Grand Prize — John Ware

@glass.ware

Cocktail: Cognac / Camomilla

Originally from Denville, New Jersey, John Ware has spent his entire working life in the bar and restaurant industry. After moving to New York City in 2011, he eventually landed his first job as a bartender and began to dive deeper and deeper into cocktails. A chance meeting got him a job at Danny Meyer’s Maialino, where he fell in love with Italian wine, amaro and grappa. After that, he had the good fortune of training under cocktail titan Meaghan Dorman and then-head bartender Adam Minegar at The Raines Law Room, and the rest is history. These days, John can be found behind the bar at Forsythia, a beautiful little Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Designing the program there represents a fusion of two his greatest loves: cocktails and Italian spirits and drinking culture.