Five to One Bartender Nabs National Cocktail Title in Miami

French Scotty Marshall, bartender at year-old U Street bar Five to One, has been busy advancing in the United States Bartenders’ Guild Legacy Cocktail Competition — and is now in the running to win the global title in Mexico City on Tuesday, May 1.

On February 6 he secured a spot in the finals by beating out eight other bartenders in the national championship at Miami’s hip waterfront destination, The Wharf. Marshall and Moe Izasa of Pammy’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are the two U.S. contenders picked to move on and compete against 28 other bartenders from around the world.

Marshall is the first D.C.-based bartender to ever make it this far in the 12-year-old contest.

His winning cocktail, dubbed Coki Beach, is made with Bacardi Gran Reserva Ocho rum, toasted coconut syrup, lime juice, and allspice dram. Part of the judging process was demonstrating the public’s willingness to order the cocktail, and a slew of bars around town have been serving replicas including Service Bar, Hank’s Cocktail Bar, 801, and of course, at Five to One.

Contestants’ drinks should also tell a story, and his is an ode to his island roots; Marshall was born in Saint Thomas during a category 5 hurricane, and his Coki cocktail is named after a local beach there.