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Old Glasgow Pubs by john gorevan

 

The Cocktail King.

In the NEWS 1979...

The Cocktail King

Sister Anne (23) and Edith (22) Gilmour from Merrylee are all shook up over Peter's winning ways.

Joining the ranks of world champion Scots this week is Peter McLeary from Shawlands.

Competing against 40 top competitors from all over the world, Peter has just won his title in Turin, as the World Champion Young Cocktail Barman.

HOBBY

With a flick of the wrists, a shake, and a stir he fought his way to victory after mixing drink after drink. For four years now Peter (24), who can mix over 100 different cocktails from memory, has worked at Glasgow's Tinto Firs Hotel in Kilmarnock Road.

As a member of the United Kingdom Bar Tenders Guild the new World Champion has for the last few months been more than pouring drinks, he's been pouring over "recipe" books.

For each of the competitions on his way to the international final he had to learn, off by heart, 50 different cocktails, at the drop of an ice cube.

"I've enjoyed it all," he said. "My hobby is collecting cocktail lists, I reckon I've got details of about 2000 or 3000 different drinks. "Apart from that I like inventing my own cocktails. My latest is The Dream-maker. It includes vodka, Garianno, ginger ale, and crushed ice, stirred, not shaken."

Next month Peter will fly to Italy, when he will be presented with his world championship trophy and spend three weeks touring the country, and perhaps picking up a few more cocktails to file in his cabinet.

End.

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