The Origins and Etiquette of SlamAntonio
When in San Antonio, get ready to clink glasses, cheers, and slam a daiq.
Illustration: Beth Moeur
DTOs, or daiquiri timeouts for the uninitiated, have been around for quite some time in other cities. But I believe San Antonio does them better, even if we came to the tradition later. The first baby steps of our slamming occurred within a year after opening the Brooklynite in late 2012. One evening, an off-duty bartender ordered drinks at the service well. The service bartender made the drinks, called the drinkers up, slammed the drinks in their face, and then made them the drinks again.
Bartenders are a competitive bunch, and this initial slamming quickly turned into a challenge: “Who can make the drink the fastest?” We raced through Old-Fashioned-offs, egg white-offs—all types of offs—until we eventually settled on a sour-off. Sours are an obvious choice with three simple ingredients shaken, poured into a coupe, and slammed as fast as humanly possible. The daiquiri was by far the easiest of sours to slam.
Soon, Brooklynite bartenders, as well as visiting bartenders, would hop behind two wells with matching set-ups, in a race to see who’s the fastest at the daiq. That eventually turned into a full-on addiction and thus bore our tradition of slamming full-sized daiqs as a community. At some point, in a drunken daiquiri haze, I believe I coined the term “SlamAntonio,” but at this point, I believe the term was born out of love, and just became a thing. In my heyday, I could out-slam all of Austin and pretty much all of San Antonio, consistently, in speed and liquor quantity. If you pay a visit to our fair city, we ask that you follow the rules of etiquette and engagement.
SlamAntonio
Daiquiris must be full pours. No half daiqs, please. You may alter ratios of lime and sugar, but you must use 2 ounces of white rum.
Clink glasses with your fellow participants. Follow with a customary “Cheers!”
Drink daiquiri—all 5 ½ ounces—in one fell swoop.
Daiq-off
The bartop setup consists of a glass, jigger, tin, and Hawthorne strainer.
Make sure that lime juice, simple syrup, and rum are all pouring at similar speeds for both contestants.
Kindly use a jigger to build. I know this takes more time, but to be honest, it’s supposed to taste good.
After building the daiq in a tin, add ice and give it a good shake. Pour into vessel using Hawthorne strainer. SLAM as fast as possible.
When to Break Decorum
If you want to free pour, that’s dope. If you just want to pour everything in your mouth, gargle, and swallow, more power to you. At the end of the day, SlamAntonio should spread joy and give bartenders a way to relax, imbibe, and forget about work for a while. Anyways, that is the long-short version of what I know to be true.
