So you think you can make a drink
Although fun, tending bar with "flair" is one serious business by Susan Campbell

You probably first witnessed "flair" bartending watching Tom Cruise perform in the movie Cocktail and later in Coyote Ugly where wild women blow alcohol-fueled fire breath and set the bar ablaze. But flair bartending is much more than that.

Jackie Vides demonstrates some tricky bottle flips at Montreal's Absolute Bartending School. What made her enter this largely male-dominated milieu? "I already had good bartending chops," she says, "but when my older brother became proficient at flair, I thought, why should he be having all the fun and making all the money? So, I followed in his footsteps. Now, my tips have tripled and I have a great regular following."

However, many bar owners are wary of bottle-flipping, fire-lighting bartenders. Chris Natale, the school's founder, comments, "Management needs to be finessed into flair. They worry about breakage, spillage and insurance. And, there are bartenders who can juggle but can't make a proper drink to save their souls, which gives us all a bad name. You have to prove yourself a great all-round barkeep from day one; being proficient at flair is only part of it."

What about bottle breakage? Enter Niagara's Dean Serneels who founded Flairco Inc., producer of the world's first shatterproof flair bottle. Dean says, "I invented the Flairco bottle because I needed it." Turns out a lot of bartenders around the world also needed it. Today, Flairco regularly supplies their trademarked shatterproof bottles to twenty-five different countries. Companies like Skyy vodka and Bols have also got onboard to create their own flair-friendly designs, and a Flairco beer bottle is now in the works.

Beyond entertaining your customers, there are many additional benefits to becoming proficient at flair. Vancouver's Scott Young, a pioneer in the industry, is an extreme example of that. Scott has coined the term "Extreme Bartending" for what he does. He has taken it a step further by creating a cottage industry out of making training videos, DVDs, books and on-site courses teaching his extreme moves. He and his company www.extremebartending.com also travel the globe conducting seminars.

This trend is no flash in the pan. Flair bartenders are in big demand to perform at trade shows and to promote products for big liquor companies. And then there are the competitions.
You certainly get your fair share of split lips and bruises while practicing flair bartending
and you must be careful when playing with fire obviously.

Flair competitor Shawn Greco of the Roxx bar in Barrie spends roughly fifteen hours weekly practicing at least two months before competing in global events. And he's not alone. Shawn says, "Canada does very well on an international level. I'm lucky. The Roxx bar is one of the few in the country that actively promotes flair. It's a perfect place to constantly improve your skills."

Ryan Smyth, bartending instructor of the Toronto Institute of Bartending (TIB) continues, "There is no real epicenter for flair in Canada, so Team Canada is spread coast-to-coast. The acclaim is definitely important and as flair continues to grow, so do the rewards. Believe it or not, some competitions now offer $25,000 US in prize money."

But it's not all about bottle gymnastics. Flair can be an all-encompassing word for anything additional a bartender brings to the job such as magic tricks, super speed, and cocktail creativity.

Gavin MacMillan, flair instructor at TIB states, "Flair bartending is the evolution of the bartender. We teach our bartenders to study mixology, and to incorporate movement to create entertainment in a place where entertainment hasn't traditionally existed."

Although these experts cannot seem to agree whether flair is sport or art, they do concur that the opportunity to represent your country in global events is an amazing experience.

They all also agree on some very fundamental flair rules:
- Know your drinks first, learn flair second
Think service first, flair second. (Never impede service to simply show off.)
- Never practice at work. (Only do moves you have mastered at work.)
- Spillage of alcohol is unacceptable. (As is setting your customers on fire.)
Have fun!