[:en]The cocktail challenge moves to the most famous city in the world. On Monday 10 September 2018, Venice will be the theater of the third appointment of the Mix Contest Italy Tour, the competition which, running along the entire peninsula, will crown the best bartender in Italy MT Magazine. In the elegant Nh Hotel Venezia Rio Novo, 10 cocktail bars represented by their bartenders will compete to win two passes to the national final in February 2019.
It started as a small city event around the world of mixology, but Mix Contest has come a long way since then. Thought of as one battle between Turin bartenders, who for one evening would have had to leave the counter of their cocktail bar to compete in front of an audience of ordinary people and experts in the sector, the event immediately received the enthusiastic approval of all the participants, who loudly asked for a new edition.
So Lalla Carello, creator and organizer of the format together with the To Be agency, had an idea: expand the competition to bartenders from other Italian cities, keeping Turin as the theater of individual events which saw mixologists from Milan, Bologna, Florence and Rome compete. Each event decreed two winners who, representing their city, battled to win the title of best bartender in Italy.
Today Mix Contest is back with great news: no longer static events but a real tour that will visit some of the Italian cities most suited to mixing during 2018 for historical or contemporary reasons. The new format is called Mix Contest Italy Tour and left Turin on 23 July 2018. The evening organized in the garden of the NH Torino Santo Stefano was sold out and elected two winners who will directly access the final scheduled for 2019. They are:
The second stage, which took place atNh Collection of Taormina, was staged on Monday 27 August and crowned first place winners Highlander Pub with Emilio and Riccardo Scroppo, and in second place Fud Off with Domenico Cosentino.
The next city that will welcome the Mix Contest Italy Tour will be Venice, which in the elegant NH Hotel Venezia Rio Novo and will see 10 cocktail bars compete to win two passes to the national final in February 2019.
The competing cocktail bars will be:
The Caravellino, with Olga Gherman
CloakRoom with Mattia Pavan
Roots with Massimo Sandri
The Merchant, with Daniele Salviato
I love with Lucas Kelm
Nh Hotel Venezia Rio Novo with Ferdinando Antonini
Chet Bar with Anna Garuti
Dining with Matteo Benvenuti
Blind, with Manuel Spolaore
La Fenice Tavern with Gennaro Florio
The next stages will be:
Milan (October 2018)
Genoa (November 2018)
Rome (December 2018)
Parma (January 2019)
Each stage will see how the NH Hotel Group Hotels were the venue for the competition, official partner of the Mix Contest Italy Tour together with Caribbean Company And Schweppes.
The grand finale, which will crown the best bartender in Italy, will be held in February 2019 in a location that remains secret for the moment.
THE FORMAT
The format will be the same as the first edition: 10 cocktail bars, represented by their bartender or their reference barlady, will prepare two cocktails – a pre-dinner and an after-dinner – which will come served to the participating public and subjected to the judgment of a technical jury made up of experts and professionals in the sector. At the end of each event, the public votes will be added to the votes of the technical jury and two city winners will be chosen. At the end of the tour, in a location still shrouded in mystery, the finalists will compete with the same rules to win the title of best bartender in Italy MT Magazine.
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