By Sacha Delfosse
Think Spirits will be shifting the spotlight from bartenders onto bar backs when it hosts the inaugural 2012 Fernet-Branca Bar back Games in Sydney on September 24.
Competing bar backs will be set a series of difficult and demanding bar related activities that they will have to complete in front of an industry crowd.
There is no limit to how many people can enter – bar backs can sign up themselves or can be nominated by one of the bartenders they work with. Sign up can be done online here.
"The bar back will then receive an email saying you have been nominated by John Smith and then John Smith has the opportunity to say why he nominated the bar back," Think Spirits’ trade marketing manager, John Gakuru, said.
"We have been getting some nice comments such as ‘the guys a legend’ or ‘this bar back is the hardest working guy here’ or ‘we couldn’t run the bar without him’, which is really cool."
The top 20 bar backs will be chosen to compete in four challenges, in a winner-takes-all format, to decide the champion who will be rewarded with a range of great prizes.
The competition has been held in California since 2009, and Think Spirits aims to make it a yearly event here in Australia.
"This will be a refreshing industry event focussing on bar backs who are the unsung heroes of the industry. Today’s bar backs are tomorrow’s bartenders, managers and owners.
"And it give bartenders a reason to take the night off to cheer and heckle their bar backs. It’s going to be really high energy, loud and intense, with plenty of Fernet-Branca, food, entertainment and giveaways for everybody," Gakuru enthuses.
Watch the action of the Fernet-Branca Bar back Games that were held in San Diego earlier this year: