Raising the bar

Before Roniel Lopez learned to command a crowd behind the bar, he was simply a young boy trying to keep a bottle in the air.

He was in Grade 7 when he first encountered bartending as a school subject. What caught his attention was the flair: the flips, spins, throws and tricks that made bartending look almost like a performance.

Lopez wanted to practice, but there was one problem. He did not have the proper tools at home. So he improvised. Lopez collected empty bottles, wrapped them in tape and used whatever he could find to create his own practice setup. The bottles were not always kind to him. Some fell. Some probably fell many times.

But he kept picking them up. “I improvised, used empty bottles, wrapped them in tape and made do with whatever materials I could find,” Lopez recalled. There was no fancy bar setup or complete bartender’s kit. There was just a young boy who enjoyed what he was doing and wanted to get better at it. That curiosity eventually became a craft.

Lopez took a three-month TESDA bartending course, where he learned the fundamentals of traditional bartending and mixing. He also began joining competitions, putting himself in situations where he could test what he had learned and discover what still needed work. His journey with TGIFriday’s gave him another kind of education.

Bartending, he learned, is not only about getting the drink right. It is also about the people in front of you. A good bartender knows how to make a guest feel entertained, welcomed and part of the experience.

Through the TGIFriday’s Bar Tour, Lopez found opportunities to share what he had learned with other bartenders and enthusiasts. Since 2023, he has been part of the program, visiting different stores to demonstrate techniques, teach bartending and share the story behind the brand.

Every performance gave him another chance to improve. And improvement did not always come with a trophy.

His first BCBIT, or Best Corner Bar In Town, competition in 2023 ended with a low score. For someone who had already spent years practicing, it would have been easy to take the result personally.

Instead, Lopez looked at it as a lesson. He worked on what needed to be better and returned the following year. In 2024, he topped BCBIT.

Then, in August 2025, came the moment that changed the course of his journey. Lopez won the TGIFriday’s Philippines Bartending Championship, earning the chance to represent TGIFriday’s Philippines at the World Bartending Championship in Orlando, Florida.

It is a long way from those taped-up bottles he used as a kid. But perhaps that is what makes his story worth remembering. The championship did not happen overnight. It came after years of practice, missed catches, competitions, lessons and countless moments when he simply had to try again.

Now, Lopez is preparing to take everything he has learned to the global stage. He does not want to simply repeat routines he has seen before. He wants to create something that feels like him. “My goal is to bring something different to the world bartending stage, creating new tricks instead of simply copying existing routines,” he said.

For Lopez, the performance will be more than bottles flying through the air. He wants it to carry his personality, energy, confidence and showmanship.

There is something fitting about that. The boy who once had to make his own practice bottles is now preparing for a world championship. The journey from one point to the other was built one trick, one mistake and one comeback at a time.

Perhaps dreams really do begin with very little. Sometimes, all it takes is an empty bottle, the courage to try and the determination to pick it up every time it falls.