TREASURE ISLAND - Brent Cobb Jr. always knew he was fast.
He usually couldn't keep up with the hotshot young bartenders in the flair and special tricks rounds of the bartending competitions. But he could almost always mix a cosmopolitan or a margarita faster than the next guy, even when the next guy happened to be a top-notch competitor on the flair bartending circuit.
After nine years competing as a bartender, Cobb, the head bartender at Smokey Joe's on Treasure Island, set his sights on the Guinness world record. Out of curiousity, Cobb e-mailed Guinness last year to see what the record was for most cocktails mixed in an hour. At the time, it was 35.
"This is just too easy to get," Cobb thought. "So I just decided, "Let's be done with it."'
So, on the morning of Feb. 17 at Smokey Joe's, Cobb mixed 159 drinks in an hour, almost doubling the current record of 88, set in Malta in July 2003.
The challenge of setting a Guinness world record extends much beyond mixing drinks absurdly quickly, contorting one's body to unnatural positions or letting one's fingernails grow for generations at a time. Guinness applicants must document their feats, have witnesses and comply with very specific regulations, said Kate White, a spokeswoman out of Guinness' London headquarters.
"For every record, we say we need some visual evidence," White said.
In addition to photographing and videotaping his accomplishment, Cobb made sure to follow Guinness' nine official rules for the cocktail record. These can be enough to cramp one's style: All cocktails must have a minimum of three ingredients - no screwdrivers or gin and tonics; each cocktail must be recorded; you can't make the same drink twice; no mixing two drinks at a time, etc.
The day of the record attempt, Cobb had 25 mixed drinks finished within the first 10 minutes, putting him well on the way past the record of 88.
The previous record had been set in June 2003 by Richard Pons, a lecturer at a catering college in Malta, a tourist-friendly island nation in the Mediterranean. Pons said he went after the feat to prove to his students that, despite being from a country of about 400,000 people, they could go on to great things.
"Malta being a small island, some people don't have the self-confidence that we can succeed in anything," Pons said from his home in Gzira, Malta. "They are proud that I managed to do something like that. ... We showed that we have the guts to get international recognition."
After his 88 drinks in an hour shattered the previous record of 35, Pons was recognized by the country's minister of tourism. Pons, who is 43, said he was honored that an American bartender would challenge his record.
"I'm proud in a way," he said. "America's such a big country and you must have loads of bartenders. For you to hear about my success, it's even more for me."
After sending documentation for what he hopes will be confirmed as a new record, Cobb, the Treasure Island bartender, said he is still considering trying to break his own mark next year, just for fun.
Cobb, who was arrested on DUI charges himself eight years ago, said he knows the responsibility a bartender has.
"You're always on the lookout for unhealthy factors," he said.
For now, Cobb is enjoying his day job at Smokey Joe's and the attention that has come his way after setting the world record. He said he is eagerly anticipating receiving the certificate for his achievement. He hopes it ends up being one of the lucky 4,000 Guinness records, out of about 40,000, to make it into the annual book.
"A lot of them are crazy," Cobb said. "I'm hoping this is on the upper end of the stupid ones."
