Published: October 7, 2008
The Enterprise Ledger

Bartender’s recipe leaves judges shaken and stirred

By Kelly Tabor

Rawl’s Restaurant bartender Lizzy Keister used a little “Slice of the Pie” to win a trip to the Big Apple.

Lizzy Keister, a Rawl’s Restaurant bartender, pours her “Slice of the Pie” cocktail into a martini glass. The contest-winning drink recipe earned Keister a trip to New York City. Kelly Tabor / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Keister’s drink recipe was the chosen winner in a cocktail contest last month sponsored by Canadian Mist whiskey. Her reward was a 4-day/3-night trip with her mother and cousin to New York City, complete with $500 spending money and Trump Tower accomodations.

Keister said she stumbled a upon a Web site for the contest and made up a recipe on the spot, never imagining that she would win or even what the concoction would taste like.

“I got this FedEx package saying I was a potential prize winner,” she said. “And they picked me!”

At Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in NY, judges and contestants sampled Keister’s martini masterpiece, A Slice of the Pie, which consists of Canadian Mist, apple juice, sour apple Schnapps, butterscotch Schnapps and cinnamon Schnapps. Contestants were required to use Canadian Mist as the main ingredient and were judged on taste, creativity and originality.

Keister’s drink can be served hot, cold or on the rocks and she makes sure to decorate the glass with an apple cider powder rim and a little cinnamon and caramel syrup.

“I’m planning a new bar menu using some different items like pumpkin, nutmeg. I might try an Irish coffee,” said Keister, who is considering writing a cocktail recipe book.

“At work, I never go off the menu,” she said. “People come in and say if they want sweet or sour and strong or weak. Sometimes they’ll come in a week later and say, ‘Can you make me that pink one from last time?’, and I just have to guess.”

One of the contest’s prizes was a spot for Keister, a Troy University alum, in a bartending class in New York with famed “Coyote Ugly” trainer Dean Serneels of Flairco. Serneels’ “Mixology 101” shows students how to spin and flip liquor bottles like Tom Cruise in “Cocktail.”

“We did a lot of shopping, checked out the local bars,” said Keister, who ran into rapper Nelly in the hall at Trump Tower and nearly got sick when a Bangladeshi cab driver whisked her around the city.

“The cabbie told us how he came to New York with nothing and he’s still here,” said Keister. “I’ve wanted to move there for awhile and it made me realize that it’s possible.”