Stoli® Vodka Announces Fifth Annual Key West Cocktail Classic – The World’s Largest LGBT Bartending Competition and Celebration

Stoli Vodka kicked off the fifth annual Key West Cocktail Classic last night, hosting the first of 14 stops in Dallas. The world’s largest LGBT bartending competition brings together the most inventive LGBT and LGBT-ally bartenders to compete to win $20,000 for their chosen charity and to be Crowned 2018 Stoli Key West Cocktail Champion.

February 27, 2018 04:58 PM Eastern Standard Time

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stoli® Group USA, LLC, in partnership with the Key West Business Guild, kicked off the return of the world’s largest annual LGBT bartender competition, the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, last night. Now in its fifth year, this is not a typical cocktail competition, as bartenders are judged on much more than the taste of their Stoli-based drinks with creativity, authenticity, knowledge and presentation factoring heavily into the equation, determined by a panel of judges and consumers, who can apply to cast votes on-site at www.out.com/keywestcocktailclassic. Fourteen cities across the USA and Canada will play host to regional competitions with the theme “Raising the Bar,” beginning tonight in Dallas and culminating in New York City on May 16^th.

@Stoli kicked off world’s largest LGBT bartending competition last night #stolipride #raisingthebar #stolikeywest

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Finalists will win a seven-day, all-inclusive trip to represent their city at the Finale, which will be held June 5-11^th in Key West and is scheduled to include celebrity guests: actor and musician Jai Rodriguez, writer and Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch, American Idol’s Latoya London, star of the annual CNN-televised New Year’s Eve “High Heel Drop” Sushi, dance diva Debby Holiday, and Real Housewives of Dallas star LeeAnne Locken. The 2018 Stoli Key West Cocktail Champion will serve as the 2018 Key West Pride Parade Honorary Grand Marshall and receives $15,000 for charity, a celebration and check presentation at their home bar, and a trip for two to either Vancouver or San Diego Pride 2018. The first runner-up wins $5,000 for charity plus a weeklong Grand Canyon Water Rafting Adventure, courtesy of HE Travel, North America’s oldest LGBT travel agency. The charity donations are split between winners’ chosen non-profits and Key West non-profits each bartender is paired with in advance. Last year’s Champion, Kayla Hasbrook, won $7,500 for Planned Parenthood of New York and $5,000 for the Key West Firehouse Museum.

“This year, we are proud to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Key West Business Guild, as well as the 40^th anniversary of Harvey Milk being sworn into office; 1978 was indeed an important year,” said Patrik Gallineaux, Stoli’s National LGBT Ambassador and Brand Manager. “The Key West Cocktail Classic recognizes the most innovative bartenders in the country, whose spirit – personally and inside the glass – are reflective of Key West, an island that has been a safe space for so long, and of Harvey Milk, a man whose life opened closet doors for so many.”

Alan Beaubien, President of the Board of the Key West Business Guild, added, “As the oldest LBGT marketing organization in the country, the Key West Business Guild is extremely proud to be able to partner with Stoli for the Cocktail Classic and our June 3^rd-11^th Pride Week Celebration. For five years, Stoli has shown its support to the LBGT community and to the KWBG through this spectacular event series that this year will give back $20,000 to charity while building awareness and support for the importance of the LGBT culture and community. It is with great pleasure that we welcome Stoli and all participants, friends, and fans of the 5th annual Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic to Key West, where we are truly and forever, as our motto reads, ‘One Human Family’.”

In addition to recognizing the talents of the industry’s top LGBT bartenders, the Cocktail Classic celebrates the role that gay bars have played as original community centers and the LGBT and ally bar stars who continue to raise the bar for equality today. For more information about the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic including how to apply, rules, guidelines, and all the recipes from our 2017 champions visit www.out.com/keywestcocktailclassic and follow along on Facebook and Instagram @Stoli and using the hashtags: #stolipride #raisingthebar #stolikeywest.

About Key West Business Guild

The mission of the Key West Business Guild is to promote LGBT travel to Key West through marketing and the promotion of specialty events; to support gay-owned, gay-managed, and gay-friendly businesses; to strengthen the Gay community’s position within the local community by supporting relevant LGBT issues. The KWBG was founded in 1978 by 8 local gay business owners and has grown to approximately 400 members, which work together to continue efforts to brighten the rainbow over the island, an island now known as Gay Key West. Promotion of events, such as Key West Pride, Tropical Heat and Womenfest, has made Key West a year-round LGBT travel destination. For more information visit www.kwbgonline.org.

About Stoli^® Group USA, LLC

Stoli Group USA is the proud importer and marketer of the Stolichnaya^® brand of premium vodkas and Stoli^® Ginger Beer, ultra-premium elit^® Vodka, Louisiana-distilled Bayou^® Rum, Kentucky Owl^® Bourbon founded in 1879, “Tequila with a Soul” Cenote, super-premium Se Busca Mezcal, Achaval-Ferrer from Argentina, and Arinzano wines of Spain. Formed in 2013, Stoli Group USA is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of SPI Group in Luxembourg.

