T.G.I. Friday's crowns 2012 bartending champ

MANILA, Philippines - Apart from the cash prize and right to represent the Philippines in its regional bartending tilt in Australia, the winner of T.G.I. Friday's Philippines' bartending contest this year received a propeller. The propeller symbolizes how the restaurant views the "bar" as the engine that runs it.

T.G.I. Friday's couldn't have chosen a more apt symbol to honor one of the key reasons why it has become successful in the Philippines - its bartender, its people. Like many other foreign dining franchise that have found a home in the Philippines, it's its Filipino staff that have made dining there more "fun."

Genrev Bacasno from T.G.I. Friday's Rembrandt in Quezon City won this year's tilt. He has been representing his branch for three years and has placed 2nd runner up in 2010 and 2011.

His act was simple, but his flairs were smooth. He was not just mindful of the customer-guest judges' needs, but was engaging and entertaining to the crowd as well.

The challenge that night, after all, was to prepare drinks for guests as if it were a normal busy Friday night - and the 24-year-old bartender from Tomas Morato delivered.

The Pour-Off round of the competition. (Photo by Joey Menodza)

The competition also had a compulsory round wherein all the contestants underwent a skills test that involved technicalities and speed of pouring drinks. The exciting freestyle category followed. 

T.G.I. Friday's Trinoma's Aldrin Javar topped the compulsory category and also won "Most Popular." First runner-up honors went to Joel Delos Santos of T.G.I. Friday's Bonifacio High Street.

The other contestants' performances were just as note-worthy - Mike Rabago (Glorietta), Edu Manabati (Alabang), Wilfredo Marcelo (Malate), Francis Domingo (Robinsons Galleria), Marc Bautista (SM Mall of Asia), Mark Maranon (Ayala Center Cebu), Gino Simbillo (Marquee Mall Pampanga), Lorenzo Midguel Salazar (Davao), Donn Mark Celestino (Eastwood) and Harold Puno (Subic.) 

In the past 16 years that it has held the competition, T.G.I. Friday's has fielded in representatives who have topped its Asian tilts and even went on to cop high honors in the world competition. Bartenders Matthew Burgos and Eric Martinez won 1st runner-up honors in 2007 and 2006, respectively, in T.G.I. Friday's World Bartender Championship in Las Vegas. Another T.G.I. Friday's bartender, Raminand Ong, placed 2nd runner-up in the competition held in Texas. He was also named "Most Favorite Bartender."

One of this year's Philippine finalists, Marcelo, meanwhile, have been tapped by no less than the Department of Tourism for its "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaigns abroad.

In the same way the propeller that has been awarded to Bacasno symbolizes the bar as the engine that runs T.G.I. Friday's, it's the Filipino talent - in bartending or otherwise - that keeps this country running.