• Speed Rack Bartending Competition
• Speed Rack Bartending
• Speed Rack Bartending Competition
• Speed Rack Bartending

Speed Rack Alum turned Financial Advisor, Makeda Gebre will host IG Lives sessions discussing finances. 3/5 at 2:30pm EST - Financial Literacy 101. 3/12 at 2:30pm EST - The Rule of 72. 3/19 at 2:30pm EST - The Power of Interest. 3/26 at 2:30pm EST - Continued Education. Join us at @speedrack. Bartender Station. What is the difference between the speed rack and the Call Brands? Price & Quality. What is considered a LIQUOR? 80 proof and above. What is considered a LIQUEUR? Anything under 80 proof (and flavored) What is proof? The amount of alcohol in the bottle.

1. How do you bartend in the toughest bartending event out there? Winner Lacy Hawkins shows us how to Bartend Fast and with Precision. These videos can help you.
2. Sin City knows how to have a good time. Watch the fastest girls from the Southwest show the world what's up. Watch the country's top female bartenders as the.

You can raise a glass and raise up the women in your community at the speed-bartending bonanza coming to Denver on February 17.

Founded nine years ago, Speed Rack is an international competition by and for female bartenders—and 100 percent of the ticket sales go toward breast cancer research, awareness, and prevention. Denver will mark the fourth stop on the tour for Speed Rack’s ninth season (it came through the Mile High City last year, as well), as 24 local ladies will go head-to-head at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom for a spot at nationals in May, where all of the top mixologists from around the country will convene in Chicago to duke it out for the title of Miss Speed Rack USA 2020.

Ivy Mix, Speed Rack’s co-founder and owner of Brooklyn-based bar Leyenda, describes the energy of the competition as “equal parts roller derby and prom party,” and she says it’s definitely not just for industry folks. The rambunctious event will also feature live music from local DJ CYN and plenty of sponsor booths for sampling booze and grabbing a drink before the main event.

To crown this year’s Colorado cocktail queen, the bartenders will face off in a high-speed, round-robin style tournament, where judges will select four classic cocktails at random for them to concoct—whether it’s something simple like a Manhattan or more unusual like a Suffering Bastard, a tiki drink typically made with bourbon and gin. Speed is important, but so is taste and presentation, and the local panel of expert judges—including Kendra Anderson (owner of Bar Helix), Caroline Glover (owner of Annette), Mary Wright (wine director at Morin), and Jason Patz (bartender at Williams and Graham)—can add time penalties as they see fit. So if a drink is too hot, unbalanced, or the garnish is a mess, it won’t matter if the contestant slammed the buzzer first.

“The entertainment that is happening is women shaking their hearts out to make these beautiful cocktails and then putting them out on the line to be criticized directly,” co-founder and industry veteran Lynnette Marrero says. “It’s that intensity of competition, but it’s supportive.”

And support is exactly what they were aiming for. After experiencing her own frustrations early in her career, Mix admits that Speed Rack began as a means to make a bold statement, but it’s grown to become to a platform for women to stand on in a male-dominated industry and showcase their skills—all while celebrating the art of classic cocktails. The chance to bring attention to a cause close to the heart is the icing on the cake (or maybe, salt on the rim).

“At first, Speed Rack was supposed to be a joke,” says Mix, mentioning the lack of representation in the world of bartending. “I wanted to make these video series of women double-shaking cocktails in bikinis without any heads because our identities weren’t important—it was just that we had boobs and we were women.”

But after some time, Mix says she realized she could use the same platform to make an impact. She toyed with the idea of a fundraiser event for breast cancer research, which folded right in with the mission to support women, and the double entendre of the name was too fitting. After a chance meeting with Marrero 10 years ago, Speed Rack was born.

Speed Rack is partnering with charities such as Bright Pink, a nonprofit focused on prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer in young women, as well as Pink Agenda, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young professionals spearhead their own breast cancer fundraising efforts. “You can go to [this] event and know that every single penny you’re giving goes directly to the charity, and you had fun, and you get to support women from from both angles,” Marrero says.

