Cameras, live video, microphones and emcee Tom Kelly transformed Deer Valley Resort’s Silver Lake Lodge into a pseudo television show set on Thursday evening with the return of the Park City Area Restaurant Association’s summer cocktail contest, now called the Mountain Mixer.
Ten mixologists, the contest finalists, were each tasked with creating their drinks in front of the live audience and three well-known judges — no small ask.
With the lodge’s large windows as a backdrop, two portable bars were set up on either side of DJ Dolph’s setup, his music filling the in-between moments to create a less awkward silence.
There was still plenty of that awkwardness with mixologists navigating the challenge of explaining their drink, measuring the ingredients, cracking jokes, answering questions from Kelly, but also posed by the judges, too. With all that, plus the cameras, many admitted to feeling plenty of nerves; shaking hands and voices, lost eggs and spilled drinks.
“I’m so nervous!” said Alpine Distilling’s Sara Sergent with a laugh, who went first.
Charles Vincent Franco with Grub Steak Park City also admitted he was anxious, a steadying breath picked up by the mic clipped to his shirt.
“As my first time being in a cocktail competition, I’m a lot nervous,” Franco said.
Many of the mixologists talked about their inspiration for the cocktails they entered.
Katelyn Fraser with Butcher’s Chop House & Bar incorporated Earl Grey into a London Fog-like cocktail that finished in second place. Pine Cone Ridge’s Robert Coman created a drink based on the memory of playing cards with his grandmother. Lots of lavender, whether as garnishes or bitters or the challenging Creme de Violet, all nod to the Wasatch Back’s native plant.
Franco’s dessert cocktail — which came in third place — was inspired by his Filipino heritage, its rich purple color gaining oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
“Ube Halo is actually one of the greatest desserts back home,” Franco said while adding ingredients to his shaker. When he first created the drink at Grub Steak, he said it was an opportunity to teach both coworkers and diners about his culture.
Elena Filote, a mixologist from Cena Ristorante, said her drink was also influenced by her upbringing in Romania. Wildflower 75 was one of the cocktails that used Creme de Violette and lavender bitters, reminiscent of an herbal tea she remembers drinking in her childhood.
While she was nervous, Filote said events like the cocktail contest were a way to push her outside her comfort zone and she was glad she did it.
“I didn’t come here in a competition mode, because it’s my first time competing, and I’ve been bartending only for nine months. So I was just more excited about the experience,” Filote said.
She said she was happy with the live format return, which other mixologists also said during their performances.
“I feel like this is a better way to vote based on how people see you and based on what you bring to the table in front of guests,” she said.
The live format also allowed mixologists to connect with their fellow competitors, a factor that didn’t come with previous online voting iterations.
“I think it would be great for me to experience more of this, and especially to meet all these bartenders that are so amazing and the things that are coming out,” Filote said. “They are super inspirational.”
That’s one point judge Jim Meehan made by the end of the contest — which stretched four-and-a-half hours.
Meehan, a James Beard Award-winning author and cocktail consultant, was the most vocal judge who has critiqued many of these contests. He asked questions to each of the mixologists throughout the night: Why are you so composed up there? How has this cocktail been received at the restaurant? What do you usually recommend to pair with this drink?
Meehan joked that, as friendly as the 10 mixologists had been over the evening, he knew that anyone in the hospitality industry is super competitive.
“The hardest thing about a cocktail competition is you take a bunch of very creative, very hard-working, entrepreneurial people … and then you pit them against each other in a subjective feat,” he said. “(Then) the losers all gather and sort of console each other because they were robbed by the judges, and then the winner basically is secretly happy for themselves, but they wish that all the other competitors didn’t resent them.”
The group of mixologists laughed along with the crowd.
In this contest, they announced first, second and third place winners. The first-place winner walked home with $1,000 cash prize and a stack of mixology gadgets; second and third place each awarded a few gadgets, too.
And the winner? AJ Anderson with HANDLE for his cocktail Melt. The whiskey and rum drink is served with a juice ice cube that melts and brings out more tropical notes in the cocktail. HANDLE’s cocktail had also won the contest in both 2021 and 2023’s virtual competition with drinks by mixologist Reagan Chung.
While only the judges sampled the cocktails during the live event Thursday night, Kelly reminded everyone that these drinks will be on the respective restaurants’ menus through the rest of the summer.
And Anderson is working through the weekend to serve his drink personally.
“I think the fact that all of you got here by actually putting these drinks on menus, by making sure that your customers got to enjoy these drinks, is huge,” said Meehan. “These aren’t stunt drinks. These are actual, real things that you guys are bringing into the world and making people happy with.”
Meehan said as a judge, he was blown away by the creativity of all the competitors and came away with plenty of new ideas of his own.
For more information on the Mountain Mixer cocktail contest and mixologists, plus recipes for the 10 finalist drinks, visit parkcityrestaurants.com/mountain-mixer-park-city.