Mixing It Up : 30 Bartenders Compete for Prizes With Their Special Concoctions

As the hushed crowd watched, Jeanne Church was poring over the glass in front of her. A few steps away, Ayoe Nielsen was pouring into hers.

Church, a retired university administrator from Rancho Palos Verdes, was carefully sipping drink after drink Monday in Cerritos as she helped judge the 45th annual United States Bartenders Guild Cocktail Competition.

Nielsen, a Danish-born resident of North Hollywood, was carefully blending a green-colored cocktail concoction she calls “Meliano 93” from a mixture of Midori, Galliano, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Bols orange curacao.

“It tastes like melon ice cream that’s been slightly overheated,” Nielsen said, garnishing her drink with a sprinkle of sugar over the top before helpers served it to Church and other judges gathered in a ballroom at the Sheraton Cerritos.

“It tastes good,” said Church, who studied the drink’s appearance and sniffed its aroma before taking two dainty sips and marking her scores on a numbered judge’s slip.

Thirty Southern California bartenders were competing for trophies, medallions, $900 in cash prizes and a free trip this fall to an international bartenders cocktail competition in Vienna.

The prizes were enough to entice months of straining, shaking and blending by bartenders who have suffered through some tough times in recent years.

Bar business has slipped as patrons have become more cautious about drinking and driving. Rather than bottoms up, cocktails have bottomed out at places where white wine, Perrier and light beer have become beverages of choice.

Nielsen, who admits to favoring wine over “sweet drinks,” perfected her melon drink by testing it on waitresses and bar patrons at the Castaway restaurant in Burbank, where she works.

“One of my customers suggested I change triple sec to curacao, and it made all the difference,” said Nielsen, who learned mixology while running a disco in Beirut in the early 1970s.

Even Virgil Jones, president of the 140-member bartenders guild, has turned to wine when he wants a drink. He said he recently retired after 48 years of mixing drinks after tiring of hearing the same jokes tipsily told over and over by patrons.

“The ‘70s and ‘80s were a bad time,” said Jones, 71, of Irvine. “But cocktails are coming back.”

Chuck Hulen will drink to that. The Cypress resident was among the dozens of onlookers during Monday’s three-hour competition. He also helps teach bartending at Cypress College, where an 18-year-old class has a waiting list.

“Lots of unemployed engineers want to enroll,” Hulen said. “And new drinks with names like ‘Sex on the Beach’ (vodka, peach schnapps, blackberry liqueur and a blend of pineapple, cranberry and blackberry juice) are attracting younger drinkers.”

Three 22-year-old graduates of the class, twins Bridgit and Shawn Culver, and Royal Clark, who now tend bar in Orange County, helped serve drinks to platoons of volunteer judges who were changed after tasting three drinks each--mostly with a sip or two.

Jose Ancona, 60, of San Pedro won the competition. His drink, called a Flamingo, which he serves at local racetracks, consists of creme de banana, creme de cacao, grenadine and half and half cream.

The real winner, however, turned out to be a bartender who did not even sign up for the contest. He was Jesus Olvera of Norwalk, who was tending the portable bar outside the Sheraton ballroom.

He was selling plenty of drinks. And they were easy-to-mix, old-time favorites--no “Sex on the Beach.”

“They’re bartenders. So they tip very good,” Olvera said. “They are making me very happy.”