The Root Competition Results

Last night in Silk City’s splendid al fresco Beer Garden, some of the city’s most respected bartenders (14 contestants in all) gathered to demonstrate their skills with new Philly-based liquor Root, which you can read all about here.

Some of the drinks were just all wrong, and some didn’t hold up in the treacherous heat (too bad about that pastry-bag-applied Chantilly Cream garnish) — and if the judges (me, Foobooz editor Arthur Etchells, wine educator Marnie Old, and Southwark’s George Costa) had been scoring for flair behind the bar, the results might have been different (hello, vivacious Lauren Phillips from Alfa and Noble’s Christian Galle, who crushed his own ice with a gigantic wooden mallet). But we weren’t.

Congrats to winner Katie Loeb (formerly of Chick’s in Queen Village and now Sansom Street Oyster House), who took home a $400 gift certificate to Art In the Age and one of Silk City owner Mark Bee’s personal garden gnomes (seriously). Her recipe appears below.

Dr. Hadley’s Root Restorative
1/2 ounce Demerara simple syrup
6 large mint leaves
1-1/4 ounce Lairds Bonded (100 proof) Applejack
1 ounce Root
1/2 ounce B&B
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
2 dashes Fee Brother’s Aztec Chocolate bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Muddle mint and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and add other ingredients. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with a spanked mint sprig.

Photo: Dominic Savini