News from Wellington Culinary Events Trust
Wellington can now claim the title of Cocktail Capital, with two Wellingtonian bartenders winning the top spots for the Highball New Zealand Bartender of the Year competition, which saw competitors go shaker to shaker over two intensive days, during Highball, New Zealand’s only cocktail and spirits festival, at the Dominion Museum Building.
Alex Vowels from Tory’s Street’s Hawthorn Lounge took out the cocktail crown, with Dan Felsing from Manners Street’s Crumpet taking second place, and Andrea Marseglia from Piku in Hawkes Bay winning third place.
The national bartending competition, which had been on hiatus since 2008 saw 28 competitors from Auckland to Wanaka partake in a high intensity six-part tournament, where they mixed, blended and shook their way to showcase their skills – all garnished with oodles of bartending flair. Energy and entertainment was high with the rat-a-tat of three shakers being simultaneously slung in one go by a single participant; another bartender’s spontaneous lip syncing to Italian opera as he poured multiple cocktails, and another finish his speed challenge with a video selfie of a roomful of whooping spectators cheering him on.