|
Flair products available
on my Bar
Flair Page
(link opens in new window so
you can continue reading!) |
So what is Bar Flair?
Bar flair is a combination of manipulation
and juggling. Dean Serneels is the President
and Founder of Flairco. He originally became
focused on flair and performance bartending
while working for a Restaurant chain. Tired
of cleaning up broken bottles after practicing
the art of Bar Flair, he used his creative
energies to build the first ever flair practice
bottle. The idea eventually led in 1997 to
the creation of the original 1 litre Flairco
bottle (on sale below) and an industry was
born! There is now an award winning set of
DVDs available, and so now is as good a time
as any to give Flair bartending a go! |
How to Get Started in Flairing
The following article is reprinted
with kind permission of Philip Duff of BOLS.
Flair Bartending: Past
There have always been entertaining
bartenders who worked with style, and the first
true flair bartender was active 150 years ago: Jerry
Thomas toured Europe and America with his bartending
show, the highpoint of which was a fire show involving
pouring whisky on fire between 2 solid silver lined
goblets! Modern flair bartending grew up in the
1970's, when the new singles bars (designed to attractwomen
as well as men) opened, often employing out of work
actors, comedians and street performers as well
as waiters and bartenders. Soon bottles, glasswear
and fruit were being juggled and the guests loved
it. Flair even made it onto the big screen with
the 1988 film Cocktail.
Present
Nowadays, flair has advanced much
further than Jerry Thomas could have ever dreamed
of. Bars and restaurants that feature flair bartenders
have grown to massive international chains and flair
bartenders are some of the highest earning in the
industry. The art of flair has also split into the
fast, every day moves (called working flair) and
the showy, high risk performance-orientated moves
(called exhibition flair). For the truly dedicated
there are hundreds of contests each year, featured
on national and international TV programs, offering
thousands of dollars in prize money.
The golden rules of flair are:
| 1. |
Never make a guest wait because you're
flairing.
|
| 2. |
Train at home, perform
at work. Don't do moves you're unsure of at
work. |
| 3. |
Never attempt risky moves if there
are colleagues or guests nearby. |
| 4. |
Never do flair involving fire. |
Learning Flair
Make Time
Set a time and place where you can train. Training
twice a week for one hour will produce better results,
faster, than training for 3 hours once a week. You're
also more likely to keep to the twice-a-week-for-an-hour
schedule.
Make Space
Choose a space where bottles dropping on the floor
won't break, and where the sound won't bother others,
and where a mis-thrown bottle won't go through a
TV screen or a window.
Train
Set goals for the session ("I will learn how
to throw a bottle over my shoulder and land it on
my hand"), and stop for a moment after every
drop. Ananlyze why you dropped, and adjust your
technique until you're not dropping any more. Choose
a move and train until you can do it 10 times in
a row perfectly.
Be Realistic
When you can do the move 10 times in a row, put
a couple of shots (max 2oz/ 60ml)of water in the
bottle and a pourspout, and train to do the move
10 times in a row without spilling. If you spill,
analyze why you spilled and adjust your technique
unitl you're not spilling anymore. try to apply
the move to shakers, glasses, ice and garnish fruit,
so your flair is more versatile.
Learning Working Flair
Working flair moves are moves that can be done very
quickly, have little or no risk of dropping or spilling,
require no special preparation or props. Working
flair can be done with everything you use to make
drinks, including full bottles.
Combinations
Start making combinations of moves into small routines.
Remember: only do a routine in public if you are
totally confident of all the moves in it, and make
sure your transitions (from move to move) are smooth.
Be Humble
Don't become arrogant and cocky because you can
pull off a few moves: make sure guests still get
served quickly, and that you don't neglect guests
so you can flair. Even the best flair bartenders
drop and spill sometimes, just as the best performers
sometimes miss their cue or forget their lines.
Stay good humoured and humble about your flair and
guests will appreciate it even more.
Be Ruthless
When you're training at home, make it deliberately
hard on yourself. Make a training bar even smaller
and more cramped than the one you have at work.
Wet the bottles so they are slippery. Then when
you perform at the bar your moves will be much more
confident and smooth.
Good Luck and most of all,
ENOY!
|
Flair products available
on my Bar
Flair Page
(link opens in new window so
you can continue reading!) |
