Ten mixologists went head-to-head in front of a panel of judges for the chance to win $1,000 and bragging rights as the winner of the Mountain Mixer cocktail contest.
The winner, Adriel Danan representing Dos Olas Cantina at Pendry Park City, said he didn’t expect a victory.
He’d gone last in the finals, creating his Mezcal-based cocktail, Crimson Smoked, to a much smaller crowd last Saturday. When judge Charles Joly started describing the winning cocktail as “classic” with a “beautiful twist,” Danan had no idea his name was about to be called.
So he was “speechless” when handed a giant check with his name on it.
Danan, unlike some competitors, is far from new to the mixology world. He started bartending at the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to Park City in 2010.
“I was living in St. Louis when a friend invited me out to experience Park City and go snowboarding. I immediately fell in love with the mountains and the lifestyle here, and decided to make Park City home,” he said.
There were plenty of bartending opportunities in the ski town, and Danan began working at properties such as The St. Regis Deer Valley, Zermatt Utah Resort & Spa and Homestead Resort.
“I’m naturally an introvert and tend to enjoy working behind the scenes, but bartending gives me a creative outlet and constantly challenges me,” he said. “There is always something new to learn. You can put a million of the best ingredients into a drink, but if you don’t understand how to bring them together and create balance, you’re not going to make a great cocktail.”
Two and a half years ago, Danan joined the Dos Olas team, where he now creates a majority of the cocktails on the menu. As a cantina with mainly Mexican flavors, a lot of the signature drinks use some kind of tequila, though he will design an off-menu drink with a different base spirit.
As a bartender, Danan said his goal is for guests to have a great experience and a taste of something new or unexpected. Like in Crimson Smoked: The rim, instead of being a classic tajin, uses smoked paprika to draw out the smokey notes of the mezcal.
He said he has the freedom to experiment at Dos Olas, which puts a lot of effort into its cocktail program.
“We use fresh fruits, vegetables and garnishes and squeeze our juices in-house. There are a lot of interesting ingredients and techniques throughout the menu,” Danan said. “Our Col Morado, for example, incorporates a purple cabbage ice cube, while the Spicy Pepino combines fresh cucumber and jalapeño with mezcal, tequila blanco and agave.”
In addition to prioritizing balance in a cocktail, Danan said he loves garnishes and wants his cocktails to be beautiful. For Crimson Smoked, he cuts and arranges the peel of an orange slice to look like the head feathers of a bird.
Part of what resonated with the Mountain Mixer judges about Crimson Smoked was Danan “infusing a bit of yourself,” as Joly put it.
Danan is originally from the Philippines, so instead of using lime juice as an ingredient, he used calamansi, which is a small citrus fruit common in Filipino cooking and drinks.
“It has a bright, tart flavor that works really well against the smokiness of mezcal,” said Danan. “I wanted the cocktail to make sense for Dos Olas while also incorporating something personal to me.”
When it comes to bartending, Danan loves a challenge. That’s why he chose mezcal for the contest.
“I knew mezcal would be a fun challenge because it has such a distinctive flavor and can easily overpower the other ingredients in a cocktail if you don’t balance it correctly,” Danan said. “I liked the idea of taking that on.”
He started with the recipe for a mezcalita, which uses mezcal, lime and agave, then built in other flavors to make it unique: a blood orange purée and the calamansi juice, plus the smoked paprika rim.
“Each component serves a purpose: You get smoke, citrus, sweetness, acidity and a little savory element, but they all have to work together,” he said.
Crimson Smoked is on the menu at Dos Olas, as required by the cocktail contest organizers Park City Area Restaurant Association, so people can taste the winning drink by Danan himself. Starting Sept. 2, the restaurant is also running a buy-one-get-one entree promotion on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through Oct. 2.
When Danan isn’t serving drinks at Dos Olas, he’s exploring the outdoors. During the summer months, he loves riding his motorcycle or fishing, but in the winter he’ll be on the slopes snowboarding.
“I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors, which is a big part of why Park City has been such a great fit for me,” he said.
