Elite 8 to the Sexy 6

Iron Bartender of Minneapolis went from a "cute" little competition to a knock down, drag out affair last week.  In this round 2 teams were going home and 6 were moving on (due to the Loser's Bracket comeback around).

In heat one of round 4, found Richie from Eli's vs. Jake Schulte from Seven Sushi; and Chris Greenfield vs. one of the cinderella stories Tim Schaff and Chad Landry from Fogo de Choa. The 2 winners would face off against each other, as well as the 2 losers immediately following this heat.  The first secret ingredient on this heat was Passion Fruit.  I don't know if any of you have ever seen the inside of a passion fruit, it looks like mushed up monkey brains (sorry if I offended any animal rights activists out there) but it's true.  The passion fruit is a fruit that you don't just peel and eat.  It has a zillion seeds and the fruit is a ball of mush.  So to use it you almost have to try to infuse it into the drink, it was really interesting to see these guys work with this versatile yet challenging fruit.  After the 15 minutes had expired Jake Schulte from Seven Sushi pulled off the upset after Eli's had such a strong showing in the previous weeks.  Also, Chris Greenfield from Hell's Kitchen continued their amazing run in the tournament with a victory over Fogo de Choa.

With no rest between heats it was time to get it on, again.  This time it was Jake from Seven Sushi vs. Chris from Hell's Kitchen on the winners bracket side to see who would make it to the semi-finals next week, the loser still alive just having to go the long way around.  On the loser's bracket side it was cinderella Fogo de Chao vs. Eli's, the loser going home and the winner still alive.  The secret ingredient unveiled was Tea (all sorts of tea, if I remember there were about 6 different flavors of tea).  Tea and spirits work real good together, best when you infuse them into the spirit, but with only 15 minutes infusing would be out of the question.   At the final bell Chris from Hell's Kitchen moved on to the semi-finals the following week -- congrats Chris and to all of Hell's Kitchen supporters!  Jake from Seven Sushi slid down to the loser's bracket having to come back the hard way if he wants to have the title Iron Bartender of Minneapolis.  In the loser's bracket we had to say good by the the Sofa Kings (a.k.a. Fogo de Choa) after being defeated by Richie from Eli's.  Eli's stays alive and moves on, while Tim and Chad from Fogo are going home.  Thank you so much Fogo to all of you whom supported your team, you guys really brought it and I appreciate your ingenuity and creativeness.....and many costumes, that was awesome!

The third heat of round 4 found to be the most competitive and most interesting of the evening.  Teams competing in this round were Dan Nelson from Maverick's Wood Grill vs. our other cinderella story John Dyste and Emma Held from Redstone American Grill.  This round also found Wayno from Santorini up against the favorites coming into the competition, Nick Koserich from Town Talk Diner.

Secret ingredient for this highly contested match ups was Rosemary!  I got to tell you, as a bartender myself, rosemary is one of my favorite herbs to work with so I was really excited to see what these talented mixologist could come up with.  Rosemary is so good with any citrus, and as you all know who drink, citrus works well with most spirits, so this could get real interesting....and it did!  Nick from Town Talk introduced to us a "rosemary" bong!  Yes, you heard (read) it correctly...a freakin' BONG!!  He crafted his cocktails and placed a napkin over them then presented them to the judges like this.  He than lit the bong that had rosemary in it creating an aromatic of rosemary into each cocktail underneath the napkin.  Then he instructed the judges to each lift the napkin and take a drink.  FREAKIN' AMAZING, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Well done Nick, well done.  Needless to say, Nick and Town Talk Diner was moving on scoring a victory over Wayno and Santorini.  Wayno was still alive however, moving down to the loser's bracket to take on the loser of the Redstone/Maverick's match.  In that match, Dan from Maverick's out lasted the duo from Redstone and our true cinderella story.  John and Emma were still alive having to have a rematch from a previous round against Wayno and Santorini -- the battle of Eden Prairie restaurants part deux!

In the final heat of the night, put Town Talk Diner against Maverick's Wood Grill on the winners bracket, and Redstone vs. Santorini in the loser's bracket...loser going home.  In this round Maple Syrup was introduced as the secret ingredient.  In this round John and Emma from Redstone produced a breakfast style, fully equipped, martini with a slice of bacon!  As well as the "bacon" slice martini, they also produced this shot that I got to taste that was absolutely amazing with a maple syrup foam! WOW!  In the end, Town Talk Diner scored the victory over Maverick's, knocking Maverick's to the loser's bracket and advancing Town Talk Diner to the semi-finals.  And in a "loser go home" match between Redstone and Santorini, we had another freakin' tie.  Apparently the judges didn't want to see anyone go home -- so we needed to have yet another "sudden death" playoff.

** Side note, since this is my blog, I can say just about anything...right?  So, having tasted both Redstone and Santorini's drinks, J0hn and Emma won this match and it wasn't even close!  They absolutely killed it on the martini and the shot and the cocktail was as outstanding as the rest.  Santorini's drinks were significantly less tasty and their one cocktail, served in coconut shells (wow, real invented Wayno, you can do better than that!) that had dry ice in it turned to mush, basically making it a maple syrup slushy.  This is one of the things that I AM CHANGING the next time we do this competition...the judging.  Having "celebrity" judges is cool and all but what do they really know about a good cocktail?  If I am going to have a legitimate competition, which I believe this is, I need legitimate judges.  It's not a freakin' popularity contest, it's a competition about the cocktails...not who's bringing belly dancers to the event the next week!  With that said, Redstone definetly won this match up hands down in my opinion having no need to have a sudden death playoff.  A judge, who will remain annomynous, actually said to me "we want Redstone and Santorini to tie" before we even tallied the totals.  He changed his score 3 times to ensure this.  It was bullshit from there on and my competition became a freakin mockery from there on! 

With all that said, we're off to the sudden death playoff between Redstone and Santorini.  The secret ingredient I came up with was...Sage.  5 minutes, one martini style drink, loser goes home.  At the end of the 5 minute time frame, Santorini came out victorious and Redstone ended up going home, much to my shagrin.

So the "Sexy 6" is set for April 19th; Town Talk Diner vs. Hell's Kitchen in the winners bracket - which should be an amazing battle of libations.  And we have Santorini vs. Eli's; as well as Maverick's vs. Seven Sushi in the loser's bracket.  At the end of the evening we'll have our 2 teams for the following weeks Championship and crowning of Iron Bartender of Minneapolis!  Can't wait!