Plaza Las Vegas Bartender Keith Wins Competition

Congratulations to Oscar’s Beef Booze and Broads’ bartender Keith Baker for winning the Mob Museum’s first annual “Boss of the Bars” contest! This event, hosted by and at the Mob Museum, located in downtown Las Vegas and is just steps away from Fremont Street Las Vegas. The “Boss of the Bars” contest marks the date that Prohibition was repealed in the United States.

Keith is originally from Memphis, Tennessee and has been bartending since he was 21 years old. Keith says he has entered several contests online but has never actually won a contest before winning the “Boss of the Bars” contest.

Keith’s winning drink is called the “21^st Hour”. The clever name served two purposes. First, cocktail parties on December 5^th celebrating the end of prohibition, traditionally had hostesses who planned to be “kickin’ it” (really busy) at 9pm (the 21^st hour), the second reason is, the Mob Museum was hosting a cocktail party at 9pm on December 5th, when the contest was set to start, so he figured it paid great homage to the occasion. Keith was kind enough to share the winning recipe with us!

The recipe is:

• 1 oz. Bathtub Gin made with Tito’s Vodka
• 1.5 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
• .5 oz. Artisanal Sweet Vermouth
• .25 Horsford’s Acid Phosphate
• 1 dash Handcrafted Bitters Solution
• 1 stick of cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel and stir 20-30 times with no ice.
Pour over crushed ice in an old fashioned glass.
The cinnamon stick will be your garnish.

For the “Boss of the Bars” contest Keith went all out. He actually made his own vermouth and bitters from scratch. He used a “bathtub” gin he made himself with Tito’s Vodka infusing it with juniper, other spices and aromatics. Back in the days of prohibition Keith says he would have used grain alcohol, moonshine, juniper extract or other cheap ingredients and diluted them with water. That process was of course illegal back in the day and, in Nevada, it still is.Keith used Horsford’s Acid Phosphate as well in his cocktail. It is a re-creation by the Extinct Chemical Company of a real product that was in heavy use at the end of the 1800’s all the way up until the 1950’s when the soda fountain died out and drinking sodas on the go became the norm. Back then you would belly up to the counter and ask for a Cherry Phosphate; sweetened cherry syrup, acid phosphate, and soda water or similar beverage or, of course, a Coke. This ingredient would have been very familiar to bartenders of the time and easy to get without suspicion.

Come in to Oscar’s Beef, Booze and Broad’s, the best steakhouse downtown Las Vegas and order yourself the 21^st Hour from award winning “Boss of the Bar” Bartender Keith Baker!