National Magazine Imbibe Puts Manifesto’s Maybee In ‘Best Of’ Mix

By Brenna Hawley

Ryan Maybee of Manifesto has won bartender of the year from Imbibe Magazine, which covers wine and drinks.

He’s one of 75 people, places and flavors that the magazine picked to focus on for 2013 for its best-of issue. He joins food industry professionals from New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., whom the magazine recognized for being at the top of their games. He’s the only person chosen from Kansas City.

The recognition furthers his quest to turn the spotlight on Kansas City’s drink scene, which he said started when he got involved the Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition.

“That was the goal, was to elevate the overall standard of what we do (in Kansas City) but also to show everyone else, to elevate that on a national scale,” Maybee said. “I’m pretty pleased with the way that’s gone. There’s been a lot of attention here in the last year.”

The magazine points to his work bringing craft cocktails to light in the city, as well as helping grow the bartending competition into the Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival.

Maybee also runs the bar at The Rieger Hotel & Exchange restaurant and helped launch The Kill Devil Club in the Kansas City Power & Light District in September.

Food website Eater recently recognized Manifesto as a top cocktail bar nationwide, and the same site said The Kill Devil Club was one of the nation’s hottest cocktail bars.