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For Christian Jenkins, the best preparation for Last Slinger Standing may have been his new gig as beverage director for Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix. It’s a role he took on two months ago, and one that helped him get ready for the Valley’s signature bartending showdown.
“I did a lot of studying,” says Jenkins, who oversees the hotel’s bars at Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails and Eden Rooftop Bar. “Because I had to put out a new cocktail menu for Blue Hound, that helped a lot.”
Though it was Jenkins' first entry into Last Slinger – the Feb. 19 finale of Arizona Cocktail Weekend – it was not his first mixology test.
Jenkins has been a bartender for 10 years, making drinks at spots like Fez, UnderTow, FOUND:RE Phoenix and most recently serving as bar manager of X Phoenix – a downtown apartment building and members-only club. He's also no stranger to the pressure of competing.
“This is my seventh bar-related competition,” the mixologist says. “I look at competition as the mechanism for growth.”
For Last Slinger Standing, Valley bartenders try out to become one of the 16 slingers who go head-to-head with drink prompts that can range from incorporating a special ingredient to using a particular piece of equipment.
During the first round he had to incorporate whiskey and cognac, two spirits he felt confident using. The second round he poured a riff on a spicy margarita. In the third round, he was tasked with making a blending cocktail, which proved to be the most nerve-wracking, Jenkins says, as he wanted to get the ratio of ice just right.
During the final round, Jenkins faced off against Garden Bar’s Shae Barry. Their challenge was to make a martini that would satisfy the preferences of each of the judges, Kate Gerwin, a "Drink Masters" finalist and owner of Happy Accidents Bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Vance Henderson of distiller and spirits distributor William Grant & Sons; and Karen Grill of the spirits company Collectif 1806 at Rémy Cointreau.
At the start of the final round, the bartenders were each able to speak with the judges. Barry went first, and Jenkins had to don noise-canceling headphones. When it was his turn to talk to the judges, he got varying responses, so he assumed he'd make three separate drinks. When he learned he needed make just one drink to please all their palates, he opted to go for the best, most balanced martini he could, using Hendrick’s Gin, sherry and dry vermouth, with a lemon twist.
“It was delicious, it was easy to drink and it really highlighted the quinine in the spirit,” he says.
After the judges tasted, they selected Jenkins as the winner of the round and the competition.
“They announced my name – I almost couldn’t believe it,” he says.
Jenkins walks away with bragging rights and his signature on the Bobby Kramer Cup – named in honor of the beloved local mixologist who died in 2021.
Jenkins also received $2,000 and a ticket to Tales of the Cocktail, a mixology conference in New Orleans. He credits people including FOUND:RE’s general manager Chris Genung and Highball owners Mitch Lyons and Libby Lingua who helped him grow and learn.
“I’ve had teachers, I’ve had mentors that put me in a position to win,” he says. “I owe them.”
After a whirlwind of prep for the competition and getting ready to roll out a new menu at Blue Hound, when asked how he celebrated, Jenkins says, “I slept."
And even though Last Slinger Standing is a fierce competition, Jenkins says that mixing drinks alongside fellow Valley bartenders feels more communal.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s me versus them," he says. “Everybody is trying to help each other get better."
