How Felicity Eshman won the NSW final of Speed Rack Australia

Sunday night in Sydney saw a full house gather at Now & Then to kick off the state finals for the 2025 return of Speed Rack to Australia.

The night saw nine women get behind the bar to compete in the toughest bartending comp going around. Not only do you have to make good drinks, you’ve got to do it fast, and for four top flight judges. On hand to judge last night was former Bartender of the Year, Priscilla Leong; the award-winning Alicia Clarke from Doube Deuce Lounge; industry veteran Natalie Ng from Now & Then; and Ross Blainey, the creative collaborations lead for Glenfiddich and The Balvenie.

That is an impressive judging panel.

Each bartender had to make four different drinks as well and as quickly as they could to impress the judges; it’s about the taste of the drink, as well as how fast you make it. And there were some fast bartenders last night — it was impressive stuff.

Two bartenders from this state final now go through to the national final in October: Felicity Eshman from Old Mate’s Place was the state champion, winning the competition, with Sara Behunin from Uncanny in Newtown a close second.

Below, we had a quick chat with the winner to get her advice on how she grabbed the win.

Boothby: Hey Flick, you just won Speed Rack NSW. How does it feel?

Felicity Eshman: It feels unreal. I’m trying to keep the profanity inside. It feels so crazy. Like I rehearsed a little bit. I learned the specs.

My goal was, that I want to get through in the top two, because I know you can enter again for the final, but the competitor in me was like if I don’t get through because I’m not good enough now I’m never gonna be good enough. Then I messed up a little bit, and it was a whole thing, but at the same time I really think, after the time I did it back in 2018, I was 21 years old and had only worked in Sydney for a year. I think the experience that I’ve had in the last six years has made me so much quicker and calmer in front of my peers; I think that calmed my nerves a little bit. I just went in thinking to have fun, chill, and just had a good time. Stuff went wrong, it was chill, and it got done anyway.

How much did you prepare for this?

When you first apply, they send you all the specs and the rules. They go, learn all the hundred specs that we’ve made. I didn’t do that. Absolutely not. Forgot about it.

Then a week out they send you specs for six drinks and they go these are possible drinks, rehearse these, and then on the night you get told the four that you’re gonna make.

I just practised a little bit of free-pouring. This time I learned to do a faster count because of the 5ml increments as opposed to 10, 15, 20. And then today I literally came into work, I had all my bottles, went down and me and [Old Love’s owner] Dre were at Old Love’s for an hour and a half [practising]. He went behind my well and he just messed it all up — he goes three minutes start now, set up. Dre says it’s in your setup where you set yourself up for success.

So advice to bartenders who have not done it yet. Speed Rack, what would your advice be to people having a go?

So the first time I did it, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. My advice would be to rehearse your setup. You have a bar back, but assume that you don’t and set it up yourself.

Rehearse the set up. You never know what it’s going to be like. And then put everything where you need it to be.

As long as the drink is something that you would pay for, regardless of what’s in it — make sure it’s a drink you would pay for.

Why is entering this comp a good thing? Aside from the cause behind it, this is the hardest comp we’ve seen.

It’s good because it’s hard. It’s good because it showcases skills that we use in the bar everyday.

People should do it, 100 percent. I met so many people [tonight] that I’ve never met before in Sydney bartending.

It’s not just the charity thing, and bringing it to Australia is really cool, but it’s also showcasing and bringing back the fact that women are in bars, and we are fast and good at what we do. And when I first did it, no one knew who I am. But now, I’ve had the six or seven years in bars and you know, I really, really, really want to do this. I probably didn’t prepare as much as I needed to, but at the same time, I just felt confident in my experience.

Get involved. And then ask the questions, and get the advice and then just fill bottles of water and rehearse.