Something’s shakin’ in South Boston: Ghost Tequila hosts a rumble
Boston-based Ghost’s nationwide knockout competition is putting money in bartenders' pockets and supporting restaurant workers too.
Related Links
You could say that Chris Moran is trying to keep spirits up right now.
Last week, the founder and CEO of Boston-based Ghost Tequila launched a nationwide cocktail-making competition for out-of-work bartenders, the proceeds of which benefit the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.
To compete, each bartender videos themselves making a unique Ghost Tequila cocktail and posts it to the Ghost website. Anyone over 21 can vote. For every vote cast, Ghost contributes a dollar to the fund and will also match donations to a GoFundMe account, up to $10,000.
Chris Moran pouring Ghost Tequila.
Moran is hoping to crown the tournament’s champion on Cinco de Mayo with a prize of more than $2,000. Throughout the four-week playoffs, however, every competitor receives cash.
“I wanted to put money directly in bartenders’ pockets,” said Moran from his home in South Boston. “I just cleaned out Venmo this morning and sent payments out to everyone who entered this first round. People will get paid each round. Everybody gets something.”
It isn’t only the cash in hand that’s helping furloughed bar staff however: The competition is proving a big morale booster. Around a dozen recipients replied to Moran after receiving the payment this past weekend, thanking him for the money and also for the opportunity to put their skills to work.
“A lot of the conversations were very inspiring,” said Moran, a California native who moved to New England in 2002 to study finance and economics at UMass Amherst. After working as a bartender at chef Michael Schlow’s Tex-Mex joint Tico in Back Bay, where his chili-infused tequila proved a big hit, he started Ghost three years ago.
“A lot of these are single people who might be going stir crazy,” Moran continued. “They said, thanks for the cash, but thanks for giving me something to do.”
The Ghost Challenge.
The tournament came about in the space of a few days and launched last week. The bartenders in the first round didn’t have a lot of notice to shop for ingredients: “The videos show how creative they were, not only in ingredients, but also in how they shot the video. One of my favorites is a bartender in California who took a walk around his neighborhood and picked fresh fruit and made a fresh fruit margarita.”
The knockout competition splits bartenders into four regions: New England, New York/Florida, Texas, and California.
“We’re a national brand now, so it makes sense to make it a national competition, he said. “Obviously the cocktails have to be made with Ghost for my own selfish reasons. We’re promoting and getting the word out as well.”
That’s important beyond obvious brand promotion: Moran has his own staff of 12 to keep employed. So far, no one has been laid off, but he admits it’s been a personally stressful week.
“It’s a small staff and this is a very social business. They are like family and it would be hard to have those conversations. But it looks like we’ll be fine,” he added.
Check out the Ghost Tequila Challenge here.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com