Sunday night at Thalia Hall, 20 local bartenders were onstage mixing, shaking, and garnishing cocktails rapid-fire while pink-clad spectators cheered at the top of their lungs. Speed Rack, now in its fifth year, is both an international speed-bartending competition for women and a fund-raiser for breast cancer research and education. In each round, the competitors have to make four cocktails as quickly and precisely as possible; in the first round (judged on speed alone) the cut-off time for advancing to the quarterfinals was 48 seconds, says judge Paul McGee, and the winners completed the challenge in 42 or 43 seconds.
A bartender might finish well before her competitor, only to be assigned enough penalties to lose the round. Julia Momose of GreenRiver (formerly an Aviary bartender) was eliminated early in the evening, she told me. “I made a very big mistake—I forgot to put gin in my Vesper.” Still, she was sticking around to cheer on her fellow bartenders.
The two bartenders each had to make a Boulevardier, a Vieux Carre, and two dealer’s choice cocktails, in which the judges were allowed to choose something not on the list of Speed Rack drinks. Bridget Albert asked for a fall-inspired Sidecar, while Paul McGee wanted a brunch-friendly cachaca sour. Huth almost made a fatal mistake, she says, forgetting the cognac in the Sidecar—but while shaking two other drinks she realized she’d left it out, added it, and gave the drink another quick shake, finishing a few seconds ahead of Magro.
One thing that stood out for me about Speed Rack—second only to how supportive of one another all the bartenders were—was all the pink I saw, from the portable bars to the T-shirts. It’s the color that symbolizes breast cancer awareness, sure, but the Speed Rack logo on the shirts is also strategically placed to maximize focus on the wearer’s boobs. I asked Huth—who sported bright pink hair at the event (which she said was inspired in part by Speed Rack, but probably would have happened anyway)—what she thought of the logo.