Contacts

Stoli Group
Patrik Gallineaux, +1-415-312-9492
LGBT Ambassador and Brand Manager
pgallineaux@stoli.com
or
Alison Walsh, +1-917-301-2962
Global Public Relations Lead
awalsh@stoli.com

The post Bruce Vilanch Will Be A Finale Guest At The Fifth Annual Key West Cocktail Classic June 5 – 11 in Key West first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

News release from Stephen Murray-Smith of Florida Keys & Key West and Key West Business Guild:

The Stoli Original Key West Cocktail Classic is a national LGBT bartending competition in partnership with the Key West Business Guild inviting trade staff from our community’s most exciting LGBT entertainment venues to showcase their skill and authenticity in creating Stoli Original cocktails in key markets across the country.

The winner of each local event will receive a Stoli Bartender Kit or gift basket, their picture and winning recipe at KeyWestCocktailClassic.com, media exposure, and an all-expense paid trip to Key West (accommodation and airfare compliments of the Key West Business Guild) for the Finale including a welcome party at Island House on May 29th and day of “fun in the sun” on May 30th. The finale event on Saturday, May 31st will be held on world-famous Duval Street on a specially constructed stage in front of the Bourbon Street Pub and hosted by National LGBT Ambassador for Stolichnaya Patrik Gallineaux and streamed live across the world. The final ceremony will run from 5 to 8 PM.

The celebrity judging panel will include star of network TV including “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, Broadway, and so much more, Jai Rodriguez, clothing designer Andrew Christian, legendary funnyman Bruce Vilanch, Senior Vice-President for Stoli USA Lori Tieszen, and locally well known Key West personality and star of internationally televised annual New Year’s Eve high heel drop Sushi.

The Regional mixologist winners arriving this week to compete with their signature Stoli Key West Cocktails hail from LGBT bars in San Diego, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Provincetown, Denver, and Washington DC.

The national winner will receive the title of Stoli Original Key West Cocktail Champion 2014, a bartender “Dream Library” of 50 hand-selected essential trade books, an additional national exposure via the opportunity to design the signature Stoli Original cocktail menu for national LGBT program Stoli Guy 2014, and $5000 for the winner’s pre-selected LGBT or LGBT friendly charity of choice.

Come out Saturday May 31 at 5 PM and support Key West as the island hosts this national fun event.

The post Bruce Vilanch To Appear At Stoli Original Key West Cocktail Classic first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

An expert’s advice for aspiring filmmakers: “If a comedy is doing its job, you leave feeling differently about the world,” according to Bruce Vilanch, a six-time Emmy winner who’s written for Bette Midler and just about every big star on the Oscars since 1991.

Vilanch, a Hollywood Squares alumnus, also acts and most recently co-starred with Lainie Kazan, Saul Rubinek, John Lloyd Young, Jai Rodriguez and Carmen Electra in a low-budget comedy called Oy Vey! My Son is Gay! — about an older Jewish couple (Kazan and Rubinek) horrified to discover their adult son (Young) is never going to marry a nice Jewish girl.

“It’s not a movie for radical queers. This is a movie made from the point of view of the older generation, which tends to think in stereotypes and use stereotypes themselves,” says Vilanch, 62, who — stereotypically — is gay, Jewish and a bit flamboyant.

Rodriguez, 31, who plays the Jewish son’s Italian boyfriend, agrees: “The movie, to me, is reflective of other communities than New York. In smaller communities, these are issues still being faced.”

Oy Vey! is directed and co-written by Russian-born Evgeny Afineevsky, 37, also gay and Jewish.

Rodriguez describes Afineevsky as “a persuasive, persuasive man” who convinced him and the other stars to join the project.

Vilanch says Afineevsky spent about 10 years “chasing me around.”

“He had this script,” Vilanch says. “Then I was doing Hairspray [on Broadway] and he kept showing up at the theater. He wanted me to play Uncle Max. If someone wants to pay me to act, well, let me look at this now!”

He plays Kazan’s married (to a woman) gay brother. Vilanch wanted to tone down his outrageous image for the part, but Afineevsky told him to keep his trademark platinum blond bangs: “Because I’m so butch and they didn’t want me to change my look,” Vilanch says.

Afineevsky also managed to bring superstar songwriter Desmond Child on board as executive producer of Oy Vey! My Son is Gay!

“I just loved the title,” says Child, Ricky Martin’s longtime collaborator. “The
title says it all. It sounds hysterical!”

Child co-wrote The Word is Love, performed on the Oy Vey! soundtrack by To Sir With Love singer Lulu.

“It’s one of my dreams to take the property and turn it into a Broadway show,” says Child, 57, who lives in Miami Beach and Nashville with longtime partner Curtis Shaw and their 8-year-old twins. “Hopefully, it will be everyone else’s dream too. It’s a very gay dream.”

IF YOU GO
Oy Vey! My Son is Gay!’ opens Friday in South Florida at Regal South Beach, Sunrise Intracoastal Cinema in North Miami Beach, AMC Aventura at Aventura Mall, Regal Shadowood in Boca Raton and Regal Cinemas in Delray Beach.

Bruce Vilanch will appear at the 12:10 p.m. Friday screening at Regal South Beach 18, 1120 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. Writer-director Evgeny Afineevsky will appear at all Regal South Beach screenings on Friday.

January 04, 2011 in Arts, Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Film, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Music, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Weblogs, Workplace, Youth | Permalink

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The post Bruce Vilanch Talks “Oy Vey…” first appeared on We Got Bruce!.