While Marrero has a personal connection to the cause (her mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor), Mix points out that breast cancer is so prominent it affects more people than many folks realize. “It may not be you, your mom, your sister, aunt, or grandmother who had breast cancer, but certainly your best friend’s mother, sister, brother, best friend, and so on will have had breast cancer,” Mix says. “It’s less than a degree of separation.” They knew that by bringing women together through Speed Rack, they could try to make a change for women’s health, too. “There’s nothing fun about breast cancer—it sucks,” Mix says. “But this event is very uplifting.”

If you go: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom, 2637 Welton St.; Monday, February 17, 6 p.m.; $25–$30; Find ticket information online. Pony Up is also hosting a brunch time Speed Rack practice event on Sunday, February 16, from 11 a.m.–3 p.m.; 1808 Blake St.

Whether behind the bar or in the kitchen, we all want to be a little bit more efficient, to do more in less time. It can get hectic during service no matter how seasoned a professional you are, and moving faster can often seem easier said than done. Here, four women who’ve conquered speed bartending competition Speed Rack — which not only showcases women behind the bar, but also raises money for breast cancer research and educational initiatives — break it down for us and share their keys to success.

1. It all starts with the set up

Speed Rack Bartending Competition

Whether opening your own bar or working in someone else’s, set up — both daily and long-term — can make or break your quest for working speedier.

“It starts with how the bar is actually built, where you put the sinks…how high your rail is, how deep everything is, all of that stuff is super integral to being able to work quickly and efficiently,” says Caitlin Laman, a bar consultant and former bar manager at Trick Dog in San Francisco (and Miss Speed Rack 2014).

Yael Vengroff, bar director at The Spare Room in Los Angeles (and Miss Speed Rack 2012), agrees. “I think that, too often, we see these bars being designed by the contractors, or the architects, or the design team, and it’s not someone that’s actually been behind a bar before. That’s where you run into a lot of issues where it’s like, ‘oh, you know, we didn’t think about putting a sink here,’ and that’s ultimately the most important thing,” she says. “Do you have the ability to clean your tools right away, and next to you? Because if you can’t clean your tools, you’re gonna walk all over to the other side of the room, then the longer it’s going to take for you to be ready to make the next round of drinks.”

Beyond the construction phase, organizational choices can similarly let you work at your quickest or slow you to a crawl.

“[A] lot of your POS systems, you can run summary reports at the end of the week and you can see what are your highest selling items, highest selling spirits, highest selling cocktails, highest selling beers… those are the things that you need to have close to you,” says Brittini Rae, bar manager at the Venice Whaler in Venice Beach and Miss Speed Rack 2015. “[I]f you sell a whole bunch of Bulleit bourbon, but Bulleit bourbon is on the third shelf all the way on the left, you know, you’re constantly going to pick up that bottle, but you sell it 68 times a night, why? It may look beautiful there, but if that’s the case, then have one in the well and have one on the back bar, so it always looks pretty, but you have it close to you.”

A place for everything and everything in its place, as your mom or grandma probably told you once or twice. According to Eryn Reece, who was crowned Miss Speed Rack in 2013 and is now starting up the bar program at New York’s Sons and Daughters, opening at the end of the month, it’s true behind the bar as well.

“[E]verything has [to have] a home,” Reece says. “Because the minute you’re having to stop and search for something, it’s going to become a huge issue. Especially when some of these people have a more expansive cocktail menu, it just makes sense that everything goes back in the exact same place every single time,” Reece said.

How your well is set up can also make a difference. Don’t force yourself to stick to the same old, vodka, gin, rum, tequila format, adds Brittini Rae. She and Reece both suggest switching it up and organizing or grouping by cocktail, rather than a predetermined rule. It helps remind you what’s next, too, in case you’re so busy you forget.

