We have some great news to share with all of you today – a local resident and a local businessman took home two top awards this past weekend. Here are the details…
For those of you who visit the upstairs bar at Ocean 362 at Gallows Point, you probably recognize Josh. He’s the main bartender up there and a pretty fantastic mixologist. Josh participated in the Stoli Cocktail Masters over the weekend and took first place. Congrats Josh!
In the competition, Josh made two cocktails. The first he dubbed “Island to Glass” which was based on the concept of Ocean 362 which is using all fresh, seasonally and locally-sourced ingredients. For this cocktail, Josh mixed up some genip syrup and mango and scotch bonnet puree. He added some local passionfruit and sour orange and made bitters … yum!
The second cocktail was a twist on a Moscow Mule, which Josh called the St. John Heehaw. For this, he used his homemade ginger beer and combined it with tamarind syrup and Thai basil, which was grown at the garden at Ocean 362. He muddled that with lime and had a local key lime chili salt rim. Again, yum! Both cocktails will soon be featured on the Ocean 362 drink menu.
Josh, pictured above, competed against the winners from St. Thomas and St. Croix.
Cafe Roma also took the top spot at Abi Beach Bar’s lasagne cookout over the weekend. John Hiebert, the owner of Cafe Roma, took the top spot for both the meat and seafood categories. John competed against several restaurants from both St. John and St. Thomas. Congrats John! Now make sure you all stop by Cafe Roma before it closes for season and try some yourselves. My friend had it Monday night, and it looked delish!
Any man or woman capable of making me a cocktail or preparing a meal I can enjoy is appreciated. Congrats Josh and John.