The 2023 Bartender Battle Long Island is being sponsored by Ten Cent Menu Club, Menus on a Dime.
With over 72,000 votes cast for Round 2 in Greater Long Island’s first-ever Bartender Battle, the 16-barkeep bracket is down to the Final Four.
Scroll down for the Round 2 winners and a complete recap.
Voting will continue on greaterlongisland.com until the final two bartenders compete in a cocktail-off with three judges at a neutral site that has yet to be determined. Those two bartenders will be asked to create three classic cocktails before the judges for a chance to hoist the Golden Shaker. Final Four voting will start Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7 a.m. and run to Sunday, March 5, at 7 p.m.
The Elite Eight
Round 2 recap
Winner: Dan at Mary Carroll’s
This was a tight race from jump, with neither bartender gaining a lead larger than about 2 percentage points all week. At one point Saturday, Dan from Mary Carroll’s and John from Coastal were within seven votes of each other. Alas, Dan won in the end by a margin of just 36 votes, or 50.17 percent.
Winner: Davide from Molto Vino
At nighttime on any given day, it was Davide from Molto Vino with the lead — but my mid-morning the next day, Joe from Pace’s Steakhouse had taken over. These two played leapfrog all week. But after a huge showing Sunday, Davide ended up pulling off a 662 vote-win, good for 51.46 percent.
Final Four: Dan vs. Davide
Twice, Jerry from The Harrison went up 10 to 12 percentage points on Dan from Sandbar. Twice, Dan came roaring back, fueled by a relentless print and social media campaign from The Lessing’s Hospitality Group. Dan will advance; he beat Jerry (with seemingly all of western Nassau County behind Jerry) with 54.74 percent of the total vote.
This one was nearly an absolute heartbreaker for Kyle from Buckley’s Irish Pub, who held a solid lead over Kristi from The Point Bar & Grill from Day 1 and never let go. That was until the very waning hours of the contest, when Kristi went up around 6 p.m. Sunday. But Kyle won in the end — by just 18 votes for our closest contest in Round 2. Kyle ended up with 50.16 percent of the total vote.
