Jason Genegabus photos

I got the chance to help judge the 2008 Iron Bartender Competition last night. This is the third or fourth time I’ve been asked, dating back to the days when it was held at the bar inside Palomino.

There were nine contestants entered in the third preliminary round, which meant I spent quite a bit of time sitting at a table, tasting drink after drink … after drink … after drink.

Not like I’m complaining, though.

This year, the contest takes place in a corner of the lounge at Ryan’s Grill. It’s one of the older watering holes in Honolulu, but still draws a good crowd on a consistent basis throughout the week.

It was a packed house when I got there around 7:45 p.m. Lots of bar workers and family members came to support the guys (for some reason, there were NO females entered) participating this week.

Even more impressive, almost everyone stayed until the winner was announced – well after 10 p.m.

Mass Appeal was in the building! That’s Duane Oyama on the left. After laying low for a while, it appears that he’s getting ready to make the plunge back into party promoting.

Island 98.5’s Mele Apana was also there, introducing the competitors and keeping the crowd entertained. She even started an impromptu booty contest at one point. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone drop it like it’s hot in Ryan’s!

Last night doubled as a birthday party for Ryan’s marketing manager TC Chun. She got there before I did, and kept on raging after I left around 11 p.m. It was amazing she was able to keep standing after taking all the drinks others bought her.

Apana kept joking that it was Chun’s 60th birthday. Here she is with 102.7 Da Bomb morning jock Kaleo Pilanca. She looks waaaaaay closer to 30 than 60, if you ask me.

There were lots of couples at Ryan’s. Proves that this is a good place to bring a date. The late night happy hour that kicks in at 10:30 p.m. is an added bonus, too.

Once the crowd got a few drinks in, they started reacting MUCH more favorably whenever Apana would give away prizes from Steinlager. People were going nuts for T-shirts and beer koozies!

The DJs kept everyone in a dancing mood with a continuous mix of music throughout the competition. But is it a liquor violation if two customers engage in a lap dance?

I should ask a HLC inspector sometime.

Action shot #1:

Pearl Ultralounge’s Dan Punch was another judge last night. He didn’t help my sobriety by ordering a round of Jagermeister shots near the end of the night:

Forgot my notebook at home, so I don’t have their names. Here are the guys that tied for second place; dude on the left is looking for a bartending gig, while dude on the right works over at Dave and Buster’s (I think).

This is the guy who took first place last night. He’s from Maui, and apparently bailed before the winners were announced. Still, all three drink slingers will advance to the final round of competition next Tuesday at Ryan’s.

If you’ve never been to an Iron Bartending compeition, give it a try. Come early to snag a table, then sit back and watch the action.

Another nice touch is the videographer Ryan’s hired to give customers a better view of the action. The restaurant shows a feed from the camera on a big screen in the lounge area, so you won’t miss a thing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Picture Blogs, Adventures in Clubland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.