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VOLUME 2| ISSUE 5 |
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EVENTS |
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In
Search of the Bartender's A
few people wearing badges are lurking about, so I nod to them and
duck into another room. The facility is set up like three restaurants,
with back bar space for the competition that is so huge you can
butcher a cow behind |
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to observe the competition. These are the US finals. The winner - one of the five competitors in from New York, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Hew Hampshire, and Illinois - will be going to Belgium to compete with winners from around the world. Their names are placed in an empty beer picture and the back bar judge draws the first name. It's Angie from New York. A hush falls over the crowd. Angie steps out from behind the bar and gets ready to approach the judge's table. The timekeeper begins his stopwatch as Angie begins her approach. She gives her introduction, a description of the beers being offered: Stella, Leffe, and Hoegaarden. Retreating behind the bar with the orders, she selects the glasses and begins the cleaning process. Angie is given points on how she rotates the already-clean glass on the brush-the up-and down movement-not forgetting the outer bottom of the glass, rinsing the glass, checking the glass by looking through it, always holding the glass at the bottom, putting the glass upright on the drainer, rinsing, holding the glass at the bottom again, cooling the glass in the rinse sink and drip-drying the glass correctly. This is how they like things in Belgium. It must take them half an hour to wipe their asses. It's time now for Angie to fill each glass. The first gush of form must not be in the glass. She must pour only once. The beer tap must not be in the head, in the beer, or touching the glass. She takes the foam cutter and cuts the head once, gently, the cutter held at a 45-degree angle. The cutter must then be placed back into the Inox cup. The Inox cup is the bartender's fabled Holy Grail as far as foam cutters are concerned. She rinses the outside of the glass in the rinse sink, patting dry the base of the glass before placing it on the tray. Now Angie serves the beer. I could have served a case by now. She must exhibit friendly and polite service, proper style, and she must give the beer to the correct person. Upon finishing, she exits the room. What happens now surprises me. The room bursts into applause. The entire production has taken about seven minutes. Angie picks the next contestant from the pitcher. Each receives applause upon finishing. The thunderous applause, however, comes at the end when it's announced that the bar is open again. Angie finishes fourth. The winner is David Domrese, the competitor from Mundeline, IL. He ties in points with Karissa from new Haven, but because he is two seconds faster, he wins. Two seconds. Karissa looks broken, the hideous shell of the bartender she had been only moments ago. David modestly holds up his winner's plaque for some photographs. Domrese learned the technique for serving Belgian beer hands-on at the Illinois regional competition a month earlier. He hadn't even planned on competing - he had just shown up to support a friend. He filled an open spot in the competition and ended up winning. Though there had been no big expectations for Domrese in the regionals, before the final competition he felt a huge pressure. "It's not like when I'm normally tending bar, and I can go from one customer to the next," he says. "During the finals everyone stops and stares at you." The finals of the World Draught Master Competition take place in Belgium, where David is looking forward to meeting the competing bartenders from many other countries. It might take morer than a two-second edge to win over there, but I'm sure the experience will last at least a lunchtime.
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