Table 20 Blog

Over the past few weeks we’ve conducted a grassroots effort to feature and appreciate some of LA’s best bartenders. The LA community nominated, voted for, and commented on their favorite bartenders at our contest website.

Now we are down to 6 accomplished bartenders and 1 sweet party.

Over the next 3 weeks the contest judges will seek to rank our 6 finalist bartenders. The judges will factor in comments and votes from users on the contest website, go to visit the bartenders, try a cocktail, poll their blog readers for advice, whatever helps them to decide. In the end, the judges’ collective rankings will reveal the winner.

Here are the judges:
Caroline on Crack
Chris Archibald
Food She Thought
kevinEats
Vixen’s LA Happy Hours

Be sure to check out their blogs over the next three weeks as they reveal their experiences visiting the 6 finalist bartenders.

To celebrate the announcement of LA’s Best Bartender, we’re having a rum punch party! On Oct 4, 7pm-10pm we are hosting an invite only party at Takami Sushi Restaurant. Each of the 6 finalist bartenders will contribute their own unique rum punch concoctions to be sampled by party guests. Takami and the attached Elevate Lounge are on the 21st floor of a building in downtown LA. The outdoor areas are amazing and the views are spectacular.

The judges may be your key to snagging tickets to our invite only event. They will be running unique ticket giveaway promotions to readers of their blogs - stay tuned.

Finally, here are the six 2010 LA’s Best Bartender Finalists:

Matt Biancaniello
Library Bar at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood
People’s Choice Bartender Winner

Joseph Brooke
The Edison, Downtown LA

Max Diaz
Cicada Club, Downtown LA
Cole’s, Downtown LA

Devon Espinosa
The Tasting Kitchen, Venice

Dee Ann Quinones
Susan Feniger’s Street, Hollywood
The Parlour Room, Hollywood
Philippe Chow, West Hollywood

Alex Straus
Suite 700 at Hotel Shangri-La, Santa Monica
Hemingway’s Lounge, Hollywood

SELECTION PROCESS

Vetting Phase
At the end of the 30-day nomination and voting period the top nominees, by number of votes, will be vetted to ensure they exist, are employed and are interested in participating further.

The top 25 nominees, following the vetting process, will win a custom designed Table 20 t-shirt. The top nominees will be announced via the Table 20 blog.

Finalist Selection Phase
Following the vetting phase, the top vote getter will be named the People’s Choice winner and be automatically included as a finalist.

The judges will each select a bartender to be a finalist from the remaining 24 nominees.  A judge can make their decision based on the why the bartender was nominated, comments attributed, number of votes, and personal experience. Each of the five judges will choose one nominee for a total of five judge-selected finalists.

This phase will result in 6 finalists – 5 judge selected and 1 People’s Choice winner.

Consideration Phase
Table 20 will contact the six finalists for interviews. Judges may visit bartenders to meet, interview and sample a drink.

Winner Selection Phase
The judges, using a ranking system will select the winner of the contest; the aggregated rankings of the judges will determine the overall winner of the contest.

The winner and finalists will be featured on the Table 20 and LA Sates blog.

We’ve created this t-shirt as a special prize for our upcoming Service Props contest. The top nominees from the contest will win this t-shirt. The finalists and winners will win a bunch other cool stuff too.

We’re most proud of this prize because it’s a one-of-a-kind design depicting the day-to-day restaurant and bar industry experience.  We put a lot of thought and effort into it - we hope you appreciate it too.

Printed on American Apparel t-shirt. Designed by Chris Piascik, conceived and directed by Trevor Smith.