Dressed in a white T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Rage Makes Me Feel Pretty,” bartender Sam Smagala takes deep breaths as she prepares to take the stage at the Melrose Ballroom in Long Island City, Queens. 

“I’m a little nervous,” she says, her face illuminated by colorful spotlights dancing across the venue floor. “But at the end of the day, we’re here for titties.”

One of the fastest bartenders in the city, Smagala is among eight finalists at the New York regionals for Speed Rack, the speed bartending competition that’s raised nearly two million dollars for breast cancer charities since its 2011 inception. 

“It’s pretty awesome that there is a whole event that highlights women and femme people in the industry, because there’s very few of us,” says Smagala, who works at Joyface in Alphabet City. “You don’t realize it until you’re behind the bar and experiencing it.”

In the 14 years that bar industry vets Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix have put on Speed Rack, which is the world’s “one and only all-women-plus bartending competition,” the message has remained consistent: Diversity is good for the industry, and women bartenders deserve to be celebrated, mentored and funded. But this year’s New York regionals—held on President’s Day, which Mix finds ironic—feels a little more charged. 

“In a climate that is so opposed to not just women, but diversity in general, Speed Rack does feel particularly potent,” says Mix. “It’s a party, but we’re talking about diversity, women, femininity, feminism, breast cancer. All these things aren’t necessarily fun. That’s one of the unique things that Speed Rack has going for it: You can give these messages in a little bit more of a digestible package.”

“Digestible” understates the vibe: The party gets straight-up boisterous. Attendees, most of whom work within the New York City bar community, enjoy free-flowing drinks from corporate sponsors like Hendricks, St. Germain and Cointreau as they cheer for their friends competing. At the beginning of night, Mix takes the stage like a rock star. 

“Yay women in bars!” she yells to roaring applause from two levels of attendees clad in pink bandanas, boas and cowboy hats. “Yay diversity in bars! Fuck cancer!” 

Whittled down from the 28 bartenders who faced off in the New York preliminaries earlier that day, eight finalists are set to compete on stage in hopes of advancing to the finals at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. 

Despite the Eras tour energy buzzing through the crowd, the competition is serious, bordering on ruthless. Each judge on the panel of four, which this year includes Nacho Jimenez of Superbueno and industry heavyweight Tales of the Cocktail executive director Charlotte Voisey, requests a cocktail, and the two competitors facing off must prepare all four cocktails at once, in one minute or under. The drinks are scored on technique as well as speed, with deductions added as seconds to the perfect score of zero. 

“Zero means, ‘Oh my God, this is perfect, I would pay…,’” Mix pauses. “We’re in New York, how much do cocktails cost?” The crowd laughs. She continues, “‘I’d pay obscene amounts of money for this cocktail any day of the week. This is amazing. Zero penalties.’” Deductions can accumulate up to 30 seconds, which is the score equivalent of, as Mix put it, “‘What the fuck is in this glass?’”

Competitors do not know which cocktails they will be asked to prepare. In the first round, judges ask Smagala and Miranda Midler, lead bartender at Dear Irving, to make a Negroni on the rocks, Naked and Famous, Air Mail and Mexican Firing Squad. The clock starts, and tools go flying as the two competitors prepare their drinks. Midler finishes in under a minute, with Smagala following shortly after.

“I was very impressed by your concentration,” says Voisey from the judge’s panel as she assesses Midler’s Negroni. “You were cool, collected, calm and focused. That said, you still need to pay attention to the details. It could do with more dilution.” Voisey pivots to Smagala’s drink. “Sam, you had a couple of hiccups up top, but you composed yourself. It’s cold, diluted and well-balanced.”

After all the cocktails are tasted and scored, Midler has the edge, advancing her to the next round later that night. 

“It’s exhilarating,” she says once off-stage. “It’s my third year at Speed Rack and my second year on stage. It’s obviously nerve-wracking, but the jitters go away when you start doing what you love.” 

The first year Midler competed, she was also looking for a new job. The day after Speed Rack, she received three offers. The venue is densely packed with the drink industry’s best and brightest, so it’s no surprise that it’s a hotspot for networking. This year, Lauren Puttini, director of food and beverage at the Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, cheers from the crowd as a spectator but has recruitment on the mind. 

“It’s a great way to find up-and-coming talent in the industry,” she says. “It’s always good to support the female market. I think it’s important for them to appreciate that there’s a network out there who supports them and we have their back and we want them to grow.” 

The mentorship happens pretty organically. Every year since her first Speed Rack, Midler welcomes the new women coming in and holds practices every week in the lead-ups to the preliminaries and regionals. “I say, ‘Come to the bar. Let’s figure out how we can get your time down.’”

Midler helped Ileana Hache, who will compete later in the evening, shave 15 seconds off of her time. “She clocked 50 seconds in prelims today,” says Midler. “We all show up today as nervous wrecks, but we’re all here for each other.”

Later in the night, Lana Epstein of The Portrait Bar wins the final round against Rachel Reposado of Mister Paradise, advancing her to the final national competition in New Orleans. When the emcee announces Epstein as the winner, she falls to her knees, her mouth agape, as friends storm the stage to hug her. 

“Ivy and Lynnette broke down all the barriers to put women and [those assigned female at birth] in the spotlight,” says Pat Ahn, head bartender at Smith & Mills who has volunteered at Speed Rack for several years. “There are still ceilings that people have to get through.” 

Stubborn gender disparities, particularly regarding ownership, have endured since the early days of Speed Rack. “If you look at the 50 Best List, and you ask the women on that list how many have been offered partnership, the amount of hands that can be raised is embarrassingly low,” says Marrero. 

But the Speed Rack community is growing—loudly and proudly, patriarchy be damned. Then there’s the titties of it all: In the end, the Queens event raises over $14,000 for breast cancer research and education. 

“The groups of mentees and mentors that the community has fostered is massive,” Marrero says. “There were so many women who previously competed who looked around and said, ‘I don’t know half the room.’ Everyone’s excited about that because it means that the growth is organic, and people are committed to investing in the femme community.”

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