Posted By SeanMike on August 5, 2010

It is manly for I am manly!

Monday night we celebrated the end of Rickey Month.  Over two hundred people gathered at The Passenger for rickeys, food, and fun.

I’d managed to try ten of the rickeys, most of those multiple times.  I have tons of notes and pictures (well, one picture per) of all of those, but this night we could try the five finalists or have a traditional gin or bourbon rickey.

The five finalists were:

• Adam Bernbach, Proof
• Dan Searing, Room 11
• Alex Bookless, The Passenger
• Gina Chersevani, PS7
• David Fritzler, Tryst

There were a number of judges, including Charlotte Voissey, Tad Carducci, Jenn Larsen of We Love DC, Ana Marie Cox of GQ, and Jim Hewes of the Round Robin Bar at the Willard Hotel (and a very nice guy).

Adam and Frank, right at the beginning

It was an interesting setup to the place.  Adam and Frank (from PS7, since Gina was in Miami or some place) were up front, right by the door.  Alex, David, and Dan shared the main bar, along with a couple of other bartenders.  JP Carceres, JP Featherston, Julia Hurst, and others helped in the far back in the theater area for the traditional rickeys.  All the rickeys were $10 (you got a free one with your $10 admission, or free admission and one free drink if you had a passport with ten stamps), and you just bought tickets from some of the ladies of the Passenger who walked around with rolls of them.

After the floor was anointed

Finally the winners were announced.  Dan Searing came in second place for his balmy rickey.

First place was the photogenic Alex Bookless for her “Root of all Rickey”.  She was so photogenic I couldn’t get a picture of her, so you’ll have to live with the fuzzy pictures I took of other people.

Or I might have been drinking more rickeys.

Really, though, if you went out and tried the rickeys, there were SO MANY excellent rickeys out there this month!  There were, if I remember correctly, 27 bartenders competing just to make those five last spots.

I didn’t get to try as many as I would’ve liked, partly because I spent nearly half the month out of town.  But I tried a lot of good ones, and I’m hoping I can make out to try at least one or two more before they go off the menu…

Congratulations again, Alex, and thank you to everyone who competed!

Categories: Bars, Competitions, Events, Mixologists, Washington, DC
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