon Hewlett, Nancy Kwon. The audience was also invited to sample each of the three contenders and the audience winner was Nancy Kwon's Naranja Dorada, which included orange bitters, kumquat marmalade and blood orange juice.

Photo above is of the finalists & the judges; photo below is of winner Christopher Day.



After deliberating, the unanimous selection of the judges was Christopher Day's "River Tam." (Recipe below) His drink is now on the restaurant's cocktail menu and was a focus of the Cinco de Mayo celebrations there. All three finalists were also invited to attend an upcoming Mutineer Magazine event.


"River Tam" By Christopher Day

Ingredients:
1 ½ oz tequila (preferably anejo)
½ a lime juiced (~3/4 oz)
½ oz habanero simple syrup*
3 small slices fresh ginger root
Club Soda

Directions:
Pulverize two slices of ginger in habanero simple syrup*, followed by adding in the tequila and squeezing in the lime. Add ice and shake. Pour into a lowball glass filled with ice (with a strainer if you don’t want to chew on bits of ginger). Top it off with club soda and give it a quick stir. Garnish with a wheel of lime, if desired.

*(1 cup water to 1 cup sugar; 4 fresh habanero peppers, stemmed and sliced in half)

DonQ USBG LA Regional Competition at Caña @the Doheny

On March 23rd the Los Angeles chapter of the US Bartenders Guild (USBG) held the regional competition sponsored by DonQ rum, in which the winner received a free trip to New York to compete in the nationals against bartenders from across the country at the 1st ever Manhattan Cocktail Classic.

Each participant had 10 minutes to set up their station and then 7 minutes to make their original cocktail. Twelve bartenders from many of the top cocktail & mixology bars competed. A sampling of the bars represented included The Varnish, The Tar Pit, Malo, La Descarga and Rivera. Competitors had to be members of the Los Angeles branch of the USBG.

The three judges included the manager of The Varnish (Eric Alperin), the manager of Caña (John) and Jonathan Gold, the pulitzer prize winning LA Weekly food critic. Each drink was judged solely on taste and appearance. After much deliberation and doublechecking of scores, the winner was declared: Kristina Howald, who bartends at both Rivera and La Descarga.

She will be joining a large Los Angeles delegation attending the MCC in May. Congratulations Kristina! Take home the national trophy for Los Angeles!

The event was held at Caña @the Doheny, the recently relaunched rum bar owned by Cedd Moses. It had previously required a 4 figure initiation and annual dues. Now not only have annual dues been reduced to $20 (which goes to charity), but the focus has been shifted to rum drinks and the decor has been updated to match.

Above photos of Chris Bostick of the Varnish, and Rachel Shaw of Malo during the competition.