‘Waterita’ tops Taste of Vail’s ‘Bar Chefs’ Mix-Off

The Vail Valley’s best bartenders compete for top honors at America’s
premier wine and culinary festival

VAIL, Colo. (April 13, 2007) — Perhaps the world’s greatest margarita
cocktail materialized here Friday at America’s premier wine and
culinary festival.

After intense scrutiny by a panel of “experts,” the “Waterita” by
Lindsey Velez of Dish restaurant in Edwards took top honors at Taste of
Vail’s sixth annual cocktail competition, the Battle of the Bar Chefs
Margarita Mix-Off, sponsored by Wine Spectator magazine.

“It’s great to get your freak on. That’s the whole point,” said Velez,
telling everyone he served his creation was the “healthiest” of the
evening. “It’s made with love; it’s the yin and the yang in one glass.”

Velez’ Waterita is made with Salza Silver tequila, fresh-squeezed
watermelon juice, a house-made sour mix and Grand Marnier, blended,
shaken and served in a stem-less glass with a salted rim.

The Vail Valley’s best cocktail mixers dazzled participants with their
finest tequila-inspired creations while competing for prizes, bragging
rights and a huge, newly created trophy, the Taste of Vail Mix-Off Cup
at Billy’s Island Grill, in Lionshead. Like the NHL’s Stanley Cup, the
trophy will be displayed at the winner’s home bar or restaurant for a
year, then go up for grabs for future arch rivals.

Second place went to the “Cilantro Margarita,” by last year’s champion,
Mike Baugh of Restaurant Kelly Liken; third was “Billy’s La Bamba
Margarita” by Billy’s Island Grill’s Bob McKow.

A new breed of bartenders, “bar chefs” are “obsessed with using only
the freshest and highest quality ingredients,” said Don Gatterdam of
Wine Spectator, and “their visually exciting and delicious creations
are essentially the new first course to a great dining experience.”

“It was just so smooth, fresh and tasty, for summer,” said Tricia
Swenson of Vail’s TV8, one of the competition’s four judges. “I think
watermelon is underutilized. It’s got such a great, fresh taste.”

The other judges for the contest were Kendra Wilcox of Western Style
and Telluride Style magazines; Laura Levy of WinePeeks.TV/NBC5 Chicago;
and Donna Binbek of Pour Magazine Chicago.

The general public, meanwhile, cast votes their favorite margarita,
awarding Baugh of Restaurant Kelly Liken for his “Cilantro Margarita.”

“It’s fantastic and wonderful to be recognized by the people,” Baugh
said.

“This was a great opportunity for our local bartenders to show off
their best stuff,” added Jim Lay, local restaurateur and Taste of
Vail’s seminar coordinator for the past 11 years.

In seminar format, the Bar Chefs’ Mix-Off shifted the spotlight onto
bartenders as artists producing cocktails as a form of cuisine that’s
as much an art form as food served by top chefs. Participating
bartenders were supplied with super premium spirits, as well as
standard back-bar setups. Additional, specialty ingredients and
pre-preparations — exotic juices, fruit purees, infusions and garnishes
— were highly encouraged and were supplied by the bartenders
themselves.

Taste of Vail celebrates the rich lifestyle, fine dining, prestigious
art galleries, fashionable shops and phenomenal skiing that have made
the Vail Valley a world-class, year-round resort. The festival was
created in 1990 by a group of local restaurateurs as a marketing event
to showcase the resort’s world-class restaurants. Now the
internationally famous destination boasts more than 21 Wine Spectator
award-winning restaurants, the most of any resort community in the
United States. Many of them are among the nearly three-dozen Vail
Valley restaurants that participate in Taste of Vail every year.

Such high standards over the years have led to the Taste of Vail’s
being ranked as one of the top three arts-and-entertainment events in
the United States, in terms of quality, by the 2006 Luxury Brand Status
Index events, conducted by the New York-based Luxury Institute
(www.luxuryinstitute.com).

Taste of Vail is a charitable nonprofit organization. Since its
inception, the festival has contributed more than $330,000 to Vail
Valley charities; and in 2005, in conjunction with Ritz-Carlton, the
Taste of Vail donated $23,000 to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund.

For more information about Taste of Vail, or to buy tickets, visit
www.tasteofvail.com, e-mail info@tasteofvail.com or call 970-926-5665.

Chef2Chef News DeskNews at Restaurant.OrgResearch and MarketsNation's Restaurant NewsSpecialty Eatery News