2. Don’t put extra things on top of the bar

We’ve all seen the stacks of napkins and coasters, container of straws and little box of maraschino cherries and lime wedges on the bar right in front of where the bartenders are working—and the guests are sitting or standing. In some ways those are convenient spots for them, but when you’re going for speed, extra odds and ends can just get in the way.

“A lot of times they have their POS systems on top of bars, right in front of guests’ seats, where we’d be sitting, and bartenders are constantly trying to reach around,” says Brittini Rae. “If you’re trying to reach around anything on top of the bar, whether you’re trying to deliver a drink, or you’re trying to clean up a spill, or just wipe a table down, you’re automatically adding seconds to your night because you just put something in your way.” She adds that garnish stations are a common obstacle. “I know the glass garnish station has been very popular, which is great, but that needs to be on either end of the bar or it needs to be so far in the bar that it’s not in the way,” she says. “[T]here’s a bar I went to once that has, like, a beautiful bitters tower, like a Lazy Susan but with bitters on it, but it’s three shelves high. It’s beautiful, but it’s right on top of the bar and bartenders have to constantly move it,” said Brittini Rae.

3. Teach yourself to be ambidextrous

Speed Rack Bartending

It’s not just a crazy thought: some speedy bartenders really are ambidextrous, and it helps them move even faster.

“I’m right-handed but I bartend left-handed because that’s how I was trained,” says Laman. “It makes me really able to do a lot more things because my dominant hand is not activated as much as my non-dominant hand, so I have the ability to do so many more things because I have that dominant hand free, in a sense. And so, if you set your bar up in a way that kind of trains you to use your non-dominant hand more, it frees up your dominant hand and gives you the ability to do a lot more things,” she says.

For bartenders—or anyone—wanting to try? “[I]t takes about three months for you to finally get used to it,” Vengroff says.

4. Know your stuff

Recipes are crucial, and on busy nights there’s not much time to slow down and think. Make sure you know your recipes and your techniques—it’ll boost your confidence.

5. Think ahead and take only one step

“[A]lways just think about what your next step is,” says Brittani Rae. “I think that’s kind of a no-brainer, you know, don’t step more than once and always think about what your next step is and doing it in your head before you get to it. When you’re making cocktails, if you’re making three drinks and they all have lime juice, you shouldn’t be picking up that bottle of lime juice three times… if all three drinks have lime juice, you should be able to put lime juice in all three tins and then go back to finish building the first one. You should never have to pick up a bottle twice on an order — ever.”

6. Don’t look down on batching certain ingredients in advance

Making big batches of entire cocktails ahead of time is typically a no-go when working with ingredients like fresh citrus juice or dairy, but batching out smaller groups of cocktail components can help cut down the total time it takes you to get to the end result.

Speed Rack Bartending Competition

“We batch the spirits in a cocktail, so we’re able to provide these complicated, complex cocktails to the guests, but we can still get them out quickly because it’s only a three-bottle pick-up instead of seven,” says Vengroff.

Speed Rack Bartending

“I feel like in the past, it may have been a little looked down upon, but we’re at a certain point where people don’t want to wait 25 minutes for their cocktail anymore — they’re over that,” adds Reece. “There are so many places they can go for good drinks these days, they’re like, ‘oh, this place takes too long, I don’t want these 12-ingredient cocktails,’ but there’s easy ways to smartly batch out a blend of, like, a quarter ounce of three different syrups that make your cocktail a little bit more interesting and have a little bit more level of flavor,” she says. “If you’re batching out a quarter ounce of ginger, orgeat and cinnamon, you put it in a 3/4-ounce pour. It’s just such a quick little thing.”

Ultimately, getting the basics down (and with that, your confidence up) is the best place to start, says Brittini Rae. “Once you’re confident in that, and you feel that you have that second nature to designing drinks, then, speed is going to come, because you’re just going to keep getting better and better.”

Check out Speed Rack competitors in action below: