Monica Lynn Snyder wins Beach Bar Beat Bartender Competition

By RAY QUIROGA
South Padre Parade
rayq@portisabelsouthpadre.com

From the day we wrote her initial Beach Bar Beat profile, we knew the competition reached another level.

It wasn’t just her ability to mix and pour drinks that makes Monica Lynn Snyder good at what she does, but it’s her ability to make her customers feel genuinely welcome that made them loyal enough to keep coming back and rally for her during the voting processes for the South Padre Parade First Annual Beach Bar Beat Bartender Competition.

And while Monica’s fan base was well organized, victory came by way of those single voters who felt compelled to cast their vote for Monica.

In the end, Monica claimed the win by a mere 1,178 votes, which is a lot smaller margin of victory than it may appear, especially when considering that 21,275 total votes were cast. Monica tallied 7,089 votes.

Coming in second was Lynn from Coconuts, with Whitney and Christy from Tejas Grill coming in third and fourth place, respectively. A mere 17 votes separated the third and fourth place finishers.

Blake also had a strong following, as he rounded out the top five vote-getters. Tiffany, Zeke, Paulie and Ricardo were all right in the mix while Mano and Madonna and Robert had what we like to call a strong grassroots following. Based on additional comments, Cody and Josh S. were popular with the lady voters and Danielle had a strong male following. Interestingly, no contender had less than 14 votes!

The winner received a handsome trophy that, we discovered, was suitable to drink out of as well as a $300 check, which Ms. Monica donated to her church (yes, you read that right).

So we now need our readers to help us out, as they have so many times before and during this contest. There are a number of questions we don’t have the answers to as we prepare to begin the First Annual Winter Beach Bar Beat Competition. Should we allow the bartenders who didn’t win the summer competition vie in the winter competition? Should they even try again in the summer? Should Monica come back next year to defend her title? After all, to be the best you have to beat the best, right? At what point should we start paying for our drinks? ….Uh, forget the last one.

Well one thing we will do differently as expressed last week is that we will establish a separate email account for voting and we’ll establish an online ballot as well.

We want your feedback so feel free to email us at rayq@portisabelsouthpadre.com!

Monica Lynn Snyder (blue) is pictured with the trophy awarded to her as the winner of the South Padre Parade First Annual Beach Bar Beat Bartender Competition. She is also shown with her fellow coworkers at Parrot Eyes as well as owner Ron Guillot. (Staff photos by Ray Quiroga)