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Bartender Eric Parker began adding a little flair to his pouring style soon after he started bartending at a Sacramento Chili’s four and a half years ago.
Lulls in business led to tossing a bottle from one hand to the other, like one might fidget with a pen during a meeting. Then, why not add just a little flip. Maybe hop it over the shoulder — perhaps behind the back.
Now 25 and working at Aura Ultra Lounge, Parker turns a routine cocktail into a spectacle. The tools of his trade leap through the air, bounce off his arms and stall on the back of his hand.
Flairing for work
“It makes me more efficient,” he said, “because I want to do flair and still get people drinks.”
His tips get a boost, too.
“It definitely helps,” he said, before pausing. “It definitely doesn’t hurt.”
Flair bartending could really be anything that entertains customers while making their drink. Just a simple flip makes afternoon patrons at Aura smile, while more complex demonstrations elicit audible gasps.
Parker and four other Aura bartenders, as well as about 20 others, will be showing off their flair skills July 20-21 at the Legends of Bartending competition, an official Flair Bartenders' Association event, the second the Silver Legacy has hosted this year.
(See photos of Parker and others competing in February)
Parker is part of the FBA’s Advanced Tour and, though he failed to mention it during an interview, currently is first on the leader board and won at February's Biggest Little Flair Competition.
But everyone has to start somewhere. Parker got serious about tricks at home, at first practicing with an empty Jack Daniels bottle he taped up so it wouldn’t shatter when inevitably dropped.
As expected, breaks are more likely when bartenders get fancy, though Parker hasn't broken any bottles in a couple months (aside from an empty mixer that a coworker insists counts). But bars are happy to cover the extra costs for the entertainment flair provides.
Flairing for points
Parker first entered a competition in September of 2005. And how did that go?
“Terrible,” he said with a laugh.
The upcoming competition focuses on technical skills, with the rules requiring each bartender to mix two drinks and pour one beer in four minutes, hopefully using up all the time to work in as many tricks as possible, with first place earning $750.
The techniques look like a mixture of juggling and hacky sack, and it seems amazing that Parker never juggled clubs before he got mixed up in flair bartending.
Liquor companies sponsor the events, so the drinks are very specific, and some are trickier than others.
TY KU, an Americanized sake, is one of the required ingredients for the upcoming contest.
“It‘s a f---ed up bottle to flip,” Parker said.
The triangular, bottom-heavy monolith looks unwieldy, but those are the breaks.
Flip, catch, repeat
Flipping your typical vodka bottle is difficult enough, as I quickly learned.
My attempts to transfer a weighted, plastic practice bottle over my right shoulder met with mixed results. There were some successes but just as many drops that miraculously avoided collateral damage.
And when Parker started chaining maneuvers into smooth-flowing combos, I had trouble even grasping the sequence and no prayer of following.
Even though practice doesn’t guarantee perfection, Parker said repetition and muscle memory are essential. He practices the basic moves thousands of times, and has done his routine more than a hundred times in the week before the competition.
When the finals take place Tuesday, we’ll see whether it pays off.
Check out some highlights from the previous competition in February courtesy of David Heffern:
